the _Journal of Lieut. Simon Stevens:_ Boston 1760.--EDS. ATLANTIC.]

But we have wandered too far away from the business of his
correspondence. The next letter that we shall examine is one from John
Gray, dated at Florence, Nov. 15th, 1770, to Smollett, at Leghorn. It
abounds in details of the writer's attempts at the translation of a
French play for the English stage, on which he desires a judgment; and
cites verses from several of the songs it contains,--one of them being
that so familiar to American ears thirty years since, when Lafayette was
making his last tour through this country:--

"Ou peut on etre mieux
Qu'au sein de sa famille?"

Gray had been at Leghorn, on his way to Rome; and now amuses his
correspondent with the inconveniences of his journey under the auspices
of a tippling companion, with his notions about Pisa and Italy in
general, and with particulars of public intelligence from home, some
of which relate to Smollett's old antagonist, Admiral Knowles.--"I
despaired of executing Mrs. Smollett's commission," he says, "for there
was no ultramarine to be found in the shops; but I at length procured a
little from Mr. Patch, which I have sent along with the patterns in
Mrs. Varrien's letter, hoping that the word _Mostre_ on the back of the
letter will serve for a passport to all. The ultramarine costs nothing;
therefore, if it arrives safe, the commission is finished."

We next have a couple of letters from Dr. Armstrong; which, on account
of his ancient and enduring friendship for Smollett, and of the
similarity in their careers, may be given at large. Armstrong was a
wrongheaded, righthearted man,--a surgeon in the army, we believe,--and
a worshipper of Apollo, as well in his proper person as in that of
Esculapius. In these, and in the varied uses to which he turned his pen,
the reader will see a similarity to the story of his brother Scot. That
he was occasionally splenetic in his disposition is very manifest.
His quarrel with Wilkes, with whom he had been on terms of intimate
friendship, finds a parallel in Smollett's own history. The first
letter is without date; but the reference to the publication of his
"Miscellanies" fixes it as of 1770, and at London.

DR. ARMSTRONG TO DR. SMOLLETT.

"My dear Doctor,--I reproach myself;--but it is as insignificant as
embarrassing to explain some things;--so much for that. As to my
confidence in your stamina, I can see no reason to flinch from it; but I