CHAPTER IV

KIRKCALDY.

"THE lang town of Kirkcaldy" extends along the northern side of the Firth of Forth, and is one of the most important of that long line of little towns —fishing, weaving, trading centres of local activity-which gleam along the margin of Fife, and help to make an abrupt but important edge to the golden fertile fringe which, according to a pretty, antique description, adorns the " russet mantle" of that characteristic county. These little towns extend in a scattered, broken line downward from Queensferry, till the coast rounds off into St. Andrew's Bay, and are full of a busy yet leisurely industry, sometimes quickened almost into the restless pulse of trade. Kirkcaldy earned its title ofthe " lang town" from the prolonged line of its single street, running parallel to the shore for rather more than a mile, and at that time had not widened into proportionate breadth, nor invested itself with tiny suburbs and the body of scattered population which now gives it importance. In the year 1812 there was no school in this flourishing and comfortable place except the parish school, with its confusion of ranks. and profound Republicanism of letters, where boys and girls of all classes were rudely drilled into the common elements of education, with such climaxes of Latin and mathematics as were practicable. The professional people of Kirkcaldy, headed by the minister, who had himself a large family of children to educate, and the well-to-do shopkeepers and householders of the place, determined, accordingly, upon the establishment of a new school of higher pretensions, and Edward Irving was selected as its first master. Two rooms in a central "wynd," opening into each other, with a tiny class-room attached-now occupied by a humble schoolmaster, who points to his wormeaten oaken desks as being those used by " the great Mr. Irving" -were simply fitted up into the new academy. Without any accessories to command respect, in a humble locality, with a cobbler's hutch in the sunk story beneath, and common houses crowding round, the new institution, notwithstanding, impressed respect upon the town, and soon became important. Boys and girls, as was usual, sat together at those brown oaken desks without the least separation, and pursued their studies together with mutual rivalry. For some time Irving managed them alone, but afterward had an assistant, and in this employment remained for seven years, and had the training of a generation in his hands. The recollection of him is still fresh in the town —his picturesque looks, his odd ways, his severities, his kindnesses, the distinct individuality of the man. Here that title which afterward was to be the popular designation of a religious community came into playful use, long and innocently antedating its more permanent meaning, and the academy scholars distinguished each other as "Irvingites"-a special and affectionate bond of fraternity.:He was now twenty, and had attained his full height, which some say was two, and some four inches over six feet; his appearance was noble and remarkable to a high degree; his features fine; his figure, in its great height, fully developed and vigorous; the only drawback to his good looks being the defect in his eye, which, with so many and great advantages to counterbalance it, seems rather to have given piquancy'to his face than to have lessened its attraction. Such a figure attracted universal attention: he could not pass through a village without being remarked and gazed after; and some of his Kirkealdy pupils remember the moment when they first saw him, with the clearness which marks, not an ordinary meeting, but an event. This recollection is perhaps assisted by the fact that, though a divinity student, already overshadowed by the needful gravity of the priesthood, and in present possession of all the importance of a "dominie," he had no such solemn regard to dress as afterward became one of his peculiarities, but made his appearance in Kirkealdy in a mornin gcoat made of some set of tartan in which red predominated, to the admiration of all beholders. A young man of twenty, with the full charge of a large number of boys and girls in a limited space, and undertaking all the items of a miscellaneous education, no doubt needed the assistance of a somewhat rigorous discipline, and it is evident that he used its help with much freedom. Sounds were heard now and then proceeding from the schoolroom which roused the pity and indignation of the audience of neighbors out of doors. One of these, a joiner, deacon of his trade, and a man of great strength, is reported to have appeared one day, with his shirt-sleeves rolled up to his elbows and an axe on his shoulder, at the door of the schoolroom, asking, "Do ye want a hand* the day, Mr. Irving?" with dreadful irony. Another ludicrous mistake testifies to the general notion that careless scholars occasionally got somewhat hard measure from the young master. Some good men loitering about their gardens in the neighborhood of the "Academy" heard outcries which alarmed them; and, convinced that murder was being'accomplished in the school, set off to save the victim; but discovered, to their great discomfiture, that the cries which had attracted their sympathy came from an unfortunate animal under the hands of a butcher, and not from a tortured schoolboy. These severe measures, however, by no means obliterate the pleasanter recollection with which Irving's pupils recall his reign at the Academy. It was not in his nature to work among even a set of schoolboys without identifying himself with-them, and carrying them with Uhim into all the occupations and amusements which they could possibly be made to bear a share in. On: the holidays the young teacher might be seen, with-both boys and girls in his train, issuing forth to the fields with such scientific instruments as he could command, giving them lessons in mensuration and surveying, which, half in sport and half in earnest, doubtless, were, not without their use to the fortunate lads thus promoted to share his hours of leisure. The same lads went with him to the firth, where he renewed those feats of swimming which had distinguished him on the Solway; and, sometimes with an urchin on his shoulder, sometimes holding an oar or rope to sustain the more advanced, sometimes lending the aid of his own vigorous arm, the young Hercules taught, or endeavored to teach, his pupils to be as fearless in the water as himself. If he might sometimes happen to be discontented with his occupation, as was very possible, it never occurred to Irving to evidence that feeling by doing just as * Anglic —assistance, a helper. little as could be demanded of him. Exactly the reverse was the impulse of his generous, single-minded nature. He went into it with all the fresh, natural fullness of his heart. He never seems to have attempted making any division of himself. And this is no picture of an interesting student compelled to turn aside from his studies by the necessity of maintaining himself-and if not resentful, at least preserving a certain reserve and pathetical injured aspect toward the world, as there are so many; but an entire individual man, full of the highest ambition, yet knowing no possibility of any other course of conduct than that of doing what his hand found to do with all his heart, as freely as if he had loved the work for its own sake. With such a disposition, he could not even enter into any work without insensibly getting to love it, and spending himself freely, with exuberant volunteer efforts not demanded of him. Under no circumstances was indifference possible to this young man; though, even then, it is very apparent, prophetic visions of a very different audience, and of future possibilities which no one else dreamt of, were with him in the midst of. his hearty and cordial labors. Thus for a circle of years his remarkable figure pervades that little town; seen every day upon the shore, pacing up and down the yellow sands with books and meditations -the great firth rolling in at his feet in waves more grand and less impetuous than those of his native Solway; with green islands gleaming in the light, and Arthur's Seat looming out through the Edinburgh smoke in the distance, a moody lion; and many a moonlight night upon the same shore, collecting round him his little band of eager disciples, to point out the stars in their courses, and communicate such poetical elements of astronomy as were congenial to such a scene. These latter meetings were disturbed and brought to a conclusion in a whimsical homely fashion. One season it happened that, on two different occasions when they met, falling stars were seen. Forthwith some of the common people took up the notion that Irving drew down the stars, or at least knew when they were to fall. They accordingly watched for him and his pupils, and pushing in among them with ignorant, half-superstitious curiosity, broke up the little conclave. A curious incident, fn which a fanciful observer might see some dim, mystic anticipations of a future not yet revealed even to its hero. Indoors, in his own domain, as the different classes went on with their lessons, he moved about in perpetual activity, seldom sitting down, and always fully intent upon the progress of his flock. Now and then he gave them a holiday, on condition of receiving afterward an essay describing how they had spent their time-receiving in return some amusing productions largely taken up with bird's-nesting and other such exploits of rustic boyhood. Both French and Italian, in addition to the steadier routine of Latin and mathematics, seem to have been attempted by the ardent young teacher; and his own class read Milton with him, learning large portions of Paradise Lost by heart. "Wherever the sense seemed involved, the pupils were required to rearrange the sentence and give it in prose. This implied a thorough understanding of the passage and appreciation of its meaning"-altogether a system of education of a lofty Optimist character, quite as rare and unusual in the present day as at that time. It is said that one of his older pupils came on one occasion to this same Milton Class before the arrival of her companions, and, on reaching the door of the classroom, found Irving alone, reciting to himself one of the speeches of Satan, with so much emphasis and so gloomy a countenance, that the terrified girl, unable to conceal her fright, fled precipitately. Some of his pupils-and among these one or two girls-came to high proficiency in the mathematical studies, which were specially dear to their young instructor; and-much apart from mathematics-Irving so managed to impress his spirit upon the lads under his charge, that the common conjunction of boys and girls in this school became the means of raising a certain chivalrous spirit, not naturally abounding among schoolboys, in Kirkcaldy and its academy. That spirit of chivalry which, under the form of respect to women, embodies the truest magnanimous sentiment of strength, rose involuntarily among the youths commanded by such a leader. They learned to suspend their very snowball bickers till the girls had passed out of harm's way; and, awing the less fortunate gamins of the little town by their sturdy championship, made the name of " an Academy lassie" a defense against all annoyance. The merest snowball directed against the sacred person of one of these budding women was avenged by the generous zeal of the "Irvingites." The girls, perhaps, on their side were not equally considerate, but won prizes over the heads of their stronger associates with no compunction, and took their full share of the labors, though scarcely of the penalties of the school. Amusing anecdotes of the friendship existing between the teacher and his pupils are told on all sides: his patience and "consideration in childish disasters, and prompt activity when accidents occurred; and even his readiness to be joked with when times were propitious. It was necessary to secure beforehand, however, that times were propitious. On one such sunshiny occasion some of the boys propounded the old stock riddle about the seven wives with their stock of cats and kits "whom I met going to St. Ives," and the whole school looked on, convulsed with secret titterings, while their simple-minded master went on jotting down upon his blackboard in visible figures the repeated sevens of that tricky composition. Their floggings do not seem to have much damped the spirit of the Kirkealdy boys, or diminished their confidence in their teacher. During the early part of Irving's residence in Kirkealdy he was still a partial student at the Divinity Hall. During the first three winters he had to go over to Edinburgh now and then, to deliver the discourses which were necessary, in order to keep up his standing as a student. "On these occasions," says the lady from whose notes the chief details of his Kirkealdy history are taken, "to insure his pupils losing as little as possible, he used to ask them to meet him at the school at six or half past six in the morning. This arrangement enabled him to go over the most important of the lessons before the hour at which the fly started to meet the passage-boat at Kinghorn," that being, before the age of steamers, the most rapid conveyance between Fife and Edinburgh. On his return from one such expedition, he himself describes how, " in fear of a tedious passage across the ferry under night, I requested from a friend of mine in Edinburgh a book, which, by combining instruction with amusement, might at once turn to account the time and relieve the tiresomeness of the voyage." The book was Rasselas; and was afterward sent, with an amusingly elaborate, schoolmaster note, to two young ladies, whom the young teacher (who afterward made one of them his wife) addressed as" My much respected pupils." The friend who lent the book desired it to be given as a prize to the best scholar in the school, and, having been present at the examination, distinguished these two, without being able to decide between them, but at the same time deprecated any mention of himself on account of the trifling value of his gift. Whereupon Irving adds, with quaint antique solemnity, that "it was not the worth, but the honor which should be regarded: that the conquerors of Greece and Rome reckoned themselves more honored by the laurel crown than if they had enjoyed the splendid pomp of the noblest triumph;" and concludes by sending the book to both, so that "by making the present mutual, it will not only be a testimonial of your progress, but also of that attachment which I hope will ripen into cordial friendship, and which it is the more pleasant to observe, as its place is too often occupied by jealousy and envy. He was not always, however, so exemplary in his letter-writing. Only next spring, a year after, one of the ladies to whom, in conjunction with her companion, the above faultless sentiments were inscribed, seems to have ceased to be Irving's "much respected pupil." The hyperbolical fiend which talks of nothing but ladies, seems in full possession of the young man in the next glimpse we obtain of him, which is contained in a letter to his friend Mr. Story, who had apparently met with some temporary obstruction in his career, and whom Irving felt himself called upon to console. Hie fulfills this friendly office in the following fashion, beginning with sundry philosophical, but far from original arguments against despondency: " But all these having doubtless occurred to yourself, I proceed to operate upon your feelings by the much-approved method of awakening your sympathy to the much keener sufferings of your humble servant and correspondent. You must, then, understand, that in this town or neighborhood dwells a fair damsel, whose claims to esteem I am prepared, at the point of my pen, to vindicate against all deadly. Were I to enter into an enumeration of those charms which challenge the world, I might find the low, equal, and unrhyming lines of prose too feeble a vehicle to support my flights.... I got to know that this peerless one was prevented from making a promised visit into the country by a stormy Saturday. I took the earliest opportunity on the next lawful* day of waiting on her, and hinting, when mamma's ear was engaged, that I had Vb\siness at the same village some of these evenings, and would be most ineffably blessed to be her protector home, if not also abroad: would she consent? I might ask her mother. In this most disagreeable of all tasks I succeededbetter than I expected. But, alas! after I thought every thing was in a fair way for yielding me a half-houtr's enjoyment, I was not till then informed that another was to be of the party. This was a terrible obstacle, and how to get the better of it I could not divine.... I could do nothing the whole afternoon but think how happy I might be in the evening. Left home about seven o'clock, so as to call on a friend and be ready at eight, the appointed hour.'Twas a most lovely, still evening; just such as you could have chosen from the whole year for the sighs, protestations, invocations, etc., of lovers. I called on my friend and tried to gethim along with me, in order that * A common Scotch expression for week-days, excluding the Sunday; public conveyanees used to be advertised as plying "on all lawful days."I might throw on his charge the intruder, if she should happen to be there. It would not do, and I was forced to go alone, resolving to make the best of a bad business should I be so unfortunate. What, think you, was my disappointment-what imagination can figurewhat language describe my torment when I found she was gone some time ago? What could I do? The sea was at hand, but then the tide was not full; there were rocks at hand, but they were scarcely elevated enough for a lover's leap. I took my solitary, gloomy way down by the dark shore. I lingered long beneath the gloom of a ruined castle that overhangs the billow. I listened to the dash of the waves, and cast my melancholy eye to the solitary beacon gleaming from afar. I fancied, fantastically enough, that it was an image of myself separated and driven to a distance from what in the world I valued. At last, however, my tardy feet, after scrambling on many a ledgy rock, and splashing in many a pool, brought me to the haunts of menl..... where there were few stirring to disturb the repose of my silent thoughts; I stole home, and endeavored to find oblivion of my cares in the arms of sleep..... Since that time the unfortunate subject of the above tragic incident has consigned every serious study to neglect." This whimsical effusion concludes with a significant note: " Have you got introduced to Miss P. or Miss D. yet? If you be, present my kind compliments. But at your peril mention a word of the lady to whom I have referred as honoring this part of the world with her presence!" Out of the serio-comic levity of this beginning, however, sprang important conclusions. Though it was only after a distance of long years and much separation, the usual vicissitudes of youthful life, and all the lingering delays of a classical probation, that the engagement was completed, Irving found his mate in Fifeshire. Not long after she had ceased to be his pupil he became engaged to Isabella Martin, the eldest daughter of the parish minister of Kirkcaldy. She was of a clerical race, an hereditary "daughter of the Manse," according to the affectionate popular designation, and of a name already in some degree known to fame in the person of Dr. Martin, of Monimail, her grandfather, who survived long enough to baptize and bless his great-grandchildren-who had some local poetical reputation in his day, and whom the grateful painter, entitled in Scotland "our immortal Wilkie," has commemorated as having helped his early struggles into fame by the valuable gift of two lay figures; and of David Martin, his brother, first proprietor of the said lay figures, whose admirable portraits are well known. Her father, the Rev. John Martin, was an admirable type of the class to which he belonged-an irreproachable parish priest, of respectable learning, and talents, and deep piety, living a domestic patriarchal life in the midst of the little community under his charge, fully subject to their observation and criticism, but without any rival in his position or influence; bringing up his many children among them, and spending his active days in all that fatherly close supervision of morals and manners which distinguished and became the old hereditary ministers of Scotland. HEe vws of the party then called "wild" or "highflyers," in opposition to the "Moderates," who formed the majority of the Church, and whose flight was certainly low enough to put them in little hazard from any skyey influences. Such a man in those days exercised over the bulk of his people an influence which, perhaps, no man in any position exercises now, and in which the special regard of the really religious portion of his flock only put a more fervent climax upon the traditionary respect of the universal people, always ready, when he was worthy of it, to yield to the traditionary sway of the minister, though equally ready to jeer at and scorn him when he was not, with a contempt increased by their national appreciation of the importance of his office. To the house of this good man Irving had early obtained access, the Manse children in a goodly number being among his scholars, and the Manse itself forming the natural centre of all stray professors of literature in a region which had too many sloops and looms on hand to be greatly attracted that way. The family in this Manse of Kirkcaldy, which afterward became so closely related to him, and the younger members of which understood him all the better that their minds had been formed and developed under his instruction, were, during all his after life, Irving's fast friends, accompanying him, not with concurrence or agreement certainly, but with faithful affection and kindness to the very edge of the grave. Irving himself, in one of his somewhat formal early letters, gives us a pleasant, if slightly elaborate glimpse of this domestic circle. He is writing to one of its absent daughters, and apologizing "for not having expressed sooner the higher regard which I have for you." " But," he proceeds, "I sometimes find for myself an excuse in thinking that almost the whole of that leisure of which you were so well entitled to a share has been engrossed in that family circle of which you were wont to form a part, and with which your warmest sympathies will for a long time, perhaps forever, dwell. They are well, and living in that harmony and happiness which Providence, as it must approve, will not, I pray, soon disturb. Your brothers and sisters, as formerly, have gone on securing the esteem of their teachers, delighting the hearts of your worthy parents with placid joy, and laying up for themselves a fund of useful knowledge, of warm and virtuous feelings, and of pleasing recollections, which will go far to smooth for them the rugged features of life. God grant that they and you may continue to merit all the good that I for one do wish you, and that you may receive all that you merit. By me it shall ever be esteemed among the most fortunate events of my life to have been brought to the acquaintance of your father and his family, and I trust that the intimacy which they hale honored me with shall one day ripen into a closer connection." Then follow some counsels to the young lady on her studies (particularly recommending the acquirement of "a correct English accent and pronunciation"), which must have been of rather an ambitious kind. "Last night we had a talk at the Manse over a clause in your last letter about your Greek pursuits; and we have arranged to send you by the first opportunity a copy of Moor's Grammar and Dunbar's Exercises, which, with the Greek Testament, will withstand your most diligent efforts for at least one year. You are not far from Cambridge; you ought to possess yourself of a complete set of the Cambridge course (Wood and Vine's), and study them regularly; at the same time, be cautious of losing, in the superior convenience and readiness of the analytical or algebraical method, the simple and elegant spirit of the ancient Geometry, to which Leslie's elements, especially the Analysis, is so good an introduction. I would like to have a correspondence with you on scientific subjects.. The news of the burgh I intrust to those who know them better. The people wear the same faces as when you left, and their manners seem nearly as stationary. I leave the remainder of my paper to Isabel. I can not claim, but do hope for a letter soon. When it comes, it shall be to me like a holiday." The lady addressed in this strain of old-fashioned regard and kindness was one with whom, in after life, he had much intercourse, and who was not only a sister, but a friend capable of appreciating his character. Years after, he expresses, with a certain naive frankness quite his own, his hopes that a dear friend about to return to Scotland, and whom he had earnestly advised to marry, should be "directed by the Lord to one of those sisters who are in my mind always represented as one." Irving's prayer was granted. The warm-hearted and admirable William Hamilton,+ the friend of his choice and faithful counselor to the end, * William Hamilton, a merchant in Cheapside, and, like Irving, a native of Dumfriesshire, was one of the early office-bearers in the Caledonian Chapel, Hatton Garden; a man who, in the inglorious but profitable toils of business, concealed from the world an amount of practical sagacity, unpurchasable, unacquirable endowment, which might have honored a higher place, and whose warm heart and benign man became his brother-in-law; and to the sister thus brought into his immediate neighborhood some of his most touching confidences were afterward addressed. He had now completed his necessary tale of collegiate sessions, having been, in the partial and irregular way necessitated by his other occupations, in attendance at the Divinity Hall for six long winters. He was now subjected to the'" trials for license" which Presbyterian precautions require. "They are now taken to severest trials by the Presbytery of the Church in those bounds where they reside," he himself describes with loving boastfulness, proud of the severities of the Church from which he never could separate his heart, "and circular letters are sent to all the presbyters in that district, in order that objections may be taken against him who would have the honor, and take upon himself the trust of preaching Christ. If no objections are offered, they proceed to make trial of his attainments, in all things necessary for the ministry-his knowledge, his piety, his learning, and his character. They prescribe to him five several discourses; one an' Ecce Jesum,' in Latin, to discover his knowledge in that language; another an exercise in Greek criticism, to discover his knowledge in sacred literature; another a homily; another a discourse to the clergy, to know his gifts in expounding the Scriptures; another a sermon, to know his gifts in preaching to the people. These trials last half a year; and, being found sufficient, he is permitted to preach the Gospel among the churches. But he is not yet ordained, for our Church ordaineth no man without a flock." It is thus that Irving, when at the height of his fame, and opening the great new church built for him in London, affectionately vaunts the carefulness of his ecclesiastical mother. He went through his "trials" in the early part of the year 1815, and was fully licensed to preach the Gospel by the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy in the June of that year; and " exercised his gift," according to the old Scotch expression, thereafter in Kirkcaldy and other places with no great amount of popular appreciation. A humorous description of his first sermon preached in Annan is ners are remembered by many in his own sphere, where no man possessed a more entire popularity. IMe had a share in originating the "call" from the scanty Scotch congregation, all unaware of what that call of theirs was to bring about, who brought Irving to London; was his close and affectionate coadjutor for many years; and, not being able at last to follow so far as his beloved friend would have led him, stood silently and sorrowfully by to witness that disruption and separation which he could not avert. "given by an early friend. The "haill town," profoundly critical and much interested, turned out to hear him; even his ancient teachers, with solemn brows, came out to sit in judgment on Edward's sermon. A certain excitement of interest, unusual to that' humdrum atmosphere, thrilled through the building. When the sermon was in full current, some incautious movement of the young preacher tilted aside the great Bible, and the sermon itself, that direful "paper" which Scotch congregations hold in high despite, dropped out bodily, and fluttered down upon the precentor's desk underneath. A perfect rustle of excitement ran through the church. Here was an unhoped-for crisis! What would the neophyte do now? The young preacher calmly stooped his great figure over the pulpit, grasped the manuscript as it lay, broadways, crushed it up in his great hand, thrust it into a pocket, and went on as fluently as before. There does not exist a congregation in Scotland which that act would not have taken by storm. His success was triumphant. To criticise a man so visibly independent of "the paper" would have been presump-. tion indeed. In Kirkcaldy, however, his appearances neither excited such interest, nor were attended by any such fortunate accidents. The people listened doubtfully to those thunder-strains which echoed over their heads, and which were certainly not like Dr. Martin's sermons. They could not tell what to make of discourses so strangely different from the discourses of other orthodox young probationers, and doubtless the style was still unformed, and had not yet attained that rhythm and music which would not have passed unnoticed even in Kirkcaldy; yet the common complaint alleged against it was perfectly characteristic. "He had ower muckle gran'ner," the good people said, with disturbed looks. Too much grandeur! most true, but most singular of criticisms! A certain baker, Beveridge by name (let us hand it down to such immortality as can be conferred by this record), rudely, with Scotch irreverence for the place in which he was, kicked his pewdoor open and bounced forth out of the church when the lofty head of the young schoolmaster was seen in the pulpit;,,and the same church, which a few years after was disastrously crowded with hearers coming far and near at the name of the great preacher, thinned out of its ordinary attendance in those early days when he was to supply Dr. Martin's placed He got no credit and little encouragement in what was, after allf his real vocation. The fervent beginnings of his eloquence were thrown back cold upon his heart; no eye in his audience making response to that imperfect splendid voice of half-developed genius, which was so wonderfully distinct from the commonplace shrills of ordinary pulpit deramation which they listened to and relished. He had "ower muckle gran'ner" for the good people of Kirkcaldy. His chaotic splendors disconcerted them; and no doubt there was a certain justice in the general voice. A style so rich and splendid might very well have sounded turgid or bombastic in youth, before the harmonious key-note had been found. He lingered three years after his license as a preacher in his schoolmaster's desk-silent, listening to other preachers, not always with much edification-noting how the people to whom his own "unacceptableness" was apparent relished the platitudes of meaner men; laying in unconsciously a certain scorn and intolerance of those limited pretenders to wisdom, whose sham or borrowed coin had fuller currency than his own virgin gold; and as he sat in a position from which he could at once watch the pulpit and the audience, with thoughts on this momentous and often-discussed subject taking gradual form in his mind, he asked himself the reasons of his own apparent failure. He asked himself a still deeper question, whether this was the preaching of Paul and his brother apostles? This process of thought is apparent throughout all his works, and above all in the Orations with which he first burst upon the world. Those three years of slow successive Sundays, now and then interrupted by an occasional appearance in the pulpit hailed by no gracious looks, gave the silent listener, whose vocation it was to preach, deep insight into, and deeper impatience of, the common conventionalities of the pulpit. He found out how little the sermons he heard touched his case: to his own mind he represented himself, all glowing with genius and eagerness, as a representative of the educated hearer, and chafed, as many a man has chafed since, over the dead platitudes which were only a weariness. It is probable that this compulsory pause, irksome as it may have been, was of the profoundest importance both to Irving and to his future eloquence. It delivered him entirely from the snare of self-admiration, so far as his pulpit efforts were concerned, and concentrated his powers on the perfection of his style and utterance; while it gave at once to his Christian zeal and human ambition the sharpest of all spurs-the keen stimulus of seeing other men do that work badly or slothfully which he felt it was in him to do well. The peculiar position of a Scotch probationer, on the very threshold of the Church, but not within it; a preacher, but still only a layman, with the title of reverend sometimes accorded to him by courtesy, but entirely without ecclesiastical position, gave him all the greater facility for forring a judgment upon the inadequacies of the ordinary pulpit. Such speculations were not common in those days. People who acknowledged the influence of the Church considered themselves bound, for reasons both religious and political, to maintain it in all points, and suffer no assault; while those who did not held it in entire contempt as an unimprovable institution. The Kirkcaldy probationer belonged to neither of these classes. HIe saw with an ideal eye, which went as yet far beyond his powers of execution, what that pulpit could do and ought to do. He was by far too bold and candid, and too thoroughly assured of the truth he held to be afraid of attracting notice to its imperfections; on the contrary, it chafed his very soul to permit it to be supposed that religion and religious teaching were for the vulgar only, and that what satisfied baker Beveridge was to be considered sufficient for the world; and while he was silent his heart burned. With a temperament such as his, loving love and approbation, as it was natural for him to do, and believing in the sincerity of all men, no other discipline could have been half so effective. He learned, if not to distrust himself, at least to admit, with a certain sorrowful but candid astonishment, that the world in general did not take a lofty view of his qualifications; and he passed over it, weighing that and its causes in his heart with manful humility and surprise-meaning to be at the bottom of this ere all was done; feeling in his heart that it was only for a time. During this period of his life, his personal religious sentiments are not very apparent, nor is there any record, so far as I have been able to ascertain, of such a critical moment in his life as those which have formed the turning-point of so many minds. He was spotless in morals and manners at all times, but not without faults of temper; and was specially distinguished by a certain cheerful, cordial pugnacity, and readiness, when occasion called for it, to adopt a boldly offensive line of tactics in support of his own dignity and independence, or those of his class; partly stimulated thereto, doubtless, by the great personal strength which could no more consent to remain inactive than any other of his gifts. In one of his many walking excursions, for example, he and his comnpanion came to a little roadside inn, where there was but one sitting-room, of a very homely description. The young men left their coats and knapsacks in this room, ordered dinner, and went out to investigate the neighborhood while it was getting ready. On their return, however, they found the room occupied by a party of tourists, the only table filled, their dinner forestalled, and their belongings huddled into a corner. Remonstrances were unavailing; the intruders not only insisted that they had a right to retain possession of the room, but resisted the entrance of the hungry and tired pedestrians, and would neither share the table nor the apartment. When fair means were no longer practicable, Irving pushed forward to the window, and threw it wide open; then, turning toward the company, all ready for action, gravely addressed his comrade: " Will you toss out or knock down?" a business-like inquiry, which, according to the story, changed with great rapidity the aspect of affairs. Other anecdotes not unsimilar might be quoted. "In the year 1816," says Dr. Grierson, "the 42d Regiment, having returned after Waterloo, was employed to line the streets of Edinburgh on the day when, at the opening of the General Assembly, the Royal Commissioner proceeded in state from the reception hall in Hunter Square to St. Giles's. Standing in front of the Grenadier Company, Irving said to me, pointing to the tallest man among them,' IDo you see that fellow? I should like to meet him in a dark entry.''For what reason?' I inquired.'Just,' said he,' that I might find out what amount of drubbing I could bear!'" The meeting of Assembly here referred to was enlivened by a momentary specimen of the young man's muscular power. It is impossible, out of Scotland, to form any idea of what was then the interest excited by the General Assembly, which had been for centuries the national Parliament of exclusive Scottish principles and feelings. The late Lord Cockburn in his Memorials, as well as in his life of Lord Jeffrey, has reproduced, in slight but graphic sketches, the characteristic aspect of that unique ecclesiastical body. Scotch churchmen may naturally enough object to the friendly but not reverential description of the brilliant lawyer; but it is almost the only popular picture of the most national of all Scotch institutions which can be referred to. Matters are altered nowadays;i the unity is broken; and, however interesting the annual meetings of the Scotch churches may be, there are now two of them, both of which are incomplete, and neither ofwhich has a full title to be called national. At the period of which we are now speaking there was scarcely any dissent in the country; the body of the nation held tenaciously by the Kirk, laymen of the highest class shared in its deliberations, and the most distinguished lawyers of the Scotch bar pleaded in its judicial courts. A great discussion in the Assembly was as interesting to Edinburgh as a great debate in Parliament would be in London to-day; and the interest, and even excitement, which attended this yearly convocation, had taken a stimulus from the growing stir ofexternal life, and from the still more important growth of existence within. The time was critical for every existing institution. The Church, long dormant, was, like other organizations, beginning to thrill with a new force, against which all the slumbrous past arrayed itself; and the Scotch metropolis was stirred with universal emotion to see the new act of that world-long drama which is renewed from age to age in every church and country; that struggle in which, once in a century at least, indifference and common usage are brought to bay by the new life rising against them, and, roused at last, fight for their sluggish existence with such powers as they are able to muster. At such a moment occurred the famous "Debate on the Pluralities," which holds an important place in the modern history of the Scotch Church-a debate in which " Chalmers of Kilmany," not long before zealously ambitious to hold such pluralities in his own person, but who had since gone through that mysterious and wonderful change in his views, which, when clearly honest and undoubted, no human audience can refuse to be interested in, was to lead the attack. The pluralities in question were such as might awaken the smiles of the richer establishment on the other side of the Tweed, where the word bears a more important meaning. The widest extent of pluralities possible to a Scotch clergyman was that of holding a professor's chair in conjunction with his pulpit and parochial duties. This question, which at the time, from the parties and principle involved, interested every body, had naturally a double interest for the future ministers of the Church. The probationers and students of divinity were eager to gain admittance. The Assembly sat in a portion of St. Giles's known by the name of the Old Assembly Aisle, one of the quaint subdivisions into which that church, like Glasgow Cathedral in former days, has been partitioned for congregational use and convenience and where the narrow pews and deep steep galleries, thrust in between the lofty pillars, are as much out of keeping with those pillars themselves as is the whitewashed blank of wall, despoiled of its tombs and altars, under the calm height of the vault above. "The Old Assembly Aisle," says the gentleman already quoted, "afforded but very limited accommodation, and the students' gallery was understood to be occupied by some persons not of their body. At this Irving felt great indignation. He remonstrated with the doorkeeper, but in vain; he demanded entrance for himself and others who were excluded; and when no attention was, or perhaps could be, paid by that official, he put his shoulder to the narrow door, and, applying his Ierculean strength to it, fairly wrenched it off its hinges! The crash interrupted the proceedings of the court, and produced both surprise and diversion, but no redress of grievances." A somewhat unscrupulous mode of entering a church, it must be allowed. Such incidents as these-and they might easily be multiplied-display, in perhaps its least objectionable form, that of downright personal force and resistance, the national characteristic intolerance of circumstances, and determination to subdue all outside obstacles to its will, which shows so strongly in the youthful development of Scotchmen; a quality little recognized, but most influential, and which has largely affected the recent history of the Scotch Church. Nobody can read the life of Chalmers, manful and often splendid as that life is, without a perception of this determined willfulness, and disinclination to yield to circum-stances. If the same tendency is not so apparent in the Jeffreys, Cockburns, and Tytlers of another class, it is probably because the somewhat higher social sphere of the latter had tempered the sharpness of their nationality. Irving's personal strength and relish for its exercise threw into amusing outward exhibitions of force a quality which, though always picturesque and characteristic, is not always amiable. As the time of his probation lengthened out, it is probable that Irving, with all his inclinations rising toward the profession which the Church had now solemnly sanctioned his choice of, and pronounced him capable for, became very weary of his schoolmaster life. Another school, in opposition to his, was set up in the town, not apparently from any distaste toward him, but from the advancing desire for liberal education which his own long apprenticeship in Kirkcaldy must have fostered; a school which-singular luck for the little Fife sea-port-secured the early services of Thomas Carlyle. -Changes, too, and attempts at widening out his limited possibilities, appear in his own life. To increase the profits of his post-which, however, of themselves appear to have been considerable, as such matters go-Irving made an attempt to receive private pupils, who were to attend his school and live under his own charge. For this purpose he took up his abode in the Abbotshall school-house, at one extremity of the town of Kirkcaldy, but -in another parish, the parish schoolmaster of which was, like himself, a candidate for the Church. The house was the upper flat of the building occupied as a school, and was more commodious than the majority of schoolmasters' houses. A nobler Marina could not be than the broad terrace overlooking the firth, but totally unappropriated to any uses of fashion or visitors, upon which stands the school-house of Abbotshall, beholding from its range of windows a wide landscape, always interesting, and often splendid, the firth with all its islands, the distant spires and heights of Edinburgh, and the green Lothian coast with its bays and hills. Whether the- pupils were slow to come, or the conjoint household did not answer, or Irving himself tired of the experiment, does not appear; but it was soon given up, and does not seem to have had any success. " Ay, Mr. Irving once lived here —he was a great mathematician," says the present incumbent, complacent among his gooseberry bushes; spoken in that sunny garden, such words throw back and set aside the years which ~have made little change on any thing but man. One forgets how his sun rose to noon, and at noon, disastrously went down, carrying with it a world of hopes; a mist of distance conceals the brilliant interval between this homely house and the Glasgow Cathedral crypt. Here, where once he lived, it is not the great preacher, the prophet, and wonder of an age, whose shadow lingers on the kindly soil. He was master of Kirkealdy Academy in those days. He was "a great mathematician;" the glory of an after career, foreign to the schoolroom, has not rubbed out that impression from the mind of his humble successor on the spot where as yet he had no other fame.