44 MEMOIR OF WILLIAM SMELLIE. 
tively of the first abilities and greatest strength 
of mind, as well as one of the best hearts and 
keenest wits that I have ever met with. When you 
see him, as alas ! he too is smarting at the pinch 
of distressful circumstances, aggravated by the 
sneer of contumelious greatness 1 a bit of my 
cheese alone will not cure him ; but if you add a 
tankard of brown stout, and superadd a magnum 
of right Oporto, you will see his sorrows vanish 
like the morning mist before the summer sun. I 
am, &c. 
“ Robert Borns.” 
