62 The Naturalist of Cumbrae. 



are energy and perseverance, honesty of purpose, 

 genial friendliness of heart, and openness of mind, 

 these are not so absent from any human being but 

 what they can probably be made to grow and flourish. 

 They can be fostered, cultivated, brought to per- 

 fection, even from small and delicate seedlings. Each 

 man, having them for himself in charge, may make 

 his fortune out of them if he will ; and those who read 

 this biography should at least be encouraged by it to 

 make the attempt. 



It has 'been cynically said of mankind in general, 

 " if all the motives of our best actions were exposed 

 to view, how foolish we should look ! " It has been 

 argued that we ought not to celebrate the merits 

 even of the departed, because the inner characters 

 of the men eulogized may have belied their seeming 

 goodness. Much more may it be thought improper 

 to call any man virtuous just as Solon thought it 

 wrong to call any man happy while he is still living, 

 lest the future should spoil the past. By these 

 general and highly genial considerations the gentle 

 reader, therefore, is forewarned not too implicitly 

 to trust the unavoidable ignorance of the biographer. 

 I leave open all the reserves which the most envious 

 or the most scrupulous can desire, when I ask those 

 who have read this narrative to behold, in the 

 portrait that has been sketched for them, a man 

 liable no doubt to error, for he thought at the outset 

 that this record of himself would be uninteresting ; a 

 man not without the natural ambition of a superior 

 mind, yet ever ready to esteem others better than 

 himself; one who has been, if I venture not to say 



