176 Autobiographical Notes. 



in Edinburgh or elsewhere. I did not, however, despair, but 

 hoped that something good might yet occur. The darkest hour 

 is that before daybreak. The very week in which my con- 

 nection, which had been a most happy one, with Mr Hagart 

 terminated, I formed a similar connection with Mr Thomas 

 Jameson, Leith, brother of Professor Jameson, which yielded 

 me p^4 monthly, a sum that appeared to me at the time to be 

 inexhaustible. This place I also obtained through my friend, 

 Mr Grierson. These two families, the Hagarts and the 

 Jamesons, treated me with great kindness, asked me to their 

 table, and made me forget while I was in their company that 

 our positions were very dissimilar. I thus began to be intro- 

 duced into society, and to learn some of the proprieties of social 

 life. 



Meanwhile 1 prosecuted my studies at College, read much, 

 and became devoted to literary pursuits. I tried my hand at 

 literary composition, contributed some articles to the Scots 

 Magazine, also various articles, such as a life of Robert Heron, ^ 

 to the Dumfries Courier. My friend, Mr Carlyle, had, like 

 myself, got employment in town as a private teacher, and he 

 and I spent our leisure hours together. He literally devoured 

 books. He read through Chalmers's edition of the British 

 Essayists, forty-live volumes, without interruption, a herculean 

 task. His reading was miscellaneous ; but he preferred works 

 of sentiment, such as the British Essayists, Shakespeare, the 

 English poets, Burns, etc. He was not given to history or 

 metaphysics. At College he excelled eminently in mathematics, 

 and gained the friendship of Professor Eeslie, who quotes his 

 ingenious pupil in a note to his Elements of Mathematics. Mr 

 Carlyle was, like myself, a frequent contributor to the 

 Dumfries Courier. He removed from Edinburgh previously to 

 my leaving it, as in 1814 he had been appointed to be teacher of 

 mathematics in Annan Academy, which office he obtained as 

 the result of comparative trial. His various letters addressed 

 to me are minute on this and other kindred subjects. 



Among other acquaintances which he and I formed there 



3. A life of Heron also appears in Murray's Literary History of 

 Galloicay. 



