I WAS reared in one of the rural districts 

 of Scotland, near the mouth of the Tay. 

 Here education was small in quantity and 

 inferior in quality ; little of it came my way, 

 and what did come was very elementary 

 indeed, English grammar and the art of 

 composition being entirely excluded. Quietly, 

 it was the opinion of many of the elder 

 pupils that the teacher should have been at 

 school a little longer himself. These facts 

 will in some measure prepare my reader 

 to excuse the style of my simple treatise ; 

 also, I may say what of it I possess was 

 formed in the hurried moments of an engi- 



