Peter Murray was the cause o' mair grief to me than ony scholar that
ever was at my school. He could not tell a story the same way in which
he heard it, or give you a direct answer to a positive question, had
it been to save his life. I sometimes was at a loss whether to
attribute his grievous propensity to a defect o' memory, a
preponderance o' imagination over baith memory and judgment, or to the
natural depravity o' his heart, and the force o' abominable habits
early acquired. Certain it is, that, all the thrashing that I could
thrash, I couldna get the laddie to speak the truth. His parents were
perpetually coming to me to lick him soundly for this lie and the
other lie; and I did lick him, until I saw that bodily punishment was
of no effect. Moral means were to be tried, and I did try them. I
tried to shame him out o't. I reasoned wi' him. I showed him the folly
and the enormity o' his offence, and also pointed out its
consequences--but I might as weel hae spoken to the stane in the wa'.
He was Leein Peter still. After he left me, he was a while wi' a
grocer, and a while wi' a haberdasher, and then he went to a painter,
and after that he was admitted into a writer's office; but one after
another, they had to turn him away, and a' on account o' his
unconquerable habit o' uttering falsehoods. His character became so
well known, that nobody about the place would take him to be anything.
He was a sad heartbreak to his parents, and they were as decent people
as ye could meet wi'. But, as they had respectable connections, they
got him into some situation about Edinburgh, where his character and
his failings were unknown. But it was altogether useless. He was
turned out of one situation after another, and a' on account o' his
incurable and dangerous habit, until his friends could do no more for
him. Noo, doctor, I daresay ye may have observed, that a confirmed
drunkard, rather than want drink, will steal to procure it--and, as
sure as that is the case, tak my word for it, that, in nine cases out
o' ten, he who begins by being a habitual liar, will end in being a
thief. Such was the case wi' Leein Peter. After being disgraced and
turned from one situation after anither, he at last was caught in the
act of purloining his master's property, and cast into prison. He
broke his mother's heart, and covered his father's grey hairs wi'
shame; and he sank from one state o' degradation to another, till now,
I believe, he is ane o' those prowlers and pests o' society who are to
be found in every large town, and who live naebody can tell how, but
every one can tell that it cannot be honestly. Such, sir, has been the
fate o' Leein Peter.
There is only another o' your book-mates that I have to make mention
o', and that is John Mathewson or