DELAY. 203 



critics ! ' It is a fatal sign/ he adds, ' in a literary 

 man when he cannot cease being professional. Who 

 would ever have guessed from his lighter writings that 

 Currie was a physician, or Rogers a banker, or Sir 

 Walter a clerk of session, or Jeffrey an advocate ? But 

 the Dean, a man of a very different stamp, is nothing apart 

 from his trade ; he can write law papers, and nothing 

 else ; his pamphlet is a piece of mere special pleading ; 

 he is a lawyer, and a lawyer only. 7 



This of course brings a prompt reply. Mr Paul, 

 deeply grieved, has been trusting to Mr Dunlop to keep 

 Miller informed; Mr Dunlop, deeply grieved, has been 

 trusting to Mr Paul. On the main point, however, all 

 is right. The capital which the publisher who was 

 to have undertaken the practical part of the enter- 

 prise could divert from his general business and de- 

 vote to the paper had been deemed inadequate, and 

 the affair had hung back. But ' a respectable young 

 man with a few hundred pounds ' had consented to join 

 him in part-proprietorship of the paper, and to give his 

 whole attention to its management. The young man 

 thus described by Mr Dunlop was Mr Robert Fairly, 

 bred a printer, experienced in the printing department 

 of a newspaper, whose steady industry, high moral 

 character, and eminent common sense had placed him 

 in a position to make this offer. Mr Fairly was pre- 

 pared to enter into friendly relations with Miller. He 

 had seen the Lines to a Dial in a Church-yard, and 

 was greatly struck with them. From the time when 

 Miller came as editor to Edinburgh to the day of his 

 death, Mr Fairly continued his warmest admirer and 

 most affectionate friend, and now cherishes his memory 

 with a reverence and tenderness which would satisfy Mr 

 Carlyle's utmost requirements in the way of hero-worship. 



