John Burnet of Barns: A Romance

by John Buchan

  CHAPTER IV

  I GO TO THE COLLEGE AT GLASGOW

  By this time I had grown a great stalwart lad, little above the middleheight, but broad and sinewy. I had made progress in all manly sportsand could fling the hammer almost as far as the Manor blacksmith, whilein leaping and running I had few rivals among lads of my age. Also Iwas no bad swordsman, but could stand my own against all the wiles ofTam Todd, and once even disarmed him to his own unspeakable disgust. Inmy studies, which I pursued as diligently as I could with no teachersand not over-many books, I had made some little advance, having readthrough most of the Greek tragedians and advanced some distance in thestudy of Plato; while in the Latin tongue I had become such an adeptthat I could both read and write it with ease.

  When I had reached the mature age of eighteen, who should come up intoour parts but my famous relative, Master Gilbert Burnet, the preacher atSt. Clement's in London, of whom I have already spoken. He was making ajourney to Edinburgh and had turned out of his way to revive an oldacquaintance. My father was overjoyed to see him and treated him to thebest the house could produce. He stayed with us two days, and Iremember him still as he sat in a great armchair opposite my father,with his broad velvet cap and grey, peaked beard, and weighty brows.Yet when he willed, though for ordinary a silent man, he could talk asgaily and wittily as any town gallant; so much indeed that my father,who was somewhat hard to please, declared him the best companion he everremembered.

  Before he left, Master Burnet examined me on my progress in politelearning, and finding me well advanced, he would have it that I shouldbe sent forthwith to Glasgow College. He exacted a promise from myfather to see to this, and left behind him, when he departed, letters ofintroduction to many of the folk there, for he himself had, at one time,been professor of divinity in the place. As for myself, I was nothingloth to go, and see places beyond Tweeddale and add to my stock oflearning; for about this time a great enthusiasm for letters had seizedme (which I suppose happens at some time or other to most men), and Iconceived my proper vocation in life to be that of the scholar. I havefound in an old manuscript book a list of the titles of imaginary works,editions, poems, treatises, all with my unworthy name subscribed as theauthor. So it was settled that I should ride to Glasgow and takelodgings in the town for the sake of the college classes.

  I set out one November morning, riding Maisie alone, for no student wasallowed to have a servant, nor any one below the degree of Master ofArts. The air was keen and frosty, and I rode in high fettle by thetowns of Biggar and Lanark to the valley of the Clyde. I lay all nightat Crossford in the house of a distant relative. Thence the next day Irode to Hamilton and in the evening came to the bridge of the Clyde atGlasgow. Then I presented myself to the Principal and Regents of thecollege and was duly admitted, putting on the red gown, the badge of thestudent class, than which I believe there is no more hideous habiliment.

  The college in those days was poor enough, having been well-nigh ruinedby the extortions of Lord Middleton and his drunken crew; and it had notyet benefited by the rich donations of the Reverend Zachary Boyd of theBarony Kirk. Still, the standard of learning in the place wasextraordinarily high, especially in dialectic and philosophy--a standardwhich had been set by the famous Andrew Melville when he was a professorin the place. I have heard disputations there in the evenings betweenthe schoolmen and the new philosophers, the like of which could scarcelybe got from the length and breadth of the land.

  Across the High Street were the college gardens and green pleasantorchards where the professors were wont to walk and the scholars to havetheir games. Through the middle ran the clear Molendinar Burn, so calledby the old Romans, and here I loved to watch the trout and young salmonleaping. There was a severe rule against scholars fishing in thestream, so I was fain to content myself with the sight. For soon aviolent fit of home-sickness seized me, and I longed for the rush ofTweed and the pleasant sweep of Manor; so it was one of my greatestconsolations to look at this water and fancy myself far away from thetown. One other lad who came from Perthshire used to come and standwith me and tell me great tales of his fishing exploits; and I didlikewise with him till we became great companions. Many afternoons Ispent here, sometimes with a book and sometimes without one; in the fineweather I would lie on the grass and dream, and in rough, boisterouswinter days I loved to watch the Molendinar, flooded and angry, flingits red waters against the old stones of the bridge.

  No one of us was permitted to carry arms of any kind, so I had to sellmy sword on my first coming to the town. This was a great hardship tome, for whereas when I carried a weapon I had some sense of my ownimportance, now I felt no better than the rest of the unarmed crowdabout me. Yet it was a wise precaution, for in other places wherescholars are allowed to strut like cavaliers there are fights and duelsall the day long, so that the place looks less like an abode of theMuses than a disorderly tavern. Nevertheless, there were many manlyexercises to be had, for in the greens in the garden we had trials ofskill at archery and golf and many other games of the kind. At the firstmentioned I soon became a great master, for I had a keen eye from muchliving among woods and hills, and soon there was no one who could comenear me at the game. As for golf, I utterly failed to excel; and indeedit seems to me that golf is like the divine art of poetry, the gift forwhich is implanted in man at his birth or not at all. Be that as itmay, I never struck a golf-ball fairly in my life, and I misdoubt Inever shall.

  As for my studies, for which I came to the place, I think I made greatprogress. For after my first fit of home-sickness was over, I fell inwith the ways of the college, and acquired such a vast liking for thepursuit of learning that I felt more convinced than ever that Providencehad made me for a scholar. In my classes I won the commendation of bothprofessors; especially in the class of dialectic, where an analysis ofAristotle's method was highly praised by Master Sandeman, the professor.This fine scholar and accomplished gentleman helped me in many ways, andfor nigh two months, when he was sick of the fever, I lectured to hisclass in his stead. We were all obliged to talk in the Latin tongue andat first my speech was stiff and awkward enough, but by and by I fellinto the way of it and learned to patter it as glibly as a Spanish monk.

  It may be of interest to those of my house that I should give someaccount of my progress in the several studies, to show that our familyis not wholly a soldiering one. In Greek I studied above others theworks of Plato, delighting especially in his Phaedo, which I had almostby heart; Aristotle likewise, though I read but little of him in his owntongue. I completed a translation of the first part of Plato's Republicinto Latin, which Master Sandeman was pleased to say was nigh as elegantas George Buchanan's. Also I was privileged to discover certain notableemendations in the text of this work, which I sent in manuscript to thefamous Schookius of Groningen, who incorporated them in his edition thenin preparation, but after the fashion of Dutchmen sent me no thanks.

  As regards philosophy, which I hold the most divine of all studies, Iwas in my first year a most earnest Platonic; nay, I went farther thanthe master himself, as is the way of all little minds when they seek tocomprehend a great one. In those days I went about in sober attire andstrove in all things to order my life according to the rules ofphilosophy, seeking to free myself from all disturbing outside powersand live the life of pure contemplation. I looked back with unutterablecontempt on my past as a turbid and confused medley, nor did I seekanything better in life than quiet and leisure for thought and study.In such a condition I spent the first month of my stay at Glasgow.

  Then the Platonic fit left me and I was all for Aristotle and thePeripatetics. Here, at last, thought I, have I got the _siccum lumen_,which Heraclitus spoke of: and his distinct and subtle reasoning seemedto me to be above doubt. And indeed I have never wondered at theschoolmen and others who looked upon Aristotle as having reached theheight of human wisdom, for his method is so all-embracing andsatisfying that it breeds w
onder in the heart of any man; and it affordsso sure a bottom for thought that men become Aristotelians.

  In the midsummer months I went down to Tweeddale again, where Iastonished my father and all in the place with my new learning, and alsogrieved them. For I had no love for fishing or shooting; I would scarceride two miles for the pleasure of it; my father's tales, in which Idelighted before, had grown tiresome; and I had no liking for anythingsave bending over books. When I went to Dawyck to see Marjory, she knewnot what had come over me, I was so full of whims and fancies. "OJohn," she said, "your face is as white as a woman's, and you have sucha horrible cloak. Go and get another at once, you silly boy, and notshame your friends." Yet even Marjory had little power over me, for Iheeded her not, though aforetime I would have ridden posthaste toPeebles and got me a new suit, and painted my face if I had thought thatthereby I would pleasure her.

  When the autumn came again I returned to college more inclined than everfor the life of a scholar. I fell to my studies with renewed zeal, andwould doubtless have killed myself with work had I not been nearlykilled with the fever, which made me more careful of my health. Andnow, like the weathercock I was, my beliefs shifted yet again. Forstudying the schoolmen, who were the great upholders of Aristotle, Ifound in them so many contradictions and phantasies which they fatheredon their master that, after reading the diatribes of Peter Ramus andothers against him, I was almost persuaded that I had been grievouslymisled. Then, at last, I saw hat the fault lay not in Aristotle but inhis followers, who sought to find in him things that were beyond thecompass of his thought. So by degrees I came round toward the newphilosophy, which a party in the college upheld. They swore by the greatnames of Bacon and Galileo and the other natural philosophers, but Ihesitated to follow them, for they seemed to me to disdain all mentalphilosophy, which I hold is the greater study. I was of this way ofthinking when I fell in one day with an English book, a translation of awork by a Frenchman, one Renatus Descartes, published in London in theyear 1649. It gave an account of the progress in philosophy of thisman, who followed no school, but, clearing his mind of allpresuppositions, instituted a method for himself. This marked for methe turning point; for I gave in my allegiance without hesitation tothis philosopher, and ever since I have held by his system with somemodifications. It is needless for me to enter further into myphilosophy, for I have by me a written exposition of the works of thisDescartes with my own additions, which I intend, if God so please, togive soon to the world.

  For two years I abode at the college, thinking that I was destined bynature for a studious life, and harbouring thoughts of going to theuniversity of Saumur to complete my studies. I thought that my spiritwas chastened to a fit degree, and so no doubt it was, for those who hadfeared me at first on account of my heavy fist and straightforward ways,now openly scoffed at me without fear of punishment. Indeed, one wentso far one day as to jostle me off the causeway, and I made no return,but went on as if nothing had happened, deeming it beneath a wise man tobe distracted by mundane trifles. Yet, mind you, in all this there wasnothing Christian or like unto the meekness of our Master, as I haveseen in some men; but rather an absurd attempt to imitate those whowould have lived very differently had their lot been cast in our hot andturbid days.

  How all this was changed and I veered round of a sudden to the oppositeI must hasten to tell. One April day, towards the close of my secondyear, I was going up the High Street toward the Cathedral with a greatparcel of books beneath my arm, when I heard a shouting and a jingling,and a troop of horse came down the street. I stood back into theshelter of a doorway, for soldiers were wont to bear little love toscholars, and I did not care to risk their rough jests. From this placeI watched their progress, and a gallant sight it was. Some twenty menin buff jerkins and steel headpieces rode with a fine clatter of bridlesand clank of swords. I marked their fierce sun-brown faces and theirdaredevil eyes as they looked haughtily down on the crowd as on lowerbeings. And especially I marked their leader. He sat a fine bay horsewith ease and grace; his plumed hat set off his high-coloured face andlong brown curls worn in the fashion of the day; and as he rode he bowedto the people with large condescension. He was past in a second, butnot before I had recognized the face and figure of my cousin Gilbert.

  I stood for some minutes staring before me, while the echoes of thehorses' hooves died away down the street. This, I thought, is thedestiny of my cousin, only two years my elder, a soldier, a gentleman, agreat man in his place; while I am but a nameless scholar, dreaming awaymy manhood in the pursuits of a dotard. I was so overwhelmed withconfusion that I stood gaping with a legion of thoughts and opposingfeelings running through my brain. Then all the old fighting spirit ofmy house rose within me. By Heaven, I would make an end of this; I wouldget me home without delay; I would fling my books into the Clyde; Iwould go to the wars; I would be a great cavalier, and, by the Lord, Iwould keep up the name of the house! I was astonished myself at thesudden change in my feelings, for in the space of some ten minutes awhole age had passed for me, and I had grown from a boy to some measureof manhood. I came out from the close-mouth with my head in the air anddefiance against all the world in my eye.

  Before I had gone five spaces I met the lad who had jostled meaforetime, a big fellow of a raw-boned Ayrshire house, and before hecould speak I had him by the arm and had pulled him across the way intothe college gardens. There I found a quiet green place, and pluckingoff my coat I said, "Now, Master Dalrymple, you and I have a smallaccount to settle." With that we fell to with our fists, and in thespace of a quarter of an hour I had beaten him so grievously that he wasfain to cry for mercy. I let him go, and with much whimpering he slunkaway in disgust.

  Then I went into the town and bought myself a new blade and a fine suitof clothes--all with the greatest gusto and lightness of heart. I wentto the inn where Maisie was stabled and bade them have her ready for meat the college gate in an hour. Then I bade good-bye to all my friends,but especially to Master Sandeman, from whom I was loth to part. I didnot fling my books into the Clyde as at first I proposed, but leftinjunctions that they were to be sent by the carrier. So, having paidall my debts, for my father had kept me well appointed with money, Iwaved a long farewell and set out for my own country.