HUGH MILLER. 1 1 7 



himself: — 'The drinking usages of the profession in which I 

 laboured were at this time many ; when a foundation was laid, 

 the workmen were treated to drink ; they were treated to 

 drink when the walls were levelled for laying the joists ; they 

 were treated to drink when the building was finished ; they 

 were treated to drink when an apprentice joined the squad ; 

 treated to drink when his "apron was washed;" treated to 

 drink when " his time was out ; " and occasionally they learned 

 to treat one another to drink. In laying down the foundation- 

 stone of one of the larger houses built this year by Uncle 

 David and his partner, the workmen 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 determination.' 



During the winter, when mason work was no longer possible, 

 he paid a visit to Strathcarron, a wild Highland glen, where he 

 made some observations on a Scotch pine forest. His year 



