ministry. After a careful home education at the manse of Lochrutton, and subsequently a public one at the academy of Dumfries, Henry Duncan went to the university of St. Andrews in 1778. Two years after, a temporary interruption in his college studies occurred, in consequence of his near relation, Dr. Currie, the biographer of Burns, inviting him to enter a banking establishment in Liverpool, with a view to becoming a merchant. Henry, whose purposes were not as yet very definite, complied, and in 1790 exchanged the occupations of a student for those of a banker's clerk. It was a happy interruption, however, when we take into account the knowledge of the world, financial experience, and practical habits by which he was afterwards so distinguished among his classical brethren, and so useful to the church—and especially in the establishment of savings banks, by which he was so great a benefactor to society at large.
During the three years which Henry Duncan thus spent in Liverpool, his time was not wholly employed in the details of business and banking calculations. From his natural bias, talents, and previous education, he could not be happy without the enjoyments of literary exercise, and therefore he not only sought every opportunity of frequenting intellectual society, but renewed his old studies, and wrote poetry; he even went so far as to publish a theological tract, which he wrote against Unitarianism, at that time the prevalent heresy of Liverpool. It was a new feature in religious controversy for a boy of sixteen to publish his lucubrations upon such a subject, and more surprising still that the pamphlet should have been generally admired; but our wonder ceases when we are told that its principal arguments were derived from his father's letters, with whom he had corresponded on the subject. All these were significant tokens that he would not voluntarily become a banker: his choice was to be a parish minister rather than a millionaire; and this, too, not at the time from religious considerations, but the opportunities which he would enjoy for those literary pursuits which, in his eyes, formed the best occupation of life. After much reluctance his wishes were complied with, and he returned to Scotland in 1793, and continued his studies for five years, partly at the university of Edinburgh, and partly at that of Glasgow. Having completed the required courses, he was taken upon trial by the presbytery of Dumfries, and licensed as a preacher of the gospel in 1798, after which, like many other licentiates, he betook himself to the occupation of a family tutor, until a presentation should induct him into a settled charge. The place of his sojourn on this occasion was the Highlands; and as the whole heather was in a blaze of patriotic ardour at this period, from the threat of a French invasion, the young enthusiastic preacher caught the genial spirit, and carried it so far, that besides girding himself with the usual weapons of military exercise, he assumed the Highland garb, to the great astonishment and mirth of its legitimate wearers, who had never seen theology so habited. It was as well that all this should speedily terminate, and accordingly, in 1799, not less than two presentations and one popular call offered themselves at the same period to his acceptance: these were to the parishes of Lochmaben and Ruthwell, and to a congregation of Presbyterians in Ireland. Mr. Duncan made his election in favour of Ruthwell, although it was the least tempting of the two parishes. It presented, however, what he considered of chief account—the best opportunity of a life of clerical usefulness. His standard of such a life at this period must be taken into account, and it is thus announced by his biographer:—"If the eternal welfare of
