concessions, and my soul longed rather to be inclosed
in the deeps of the sea, or involved once more in utter oblivion. I was
like Daniel in the den of lions, without his faith in Divine support,
and wholly at their mercy. I felt as one round whose body a deadly
snake is twisted, which continues to hold him in its fangs, without
injuring him, further than in moving its scaly infernal folds with
exulting delight, to let its victim feel to whose power he has
subjected himself; and thus did I for a space drag an existence from
day to day, in utter weariness and helplessness; at one time
worshipping with great fervour of spirit, and at other times so wholly
left to myself as to work all manner of vices and follies with
greediness. In these my enlightened friend never accompanied me, but I
always observed that he was the first to lead me to every one of them,
and then leave me in the lurch. The next day, after these my fallings
off, he never failed to reprove me gently, blaming me for my venial
transgressions; but then he had the art of reconciling all, by
reverting to my justified and infallible state, which I found to prove
a delightful healing salve for every sore.

But, of all my troubles, this was the chief. I was every day and every
hour assailed with accusations of deeds of which I was wholly ignorant;
of acts of cruelty, injustice, defamation, and deceit; of pieces of
business which I could not be made to comprehend; with lawsuits,
details, arrestments of judgment, and a thousand interminable quibbles
from the mouth of my loquacious and conceited attorney. So miserable
was my life rendered by these continued attacks that I was often
obliged to lock myself up for days together, never seeing any person
save my man Samuel Scrape, who was a very honest blunt fellow, a
staunch Cameronian, but withal very little conversant in religious
matters. He said he came from a place called Penpunt, which I thought a
name so ludicrous that I called him by the name of his native village,
an appellation of which he was very proud, and answered everything with
more civility and perspicuity when I denominated him Penpunt, than
Samuel, his own Christian name. Of this peasant was I obliged to make a
companion on sundry occasions, and strange indeed were the details
which he gave me concerning myself, and the ideas of the country people
concerning me. I took down a few of these in writing, to put off the
time, and here leave them on record