LETTER FROM MR ROBERT CHAMBERS. 51 



time far on in the perusal of it. Further, I have put 

 an extract from it into our printer's hands, with a pre- 

 liminary notice, in which I express my opinion of it ; 

 three weeks, however, must elapse before this can appear. 

 I think you will not be displeased with the terms in 

 which I have spoken of the volume and its author ; at 

 least, I am very sure that the notice is meant for the 

 benefit of both. I dwell chiefly on the value which I 

 conceive the book to 4iave, as an example of the opera- 

 tions of a mind of deep reflection and sensibility, reared 

 amidst humble scenes and circumstances, imperfectly 

 educated, and in want of all appropriate material to act 

 upon. Yet, while acknowledging that the reflection and 

 the sensibility are often misspent, I take care to convey 

 the impression that the book is a good one of the kind 

 it professes to belong to, and calculated to afford much 

 amusement to the reader, for I believe it would not be 

 bought as a " psychological curiosity " only. Between 

 ourselves, I think it would have been better to retrench 

 a good deal of the moralizing in the early chapters. I 

 assure you, though not unaccustomed to philosophical 

 reading, I find your thinking pretty hard and solid ; it 

 requires a little more time and pains to follow you than 

 the most of us care to expend on a book of what we 

 suppose light reading. The history of Cromarty ! you 

 would have made a history of John o' Groat's house 

 philosophical, I believe. Yours seems to be the true 

 sort of mind to make minnows talk like whales. Such 

 powers are not appropriate to topographical narration, 

 or the chronicling of old stories. A playful fancy and a 

 power of whimsical allusion answer these walks of litera- 

 ture much better. You are like a man assorting needles 

 with a gauntlet. I must also mention to yourself that I 

 have found a few little matters in your volume which 



