In all his statements he was perfectly modest and unpretending.
The following is his story, so far as I can recollect, in his own
words:--
"Yes; I certainly take a great interest in astronomy, but I have
done nothing in it worthy of notice. I am scarcely worthy to be
called a day labourer in the science. I am very well known
hereabouts, especially to the travelling public; but I must say
that they think a great deal more of me than I deserve.
"What made me first devote my attention to the subject of
astronomy? Well, if I can trace it to one thing more than
another, it was to some evening lectures delivered by the late
Dr. Dick, of Broughty Ferry, to the men employed at the Craigs'
Bleachfield Works, near Montrose, where I then worked, about the
year l848. Dr. Dick was an excellent lecturer, and I listened to
him with attention. His instructions were fully impressed upon
our minds by Mr. Cooper, the teacher of the evening school, which
I attended. After giving the young lads employed at the works
their lessons in arithmetic, he would come out with us into the
night--and it was generally late when we separated--and show us
the principal constellations, and the planets above the horizon.
It was a wonderful sight; yet we were told that these hundreds
upon hundreds of stars, as far as the eye could see, were but a
mere vestige of the creation amidst which we lived.
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