d in its praise. Such,
indeed was our surprise, that we could not refrain from openly and at
once assuring her, that the delight and satisfaction which it was
calculated to afford, rendered it a duty on her part to lose no time in
submitting it to the public; and, after lavishing a panegyric on the
singular and excellent qualities of the author, which was all most
delicious to his widow, we concluded with a delicate insinuation of the
pleasure we should enjoy, in being made the humble instrument of
introducing to the knowledge of mankind a volume so replete and enriched
with the fruits of his practical wisdom. Thus, partly by a judicious
administration of flattery, and partly also by solicitation, backed by an
indirect proposal to share the profits, we succeeded in persuading Mrs
Pawkie to allow us to take the valuable manuscript to Edinburgh, in order
to prepare it for publication.

Having obtained possession of the volume, we lost no time till we had
made ourselves master of its contents. It appeared to consist of a
series of detached notes, which, together, formed something analogous to
an historical view of the different important and interesting scenes and
affairs the Provost had been personally engaged in during his long
magisterial life. We found, however that the concatenation of the
memoranda which he had made of public transactions, was in several places
interrupted by the insertion of matter not in the least degree
interesting to the nation at large; and that, in arranging the work for
the press, it would be requisite and proper to omit many of the notes and
much of the record, in order to preserve the historical coherency of the
narrative. But in doing this, the text has been retained inviolate, in
so much that while we congratulate the world on the addition we are thus
enabled to make to the stock of public knowledge, we cannot but
felicitate ourselves on the complete and consistent form into which we
have so successfully reduced our precious materials; the separation of
which, from the dross of personal and private anecdote, was a task of no
small difficulty; such, indeed, as the editors only of the autographic
memoirs of other great men can duly appreciate.

CHAPTER I--THE FORECAST

It must be allowed in the world, that a man who has thrice reached the
highest station of life in his line, has a good right to set forth the
particulars of the discretion and prudence by which he lifted himself