BIRTHPLACE AND EARLY STUDIES 3 



These conditions we know to have reared and 

 trained generations of men well fitted to follow 

 the pursuits of hardy and active life, yet they 

 cannot have been so constraining as to hinder 

 the birth of some at least who possessed an alto- 

 gether different temper of mind and body. The 

 lowland Scots were even then of a mixed race : 

 the ancestry which tends more than any other to 

 the production of life-eddies, where thought rather 

 than activity naturally forms and dwells, while the 

 current of the main stream sweeps past in its 

 ordinary course. Grant the appearance of such 

 natures here and there in these early times, and it 

 is easy to see much in the only life then possible 

 that was fit to foster their natural tendencies. 

 The deep woodlands were not only scenes of labour 

 where sturdy arms found constant employment, 

 they were homes of mystery in which the young- 

 imagination loved to dwell ; peopling them with 

 half-human shapes more graceful than their 

 stateliest trees, and half-brutal monsters more 

 terrible than the fiercest wolf or bear. The 

 distant sun and stars were more than a heavenly 

 horologe set to mark the hours for labour or vigil, 

 they were an unexplored scene of wonder which 

 patient and brooding thought alone could reach and 

 interpret. The trivial flight and annual return of 

 birds, tracing like the wild geese a mysterious wedge 

 against the sky of winter, gave more than a signal 

 for the chase, which was all that ordinary men saw 

 in it. To these finer natures it brought the awaken- 

 ing which those know who have learned to ask the 

 mighty questions — Why ? Whence ? and Whither ? 

 demands which will not be denied till they have 



