His Early Lox)e (jf Observation. 91 



the Hebrides, was the birth-place of Dugaid Carmichael, in 

 1772. Born of parents who were in easy circumstances, he was 

 early designed for a learned profession ; and, though the oppor- 

 tunities which the parochial school afforded might not perhaps 

 be very great, nor calculated to enlarge the youthful mind, the 

 eye of genius is ever open, and ready to avail itself of every 

 advantage. While his schoolfellows were scattered over the 

 play-ground, pursuing their own wild gambols, young Car- 

 michael might be seen in some neighbouring field, gathering 

 and examining the flowers which grew there, or searching in 

 some fosse for the organic remains that were then plentifully 

 scattered throughout the mosslands of Lismore. Thus do the 

 amusements of the boy " cast their shadows before," and often 

 exhibit an outline of the pursuits of the future man. He was 

 regarded by other boys, generally, with contempt or astonish- 

 ment ; and, had not his habits of silence and retirement been 

 occasionally broken by indications of spirit, which checked the 

 insolent and awed the timid, while he was characterized by uni- 

 form gentleness and a more than ordinary capacity for learning 

 the prescribed lessons, his schoolfellows would not have failed 

 to consider him a fool. 



This love of observation and experiment, which so far over- 

 came bodily comfort, attended Mr Carmichael through life, ac- 

 companied with an equally strong mental characteristic, that 

 stamped him as an individual who listened principally to the 

 voice of experience, and made^c^ the ground of all his reason- 

 ings. From a very early age it was remarked of him, that he 

 only believed what he could see positive evidence for, so that 

 the fireside stories of apparitions and goblins that are firmly 

 credited in the Highlands of Scotland, and which caused the 

 hair of the aged natives to stand on end, only excited his laugh- 

 ter. He had never witnessed these appearances, and seeing no 

 use in them, he did not believe in their existence. But this in- 

 credulity was sometimes not comfortable to others; for, ac- 

 quainted with the spots that were famed as the haunts of fairies 

 and other preternatural visitants, he would slip out alone in the 

 evening, and carrying his violin, of which he was very fond, un- 

 der his arm, and concealing himself behind some tree or rock 

 that was celebrated for ghostly appearances, he would there 



