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has long ago been irrecoverably lost." Some years after, when he had lost his hearing, he discovered that his father was in possession of a music book." I felt it," he says, an inconsolable loss that I had never seen the said old music book in order to learn the distinction of the various notes in quavers and semiquavers, which stood arranged in their five dark straight lines; as I thought these would afterwards enable me to keep my long lost sweet voice entire."

It will be very apparent to the most ordinary observer, that John Chapman has throughout his life entertained a very high opinion of himself, and his acquirements; but, when we consider his poverty, the difficulties he had to surmount in getting the most ordinary education, and that concluded at five years of age, when, by a fever, he was deprived of his speech and hearing; when he compares his acquirements with those of his cotemporaries and equals in station, in the village of Strathmiglo-we cannot wonder if he, like too many others, should" think of himself more highly than he ought to think."

In talking of the school at Strathmiglo he says,"It being always customary for the teacher, Mr. R., twice every day to write plainly various words, and numerous numerical figures, with a piece of white chalk, upon the back of the inmost door of the school, while all the scholars were gone through their reading lessons,-after which he called them to assemble together at once, for the purpose of farther exercising their minds, or memories, by pointing with a straight rod upwards to the different words and figures,and demanding from them, what these which he had

written did signify.-On all these occasions my curiosity was intense, so far that I was always eager to observe the form of these letters and figures, which by degrees fully confirmed my own expectations,-as I had found that these letters and figures did not differ much in their shape from those letters and figures which I continually used to see printed in my spelling-book and New Testament; so that at length, by means of my ever keeping in mind what I had often heard and saw of them, I had unwarily upon one of these occasions imprudently ventured myself, after a long pause among the whole scholars, who all appeared unable to show what the highest numerical figure meant except myself. While I stood thus looking on, and uncalled for—no person, nor even the teacher, had ever dream't or suspected that I could read such writing; while I at the same time well explained the highest numerical figure, and then read all the rest quickly, which robbed the scholars of their task and which in the meantime, brought down upon me, the wrath of Mr. R.'s pupils, as (John Jwho has great possessions in this neighbourhood) he and many of them, could not longer bear to see themselves outdone by an infant, so much beneath them in age; so that I had at the same moment betaken myself to my legs, and ran quickly home, in order to avoid their threatened danger, which they meant to do towards me, and from that time I never returned again to the school, till some time after I had lost my hearing."

Soon after this he was seized with the fever, of which his brother died, in the spring of the year 1809.

"In a few days after my dear brother's interment," he says, speaking of this period, "being much and deeply affected in the extreme at his quite inconsolable loss, from the moment that I stood at the fireside with my face full bedewed with tears, at the sight of beholding him laid in the coffin and carried away to the grave."

Soon after, (by the advice of Dr. Paterson of Auchtermuchty,) he was carried away in a cart, with his father, to Pathhead near Kirkcaldy, and lodged with one James Wilkie, shoemaker, who lived near the sea. Immediately on his arrival there, he was put to bed, to give him time to recover from his long and fatiguing journey; in his intervals of health, he walked about to enjoy the sea breezes. He had many relapses after this severe fever, and his father seems to have been extremely anxious to ascertain whether or not he had really lost his hearing. Amongst other devices, he blew a trumpet beside his bed-but he heard it not.He was then brought to Edinburgh,- -was taken to the Royal Infirmary, had his ears inspected by Dr. Bell, but the faculty agreed that the cure was hopeless, and that the drum of the ear was quite gone.

While he was in Edinburgh, he relates, " One morning, while I lay deeply asleep in my lodgings, within the city, my father again tried a former like method, to see whether my hearing was not lost, for he once got nearly the whole of the military band of music from the castle, into the very room in which I was sleeping. There they stood up playing aloud upon their wind instruments, for some time; but my father observing no visible motion within me, as I did scarcely

hear any thing during the performance, at length awoke me himself, by shaking my side, and turning aside a part of the bed clothes in order that I might see what was doing in the room and in the meantime questioning me by writing, if I heard any thing there, while the band was still playing onwards before me? But feeling myself in a strange place, and not knowing a single object around me, nor after the band left my room, I could hardly give him any answer. Soon after we all again crossed over the Forth, for our former lodgings in Pathhead, where we remained for a few days, till the same cart arrived which first brought us thither from Strathmiglo, to convey us all three again home, after having got not any satisfaction whatever, from all the surgeons concerning my ears, which up to this moment were never cured, while they have long since till now been quite altogether, by God's mercy, relieved free from feeling any more pain."

Sometime afterwards, on his return to Strathmiglo, his father made another attempt to ascertain whether or not he had recovered his hearing. We shall give it in his own words-" About the year 1806, my father once more tried another attempt, to ascertain whether I could hear or not, which was by taking me out to the back of our house, and placing me standing alone outside the garden wall, in presence of himself and many people, who all stood still and silent, to observe whether I could hear the report of a gun, which in the meantime was to be fired off, a little above my head, by one of my neighbours. Having learned this incident from himself, and found it well confirmed by many others, who had themselves

eye-witnessed the occurrence, for I had never heard the noise of the same shot, it was on the said event fully concluded that I was really quite deaf, and past all hopes of recovery."

His father now aided him in teaching himself to write about this period. During the progress of his recovery from fever, the mind of John Chapman appears to have been strongly attracted by the beauty of many passages of the Psalms, and these afforded him, he says, "unspeakable joy and sweetest consolation, which alone supported me, while I long lay on my bed of sickness, so much, that I do not now recollect if I did complain of the loss of my hearing, it being only the severe pain in my ears that I felt at times hardly able to bear."

Up to the period of his entire convalescence, he was ignorant of the contents of any book, excepting the New Testament, the "Assembly's Shorter Catechism," and the spelling-book.

After his recovery from this illness, he employed himself (kindly assisted by his father,) in learning to write, in which he says, he did not find any difficulty. He also appears to have had a taste for drawing, and often attempted sketching imaginary scenes, with a piece of white chalk. The pictorial map of Palestine, before alluded to, still was to him a source of interest, and he delighted in frequently visiting the house of his uncle, that he might examine it, and read for himself the description of the incidents depicted upon it.

His memory seems to have been very remarkable. He was at this time able to repeat all the portions of of the Psalms, with many passages of the New Tes