So inordinate was
his desire of making speedy advances in the paths of learning,
that within the compass of three months, he diligently perused the
writings of Locke and Malebranche, and made himself master of the
first six and of the eleventh and twelfth books of Euclid's Elements.
He considered Puffendorf and Grotius with uncommon care, acquired
a tolerable degree of knowledge in the French language, and his
imagination was so captivated with the desire of learning, that,
seeing no prospect of a war, or views of being provided for in the
service, he quitted the army, and went through a regular course of
university education. Having made such progress in his studies,
he resolved to qualify himself for the church, and acquired such
a stock of school divinity, under the instructions of a learned
professor at Edinburgh, that he more than once mounted the rostrum
in the public hall, and held forth with uncommon applause. But being
discouraged from a prosecution of his plan, by the unreasonable
austerity of some of the Scotch clergy, by whom the most indifferent and
innocent words and actions were often misconstrued into levity and
misconduct, he resolved to embrace the first favourable opportunity
of going abroad, being inflamed with the desire of seeing foreign
countries; and actually set out for Holland, where, for the space
of two years, he studied the Roman law, with the law of nature and
nations, under the famous professors Tolieu and Barbeyrac.
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