 His favourite studies at the university were those allied with ethics, philology, and history.In this way his course went on from year to year, his studies being frequently alternated with the laborious work of a schoolmaster, but his mind exhibiting on every occasion a happy combination of student-like diligence.In September 1795, he was licensed to be a preacher by the Associate Presbytery of Kelso; and in this capacity his first public attempts were so acceptable that, little more than a month after being licensed, he received a call from the Associate congregation in Potter Row, Edinburgh, to become their second minister.