CHAPTER XX. 



ECCLESIASTICAL MOVEMENTS IN THE COUNTRY ; 

 AND DUNCAN'S RELIGION. 



JOHN DUNCAN was constitutionally religious. He threw 

 into religion the same ardour as into science, his enthusiasm 

 in Theology being as marked as in Botany or Astronomy. 

 Of the deep and genuine piety of the man, all that knew 

 him with any intimacy speak in the highest terms. As 

 Mr. Lament of Mosshead, who was impressed with the 

 high tone of his inner life more than with anything else in 

 his character and studies, expressed it, " Many a man got 

 a good character from others, but to none would I be so 

 willing to say ' amen ' as to John's." On this point, from 

 those that had any means of forming an opinion, there is 

 but one voice, and that is all the stronger the more intimate 

 the relations between them. 



His special phase of religious feeling was that of the 

 old Covenanting type, inherited from his mother, whose 

 ancestors, he was always proud to tell, had borne the 

 Covenanting name of Burley, and had fought against " the 

 bluidy Claver'se." It was strengthened by the early deep 

 impressions gathered at Dunnottar, and was increased by 

 his extensive reading of the terrible history of Scotch 

 persecuting times. In all things John undertook or studied, 



