ve advanced) throughout my life, but I have
never been a republican. I have always considered a highly-educated
aristocracy essential, not only for government, but for the refinement
of a people.

[After her winter in Edinburgh, my mother returned to Burntisland.
Strange to say, she found there, in an illustrated Magazine of
Fashions, the introduction to the great study of her life.]

* * * * *

I was often invited with my mother to the tea-parties given either by
widows or maiden ladies who resided at Burntisland. A pool of commerce
used to be keenly contested till a late hour at these parties, which
bored me exceedingly, but I there became acquainted with a Miss Ogilvie,
much younger than the rest, who asked me to go and see fancy works she
was doing, and at which she was very clever. I went next day, and after
admiring her work, and being told how it was done, she showed me a
monthly magazine with coloured plates of ladies' dresses, charades, and
puzzles. At the end of a page I read what appeared to me to be simply an
arithmetical question; but on turning the page I was surprised to see
strange looking lines mixed with letters, chiefly X'es and Y's, and
asked; "What is that?" "Oh," said Miss Ogilvie, "it is a kind of
arithmetic: they call it Algebra; but I can tell you nothing about it."
And we talked about other things; but on going home I thought I would
look if any of our books could tell me what was meant by Algebra.

In Robertson's "Navigation" I flattered myself that I had got precisely
what I wanted; but I soon found that I was mistaken. I perceived,
however, that astronomy did not consist in star-gazing,[3] and as I
persevered in studying the book for a time, I certainly got a dim view
of several subjects which were useful to me afterwards. Unfortunately
not one of our acquaintances or relations knew anything of science or
natural history; nor, had they done so, should I have had courage to ask
any of them a question, for I should have been laughed at. I was often
very sad and forlorn; not a hand held out to help me.

My uncle and aunt Charters took a house at Burntisland for the summer,
and the Miss Melville I have already mentioned came to pay them a visit.
She painted miniatures, and from seeing her at work, I took a fancy to
learn to draw, and actually wasted time in copying prints; but this
circumstance enabled me to get elementary books on Algebra and Geometry
wit