39 
this analogy, considering that many plants are poi- 
sonous to some animals and wholesome to others, 
of which I gave several instances. The president 
very politely thanked me for my observations. I 
find they are wonderfully ignorant of natural hi- 
story : and even my little knowledge of the subject 
gives me an importance which I hope will be of 
great advantage, and may perhaps in some measure 
atone for my deficiency in classical learning. 
JaMES EDWARD SMITH. 
To his mother, on the following day, he expresses 
himself thus :—“ My happiness, honoured madam, 
in my present situation is completed by your ex- 
pressing so much happiness in my prospects, as 
well as my father. I cannot help considering it, as 
you say, peculiarly directed by the Almighty, and 
therefore I recur immediately to him when any 
gloomy ideas present themselves; as I hope I have 
the most perfect confidence in him, and trust he 
will preserve us all to be a blessing to each other. 
But if he thinks fit to separate us, I hope we could 
acquiesce; and we know that not a single kind 
thought can ever be lost, or lose its reward. | have 
met with a number of young play-fellows, as you 
said I should. The children of Dr. Duncan are very 
pretty, and remarkably sensible; and here are a sweet 
little boy and girl, the children of Dr. Adam, whom 
I often play with. Mrs. Adam is a very beautiful 
polite woman, and the children in perfect order ; 
the little lass told her mamma I was ‘a bonny man.’ 
‘ Ay, says her brother, ‘and a good man too !’” 
