EARLY LIFE. 3 



light upon his early life, and shown how soon his 

 great mental powers showed themselves. From a 

 very tender age he excelled all his cotemporaries. 

 Nothing to him was a labour no task prescribed 

 that was not performed long before the time ex- 

 pected. His grandmother, a very clever woman, was 

 an enthusiastic admirer of all intellectual acquire- 

 ments, and used to compare him to the Admir- 

 able Chreighton, from his excelling in everything he 

 undertook. From mere infancy he showed a marked 

 attention to everything he saw, and this before he 

 could speak. Afterwards, to everything he heard, 

 and he had a memory the most retentive. He 

 spoke distinctly, several words, when he was eight 

 months and two weeks old ; and this aptitude to 

 learn continued progressive. When barely seven 

 years old, he was sent to the High School in Edin- 

 burgh, his father preferring that school to Eton or 

 Westminster. He went to school before the 19th of 

 September 1785, having been born on that day in 

 the year 1778, at No. 21, north side of St Andrew's 

 Square. He went through all the classes with 

 credit, and came away dux of the fifth or rector's 

 class, taught at that time by Dr Adam. 



"The examination was in August 1791, at which 

 time he had not reached the age of thirteen an age 

 unusually early, considering, too, that he had been 

 only one year, instead of two, the usual number, in 

 the rector's class. 



" As, then, when he left it, he had not completed his 



