22 
MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 
robust constitution. His tall stature and his general 
appearance indicated that he had grown faster than 
his strength ; however, as it was considered neces- 
sary that he should follow some profession, Mr. 
Hamilton was requested to converse with him on 
that important subject. His own preference was to 
prosecute the study of divinity and become a clergy- 
man, as being more in unison with the gravity of 
his character and habits. 
Meantime, after leaving Harrow, he was sent for 
a short time to another academy, where, besides 
Latin and Greek, he studied French, arithmetic, 
and geography. His father having expressed a wish 
that he should abandon the church, he at once 
complied, and consented to turn his attention to the 
Jaw, with the view of becoming an advocate at the 
Scottish bar. 
Having greatly improved in his health, he re- 
turned in May, 1J47, to his native place, and 
devoted the following autumn to the invigorating 
sports of the field, which gave him a decided taste 
for that sort of amusement, In the winter he 
repaired to Edinburgh, where he attended the pro- 
fessors of Civil and Scotch law; but a short trial 
soon convinced him that his mind was not adapted 
for these pursuits. He had no relish for dry tech- 
nicalities, the use or importance of which he could 
not comprehend ; and after hanging his bewildered 
head for a season over the pages of Heineccius, 
while his fancy was roaming among the poetia 
flowers of Metastasio and. Ariosto, he was obliged 
