by
so respectable a person composed a society more sedate and orderly than a
military mess always exhibits; and that Waverley escaped some temptations
to which he might otherwise have been exposed.

Meanwhile his military education proceeded. Already a good horseman, he
was now initiated into the arts of the manege, which, when carried to
perfection, almost realise the fable of the Centaur, the guidance of the
horse appearing to proceed from the rider's mere volition, rather than
from the use of any external and apparent signal of motion. He received
also instructions in his field duty; but I must own, that when his first
ardour was past, his progress fell short in the latter particular of what
he wished and expected. The duty of an officer, the most imposing of all
others to the inexperienced mind, because accompanied with so much
outward pomp and circumstance, is in its essence a very dry and abstract
task, depending chiefly upon arithmetical combinations, requiring much
attention, and a cool and reasoning head to bring them into action. Our
hero was liable to fits of absence, in which his blunders excited some
mirth, and called down some reproof. This circumstance impressed him with
a painful sense of inferiority in those qualities which appeared most to
deserve and obtain regard in his new profession. He asked himself in
vain, why his eye could not judge of distance or space so well as those
of his companions; why his head was not always successful in
disentangling the various partial movements necessary to execute a
particular evolution; and why his memory, so alert upon most occasions,
did not correctly retain technical phrases and minute points of etiquette
or field discipline. Waverley was naturally modest, and therefore did not
fall into the egregious mistake of supposing such minuter rules of
military duty beneath his notice, or conceiting himself to be born a
general, because he made an indifferent subaltern. The truth was, that
the vague and unsatisfactory course of reading which he had pursued,
working upon a temper naturally retired and abstracted, had given him
that wavering and unsettled habit of mind which is most averse to study
and riveted attention. Time, in the mean while, hung heavy on his hands.
The gentry of the neighbourhood were disaffected, and showed little
hospitality to the military guests; and the people of the town, chiefly
engaged in mercantile pursuits, were not such as Waverley chose to