298 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



the method, and at any rate will not determine with 

 regard to it until my MS. has been submitted to Mr 

 Shortrede's correspondent. Even should his opinion be 

 an unfavourable one, and the dernier scheme prove un- 

 favourable too, still my fate as a writer shall not, I trust, 

 be decided by that of my Traditions. The same cast of 

 mind which has enabled me to overcome not a few of 

 the obstacles which my place in society and an imper- 

 fect education have conspired to cast in my way, and 

 this too at a time when the approval of such men as the 

 gentleman whom I have now the honour of addressing 

 was a meed beyond the reach of even my fondest 

 anticipations, shall, I trust, enable me to persist in im- 

 proving to the utmost the powers which I naturally 

 possess. And should I fail at last, it will assuredly be 

 less my fault than my misfortune. 



' I am wholly unable to express the sense I entertain 

 of your goodness, but believe, honoured sir, that I can 

 feel and appreciate it. My days are passing quietly 

 and not unhappily among friends to whom I am sin- 

 cerely attached, and by whom I know myself to be 

 regarded with a similar feeling ; and though that de- 

 pression which affects the trade of the whole country 

 bears so low that it has reached even me, I can live on 

 the little which I earn and am content. Still, however, 

 I indulge in hopes and expectations which I would ill 

 like to forego, hopes perhaps of being somewhat less 

 obscure, and somewhat abler to assist such of my re- 

 latives as are poorer than even myself; but the future 

 belongs to God. Winter, my season of leisure, is fast 

 approaching, and should I live to see its close I shall 

 probably find myself ten or twelve chapters deep in the 

 second volume of my Traditions, maugre the untoward 

 destinies of the first.' 



