92 Biography of the late Captain Dug aid Carmichael. 



await the return of the servants frora the fold, and alarm them 

 with sounds, which, being unexpected, induced the belief that 

 they proceeded from some unearthly inhabitant of the spot. 



In 1787, Mr Carmichael was sent by his parents to the Uni- 

 versity of Glasgow, to attend the literary classes, and he seems 

 to have made a considerable proficiency in the Greek and Latin 

 languages ; but it is not surprising if the mysteries of metaphy- 

 sical science should have but few charms for him, 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 pecu- 

 liar 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 acquisitions in science, in an university which 

 at that time afforded few facihties, and no stimulants to the stu- 

 dent 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 in- 

 structions of some of the first teachers of natural science that 

 this age can boast, will hardly conceive the difhculties 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 know- 

 ledge 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 his- 

 tory a branch of education in the public schools, possesses many 

 advantages over the old Gothic system, to which we still cling so 

 pertinaceously 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 na^' 

 tural 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 those idle hours which would 



