to such as were much less enthusiastic with regard to
literary men and things than I was. To share in the conversation of
those possessed of high literary taste and talent, and, above all, of
poetic genius, is the highest enjoyment afforded by society; and if it
be thus gratifying, it is almost unnecessary to add that it is also
advantageous in no ordinary degree, if, indeed, properly appreciated
and improved. Any one who ever met the late Professor in the midst of
his own happy family, constituted as it was when I had this pleasure,
was not likely soon to forget a scene wherein so much genius, kindness,
loveliness, and worth were blended. If the world does not think with a
deep and undying regret of what once adorned it, and it has now lost,
through the intervention of those shadows which no morning but the
eternal one can remove, I am one, at least, who in this respect cannot
follow its example.

"Edinburgh, with its 'palaces and towers,' and its many crowded ways,
was at first strangely new to me, being as different, in almost all
respects, to what I had been accustomed as it might seem possible for
contrariety to make earthly things. Though I had friends in it, and
therefore was not solitary, yet its tendency, like that of the noisy and
restless sea, was to render me melancholy. Some features which the
congregated condition of mankind exhibited penetrated my heart with
something like actual dismay. I had seen nothing of the sort, nor yet
even so much as a semblance of it, and therefore I had no idea that
there existed such a miserable shred of degradation, for example, as a
cinder-woman--desolate and dirty as her employment--bowed down--a shadow
among shadows--busily prone, beneath the sheety night sky, to find out
and fasten upon the crumb, whose pilgrimage certainly had not improved
it since falling from the rich man's table. Compassion, though not
naturally so, becomes painful when entertained towards those whom we
believe labouring under suffering which we fain would but cannot
alleviate.

"I had enough of curiosity for wishing to see all those things which
others spoke of, and characterised as worthy of being seen; but I
contented myself meanwhile with a survey of the city's external
attributes. In a week or two, however, my friend A. F. Harrower,
formerly mentioned, having come into town from Clydesdale, took pleasure
in finding out whatever could interest or gratify me, and of conveying
me thither. With ve