50 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



had been removed, he began to feel a return of the vigorous 

 elasticity of youth. His desire for mental acquirement 

 was a rising appetite, certain in time to become 

 dominant. He lived very simply, if not sparely, though 

 healthily, in order to be able to obtain the tools for 

 intellectual work the much-coveted books. In Stone- 

 haven, he began the formation of the large, well-selected, 

 and, for the very poor man he always remained, costly 

 library which he gradually accumulated, and the possession 

 of which became one of his ruling passions. 



He traversed the cliffs and pleasant neighbourhood of 

 Stonehaven with enlightened eyes, in search of the herbs 

 he was now able to distinguish and name, with the help 

 of the great Culpepper. These he concocted into the 

 various wonderful preparations therein detailed, which 

 were to charm away all disease frail flesh is heir to, and 

 he began to acquire some local fame as a herbalist. 

 Such a man could not, however, rest satisfied with the 

 mere memories of the borrowed volume he had seen at 

 Drumlithie. He must have his own text-book, and after 

 months of extra work, for wages were very low, he became 

 at last the proud possessor of a copy of his own, which 

 cost one pound an immense sum to a lad so poor, just 

 out of his apprenticeship, and having his mother to assist. 

 But it was the old story of a will and a way, and another 

 proof of the omnipotence of true resolution. The book 

 on which John spent so much was a remarkable one, no 

 less than the " Bible of the Herbalists," then a very 

 numerous sect scattered all over the country, which 

 received an enthusiastic apostle in the young weaver. His 

 belief in the system which formed his first introduction to 



