CHAPTER XIIL 
LITERATURE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
A ereat misfortune befell Edward in 1854: his friend, 
the Rev. Mr. Smith, died. He was a man whose richly cul- 
tivated mind and warm heart endeared him to all with 
whom he came in contact. He was almost the only man 
of culture in the neighborhood who appreciated the charac- 
ter of Edward. He not only made himself his friend, but 
became his helper. Edward was under the impression that 
people looked down upon him and his work because he was 
a poor shoe-maker. There were other persons who knew 
of Edward’s perseverance, self-denial, and uncomplaining- 
ness, and also of his efforts to rise into a higher life; but 
they did not help him as Mr. Smith did. The true Chris- 
tian gentleman treated the poor man as his friend. He 
treated him as one intelligent man treats another. The 
shoe-maker from Banff was always made welcome at the 
minister’s fireside at Monquhitter. 
Mr. Smith helped Edward with books. He lent him such 
books as he had from his own library; and he borrowed 
books from others, in order to satisfy Edward’s inquiries 
about objects in natural history. He wandered about the 
fields with him, admiring his close observation; and he 
urged him to note down the facts which he observed, in or- 
der that they might be published to the world. 
In one of the last letters addressed by Mr. Smith to Ed- 
ward he observed: “It is, I conceive, the great defect in 
the natural sciences that we know so little of the real habits 
and instincts of the animal creation. In helping to fill up 
