Page:Scotish Descriptive Poems - Leyden (1803).djvu/16

 laborious teacher of youth, and the minister of religious instruction to more mature age. The school master formed the connecting link between the minister of a parish and his parishioners, and not unfrequently between the peasants and the higher classes. But the process of tracing and retracing the simplest elements of learning, has a tendency to limit the range of thought: The habit of maintaining an air of superiority among boys, tends to produce an adventitious aspect of importance among men; and this habit is stiffened into formality, by real superiority to the peasants in information, and by comparative leisure for reflection. Among this useful class of men, therefore, these peculiarities are very observable; and they are frequently combined with a caustic humour, and a shrewdness of observation, which give them a greater zest. The facility of mingling with every form of life and manners, from the most simple and rustic to the most polished and refined, afforded Mr. Wilson scope for observation. He had marked the characteristic peculiarities of individuals, unravelled their complex motives of action, and treasured up a rich fund of anecdote. Distinguished for the poignancy of his humour, his society was eagerly courted by every class of men. Having improved his taste by an accurate study of the ancient models, his poetical efforts began to assume a more perfect form, and to be