WILLIAM SMELLTE. 23 



forsake her ; and had several times almost di- 

 verted the natural bias of my heart. But, when 

 I beheld the very cause of my pain, tortured be- 

 yond expression, unless flint or adamant had been 

 the principal ingredients of my composition, 

 I must infallibly have dissolved, retracted my 

 former resolution, and resumed my former 

 passion. 



" The result of all this is, that in a few days I 

 shall perhaps be personally acquainted with the 

 right-worshipful HYMEN. Like the common 

 herd of younkers, you will, no doubt, pronounce 

 this a mad and distracted resolution. But pause 

 a moment, and listen to the following thoughts. 

 Old Reekie* gave me birth, and in Old Reekie 

 have I lived these twenty-three years and some 

 more. Most of my blood relations have long 

 been in their graves. By a don't know what nor 

 how, I have gained several friends and well- 

 wishers, besides a tolerable competency of good 

 acquaintances, in the said Old Reekie. I might 

 probably have lived as long, and perhaps much 

 longer, in a different quarter of the globe, before 

 I could have been so well known, or have met 

 with such friendly reception from a strange 

 people. Here, therefore, moneyless and rich- 

 relationless, I have a better chance than any 

 where else ; unless you plead that some lucky 

 fortune is always ready to drop into a traveller's 

 pocket. But in the common run of adventures, 



* A customary quaint name for the old part of the city 

 of Edinburgh. 



