259 



CHAPTER XL 



MILLER AND HIS NEW FRIENDS INTRODUCED TO PRINCIPAL 



BAIRD WILL NOT GO TO EDINBURGH FOR THE PRESENT 



HIS POEMS DO NOT SELL CORRESPONDS WITH MR ISAAC 



FORSYTH WILL NOT RELINQUISH LITERARY AMBITION. 



T) EFERENCE has been made to the additions to the 

 Jit previously limited number of Miller's friends and 

 acquaintances occasioned by the publication of his 

 poems. It is in no ordinary degree pleasing to observe 

 the friendliness which he experienced from persons 

 greatly his superiors in social position, and the manner 

 in which that friendliness was responded to by him. 

 On the one hand, there was cordiality without the 

 faintest trace of the ' insolence of condescension ; ' counsel 

 and furtherance of every kind to the utmost limit per- 

 mitted by genuine respect, and by sympathetic apprehen- 

 sion of what a sensitively proud and independent nature 

 required ; unfeigned recognition of the intellectual rank 

 of this artisan, and of the title it gave him to be treated 

 as a gentleman. On the other hand, there was perfect 

 appreciation of all this ; gratitude not for patronage to 

 the mechanic, but for fellowship and sympathy with the 

 man ; independence not petulantly insisted upon, not 

 obtrusively displayed, but quietly, unaffectedly, almost 

 unconsciously worn as habit of soul and principle of de- 

 portment. 



