44 THE BOY. 



of pastime, who was never weary when his pen was in his 

 hand, who possessed more literary information than any 

 one twice his age in Cromarty, was a phenomenon new 

 to the experience of Uncle James and Uncle Sandy. 

 It was a puzzle for them, and it is something of a puzzle 

 for us. 



Not a few among them men of the highest emin- 

 ence as thinkers and writers will decide with impatient 

 emphasis that Hugh's rebellion against the tyranny of 

 grammar was the genial assertion of his native force, 

 the bursting of the flower-pot by the oak sapling, 

 the most propitious thing which could have befallen him. 

 There is much to be said on this side of the question. 

 The boy who was dux of the school in Cromarty when 

 Hugh Miller was dunce the model boy, who was the 

 delight of the schoolmaster, and who carried off the 

 highest prizes when he went to college the boy whom 

 the story-books designate for a Lord Mayor's coach and 

 a handsome fortune became a respectable and useful 

 minister of the Church of Scotland, and would probably 

 never have been heard of beyond the circle of his 

 parishioners, but for the circumstance of his having 

 been mentioned in the works of his friend, the dunce. 

 The name of the dux has been touched by the pen of 

 the dunce, and is likely to live as long as the English 

 language. By taking the bit into his teeth, leaping the 

 fences, and scouring the plain at his own wild will, 

 Hugh Miller obtained that freedom for his faculties 

 which is necessary to all vigorous growth, to all beauty 

 and capricious grace of movement. Had he received the 

 technical training of a college professor, would college 

 professors have said that they would give their hand from 

 their wrist for the curiosa felicitas of his style ? Take 

 young creatures, colts or lambs, mew them up, feed 



