gil at home, under the inspection of his father. About the same time he was accustomed to, and arrived at, considerable proficiency in drawing, and "in ludicrous caricatura he had boundless invention." His constitution being delicate, and finding him. inclined rather too much to study, his provident father, as soon as he could handle a small, musket, put him under the tuition of a sergeant, who taught him the military exercise. An expert fencing-master was next employed, and archery, and, in short, every thing was recurred to, that might add to his muscular strength and personal dexterity.

At the age of thirteen he was en-. tered a student of the Marischal College, and he attended the various classes no less than five years, a year

more than is usually thought necessary at that university to qualify for the degree of A. M., which he obtained in 1786.

About this time he applied himself in order to obtain a knowledge of the Linnæan system; he also studied theology under Drs. Campbell and Gerard: "but this was not," we are told, "the commencement of his theological pursuits; for from his early youth he had studied the holy scriptures, which he justly thought to contain the only infallible system of Christian faith. When he went from home, if he meant to be absent a few weeks or days, he took with him a pocket Bible, and a Greek New Tes

tament."

To a young man so qualified, and educated in a great measure within its

own walls, the university of Aberdeen was of course eager to exhibit some mark of its regard, and the professors accordingly recommended him to his majesty as a proper person to be appointed assistant professor of moral philosophy and logic to his own father, which was accordiugly done when he was not quite nineteen.

He now devoted himself to those studies most appropriate to his new situation, and read the best writers on the abstract philosophy, particularly Dr. Reid, Dr. Campbell, Bishop Butler, Dr. Clarke, and Mr. Baxter; and such was his progress, that he appears to have fully comprehended Baxter, Butler, and Clarke's demonstration, à priori, of the divine existence.

He now applied to music, and learn

ed to perform upon the organ and vio lin, studying at the same time the theory of the art in the works of Pasquali and Holder; and that he might see the theory exemplified, he perused the compositions of Handel, Corelli, Geminiani, Avison, and Jackson, the musical authors who stood the highest in his esteem. "The music just now in vogue had no charms for him," observes his father: he said it wanted simplicity, pathos, and harmony; and in the execution depended so much on rapidity of finger, or what may be called slight of hand, that practitioners must throw away more time than he could spare before they could acquire any dexterity in it. He was delighted with the sweet and classical correctness of Corelli, and with the affecting melodies of Jack

son, so well adapted to the words that accompany them; but the variety and sublimity of Handel's invention filled him with rapture and astonishment. He thought him the Shakspeare of music, or rather the Shakspeare and Milton united; and many of his simpler songs he could sing very agreeably, enforcing their expression with a thorough bass on the organ.

"He was pleased likewise with some of the ancient Scotch and Welch airs, but made no account, of the quick jigging Scotch tunes, though he did not think them all equally bad. He had studied counterpoint, and was profoundly skilled in it: I find among his papers a great deal written on that subject; and I have seen fugues of his contrivance which would not have discredited a more experienced musician."