46 THE BANK ACCOUNTANT. 



hands of the subscribers, and congratulations poured in 

 upon Miller. He was in a mood of quiet satisfaction, 

 wholly unimpassioned ; nay, he was not without anxiety 

 as to the loss which might be incurred by Mr Black : 

 his friends were joyful, cordial, exultant. Here is a 

 heart-warming letter from Mr Carruthers. 



' Inverness, April 17, 1835. 



' Many thanks for your bonny little book. It was 

 delivered to me yesterday evening about six o'clock, and 

 I went through fully three-fourths of it before going to 

 bed. Depend upon it, my dear fellow, you have made 

 a hit this time. I don't say that the Legends will lift you 

 into high popularity with all your robes and singing 

 garlands just at once. Your fame will not come rushing 

 on you like a spate. But the book will have a steady 

 general sale, and will lay the foundation of a permanent 

 literary reputation, destined, I trust, to go on increasing, 

 and be crowned with many honours. 



'You are right in your remark about there being 

 rather too much dissertation, especially in the first two 

 or three chapters. This surplus, like that of the Irish 

 Church, would have, perhaps, been better appropriated to 

 other purposes ; yet one soon becomes reconciled to it or 

 ceases to consider it unnatural. I think you lack dra- 

 matic power ; at least, your sketches of character struck 

 me as inferior to the descriptive and moralizing passages. 

 I should, however, except honest Donald Miller, who is 

 equal to Washington Irving's happiest creations. The 

 great charm of the book is that it is full of original 

 matter, not concocted from other works, though you 

 have much curious reading too, but fresh and flowing, 

 full of truth and nature. Taste, you know, is a plant of 

 very slow growth, yet you have already outstripped our 



