386 HIS OUTSIDE HELPERS. CHAP. xvm. 



Scotch people are very reticent. They rarely 

 speak of love or affection. It is all " understood." It 

 is said that a Scotchman will never tell his wife that 

 he loves her, until he is dying. But you can always 

 tell, from the inside of a house, what the woman is, 

 and how her husband regards her. In these respects, 

 it may be said, that Edward, though poor and scrimp 

 of means, has always enjoyed a happy home ; and 

 that is saying a great deal. 



It is not, however, the amount of love and respect 

 with which a man is regarded at home, that satisfies 

 him, so much as the esteem with which he is 

 regarded by his fellow-men. When a man works 

 gratuitously for science, and labours for the advance- 

 ment of knowledge, he seems entitled to admiration 

 and respect. But Edward did not think that his 

 labours had been properly recognised. This seems 

 to have vexed him very much. He had often 

 been promised aid in the shape of books. But 

 no such aid ever came. " All my honours," said he, 

 "have come from a distance. I have kept the 

 museum of the Banff Institution for about twenty-one 

 years, for I may say almost nothing ; and though the 

 Linnean Society thought me worthy of being elected 

 an Associate, the people here did not think me worthy 

 of being an honorary member of their Society. Still, 

 I am not complaining. The people of Banff had no 

 right to make me a gentleman." 



The truth is, that it was a misfortune for Edward 



