62 THE APPRENTICE. 



in the low vice of dram-drinking.' He thus describes the 

 affair in My Schools and Schoolmasters : ' In laying 

 down the foundation-stone of one of the larger houses 

 built this year by Uncle David and his partner, the work- 

 men had a royal " founding-pint," and two whole glasses 

 of the whisky came to my share. A full-grown man would 

 not have deemed a gill of usquebaugh an overdose, but 

 it was considerably too much for me; and when the 

 party broke up, and I got home to my books, I found, 

 as I opened the pages of a favourite author, the letters 

 dancing before my eyes, and that I could no longer 

 master the sense. I have the volume at present before 

 me, a small edition of the Essays of Bacon, a good 

 deal worn at the corners by the friction of the pocket ; 

 for of Bacon I never tired. The condition into which I 

 had brought myself was, I felt, one of degradation. I 

 had sunk, by my own act, for the time, to a lower level 

 of intelligence than that on which it was my privilege 

 to be placed ; and though the state could have been no 

 very favourable one for forming a resolution, I in that 

 hour determined that I should never again sacrifice my 

 capacity of intellectual enjoyment to a drinking usage ; 

 and, with God's help, I was enabled to hold by the de- 

 termination.' It was, therefore, not ' the want of money 

 alone ' which prevented him from becoming a tippler, 

 but we may be permitted to think that this little cir- 

 cumstance was a valuable auxiliary to Bacon. 



Soon, also, there come alleviations of his hardship 

 more practical than those derived from geological dis- 

 covery and admiration of Highland scenery. As he 

 does not sink under exertion, his physical stamina gradu- 

 ally asserts itself, and makes labour a source of strength. 

 It was a characteristic of Miller during life that he pro- 

 gressed in any pursuit not by little and little, but by 



