nstant
succession of similar advantages at the same easy rate; and Constable,
from deference to Scott's wishes, and from his own liking for the
humorous auctioneer, appears to have submitted with hardly a momentary
grudge to this heavy tax on his most important ventures.

{p.163} The same week Scott received Southey's celebrated letter to
Mr. William Smith, M. P. for Norwich. The poet of Keswick had also
forwarded to him somewhat earlier his Pilgrimage to Waterloo, which
piece contains a touching allusion to the affliction the author had
recently sustained in the death of a fine boy. Scott's letter on this
occasion was as follows:--

TO ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ., KESWICK.

SELKIRK, May 9, 1817.

MY DEAR SOUTHEY,--I have been a strangely negligent
correspondent for some months past, more especially as I
have had you rarely out of my thoughts, for I think you will
hardly doubt of my sincere sympathy in events which have
happened since I have written. I shed sincere tears over the
Pilgrimage to Waterloo. But in the crucible of human life,
the purest gold is tried by the strongest heat, and I can
only hope for the continuance of your present family
blessings to one so well formed to enjoy the pure happiness
they afford. My health has, of late, been very indifferent.
I was very nearly succumbing under a violent inflammatory
attack, and still feel the effects of the necessary
treatment. I believe they took one third of the blood of my
system, and blistered in proportion: so that both my flesh
and my blood have been in a woefully reduced state. I got
out here some weeks since, where, by dint of the insensible
exercise which one takes in the country, I feel myself
gathering strength daily, but am still obliged to observe a
severe regimen. It was not to croak about myself, however,
that I took up the pen, but to wish you joy of your
triumphant answer to that coarse-minded William Smith. He
deserved all he has got, and, to say the truth, you do not
spare him, and have no cause. His attack seems to have
proceeded from the vulgar insolence of a low mind desirous
of attacking genius at disadvantage. It is the ancient and
eternal strife of which the witch speaks in {p.164}
Thalaba. Such a man as he, feels he has no alliance with
such as you, and his