LETTER TO MR FORSYTE. 263 



Among those who interested themselves in the suc- 

 cess of his first venture none were more zealous than 

 Mr Isaac Eorsyth of Elgin. But the efforts of Mr 

 Forsyth to dispose of the copies sent him from Inver- 

 ness were vain, and that although he had 'never em- 

 barked in any such concern with so much enthusiasm, 

 nor took so much pains to secure success/ There is 

 a chivalrous delicacy in Miller's reply ; he contrives to 

 extract from the failure of his friend an additional 

 cause for gratitude : 



' When I look back to the fate of my literary specu- 

 lations with a composure approaching to indifference, I 

 trust my gratitude to the gentleman who has so gener- 

 ously exerted himself in striving to forward these, is not 

 at all in proportion to the success with which his exer- 

 tions have been repaid. Nay, sir, I consider your claim 

 on me to have gained in strength from the circumstance 

 of your having encountered disappointment in my be- 

 half. I trust I may affirm that nature has bestowed 

 upon me a disposition which enables me to conceive of 

 the sentiment conveyed in the remarkable text, " It is 

 more blessed to give than to receive ; " and though for- 

 tune seems to have determined that I shall be no be- 

 stower of benefits, I yet know from experience what it 

 is to confer an obligation, and what it is, after having 

 striven to oblige, to be thwarted in the intention. In 

 the one case I have derived a full compensation for what 

 I had done from that lightness of heart which accom- 

 panies success, and from the consciousness that, by 

 benefiting a fellow-creature, I had in some degree added 

 to the sum of human happiness. But in the other I have 

 felt differently. In that depression of spirit which is 

 almost always a consequent of unsuccessful exertion, I 

 have looked for solace to something external ; and have 



