262 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



though not very pleasing in themselves, are in my case 

 at least intimately connected with happiness. I do not 

 think I could be happy without being independent, and 

 I cannot be independent except as a mechanic/ 



It is evident, from the terms in which Dr Baird 

 refers to the suggestion made by him to Miller of 

 coming to Edinburgh, that the latter slightly misunder- 

 stood its purport. The account of the interview given 

 in the Schools and Schoolmasters forces us to conclude 

 that Miller supposed Baird to have advised him to 

 abandon the chisel on coming to Edinburgh. c The 

 capital furnished, he said/ the quotation is from the 

 Schools and Schoolmasters, ' the proper field for a liter- 

 ary man in Scotland. What between the employment 

 furnished by the newspapers and the magazines, he was 

 sure I would effect a lodgment and work my way up/ 

 Baird 's words are that the ' busy hours ' were to be 

 given to the stone-cutter's profession, and the ' leisure 

 hours ' to literature. Carruthers, too, was as prudential 

 in his advice to the workman as he was ardent in his 

 admiration of the poet. ' We have learned/ he said, in 

 a commendatory notice of the poems, ' with much satis- 

 faction that he (Miller) has confined his devotion to the 

 Muses strictly to his leisure hours, thus his industry 

 in pursuing a laborious occupation has been unremit- 

 ting/ The friendliness both of Dr Baird and of Mr Car- 

 ruthers was too genuine to permit indulgence in the cheap 

 flattery of bidding Miller abandon his trade and launch 

 into the perils of a literary life ; and he had the manli- 

 ness and sense to appreciate their discretion while 

 valuing their applause. Miller, not unnaturally, in 

 Avriting the Schools and Schoolmasters, saw the advice of 

 Baird through the colouring medium of many years of 

 literary eminence. 



