6 THE AUTHOR'S NATIVE VILLAGE. 



after sentence as I passed at my work ; I thus kept up a pretty 

 constant study undisturbed by the roar of the machinery. To 

 this part of my education I owe my present power of completely 

 abstracting the mind from surrounding noises, so as to read and 

 write with perfect comfort amid the play of children or near the 

 dancing and songs of savages. The toil of cotton-spinning, to 

 which I was promoted in my nineteenth year, was excessively 

 severe on a slim, loose-jointed lad, but it was well paid for ; and 

 it enabled me to support myself while attending medical and 

 Greek classes in Glasgow in winter, as also the divinity lectures 

 of Dr. Wardlaw, by working with my hands in summer. I never 

 received a farthing of aid from any one, and should have accom- 

 plished my project of going to China as a medical missionary, in 

 the course of time, by my own efforts, had not some friends ad- 

 vised my joining the London Missionary Society on account of 

 its perfectly unsectarian character. It " sends neither Episcopacy, 

 nor Presbyterianism, nor Independency, but the Gospel of Christ 

 to the heathen." This exactly agreed with my ideas of what a 

 missionary society ought to do ; but it was not without a pang- 

 that I offered myself, for it was not quite agreeable to one accus- 

 tomed to work his own way to become in a measure dependent on 

 others ; and I would not have been much put about though my 

 offer had been rejected. 



Looking back now on that life of toil, I can not but feel thank- 

 ful that it formed such a material part of my early education ; 

 and, were it possible, I should like to begin life over again in the 

 same lowly style, and to pass through the same hardy training. 



Time and travel have not effaced the feelings of respect I 

 imbibed for the humble inhabitants of my native village. For 

 morality, honesty, and intelligence, they were, in general, good 

 specimens of the Scottish poor. In a population of more than 

 two thousand souls, we had, of course, a variety of character. In 

 addition to the common run of men, there were some characters 

 of sterling worth and ability, who exerted a most beneficial 

 influence on the children and youth of the place by imparting 

 gratuitous religious instruction.* Much intelligent interest was 



* The reader will pardon my mentioning the names of two of these most wor- 

 thy men — David Hogg, who addressed me on his death-bed with the words, " Now, 

 lad, make religion the every-day business of your life, and not a thing of fits and 



