DR. CHALMERS LITERARY HABITS. 



219 



distance, than, impatient to get 

 again at the side of Johnson, he 

 rose, and was running off in quest 

 of something to show him, when 

 the doctor roared after him autho- 

 ritatively, " What are you thinking 

 of, sir 1 Why do you get up before 

 the cloth is removed ? Come back 

 to your place, sir;" and the obse- 

 quious spaniel did as he was com- 

 manded. "Running about in the 

 middle of meals!" muttered the 

 doctor, pursing his mouth at the 

 same time to restrain his rising 

 risibility. 



Boswell got another rebuff from 

 Johnson, which would have de- 

 molished any other man. He had 

 been teasing him with many direct 

 questions, such as, " What did you 

 do, sir?" "What did you say, 

 sir?' until the great philologist 

 became perfectly enraged. " I will 

 not be put to the question!" roared 

 he. " Don't you consider, sir, that 

 these are not the manners of a gen- 

 tleman 1 I will not be baited with 

 what and why. What is this? What 

 is that 1 Why is a cow's tail long ? 

 Why is a fox's tail bushy ?" " Why, 

 sir," replied Pilgarlic, " you are so 

 good that I venture to trouble you." 

 " Sir," replied Johnson, " my being 

 so ^7000? is no reason why you should 

 be so ill." " You have but two to- 

 pics, sir," exclaimed he, on another 

 occasion, " yourself and me, and I 

 am sick of both." 



DR. CHALMERS' LITERARY HABITS. 

 In October, 1841, Dr. Chalmers 

 commenced two series of biblical 

 compositions, which he continued 

 with unbroken regularity till the 

 day of his decease, May 31, 1847. 

 Go where he might, however he 

 might be engaged, each week-day 

 had .its few verses read, thought 

 over, written upon forming what 

 he denominated Horce Biblicce Quo- 

 tidiance: each Sabbath-day had its 

 two chapters, one in the Old and 



the other in the New Testament, 

 with the two trains of meditative 

 devotion recorded to which the 

 reading of them respectively gave 

 birth forming what he denominat- 

 ed Horce Biblicce Sabbaticce. When 

 absent from home, or when the 

 manuscript books in which they 

 were ordinarily inserted were not 

 beside him, he wrote in short-hand, 

 carefully entering what was thus 

 written in the larger volumes after- 

 wards. Not a trace of haste nor of 

 the extreme pressure from without, 

 to which he was so often subjected, 

 is exhibited in the hand-writing of 

 these volumes. There are but few 

 words omitted scarcely any erased. 

 This singular correctness was a 

 general characteristic of his com- 

 positions. His lectures on the 

 Epistle to the Romans were written 

 currente calamo, in Glasgow, during 

 the most hurried and overburdened 

 period of his life. And when, many 

 years afterwards, they were given 

 out to be copied for the press, 

 scarcely a blot, or an erasure, or a 

 correction, was to be found in them, 

 and they were printed off exactly as 

 they had originally been written. 



In preparing the Horce Biblicce 

 Quotidiance, Chalmers had by his 

 side, for use and reference, the 

 Concordance, the Pictorial Jiible, 

 Poole's Synopsis, Henry's Commen- 

 tary, and Robinson's Researches in 

 Palestine. These constituted what 

 he called his "Biblical Library." 

 " There," said he to a friend, point- 

 ing, as he spoke, to the above-named 

 volumes, as they lay together on 

 his litoary-table, with a volume of 

 the Quotidiance, in which he had 

 just been writing, lying open beside 

 them, " There are the books I uso 

 all that is Biblical is there. I 

 have to do with nothing besides in 

 my Biblical study." To the consulta- 

 tion of these few volumes lie through- 

 out restricted himself. (Memoir by 

 Dr. Hanna.) 



