356 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



Last of all, he glances at Cromarty politics, de- 

 claring that he had narrowly escaped being made a 

 Councillor in a late Burgh election, and had ' fought 

 as hard to get out of the way of preferment as most 

 of his townspeople did to get in its way. 3 Thus ends a 

 letter as long as an ordinary essay. Before despatching 

 his next to Miss D unbar, he has learned from her that 

 she is suffering under dangerous illness. 



' Cromarty, January 10, 1834. 



1 The feelings with which I perused your last letter 

 were of a very different nature from those ever imparted 

 to me by any of your former ones. Would that I could 

 lighten you of but half your burden. But, alas (how 

 poor and insufficient are the friendships of earth) ! there 

 are evils in which there can be no co-partners. How 

 frequently do our better feelings seem bestowed upon 

 us merely to teach us how very weak we are ; and how 

 little else may it be in our power to give to those to 

 whom we have already given our best affections. It is 

 well, however, that there is one friend who, more sin- 

 cerely such than any other, is infinitely more powerful 

 too. He is willing to bestow every good upon us, and 

 quite as able as He is willing. 



( You are going to Edinburgh, and will, I trust, soon 

 return in stronger health and with brighter prospects. 

 Do not suffer your spirits to droop. Regard the past as an 

 earnest of the future, and cherish the invigorating hope 

 that there may be yet many years of life and happiness 

 before you. But there is a hope better and surer and 

 more invigorating still, that you do w^ell to cherish. 

 How cheering it is that our present little day, with its 

 clouds and its storms and its momentary gleams of brief 

 and imperfect sunshine, with its chill and troubled 



