LIVINGSTONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. xxi 



kept monuments were our own. The masses of the 

 working people of Scotland have read history, and are no 

 revolutionary levellers. They rejoice in the memories of 

 " Wallace and Bruce and a' the lave," who are still much 

 revered as the former champions of freedom. And while 

 foreigners imagine that we want the spirit only to over- 

 turn capitalists and aristocracy, we are content to respect 

 our laws till we can change them, and hate those stupid 

 revolutions which might sweep away time-honoured 

 institutions, dear alike to rich and poor. 



Having finished the medical curriculum and presented a 

 thesis on a subject which required the use of the stetho }cope 

 for its diagnosis, I unwittingly procured for myself an 

 examination rather more severe and prolonged than usual 

 among examining bodies. The reason was, that between 

 me and the examiners a slight difference of opinion 

 existed as to whether this instrument could do what was 

 asserted. The wiser plan would have been to have had 

 no opinion of my own. However, I was admitted a 

 Licentiate of Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons. It was 

 with unfeigned delight I became a member of a profession 

 which is pre-eminently devoted to practical benevolence, 

 and which with unwearied energy pursues from age to 

 age its endeavours to lessen human woe. 



But though now qualified for my original plan, the 

 opium war was then raging, and it was deemed inexpedient 

 for me to proceed to China. I had fondly hoped to have 

 gained access to that then closed empire by means of the 

 healing art ; but there being no prospect of an early 

 peace with the Chinese, and as another inviting field was 

 opening out through the labours of Mr. Moffat, I was 

 induced to turn my thoughts to Africa ; and after a 

 more extended course of theological training in England 

 than I had enjoyed in Glasgow, I embarked for Africa in 

 1840, and, after a voyage of three months, reached Cape 

 Town. Spending but a short time there, I started for the 

 interior by going round to Algoa Bay, and soon proceeded 

 inland, and have spent the following sixteen years of my 

 life, namely, from 1840 to 1856, in medical and missionary 

 labours there without cost to the inhabitants. 



I have not entered into the early labours, trials, and 

 successes of the missionaries who preceded me in the 

 Bechuana country, because that has been done by the 

 much abler pen of my father-in-law, Rev. Robert Moffat, 



