506
Admission to these lectures was easy from the libe-
rality of the professors, who throw their classes
gratuitously open to young men educated for the
church, a privilege of which Leyden availed himself
to the utmost extent. There were indeed few
branches of study in which he did not make some
progress. Besides the learned languages, he ac-
quired French, Spanish, Italian, and German, was
familiar with the ancient Icelandic, and studied
Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian.
But though he soon became particularly distin-
guished by his talents as a linguist, few departments
of science altogether escaped his notice. He in-
vestigated moral philosophy with the ardour common
to all youths of talent who studied ethics under the
auspices of Professor Dugald Stewart, with whose
personal notice he was honoured. He became a
respectable mathematician, and was at least super-
ficially acquainted with natural philosophy, natural
history, chemistry, botany, and mineralogy. These
various sciences he acquired in different degrees, and
at different times, during his residence at college.
They were the fruit of no very regular plan of study:
whatever subject interested his mind at the time
attracted his principal attention till time and in-
dustry had overcome the difficulties which it pre-
sented, and was then exchanged for another pursuit.
It seemed frequently to be Leyden's object to learn
just so much of a particular science as should enable
him to resume it at any future period; and to those
who objected to the miscellaneous, or occasionally
the superficial, nature of his studies, he used to answer
with his favourite interjection, "Dash it, man, never
mind: if you have the scaffolding ready, you can run
up the masonry when you please." But this mode
of study, however successful with John Leyden,
cannot be safely recommended to a student of less
retentive memory and robust application. With
him, however, at least while he remained in Britain,
it seemed a matter of little consequence for what
length of time he resigned any particular branch of
study; for when either some motive or mere caprice
induced him to resume it, he could with little diffi-
culty reunite all the broken associations, and begin
where he left off months or years before, without
having lost an inch of ground during the interval.
The vacations which our student spent at home
were employed in arranging, methodizing, and en-
larging the information which he had acquired during
his winter's attendance at college. His father's cot-
tage affording him little opportunity for quiet and
seclusion, he was obliged to look out for accom-
modations abroad, and some of his places of retreat
were sufficiently extraordinary. In a wild recess, in
the den or glen which gives name to the village of
Denholm, he contrived a sort of furnace for the pur-
pose of such chemical experiments as it was adequate
to performing. But his chief place of retirement
was the small parish church, a gloomy and ancient
building, generally believed in the neighbourhood
to be haunted. To this chosen place of study,
usually locked during week-days, Leyden made en-
trance by means of a window, read there for many
hours in the day, and deposited his books and speci-
mens in a retired pew. It was a well-chosen spot of
seclusion, for the kirk (excepting during divine ser-
vice) is rather a place of terror to the Scottish rustic,
and that of Cavers was rendered more so by many a
tale of ghosts and witchcraft, of which it was the
supposed scene; and to which Leyden, partly to in-
dulge his humour, and partly to secure his retire-
ment, contrived to make some modern additions.
The nature of his abstruse studies, some specimens
of natural history, as toads and adders, left exposed
in their spirit-vials, and one or two practical jests
played off upon the more curious of the peasantiy,
rendered his gloomy haunt not only venerated by the
wise, but feared by the simple, of the parish, who
began to account this abstracted student, like the
gifted person described by Wordsworth, as pos-
sessing—
• Waking empire wide as dreams,
An ample sovereignty of eye and ear;
Rich are his walks with supernatural cheer;
The region of his inner spirit teems
With vital sounds, and monitory gleams
Of high astonishment and pleasing fear."
This was a distinction which, as we have already
hinted, he was indeed not unwilling to affect, and to
which, so far as the visions existing in the high fancy
of the poet can supply those ascribed to the actual
ghost-seer, he had indeed no slight pretensions.
Books as well as retirement were necessary to the
progress of Leyden's studies, and not always attain-
able. But his research collected from every quarter
such as were accessible by loan, and he subjected
himself to the utmost privations to purchase those
that were not otherwise to be procured. The re-
putation also of his prosperous career of learning
obtained him occasional access to the library of Mr.
Douglas of Cavers—an excellent old collection, in
which he met for the first time many of those works
of the middle ages which he studied with so much
research and success. A Froissart in particular,
translated by Lord Berners, captivated his attention
with all those tales "to savage virtue dear," which
coincided with his taste for chivalry, and with the
models on which it had been formed; and tales of
the Black Prince, of the valiant Chandos, and of
Geoffrey Tęte-Noir, now rivalled the legends of
Johnnie Armstrong, Walter the Devil, and the
Black Douglas.
In the country Leyden's society was naturally
considerably restricted, but while at college it began
to extend itself among such of his fellow-students
as were distinguished for proficiency in learning.
Among these we may number the celebrated author
of the Pleasures of Hope; the Rev. Alexander Murray
united with Leyden in the kindred pursuit of oriental
learning, and whose lamp, like that of his friend,
was extinguished at the moment when it was placed
in the most conspicuous elevation; William Erskine,
author of a poetical epistle from St. Kilda, with whom
Leyden renewed his friendship in India; the ingeni-
ous Dr. Thomas Brown, distinguished for his early
proficiency in the science of moral philosophy, of
which he was afterwards professor in the Edinburgh
college; the Rev. Robert Lundie, minister of Kelso;
and several other young men of talent, who at that
time pursued their studies in the university of Edin-
burgh.
In the year 1796 the recommendation of Professor
Dalzell procured Leyden the situation of private
tutor to the sons of Mr. Campbell of Fairfield, a
situation which he retained for two or three years.
During the winter of 1798 he attended the two young
gentlemen to their studies at the college of St. An-
drews. Here he had the advantage of the acquaint-
ance of Professor Hunter, an admirable classical
scholar, and to whose kind instructions he professed
much obligation. The secluded situation also of St.
Andrews, the monastic life of the students, the frag-
ments of antiquity with which that once metropolitan
town is surrounded, and the libraries of its colleges,
gave him additional opportunity and impulse to
pursue his favourite plans of study.
About the time he resided at St. Andrews, the
renown of Mungo Park, and Leyden's enthusiastic