, and the promptings of
a highly intellectual nature, to which exertion was enjoyment, led him
to study much and deeply; and he poured forth _viva voce_ his
full-volumed and ever-sparkling tide of eloquent idea, as freely and
richly as the nightingale, unconscious of a listener, pours forth her
melody in the shade. But, strangely diffident of his own powers, he
could not be made to believe that what so much impressed and delighted
the privileged few who surrounded him, was equally suited to impress
and delight the intellectual many outside; or that he was fitted to
speak through the press in tones which would compel the attention, not
merely of the religious, but also of the literary world. Further,
practising but little the art of elaborate composition, and master of a
spoken style more effective for the purposes of the pulpit than almost
any written one, save that of Chalmers, he failed, in all his attempts
in writing, to satisfy a fastidious taste, which he had suffered greatly
to outgrow his ability of production. And so he failed to leave any
adequate mark behind him. I find that for my stock of theological idea,
not directly derived from Scripture, I stand more indebted to two Scotch
theologians than to all other men of their profession and class. The one
of these was Thomas Chalmers--the other, Alexander Stewart: the one a
name known wherever the English language is spoken; while of the other
it is only remembered, and by comparatively a few, that the impression
did exist at the time of his death, that

"A mighty spirit was eclipsed--a power
Had passed from day to darkness, to whose hour
Of light no likeness was bequeathed--no name."

CHAPTER XIX.

"See yonder poor o'er-labour'd wight,
So abject, mean, and vile,
Who begs a brother of the earth
To give him leave to toil;
And see his lordly _fellow-worm_
The poor petition spurn."--BURNS.

Work failed me about the end of June 1828; and, acting on the advice of
a friend who believed that my style of cutting inscriptions could not
fail to secure for me a good many little jobs in the churchyards of
Inverness, I visited that place, and inserted a brief advertisement in
one of the newspapers, soliciting employment. I ventured to characterize
my style of engraving as neat and _correct_; laying especial emphasis on
the correctness, as a quality not very common among the stone-cutters of
the north. It was not a Scot