414 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



of celebrity in either. He died nearly two years ago ; 

 and were the existence and the hopes of man confined 

 to the present world, it might be said of him, that as he 

 lived in it almost without enjoyment, so he quitted it 

 without accomplishing anything. But the contrary was 

 the fact, for in reality he achieved much. His name was 

 William Ross, a name which you may repeat a thousand 

 times and in a thousand places without awakening a 

 single recollection of him who bore it. No sense of 

 sacredness, no feeling of devotion, connected with either 

 his genius or his worth, shall ever press on the minds of 

 those who behold the nameless sod which covers his 

 remains ; and yet, though thus obscure, he has earned a 

 loftier fame than that which the men of this earth can 

 bestow. Through the grace of God he had subdued his 

 own spirit ; he had striven against the ills of human life 

 and human nature, and so far as these concerned himself, 

 he had overcome them ; and as he had the merit of 

 living without reproach, so he had the happiness of 

 dying without fear. These, my dear sir, were achieve- 

 ments greater than any merely literary ones, and, you 

 know, the fame awarded to such God has described as 

 bestowed by His own lips and those of the pure spirits 

 of heaven. Forgive me this slight sketch of the character 

 of your predecessor. 



' Accept my thanks for the copy you have sent me 

 of your interesting little book. What have the critics 

 said of it ? Upon mine they have delivered every possible 

 variety of opinion. I am a man of genius, I am a 

 blockhead, my name is to be at once illustrious and 

 obscure. I do not intend writing verses for a long, long 

 time. I purpose devoting myself entirely to prose; 

 partly, perhaps, because the study is easier in itself, 

 partly because I am of opinion that nature has fitted me 



