Collegiate course, conferred upon him by an unanimous vote of the Senatus Academicus.* At the same time, he received his degree of "Master of Arts." The session at Aberdeen commences with November, and ends with April. After the breaking up of the classes, it was my brother's annual custom to take a ramble, for five or six weeks, through Aberdeen and Banff Shires, where he had many friends and relatives. To this succeeded two or three months of hard study: and, in the autumn, we visited together an uncle residing in Lochbroom, where we spent a happy month in the sports and exercises of that wild and remote highland district. Then, again, came a short interval of study: and it was time for "King's College, 24th Jan., 1829. "We, the undersigned, hereby certify that Mr. Thomas Simpson having gained a bursary at the public competition in session 1824-25, entered the Greek class in said year, and gave regular attendance at this University during that and three subsequent sessions; that during the whole of his course he was distinguished for good conduct, diligence, and ability; and that at the close of session 1827-28 he was unanimously declared the successful candidate for the Huttonian Prize, the highest reward of literary merit given in this University. "HUGH MACPHERSON, Sub-Prefect. him to join his classes. This he did with health and spirits, which enabled him to pass through the winter's hard study, with no more serious result, than that his countenance became somewhat "Sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought." My brother's appearance was prepossessing; his manners engaging; he was particular to a nicety in his dress-which was always chosen with much taste, and most sedulously taken care of. His spirits were buoyant, and his zest for society keen; no wonder, then, that he was every where a favourite. Even when most closely attentive to his studies, he mixed a good deal, not only in the limited society of the venerable Old Town-consisting principally of the families of the professors-but also in that of the bustling New Town of Aberdeen. He had always a strong penchant for ladies' society; was a special favourite among them; and returned this favour by the highest-most romantic idealization of women. He often told me that he considered a beautiful woman (and he was apt to invest many plain ones with an attribute which did not belong to them) as too ethereal a being to allow of a sensual thought being raised by the contemplation of her that it pained him to see such an one condescending to the sublunary enjoyments of eating and drinking, still worse of gossiping. The woman of his youthful imaginings would, indeed, have been "too wise and good For human nature's daily food-" and, although an impetuous temperament may, in after life, have made him sometimes to 66 gang a kenning wrong," in a country where female virtue is almost unknown, he ever nourished and retained in his "heart of hearts," the highest opinion of female excellence. A belief in the sublime doctrines of Christianity, which was early and carefully instilled into his mind by his revered father, remained ever firm and unshaken: and his humble confidence in the guidance and protection of Providence breathes forth in every letter which he wrote, while engaged in his arduous and perilous journeyings. CHAPTER III. Addresses to his Fellow-Students. "On the breaking up of his first Session at the University."-"On the Advantages to be derived from the Study of Metaphysics." ON THE BREAKING UP OF HIS FIRST SESSION AT THE UNIVERSITY, MARCH, 1825. "THE day of our parting draws on apace; a parting which, to some of us, may perhaps be the last. This, my dear friends, is a melancholy thought; and at such a time as this it is natural for us to indulge in grief. "Youth is the season when the disposition is frank and open: when the mind is most apt to receive impressions of friendship, and when a parting of this kind will be most deeply felt. It is in youth that friendships are contracted, which time or distance cannot dissolve; and as a great part of our happiness depends on the connexions which we form with others, it is of high importance that we acquire betimes the temper and the manners which will render such connexions endearing. 6 "Let us remember that our characters are just forming; that our fate is, in a manner, put into our own hands. Our affections are yet vigorous and true; evil habits and prejudices have not yet established over them a baneful sway; nor has the world had time to contract and debase the finer emotions of the soul. Whatever impulse, therefore, we now give to our desires and passions, the direction is likely to continue, and to form the channel in which our life is to run. Virtuous youth,' says an eloquent writer, 'gradually brings forward accomplished and flourishing manhood; and such manhood passes of itself, without uneasiness, into respectable and tranquil old age. But when Nature is turned out of its regular course, disorder takes place in the moral, just as in the vegetable world. If the spring put forth no blossoms, in the summer there will be no beauty, and in autumn no fruit; so if youth be trifled away without improvement, manhood will be contemptible, and old age miserable.' Now, therefore, that we are just setting out on the stage of life-before we have committed any fatal or irretrievable errors-what can be of more importance to us than to regulate our plan of conduct with the most serious attention? Let not the season of youth be with us, barren of the improvement so essential to our happiness and |