iv.] CHOICE OF A PROFESSION, 1830. 57 



use the strength of your opinion to overweigh his scru- 

 ples ; the fact is that Dr. Brewster and I merely differ 

 upon a point of fact, upon which he seems incapable of 

 being convinced, unless by those who have had more 

 experience in legal life than either he or I have. . . . 



* You who know the legal world so well will be amused 

 at the opinions he maintains, and perhaps scarcely think 

 them worth refutation; but you will, I am sure, enter 

 into my desire of obtaining the approbation of one to 

 whom I owe so much, whose advice has ever been so 

 sound and valuable, at this most important crisis of my 

 life, which must materially influence the comfort of all 

 our future connection. I am therefore anxious that you 

 would write me as strong a letter as you conscientiously 

 can, expressing, what I know you must feel, the folly of 

 a young man laying out his future prospects with the 

 sole view of gaining, without labour or application to his 

 profession, a lucrative office, of which the very existence 

 as a sinecure, before he fills it, is eminently doubtful. 



' To explain his ideas, I, in the first place, quote the 

 following from the first letter written to me after I men- 

 tiniied my proposed plans: 



* " I should like to see you measuring the boards of the 

 Parliament House, taking what routine business came 

 in the way, and thus fitting yourself for a sheriffship. 

 During those two years you may devote two-thirds of 

 your time to science, and then you might spend two 



a ;il.roud acquiring the modern languages and carry- 

 ing out your scientific pursuits." 



1 In short, on my return home, I was to find myself 



ill' of Peebleshire ! ! ! much to the discomfort, I 



should think, of the county. I wrote to Dr. Brewster to 



convince him that sheritl'ships were not so easily jumped 



into; lnii all the effect it produced was the enclosed, 



which left me no alternative but to apply for incontro- 



\< nil le arguments from those whose experience could 



v weight along with them. He implores ine, too, to 



the past five years had not been one long and 



;nus pause/ 



