12 EARLY LIFE. 



which, more than any natural talents I may possess, 

 has enabled me to stick to, and to accomplish, how 

 far successfully it is not for me to say, every task I ever 

 undertook. 



I was sent when very young to a day-school in 

 George Street, Edinburgh, kept by a Mr Stalker, a 

 sort of infant school, in which girls as well as boys were 

 the pupils. Before I went there my father had taught 

 me to read ; but my grandmother, from day to day, 

 worked with me at my lessons, so that when I was 

 only seven years old I had outgrown Mr Stalker's 

 academy, and was sent to Luke Fraser's class at the 

 High School. All the time I was there, my grand- 

 mother was my daily help and instructress : under her 

 careful tuition I not only won and kept a good place 

 in my class, but, with a perseverance that almost 

 amounted to obstinacy, I on one occasion made Fraser 

 confess he had been wrong and I right, in some dis- 

 puted bit of Latinity for which he had the day before 

 punished me. My victory gained me immense credit 

 with all my schoolfellows, and I was called " the boy 

 that had licked the master." I am bound to say Mr 

 Fraser bore no malice, and when I left him to go into 

 the rector's (Dr Adam's) class, we parted the best of 

 friends. 



I remained in the class of Luke Fraser, according 

 to the course of that seminary, for four years, from 

 September 1785, when I was seven years old, to 

 October 1789, when I entered the class of the rector, 

 Dr Adam, under whom I was two years nominally, 



