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into the future, he solemnly exclaimed : " But my day is 

 done. I hae tried hard and done little. But oh ! I am 

 glad o' what I ken, and glad o' what I now begin to learn ! " 

 John Duncan's life furnishes, in this connection, another 

 marked proof of the vital significance of early influences, 

 those " impressions before letters," as Hood facetiously but 

 truly calls them : 



" Before with our A B C we start, 

 Those things in morals, as well as art, 

 That play a very important part." 



As we have seen, the circumstances and environment under 

 which John was reared deeply coloured his whole existence. 

 The cliffs of Kincardine and the pile of Dunnottar, with its 

 wonderful story and powerful impressions, towered grandly 

 over his career, and were lost sight of only in death. It was 

 there, during his filial solitary wanderings for rushes, 

 nettles and mugwort, and his early sports and explorations, 

 that he imbibed the dominating influences of his life his 

 healthy frame, his keen observation, his love of flowers, his 

 delight in nature, his self-contained resources, and his deep 

 religiousness. 



This furnishes another proof of how tenderly solicitous 

 we ought to be, to surround our children in their infancy 

 and youth with the breezy freshnesses of nature. It should 

 once more impel us to take all earnest measures to make 

 their nurture generous and natural, and their memories 

 sweet and pure ; so that the aroma of early days may rise like 

 a perfume throughout their lives, and that, though turning 

 out but " common earth," they may, like the clay in the 

 Eastern parable, carry a fragrance with them for ever, from 

 having " once lived with the rose." 



