speaking truth in his intercourse with others as well as with ourselves. And to no part of his character did we ever direct a more constant or more earnest attention than to this. When he was about three years old, an aged female, at whose house he was staying for a day, informed me that William had told a falsehood. As deception of any kind was so perfectly foreign from all his habits, I expressed a doubt on the subject; but she stated such particulars as caused me to fear that he had transgressed. I was thunderstruck and almost distracted; for the information seemed to blast my most cherished hopes. This might, I thought, be the commencement of a series of evils for ever ruinous to our peace. I am not-I never was-naturally of a temper to augur the worst; but the first grand moral delinquency, even at such an age, must commit a breach on the noblest sensibilities of the heart, which cannot but threaten a catastrophe at which a parent may well shudder. Principiis obsta, had ever been our motto; and our child lived long enough to feel its importance, and to bless God that his parents

had never departed from it. I am not sure that my agony, on hearing of his death, was much more intense than that which I then endured, from an apprehension of his guilt. Instantly, but without betraying my emotions, I asked him what he had said. He answered, at once, in so artless and unembarrassed a manner, as to convince me that he was unconscious of falsehood,-that there must have been some misconception in the case, and that my boy was yet innocent. I pursued the inquiry, and in a few moments found, to my inexpressible joy, that he was perfectly correct in all he had stated.

This was the only time in his life in which I had even a passing suspicion of his disregard to truth. On one memorable and most important occasion, in 1820, to which I need not more explicitly refer, and which Glasgow Col lege, with its late and present Lord Rectors, will not readily forget; he received from a distinguished professor a testimony to his integrity which his own heart felt he merited, but which that gentleman conveyed in lan

guage and with a manner so peculiarly delicate as to make upon the mind of my son a deeply favourable impression, which nothing but death could erase. In a confidential interview with that professor, he said, “ Sir, I was not present on that occasion;* and I can prove an alibi." Mr. laying his hand upon his heart, said, “ Mr. D., you have removed from my mind a heavy load : 1 was sure you could not have been in that procession : but you need not, Sir, prove an alibi; for no gentleman in the University can require a proof beyond your own assertion." To that learned professor, I am myself indebted for the politest attentions and the most tender sympathy, at a moment when my bleeding heart felt the need of all the support that human or divine kindness could administer. And I beg him to accept this public expression of my thanks.

* See his letter, of the 3d series, in Vol. 2, dated Nov. 1820.

I HAVE presented, in one view, the general history of his religious character-though that will be found to run, more or less, through the whole memoir-in order that I might pursue in a more unembarrassed manner, his intellectual progress. It may easily be imagined, that parents not altogether unacquainted with literature themselves; feeling its importance as a copious source of innocent pleasure, and as an instrument of usefulness in the world;* and marking, with rapture, the early indications of superior talents in their child, would apply themselves, with assiduity, to the cultivation of his mind. We were aware that more depended on THE MANNER OF CONDucting his edUCATION, than on our best inclinations. We, therefore, read,

* In one of his letters to me during his first session at Glasgow, he writes, "I am glad to hear that you do not neglect classical literature; for, besides its intrinsic, it has an arbitrary value—so to speak.—It creates esteem ; esteem, influence; influence is power; and power will prove, I am convinced, in your hands, the instrument of beneficence."

and conversed, and thought much upon the subject. While common observation, and our moderate acquaintance with mental philosophy, furnished us with many useful suggestions, Dr. Knox, Miss Hamilton, the Edgeworths, and others, who had written on education, afforded us most essential benefit. To the Edgeworths, however, we were chiefly indebted; as they had presented before the world the actual course of instruction pursued, with such apparent success, in their own family; thus offering a practical comment on their theory. A few years since, my dear William and I read together the Institutes of Quintilian; and I was not a little pleased to find that we had pursued with him (from his cradle) almost the entire course of mental discipline, which that learned rhetorician had recommended for the formation of a scholar and an orator. This circumstance may have materially influenced his opinion in favor of that author; but he ever spoke of him, as, with the exception of Cicero, to whom he was devotedly attached, the wisest of the Roman writers with whom he was acquainted.