pulpit yet."

Walter could not help telling all this the same night to his mother,
and added, that he would fain see his poor friend obtain a tutor's
place in some gentleman's family. "Dinna speak to your father about
it," said the good lady; "if it had been _a shoulder_ he might have
thought less, but he will say _the jigot_ was a sin. I'll see what I
can do." Mrs. Scott made her inquiries in her own way among the
Professors, and having satisfied herself as to the young man's
character, applied to her favorite minister, Dr. Erskine, whose
influence soon procured such a situation as had been suggested for
him, in the north of Scotland. "And thenceforth," said Sir Walter, "I
lost sight of my friend--but let us hope he made out his _curriculum_
at Aberdeen, and is now wagging his head where the fine old carle
wished to see him."[84]

[Footnote 84: The reader will find a story not unlike this in
the Introduction to _The Antiquary_, 1830. When I first read
that note, I asked him why he had altered so many
circumstances from the usual oral edition of his anecdote.
"Nay," said he, "both stories may be true, and why should I
be always lugging in myself, when what happened to another of
our class would serve equally well for the purpose I had in
view?" I regretted the _leg of mutton_.]

On the 4th January, 1791, Scott was admitted a member of _The
Speculative Society_, where it had, long before, been the custom of
those about to be called to the Bar, {p.159} and those who after
assuming the gown were left in possession of leisure by the
solicitors, to train or exercise themselves in the arts of elocution
and debate. From time to time each member produces an essay, and his
treatment of his subject is then discussed by the conclave. Scott's
essays were, for November, 1791, On the Origin of the Feudal System;
for the 14th February, 1792, On the Authenticity of Ossian's Poems;
and on the 11th December of the same year, he read one, On the Origin
of the Scandinavian Mythology. The selection of these subjects shows
the course of his private studies and predilections; but he appears,
from the minutes, to have taken his fair share in the ordinary debates
of the Society,--and spoke, in the spring of 1791, on these questions,
which all belong to the established text-book for juvenile speculation
in Edinburgh:--"Ought any permanent support to be provided for the