LETTER FROM FINLAY. 193 



had been splendid, that timidity, that caution, that habit 

 of despondent brooding and of looking at things on 

 their dark side, which blended so curiously in his com- 

 position with a high estimate of his own powers and a 

 courage which, when roused, no opposition could daunt 

 or peril dismay, held him back. True prophets have 

 always shrunk, like Moses, from the work assigned them, 

 and only the false prophet, intent not on the message to 

 be delivered but on the rewards and honours to be 

 earned in delivering it, rushes into momentous tasks with 

 frivolous hardihood. Miller, however, ultimately accepted 

 the Editorship of the projected paper, and returned to 

 Cromarty to resign his situation in the Bank and to 

 arrange for permanent settlement in Edinburgh. 



His mind was far from cheerful. A pleasant episode, 

 however, occurred about the time of his return to Cro- 

 marty. His friend Finlay had returned from the West 

 Indies, and, making a tour through England and Ireland, 

 bent his steps to the North to revisit the scenes of his 

 youthful gipsyings with Miller. Erom Stratford-on-Avon, 

 whither he had gone to do homage at the shrine of 

 Shakspeare, he wrote to his friend. The letter is so full 

 of kind intelligence that we must make room for the 

 greater part of it. 



FROM ALEX. FINLAY. 



' Stratford-on-Avon, 4th September, 1839. 



' I little thought the last time I wrote you that the 

 next letter should have been dated from this classic spot. 

 My last was from Jamaica about three years since, in 

 answer to your excellent letter which I have in my port- 

 manteau, and which I have treasured most carefully, as- 

 suring me, as it did, that I had one heart at least in the 

 world that beat in unison with my own. I have suffered 



VOL. II. 13 



