AND ANGLING SONGS. 2O/ 



lakes and tide -casts of the Ultima Thule, that I am led to believe 

 both his ardour and industry as an angler remained to the last 

 unabated, the pressure of those numerous professional and 

 literary avocations in which he was engaged only assisting to 

 increase his zest for the amusement. 



Another frequenter of Tibby's shieling in those days one 

 who, obedient to a grand impulse, and wrapt up in the philo- 

 sopher's mantle, long ago dropt the rod, which in youth, as I 

 well recollect, was handled by him with enthusiasm and witching 

 skill was the highly gifted author of The Theory of Knowing 

 and Being, the late and much-lamented Professor Ferrier of St. 

 Andrews. In foregoing the indulgence of sport, Professor 

 Ferrier retained that shadow of attachment towards it which 

 draws one almost unconsciously to the spots where it is to be 

 met with. I remember how this disposition used to betray itself 

 in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh in his saunterings with the 

 late Sir William Hamilton, the profoundest of scholars and deepest 

 of thinkers Scotland perhaps has ever produced ; the breathing 

 and intelligent catalogue to which the literary serfs of Modern 

 Athens, pushed for the solution of some historic or philosophic 

 problem, were accustomed freely to refer. Frequently on a 

 Saturday afternoon, when employed in thrashing the Water of 

 Leith, have I been made conscious of the superintendence of the 

 two metaphysicians, and the eloquent interest they took in an 

 amusement deemed by the wits of the last century so very con- 

 temptible. 



The last occasion on which I met with Professor Ferrier at 

 Tibby's, this idiosyncrasy, as it may be termed, combining the 

 exercise of self-control with the attachment in question, dis- 

 covered itself to an extent which I often look back upon with 

 surprise, accepting, notwithstanding, as a key to the mystery, 

 the fact of a struggle going on betwixt the emotional and the 

 reasoning powers, an active mind at war with its own sympathies, 



