so easy. I will take care how I get
into debt again. I do not like this croaking of these old owls of Saint
Paul's when all is done. The pitcher has gone often to the well.
But--However, I worked away at the _Chronicles_. I will take pains with
them. I will, by Jove!

_July_ 8.--I did little to-day but arrange papers, and put bills,
receipts, etc., into apple-pie order. I believe the fair prospect I have
of clearing off some encumbrances, which are like thorns in my flesh,
nay, in my very eye, contribute much to this. I did not even correct
proof-sheets; nay, could not, for I have cancelled two sheets, _instante
Jacobo_, and I myself being of his opinion; for, as I said yesterday, we
must and will take pains. The fiddle-faddle of arranging all the things
was troublesome, but they give a good account of my affairs. The money
for the necessary payments is ready, and therefore there is a sort of
pleasure which does not arise out of any mean source, since it has for
its object the prospect of doing justice and achieving independence.
J.B. dined with me, poor fellow, and talked of his views as hopeful and
prosperous. God send honest industry a fair riddance.

_July_ 9.--Wrote in the morning. At eleven went by appointment with
Colin Mackenzie to the New Edinburgh Academy. In the fifth class, Mr.
Mitchell's, we heard Greek, of which I am no otherwise a judge than that
it was fluently read and explained. In the rector Mr. Williams's class
we heard Virgil and Livy admirably translated _ad aperturam libri_, and,
what I thought remarkable, the rector giving the English, and the pupils
returning, with singular dexterity, the Latin, not exactly as in the
original, but often by synonymes, which showed that the exercise
referred to the judgment, and did not depend on the memory. I could not
help saying, with great truth, that, as we had all long known how much
the pupils were fortunate in a rector, so we were now taught that the
rector was equally lucky in his pupils. Of my young friends, I saw a son
of John Swinton, a son of Johnstone of Alva, and a son of Craufurd
Tait.[5] Dined at John Murray's; Mr. and Mrs. Philips of Liverpool,
General and Charles Stuart of Blantyre, Lord Abercromby, Clerk and
Thomson. Pleasant evening.

_July_ 10.--Corrected proofs, but wrote nothing. To Court till two
o'clock. I went to Cadell's by the Mound, a long roundabout; transacted
some business. I met Baron Hume coming home, and walked with him in the