ted, and am serious in prosecuting the
preliminary studies. The law is my vocation--in an especial, and, I
may say, in an hereditary way, my vocation; for although I have not the
honour to belong to any of the great families who form in Scotland, as
in France, the noblesse of the robe, and with us, at least, carry their
heads as high, or rather higher, than the noblesse of the sword,--for
the former consist more frequently of the 'first-born of Egypt,'--yet
my grandfather, who, I dare say, was a most excellent person, had the
honour to sign a bitter protest against the Union, in the respectable
character of town-clerk to the ancient Borough of Birlthegroat; and
there is some reason--shall I say to hope, or to suspect?--that he may
have been a natural son of a first cousin of the then Fairford of that
Ilk, who had been long numbered among the minor barons. Now my father
mounted a step higher on the ladder of legal promotion, being, as you
know as well as I do, an eminent and respected Writer to his Majesty's
Signet; and I myself am destined to mount a round higher still, and wear
the honoured robe which is sometimes supposed, like Charity, to cover
a multitude of sins. I have, therefore, no choice but to climb upwards;
since we have mounted thus high, or else to fall down at the imminent
risk of my neck. So that I reconcile myself to my destiny; and while
you, are looking from mountain peaks, at distant lakes and firths, I am,
DE APICIBUS JURIS, consoling myself with visions of crimson and scarlet
gowns--with the appendages of handsome cowls, well lined with salary.

You smile, Darsie, MORE TUO, and seem to say it is little worth while to
cozen one's self with such vulgar dreams; yours being, on the contrary,
of a high and heroic character, bearing the same resemblance to mine,
that a bench, covered with purple cloth and plentifully loaded with
session papers, does to some Gothic throne, rough with barbaric pearl
and gold. But what would you have?--SUA QUEMQUE TRAHIT VOLUPTAS. And my
visions of preferment, though they may be as unsubstantial at present,
are nevertheless more capable of being realized, than your aspirations
after the Lord knows what. What says my father's proverb? 'Look to a
gown of gold, and you will at least get a sleeve of it.' Such is my
pursuit; but what dost thou look to? The chance that the mystery, as
you call it, which at present overclouds your birth and connexions, will
clear up into something i