enerally from places worthy of
historical note. But this whimsical design I never carried into
execution.

With {p.044} music it was even worse than with painting. My mother
was anxious we should at least learn Psalmody; but the incurable
defects of my voice and ear soon drove my teacher to despair.[33] It
is only by long practice that I have acquired the power of selecting
or distinguishing melodies; and although now few things delight or
affect me more than a simple tune sung with feeling, yet I am sensible
that even this pitch of musical taste has only been gained by
attention and habit, and, as it were, by my feeling of the words being
associated with the tune. I have, therefore, been usually unsuccessful
in composing words to a tune, although my friend, Dr. Clarke, and
other musical composers, have sometimes been able to make a happy
union between their music and my poetry.

[Footnote 33: The late Alexander Campbell, a warm-hearted
man, and an enthusiast in Scottish music, which he sang most
beautifully, had this ungrateful task imposed on him. He was
a man of many accomplishments, but dashed with a _bizarrerie_
of temper which made them useless to their proprietor. He
wrote several books--as a _Tour in Scotland_, etc.;--and he
made an advantageous marriage, but fell nevertheless into
distressed circumstances, which I had the pleasure of
relieving, if I could not remove. His sense of gratitude was
very strong, and showed itself oddly in one respect. He would
never allow that I had a bad ear; but contended, that if I
did not understand music, it was because I did not choose to
learn it. But when he attended us in George's Square, our
neighbor, Lady Cumming, sent to beg the boys might not be all
flogged precisely at the same hour, as, though she had no
doubt the punishment was deserved, the noise of the concord
was really dreadful. Robert was the only one of our family
who could sing, though my father was musical, and a performer
on the violoncello at the _gentlemen's concerts_.--(1826.)]

In other points, however, I began to make some amends for the
irregularity of my education. It is well known that in Edinburgh one
great spur to emulation among youthful students is in those
associations called _literary societies_, formed not only for the
pur