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chus extend their brazen throats in shouts like bursting thunder, to the praise of their gorgeous chief. Opening this door, the lonely matron explores for consolation her Bible; and in this house the wife brawls, the children shriek, and the poor husband bids me depart, lest his termagant's fury should vent itself on me. In short, such an inconceivable variety occurs to my observation in real life, that would, were they moralized upon, convey more maxims of wisdom, and give a juster knowledge of mankind, than whole volumes of lives and adventures, that perhaps never had a being, except in the prolific brains of their fantastic authors.

[The foregoing journal relates only to the collecting of subscribers: what follows is a short Narrative of the reception he afterwards met with from these gentlemen, and is inserted here to gratify the wishes of almost all the encouragers of the edition, to whom the author returns his most sincere and grateful acknowledgments. A. W.]

THAT frequent reflections, and prudent remarks on the daily occurrences of life, are not only exceedingly useful, but highly necessary, for conducting us safely through the wiles of the world, is a truth long since avowed, and which none but fools, or those destitute of common sense, have ever dared to deny. In the hurry and heat of affairs, we are apt to be deluded by cunning, or flattered by hypocrisy-blinded by the fire and turbulence of passion, or imposed on through the softness of unsuspecting simplicity; but in our retired moments, a calm retrospect of transactions displays things to our view as they really are. Shows us where we have erred and where suffered, convicts us of our folly-applauds us for our prudence and stings us with remorse or sheds a gleam of joy over our minds at the remembrance of past actions.

Nor is a just knowledge of mankind less necessary

for our spiritual as well as temporal interest. Seduced by the fair smiles and deep-laid schemes of men, we fall a prey to their avarice and cruelty; and, captivated by the outward glare and superficial glitter of the pleasures, vanity and ambition of this world, we forget our only true good, and rivet ourselves to earth and its deceiving allurements. A thorough knowledge of mankind, on the other hand, is of infinite benefit. We see through their schemes, and easily guard against their wiles: we know the folly of being too sanguine in our hopes, and can easily compute how far interest, ambition, pride and prejudice, preponderate against all the other nobler passions of the soul. This takes the sting from neglect, and makes disappointment tolerable. Convinced, by the experience of ourselves and others, of the madness and unsatisfying delights of all sublunary pleasures, we can look with contempt on them all, labouring for those whose stability is eternal.

But how, it may be asked, is a thorough knowledge of mankind to be obtained? Not from the romantic pages of our novels and adventures. These volatile pieces show us rather what is possible might be, than what really exists. The knowledge of the world can no more be learned from them, than the appearance of New Holland could be known by surveying some imaginary landscape. We might there see the mountains, ocean, woods and rivers depicted with never so much art, yet, were a mariner to set out, in hopes of meeting the same prospect there, and steer by this pretended chart, I fear he would make but a sorry voyage. So fares it with the man, who, full of the enthusiastic notions of life he has imbibed from these wonderful productions, rushes into the world. What a train of unforeseen misfortunes has he to encounter! and what complicated

miseries does he involve himself in till sober experience opens his eyes, and sets him on his guard against their fraud. It is, therefore, by personal intercourse with the world, that its true character can be known, and as my employment affords me advantages of this kind that few others enjoy, I shall here relate a few facts that occurred to me in the course of several days peregrination, on my first commencing author.

Having furnished my budget with what necessary articles might be required, equipt with a short oaken plant, I yielded my shoulders to the load, and by daybreak left the confines of our ancient Metropolis.

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The morning was mild, clear and inviting. A gentle shower, which had fallen amid the stillness of night, besprinkled the fields and adjoining meadows, exposing them to the eye clad with brightest green, and glittering with unnumbered globes of dew. ture seemed to smile on my intended expedition, I hailed the happy omen, and with a heart light as the lark that hovered over my head, I passed the foot of Salisbury rocks, and, directing my course towards Dalkeith, launched among the first farms and cottages that offered. The country here is rich and uncommonly fertile, producing an early crop, and amply repaying the husbandman's toil with a plentiful return. A few rocky eminences rise, crowned with clusters of firs, which by no means offend the eye, but afford a striking contrast between the level and the rugged, the blessed and the bare. Upon the top of one of these heights stands the castle of Craig Miller, where Mary Queen of Scots was some time confined; it now lies in solitary ruins. Two miles to the southward is the beautiful estate of Rockville, surrounded by most romantic pleasure grounds; and all along, on every hand, the most beautiful prospects presented themselves to the view, till I reached Dalkeith, where

I took up lodging in an old jolly widow's, whose house I understood, was the general resort of travellers. At first sight of my lusty hostess I was prepossessed in her favour. Her height was something more than that of the common size, but seemingly diminished by her enormous corpulence. Her eyes were piercing, and bespoke a mind not unacquainted with the world; she spoke with a masculine sharpness, and when interrupted in her discourse with the queries of the servant maid, or displeased with any of her proceedings, would raise her voice, and pour forth such a flood of exclamations and abuse, as would have puzzled the powers of Dunbar or any of his cotemporary rivals even to imitate. This done, the exhausted matron would resume her story with all the serene composure of tranquillity wiping the oily drops from her face, and wondering at the warmness of the weather. In the course of these long-winded narratives, she generally held forth on the many losses she had met with the hardships, difficulties, and almost impossibilities she had encountered and overcome, interspersing all with anecdotes of her own wanton humour and activity, at which she would burst out into the most extravagant fits of laughter, till interrupted by a vehement attack of the cough. Sometimes too, she would entertain me with a detail of the adventures she had been engaged in, when in the flush of youth and beauty, her amours and courtships, the love such and such a one bare her, "who is now in the dust," and the many stratagems she had used with these enamoured gallants; but as this was a theme inexhaustable (at least to her sex), often without a period, and almost always uninteresting, I strove, when I found her entering on this subject, to divert her imagination to some other; for, as the honest countryman, when he heard the parson divide his text into one hundred and sixty three heads

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and branches, rose hastily to his feet, and being asked what he meant, "I am going home," says he,

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for my night-cap, for I find we must stay here till morning," so, when you here a female enter into a relation of her love-intrigues, you may prepare, if no effectual interruption occurs, for the horrors of a two hours' tedious recital. After repaying my officious landlady with a glass of brandy for her marvellous memoirs, I retired to bed, and, early next morning, rose to take a view of the town. Dalkeith is situated in a fruitful country, six miles south from Edinburgh, on a rising ground, between the two rivers north and south Esk: these joining a little below the town, and running north-east for three or four miles, fall into the sea between Musselburgh and Fisher-row. town, though not large, is neat, the streets wide, and the front houses, in general, genteel. The main street, which runs from east to west, is terminated on the east by the gate leading to the Duke of Buccleuch's palace, whose eldest son inherits the title of Earl of Dalkeith. The inhabitants yearly celebrate the Duke's birth-day by a numerous procession of the trades through the town, ringing of bells, &c. &c. Their weekly market is held on Thursday, when immense quantities of oat-meal pour in from the south, at the distance of 20 or 30 miles, is sold to extensive dealers, and immediately dispatched to Edinburgh and the west country. Their established church, is a black, ruinous pile of Gothic architecture, inelegant in itself, unwholesome to its frequenters, and a disgrace to the town. They have likewise four other places of public worship, viz. a Burgher, Antiburgher, Methodist and Relief meeting-house. The people are in general, poor, laborious and illiterate, nor are their morals, especially those of the fair sex, much assisted by their intercourse with the dragoons, thre four troop of whom generally re