CHAPTER XII-1815. (CONTINUED.)

After having completed some previously contemplated arrangements, I lose no time in evincing a disposition, not to loiter by the way, under my new engagements. First volume of my Monthly Monitor completed.-Mrs Grant's recommendatory notice in her Popular Models, then just published.—Sale to the Trade, in Edinburgh, on the 13th of July.-John Knox's head-piece, or skull cap. Great success of that sale.-One purchaser had better have been absent.—Men blind to future events; happy ordination in the course of things that it is so.- -Commence my publication business, on a small scale, in July.— A little more extended in August.-Catalogue sent out, preparatory to my sale to the Trade, in Glasgow.-Become seriously indisposed.-My indisposition ascribed, by a friend, to the old cause,-over-exertion.-Extracts from my friend's letter. His friendly admonitions, cautions, and advices, kindly taken, but found to be impracticable at the time —A severe blow, not calcu lated to mend the matter.-Set out for Glasgow, on Monday the 4th of September. The sale takes place on the 6th and 7th.-Is pretty successful.Complimented with the FREEDOM OF THE TRADE, in the city of Glasgow.-My exertions on the day previous to the sale. If there had not been a respectable turn out, it would not have been my fault.-A laborious week for me, upon the whole; but no rest, or respite, during the next.-Journey to Newcastle. A very warm day, succeeded by a cold frosty night.-Tempting fires not to be come at.-My business at Newcastle.-Progress made in my new line, by the 1st of October. The wheels in motion, upon a pretty extensive scalc.-Things continue to go on prosperously.- My November and December sales in Dunbar, turn out well.-The Monthly Monitor brought to a conclusion.-Some allusion to, but no positive promise given, in regard to a quarterly publication.-Issue an addition, or supplement, to my general publication Catalogue, dated December 1815.

THE arrival of my son from his journey, could not be long after this interview with Mr ; and, when he did arrive, I would, of course, lose no time in making him acquainted with the nature of my new engagements, which would, I conceived, be the more agreeable to him, as the line in which I had now embarked so largely, would give full employment for his types, and his labours, at home, without so much trouble in travelling as he had been accustomed to of late, in collecting, occasionally, so many small sums, as we had now scattered about, all over the country; and, sometimes in such inclement seasons, as to have his progress interrupted by snow, or other storms.

From the circumstance of relieving him from this part of the business, of which, I believe, he was getting tired, with the prospect of keeping his hands pretty full of work otherwise, under the new arrangement in which he was now about to act at Haddington, the information, indeed, could not be otherwise than acceptable; more especially, as, with the certainty of remuneration, from what printing work would be executed at our own office, he would have neither risk, nor responsibility, in this matter; both of which, as well as the originating of the business, so far as he was concerned, lay with myself.

As, from these considerations, it was not likely that I should meet with any objections, or opposition, from that quarter, so neither did I, and as soon as we had the necessary arrangements completed, and things set agoing on their new footing, at Haddington, in the month of May, I lost no time in giving evidence, that, with so many new engagements on my head, I was not more disposed than formerly, to act the part of the sluggard, or to be found loitering by the way side.

According to my usual way of keeping things moving, I see I brought out the 6th number, which completed the first volume of the Monitor, at the promised time, in the month of June, and which, I accompanied, in sending out the parcels, with some folio advertisements, to hang up in the shops of booksellers, or other agents, under the usual head, "This day is Published, and to be had here," &c., in which I introduced, as an inducement to new subscribers to come forward, the following extract from Mrs Grant's Popular Models, which must have just made their appearance; for, I see in a note at the end of one of the volumes, an allusion to something recorded in the April number of the Monitor,-"Every householder ought to become a subscriber to The PHILANTHROPIC MUSEUM.' The plebeian, for the sake of his children; and those in a higher sphere, as a remedy for the pernicious craving for diversion, which entices servants to spend their spare minutes in the streets, or in the haunts of folly, not to say vice."

But, indeed, it would appear, that my orders for this pub lication, by this time, were far from being inconsiderable; and, by a letter I received from one agent a little before, I was informed that, in his town, he had one hundred subscribers, which, he justly remarks, "is no contemptible number."

On the 3d of July, I see I issued my CATALOGUE to the Trade, for that sale which was held on the 13th, in Duff's Tavern, Covenant Close; and, from the size of the room in which the sale was conducted, and its being graced with rather an unusual kind of appendage, hung up on the wall, viz., the identical skull-cap, or head-piece, that I was told had been worn by John Knox, and which, at least, bore marks of being worn in times of danger, being lined with iron I think was, most probably, the very room in which the Covenanters met, in days of yore.

This sale must have been very respectably and numerously attended, as I observe its produce, in bills and smaller sums, amounted to somewhat more than eight hundred pounds!a no contemptible sum for a two days work, my friend, who used the expression formerly, and was present on this occasion, might have said; although, as matters turned out afterwards, it would have been much better for me had one gentleman been absent. But we cannot foresee things, and it is well for us that it is so, or the business of life would soon be at a stand-still, and human industry and exertion, be benumbed by the cheerlessness of the prospect before them, instead of being, as now, often borne forward by the gay and tempting illusions of hope. Well said is it, indeed, by POPE, in his little profound treatise, the "Essay on Man,"

"Heaven, from all creatures, hides the book of fate
All but the page prescribed, their present state.
From brutes, what men, from men, what spirits know,
Or who could suffer being here below?

Oh blindness to the future, kindly given,

That each may fill the circle marked by Heaven."

In the month of July, I observe, I also began to set about my publication business in earnest, by issuing an advertisement, intimating the publication of the first part of a little work, then in course of progress through our own press;

and

this was followed up in August, by my circular to agents, &c. and advertisements to the public, respecting a much greater work: one of those, I had taken a concern in, along with Mr for it does not appear that I had, as yet, issued any general catalogue in regard to this business, although, from what I shall soon have occasion to mention, I certainly did so previously to my going Westward, on the occasion of my Glasgow sale, in the month of September following; the catalogue, preparatory to which, it appears from a letter I had from a friend, of date the 23d of August, had been issued by that time.

But that letter, puts me in mind of another circumstance, which I would perhaps, otherwise, have forgotten, viz., that I had been seriously indisposed; and that that indisposition was imputed by my very feeling and considerate friend, to the same cause that a former indisposition, already mentioned, and which happened about a dozen of years before, was imputed to, viz., too much exertion. But let the following extracts from my friend's letter speak as to this point:-"I am truly sorry that you have been so seriously indisposed. You must, if you regard yourself, relax your exertions. It has often been a wonder to me how you get on." And again, “it is no doubt right, and a duty which we are called to, to do good as we have opportunity," &c.; but humanely qualifying this last assertion, by observing, that "we must remember that mercy is as, nay more acceptable, than sacrifice;" and afterwards, on the supposition, no doubt, that my monthly labours, of late, had been too much for me, goes so far as to call my attention to a quarterly publication, remarking, as an inducement, "which will still give you considerable scope to diffuse rational information, and will certainly relieve you," as he goes on to express himself, "of much slavery you have hitherto subjected yourself to."

In this letter, as I observed before, my kind friend makes some allusion to my contemplated sale in GLASGOW, as intimated to take place in a few weeks afterwards; but before that short period had elapsed, I was doomed, alas! to receive a blow, which, had it come a little sooner, or before my cata

logues were issued, and perhaps, that intimation had not been given;-although, it was one of those secret, or home brought griefs, in which the heart must know its own bitterness, yet, a stranger may not intermeddle with, and like many, many other griefs of the kind that I have since expe rienced, must therefore be concealed from public gaze, and consequently, from public sympathy.

It must, nevertheless, have done more, infinitely more, than my previous indisposition, (for I was confined to bed at the time I received the mournful intelligence) to unman, unnerve, and unfit me for the new task to which I had just pledged myself; and in order to carry which into execution, as advertised, on Wednesday, the 6th of September, I went westward, accompanied by my two sons, and a friend who had kindly volunteered his services to assist me, on Monday the 4th, so that, notwithstanding my friend's friendly admonitions—my recent severe indisposition-and this new source of depression, that had so unexpectedly assailed me, and which must for some time after, have preyed upon mind, there was yet NO REST FOR ME—no time for giving vent to my sorrows in solitude-and it was well that I was so far recovered and reconciled to my lot during this short space, as to be able to go west; for this sale, which was held on the evening of the 6th and 7th, in Mrs Johnston's tavern, was also pretty well attended, and produced a considerable amount, in addition, although, by no means equal to, what I had formerly experienced from my Edinburgh one.

It was I observe, in consequence of my exertions on the first night of this sale, that my good friend, Mr James Lumsden, proposed, (which proposition was seconded and unanimously carried by all the gentlemen present,) that I should have THE FREEDOM OF THE TRADE OF THE CITY OF GLASGOW CONFERRED UPON ME. But it must have been but a small part of these exertions to which my worthy friends then assembled had been witness, for if it may be accounted something of an oriental like me, from the extremity of the eastern coast, to have gone so far west to serve and to address these occidentals, and to continue in speech from the Wed