LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XXl 



length, between my eye and the stars ; sliding the 

 beads upon it till they hid such and such stars 

 from my eye, in order to take their apparent dis- 

 tances from one another ; and then, laying a 

 thread down on a paper, I marked the stars there- 

 on by the beads, according to their respective, 

 positions, having a candle by me. My master at 

 first laughed at me ; but, when I explained ray 

 meaning to him, he encouraged me to go on : and 

 that I might make fair copies in the day-time of 

 what I had done in the night, he often worked for 

 me himself. I shall always have a respect for the 

 memory of that man. 



One day he happened to send me with a mes- 

 sage to the Reverend Mr. John Gilchrist, minister 

 at Keith, to whom I had been known from my 

 childhood. I carried my star papers to shew 

 them to him, and found him looking over a large 

 parcel of maps, which I surveyed with great 

 pleasure, as they were the first I had ever seen. 

 He then told me that the earth is round like a 

 ball, and explained the map of it to me. I re- 

 quested him to lend me that map, to take a copy 

 of it in the evenings. He cheerfully consented to 

 this, giving me at the same time a pair of com- 

 passes, a ruler, pens, ink, and paper; and dis- 

 missing me with an injunction not to neglect my 

 master's business by copying the map, which I 

 might keep as long as I pleased. 



For this pleasant employment, my master gave 

 me more time than I could reasonably expect ; 



