47 
twenty, and has had an excellent education*. He is 
a good Greek scholar; but what principally endears 
him to me are his refined feelings and great sensi- 
bility, joined with a strong judgement, and a mind 
whose native simplicity and purity have been pre- 
served by an education in a sequestered and virtuous 
part of the world, where luxury and vice have made 
very little progress indeed, compared with ours. 
Mr. Batty has a fine ear for music, plays on the 
German flute, and sings well; and there is some- 
thing in his appearance that pleased me at first 
sight. There are a few others about taking their 
final leave of Edinburgh : this I consider as a very 
great alloy to the happiness which a scientific man 
enjoys in a seat of learning like this. I have a 
numerous acquaintance, with whom I visit or walk 
with occasionally. I have written Mr. Rose an ac- 
count of our new society; as I thought it would 
please him. 
Your ever dutiful and affectionate Son, 
JAMES Epwarp SMITH. 
Mr. James Edward Smith to his Mother. 
Honoured Madam, Edinburgh, May 16, 1782. 
I have a plan in agitation to take a little tour 
* Robert Batty, M.D. received his classical education under 
the Rev. Mr. Wilson, a very celebrated schoolmaster of Kirby 
Lonsdale. He was early patronized by the late Sir Richard Jebb, 
who sent him into Italy with one of his patients. He is a mem- 
ber of the Royal College of Physicians, F.L.S., and senior phy- 
sician of the Brownlow-street Hospital. 
