30 THE BANK ACCOUNTANT. 



centrated in its energies I ever knew. He never yet 

 attempted anything which he did not master, and never 

 mastered anything of which he did not tire. He was 

 born in the Highlands of Sutherland, and bred a mason : 

 no one could have fewer opportunities of improve- 

 ment, and yet he was not much turned of twenty ere he 

 had added to the commoner rules of his art a knowledge 

 of architecture, drawing, and the mathematics. The 

 intellectual man is rarely an athlete, but George had a 

 body as well as mind to educate, and after studying the 

 mathematics, he set himself to study the art of defence, 

 and became so skilful a pugilist that there are few pro- 

 fessed boxers who would gain in a contest with him. 

 He resided at this time in GlasgOAv. On his "return 

 home he married and took a little farm on the banks of 

 a Highland loch, where he proposed to himself to spend 

 his days. But he soon tired of the agricultural life, 

 it was too quiet and too monotonous, and quitting the 

 farm he engaged as superintendent of some saw-mills 

 erecting in that part of the country, and proved for some 

 months, from his thorough though hastily acquired 

 knowledge of the machinery, a most serviceable man to 

 his employers. He sickened, however, at the ceaseless 

 clatter of the wheels, and throwing up his superintend- 

 ency, he again resumed the mallet. He then became a 

 slater, and proved one of the best in the country, but 

 the details of the art were too soon mastered to engage 

 him long. He next applied himself to Gaelic literature, 

 and published a translation of Bunyan's Visions, which 

 has been commended as true to both the spirit and sense 

 of the original. He then spent some time in fruitlessly 

 attempting to square the circle, in studying botany, and 

 in the composition of a metrical tale. He then taught 

 a school, and applied to the General Assembly to be 



