AUTHORS RECOLLECTIONS. 493 



present alchemical expedient for converting farthings 

 into guineas, sheerly by dint of scouring/ All that 

 he had won had been won by stern effort, and he had 

 no faith in royal roads to any kind of attainment. 



Supremely devoted to science, he naturally regarded 

 men eminent in science as standing higher than men 

 eminent in literature. I recollect that once when the 

 claims of Scotland to honour in the world of intellect 

 were on the carpet, I remarked that, at all events, 

 the first man of mind for the time being was a Scotch- 

 man. ' Who is that, Mr Bayne ? ' he asked. My 

 reply was prompt and decisive, ' Thomas Carlyle ! ' 

 ' Ah, no ! ' he said with great deliberation, ' Carlyle is 

 not the greatest living man/ 'Who, then?' I inquired. 

 He would not name any one, but repeated ' Ah, no ! 

 Mr Bayne, Carlyle is not the greatest/ From some- 

 thing in his manner at the moment the impression was 

 conveyed to me that he would not have been surprised 

 to hear himself named as the greatest of living Scotch- 

 men. I gathered, also, from some of his remarks which 

 I cannot precisely recall, that, if forced to say who was, 

 in his opinion, the most remarkable man of the day, he 

 would have sought him among the servants of science 

 rather than among the cultivators of literature. He 

 recognized Carlyle's great powers, however, and sym- 

 pathized with many of the views of Rhadamanthus as 

 to the superficiality and sentimentalism of the time. He 

 more than half approved of Carlyle's stern views as to the 

 treatment of criminals, and would have liked to see our 

 grim disciplinarian try his hand upon a few drafts from 

 the ' devil's regiments of the line/ 



Once or twice Mr Gilfillan was mentioned. Miller 

 had a friendly feeling towards him and expressed 

 admiration of his brilliancy, but thought it overdone. 



