d to deal. This he
effected partly by reading, but still more by conversation with
special men, and by that extraordinary logical power of mind and
penetration which not only enabled him to get out of every man all he
had in him, but which revealed to those men themselves a knowledge of
their own imperfect and crude conceptions, and made them constantly
unwilling witnesses or reluctant adherents to views which originally
they were prepared to oppose. To test the accuracy of their statements
and observations, and to discriminate between what was fact and what
was prejudice or misconception, he made use of the higher faculty of
cultivated Reason, which enabled him, by his deep insight into the
universal principles of human nature, of forms of government, &c., to
bring to the consideration of particular facts the light of an a
priori knowledge of what was to be expected under particular
circumstances. The result was, that in an incredibly short time, and
with little apparent study or effort, he attained an accurate and
clear conception of the essential facts before him, and was thus
enabled to strike out a course which he could consistently pursue
amidst all difficulties, because it was in harmony with the actual
facts and the permanent conditions of the problem he had to solve.

[Sidenote: Training for public life.]

The years which followed the completion of his academical studies--those
golden years which generally determine the complexion of a man's future
life--were not devoted in his case to any definite pursuit; for though he
entered himself of Lincoln's Inn in June, 1835, he does not appear to have
ever embarked in the professional study of law.

The scanty notices which remain of this period show him chiefly residing
at Broomhall, where, in his father's absence, he takes his place in the
affairs of the county of Fife; commands his troop of yeomanry; now
presides at a farmers' dinner, for which be has written an appropriate
song; now, at the request of Dr. Chalmers, speaks at a public meeting in
favour of church extension. At one time we hear of long solitary rides
over field and fell, during which the thoughts and feelings that stirred
in him would take the shape of a sonnet or a poem, to be confided to one
of his sisters; at another time he is keeping up a regular correspondence
on abstruse questions of philosophy with his brother Freder