The works of the Rev. William Thom, late minister ... - waughfamily.ca

. learuedly364 LETTERS, TRACTS, tsf^.It is a' I liae made about the college, an' I'fe fend it;to 'ini wi a' my heart." This excited a loud laughjin the company, and J —n for his fimplicity was lon^thejoke of the college. Another thing remarkablyabout J —n is, that he is devoutly religious, that i8,jhe hath a real though not a general religion. FotJthough he breathes the thin infcdlious air of meta4phyiics, and converfes m.uch with young fceptics andpert freethinkers, he does not feem to have imbibedany of the prefent fafliionable modes of opinion : Not.but that honefl J —n hath his peculiar conceits in1philoiophy ; and, indeed, confidering his long refidcnccin a college, it would be mofl ftrange were itotherwife. One favourite notion of J —n is, thatthere exifls a direct fympathy betwixt the two endsof man, or the two poles of the microcofm, as heexprefFcs it, or as we exprefs it in vuJgaclanguage, betwixt a man's head and his heels : Andupon this principle he maintains, that a ftricl analogymaybe cbferved between everyone's natural mannerof walking and his manner of thinking, and thatto call a man eloquent, or feery o' the feet, isto fpeakof him in fynonymous term.s : And indeed it is furprifmg,that in the courfe of his obfervation withinhis academic fphere, he hath picked up fo great anumber of faci:s, which he adduces in fupport of histheory with amazing acutenefs and propriety : For infiance,he will tell you, that to be fplay-footed and toprcient the broad-fide of the foot foremoft in walking,is a never-failing fign of grol^ ftupidity, and ablunt unpenetrating undcrftanding ; and that to walk\v\th the toes turned inward, is a lure diagncflic ofnarrow intelle(Sls and a contrad:ed way of thinking :If a learned man walk the flrcets with an uncommonand (lately ilride, J—n pronounceth him a mafler oft re Ciceronian period, and that he either isor will bethe inventor of feme ftrange and out-of-the-way fyilem.: If lie hath a HuifHing, aukv> ard, and hobbling