22 MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 



robust constitution. His tall stature and his general 

 appearance indicated that he had grown faster than 

 his strength ; however, as it was considered neces- 

 sary that he should follow some profession, Mr. 

 Hamilton was requested to converse with him on 

 that important subject. His own preference was to 

 prosecute the study of divinity and become a clergy- 

 man, as being more in unison with the gravity of 

 his character and habits. 



Meantime, after leaving Harrow, he was sent for 

 a short time to another academy, where, besides 

 Latin and Greek, he studied French, arithmetic, 

 and geography. His father having expressed a wish 

 that he should abandon the church, he at once 

 complied, and consented to turn his attention to the 

 law, with the view of becoming an advocate at the 

 Scottish bar. 



Having greatly improved in his health, he re- 

 turned in May, 1747, to his native place, and 

 devoted the following autumn to the invigorating 

 sports of the field, which gave him a decided taste 

 for that sort of amusement. In the winter he 

 repaired to Edinburgh, where he attended the pro- 

 fessors of Civil and Scotch law ; but a short trial 

 soon convinced him that his mind was not adapted 

 for these pursuits. He had no relish for dry tech- 

 nicalities, the use or importance of which he could 

 not comprehend ; and after hanging his bewildered 

 head for a season over the pages of Heineccius, 

 while his fancy was roaming among the poetic 

 flowers of Metastasio an<l A.riosto, he was obliged 



