FIRST VERSES. 29 



of life until its afternoon ! It is this advantage we possess 

 in connection with Hugh Miller's boyish adventure in 

 the Doocot Cave. There exist at least four accounts of 

 the incident drawn up by himself, four successive paint- 

 ings of the same scene by the boy, the stripling, the man 

 of twenty-seven, and the man of fifty. 



The first is that referred to in the Schools and School- 

 masters, as executed in ' enormously bad verse/ a day or 

 two after the occurrence. The copy before me is the 

 identical one which excited the admiring wonder of Miss 

 Bond, mistress of the Cromarty Boarding School. At- 

 tached to it is that pictorial representation of the scene 

 which Miller describes as consisting of ' horrid crags of 

 burnt umber, perforated by yawning caverns of India- 

 ink, and crested by a dense forest of sap green.' You 

 can see what is intended ; the sea is below the cavern, 

 and the sward and wood are above ; but the whole is 

 not superior to the ordinary daubing of child-artists. 

 The verses exhibit internal evidence of having been 

 written within a day or two of the event they record. 

 The agony of distress and terror experienced by the boy 

 of twelve when he and his companion a lad still 

 younger found themselves, as night came on, with the 

 sea before, impassable rocks on either hand, and a dark 

 cavern behind, this, and their contrasted rapture when 

 the boats hailed them at midnight, supersede all reflec- 

 tion on the beauties of the landscape or the wonders 

 of the cave. The grammar and spelling are about as 

 bad as possible. Here are the first two lines : 



* When I to you unfolds my simple tale, 

 And paints the horrours of a rocky vail.' 



He forgets to say what will happen when the dreadful 

 revelation takes place, and strikes presently into descrip- 



