ROBEKTSON. 259 



died within a few days of one another, leaving eight 

 children, six daughters and two sons, of whom Wil- 

 liam was the elder. He had been educated first at the 

 school of Dalkeith, under a very able teacher of the 

 name of Leslie, a gentleman at that time of the great- 

 est eminence in his profession. On his father's removal 

 to Edinburgh, he was taken thither and placed at the 

 University, though only twelve years old. His dili- 

 gence in study was unremitting, and he pursued 

 his education at the different classes for eight years 

 with indefatigable zeal. He had laid down for himself 

 a strict plan of reading ; and of the notes which he 

 took there remain a number of books, beginning when 

 he was only fourteen, all bearing the sentence as a 

 motto which so characterised his love of learning, indi- 

 cating that he delighted in it abstractedly, and for its 

 own sake, without regarding the uses to which it might 

 be turned " Vita sine litteris mors" I give this gloss 

 upon the motto or text advisedly. His whole life was 

 spent in study. I well remember his constant habit of 

 quitting the drawing-room both after dinner and again 

 after tea, and remaining shut up in his library. The 

 period of time when I saw this was after the * History 

 of America' had been published, and before Major Ren- 

 nell's map and memoir appeared, which he tells us 

 first suggested the ' Disquisition on Ancient India.' 

 Consequently, for above ten years he was in the course 

 of constant study, engaged in extending his inform- 

 ation, examining and revolving the facts of history, 

 contemplating ethical and theological truths, amus- 

 ing his fancy with the strains of Greek and Roman 

 poetry, or warming it at the fire of ancient eloquence 



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