d the
Army narrower fields for the younger sons of 'noble' families, they
sometimes wish to enter into trade; but, beside the aversion which had
been instilled into them for many centuries, they had rarely patience
and energy for the apprenticeship requisite to give the needed
knowledge of the world and habits of labor." Of Cobden he said: "He
is inferior in acquirements to very many of his class, as he is
self-educated and had everything to learn after he was grown up;
but in clear insight there is none like him." A man of very little
education, whom I met a day or two after in the stage-coach, observed
to me: "Bright is far the more eloquent of the two, but Cobden is
more felt, just _because_ his speeches are so plain, so merely
matter-of-fact and to the point."

We became acquainted also with Dr. Gregory, Professor of Chemistry
at Edinburgh, a very enlightened and benevolent man, who in many ways
both instructed and benefited us. He is the friend of Liebig, and one
of his chief representatives here.

We also met a fine specimen of the noble, intelligent Scotchwoman,
such as Walter Scott and Burns knew how to prize. Seventy-six years
have passed over her head, only to prove in her the truth of my
theory, that we need never grow old. She was "brought up" in the
animated and intellectual circle of Edinburgh, in youth an apt
disciple, in her prime a bright ornament of that society. She had been
an only child, a cherished wife, an adored mother, unspoiled by love
in any of these relations, because that love was founded on knowledge.
In childhood she had warmly sympathized in the spirit that animated
the American Revolution, and Washington had been her hero; later, the
interest of her husband in every struggle for freedom had cherished
her own; she had known in the course of her long life many eminent
men, knew minutely the history of efforts in that direction, and
sympathized now in the triumph of the people over the Corn Laws, as
she had in the American victories, with as much ardor as when a girl,
though with a wiser mind. Her eye was full of light, her manner and
gesture of dignity; her voice rich, sonorous, and finely modulated;
her tide of talk marked by candor, justice, and showing in every
sentence her ripe experience and her noble, genial nature. Dear to
memory will be the sight of her in the beautiful seclusion of her home
among the mountains, a picturesque, flower-wreathed dwelling, where
affection, tranquill