7 
who looked to things more than to opinions; or that he 
should have turned his attention to medicine, as a study 
more congenial to his peculiar taste. What ardour he 
exhibited, or what progress he made during the years spent 
in attending these classes, cannot now be ascertained; but it 
is probable that he did not make any considerable acquisi- 
tions in science, in an University which at that time afforded 
few facilities and no stimulants to the student of nature. 
To a much later period, Glasgow was almost exclusively a 
school for logic and metaphysics; and those who are now 
enabled, in an attendance there, to benefit by the instructions 
of some of the first teachers of natural science that this age 
can boast, will hardly conceive the difficulties under which 
the student laboured, who, a few years ago, might have 
finished his curriculum without a master to inform him even 
of the authors whom it was necessary for him to consult. 
How detrimental this was to the progress of general 
knowledge cannot be estimated; but though Mr. Carmichael 
went to Edinburgh to finish his studies, there is reason to 
believe that he deeply felt the disadvantage of not being 
earlier instructed in the first principles of natural science. 
Several years afterwards he writes, —* The plan adopted by 
several continental nations, particularly the French and the 
Swedish, of making natural history a branch of education in 
the public schools, possesses many advantages over the old 
Gothic system to which we still cling so pertinaciously on 
the English side of the channel. To those young men who 
are destined to pass a great portion of their lives in regions 
far removed from their native land, the study of natural 
history affords intervals of pleasing recreation from the 
fatigues of professional duty. This study, aided by a know- 
ledge of a few of the modern languages, is the surest passport 
to the best society. It occupies these idle hours which would 
otherwise lie heavy on the hands of the young, or incite, per- 
haps, to dangerous irregularities. It affords exercise to the 
mind, and frequently adds to the sum of human knowledge. It 
has, also, over every other study, this peculiar advantage, 
that whithersoever fortune may direct our footsteps, materials . 
