Scotland/Scots > Wilson's tales of the Borders and of Scotland > Volume 3

274
TALES OP THE EORD£KS>
by other sights and sounds than those which he had been
accustomed to. The change struck on his heart with a low
deep feeling of despondency, which a little time, conjoined
with the urbanity and kindness of all around him, was
sufficient to dissipate. The immense mass of lofty and
majestic buildings, exhibiting their roofs in widening circles
around him, and stretching far away, like the broken
billows of an ocean, created thoughts of tumult, discord,
and perplexity, when contrasted with the serene beauty of
the calm pastoral district which he had left; and, amid the
nightly crowd of population which engirded him, a sense
of his own individual insignificance fell, with a crushing
weight, on his spirit. The deeply engrafted strength of
virtue and religion, however, at length prevailed, restoring
to his mind its usual buoyancy; and he began to see objects
in the same degree of relative value, but with a widely
enlarged scope of sensation. He set about his studies with
vigour and alacrity; and, keeping in recollection tire cir¬
cumstances of his relatives, he determined not only to avoid
all unnecessary expense, but to exercise the most rigid
economy. Few hours were allowed to sleep, and almost
no time allotted to exercise and recreation. The hopes his
father entertained he determined should not be frustrated,
nor the confidence they reposed in him be shown errone¬
ous, by any negligence on his part; while, by persevering
with assiduity and ardour, he trusted, sooner than they
expected, to relieve them of the burthen of his support—a
burthen which, he knew, could not fail to press heavy on
them all, however cheerfully supported.
In a course of the utmost economy, sobriety, and tem¬
perance, anxiously endeavouring to allow no opportunity
of improvement to pass by unimproved, the winter session
wore through, and left behind on his heart very few causes
for self-disapprobation.
Towards the end of April, the pale student returned to