to walk; I have heard playful exertions of the mind or body
attributed to what was denominated an excessive flow of animal spirits, a
phrase that sounds significantly in the ear, but gives no information to
the understanding. Those who use it, mean, I suppose, to express that
when the body has received more nutriment than is necessary to promote
its growth, or maintain it the redundancy is thrown off in almost
involuntary exertions of the limbs or of mind. If this physiology be
just, Erskine had an extraordinary surplus of supply,--that regular
discharge like the back water of a mill, and it found vent in various
gambols and effusions of humour on the way to the wine merchant's. While
Erskine, buoyed by high health and ardent hope, scarcely felt the ground
that he trod, the sight of a ditch by the side of the road, tempted him
to exercise his agility. The impulse, and obedience to the impulse, were
the same. He made the attempt, but the ditch was too wide for his
spring, and he leaped a little short of the opposite bank. His dress
above was splashed with foul water, and his legs booted in mud. Nothing
was to be done on his part but to return, and his companion with a
kindness that does him honour, would have returned with him, but this,
Erskine was too generous to allow; and while his friend continued his
journey to the wine merchant's house and sumptuous dinner, Erskine
solitary and in pain (for he had severely sprained his leg) returned to
town; on reaching his lodgings Mrs. Erskine proposed a change of dress,
and urged him yet to go to dinner at the wine merchant's. He objected
his lameness from the sprain, which she answered by proposing a coach and
the expense, which he hinted, was not to be weighed against the benefit
he might derive from the friends which his manners and spirits were
likely to make him in the mixed and numerous company he would meet there.
This was a consideration so important to a young man on the verge of the
bar, that Erskine's disinclination was overcome by these reasonings of
his wife. A coach was procured, and he again set out, but he did not
arrive till dinner was half over, and found himself placed by this
accident by the side of Captain Bailey, of Greenwich Hospital. With the
modesty which is always united with true genius, Lord Erskine always
spoke of this event as the greatest instance of good fortune which ever
befel him. But for this, he said to me, "I might have waited years