t EAKLY STUDIES AND TASTES. 47 



been in one of those schools. He must have been well 

 advanced for his age. The impulse that his mind received 

 in the common school was aided by the attractions of the 

 great University at Glasgow. Boys in the neighborhood of 

 great colleges have earlier and loftier aspirations perhaps.. 

 Anyhow we are informed that a part of David Livingstone's 

 first week's wages went for " Ruddiman's Rudiments of 

 Latin/' and that he pressed the study of that language with 

 peculiar ardor, in an evening school, from eight to ten o'clock, 

 during a number of years. There are many grown men who 

 mourn over their ignorance whose work does not fill fourteen 

 hours a day. 



In those evening hours, with a little tired child-body, 

 Livingstone mastered the Latin language, and accomplished 

 much in general reading. When he was sixteen years old, 

 he was quite in advance of his age. The diligence and self- 

 control of the boy was the prophecy of the man. At this early 

 age, too, the peculiar tastes and talents which rendered his 

 subsequent life singularly successful and vested his work 

 with singular interest began to appear. He did not love 

 novels : he loved facts. He was not charmed with the woven 

 fancies of quiet effeminacy. He delighted in stories of adven- 

 ture; he was always glad to put his hand in the hand of the 

 historian, and be led away from familiar scenes to the new 

 and the strange and the difficult. The hero spirit was in him. 

 This love of the new and eagerness for travel were tempered 

 and sanctified by an appreciation of the real and the useful. 

 He had delight in scientific books and experiments. 



The home of his childhood was admirably adapted for the 

 development ot noble character. There was a population of 

 nearly three thousand. The people were " good specimens of 

 the Scottish poor," as he tells us himself, " in honesty, morality 

 and intelligence." There were all sorts of people, of course ; 

 they were generally awake to all public questions ; their inter- 

 est was intelligent ; there were some characters of uncommon 

 worth ; these persons felt peculiar interest in the thoughtful, 

 studious lad. There were near at hand many spots hallowed 

 in Scottish history — spots with venerable associations. The 

 Scottish people love old associations; they treasure the dear 



