played.' Johnson was really stymied, but you would never have
known it. 'Well, sir,' he said, holing out, 'I understand
that Garrick once played in Scotland, and if Scotland has any
gaiety to eclipse, which, sir, I deny----'

Prove Johnson wrong for once at the Students' Union and in your
other societies. I much regret that there was no Students' Union
at Edinburgh in my time. I hope you are fairly noisy and that
members are sometimes let out. Do you keep to the old topics?
King Charles's head; and Bacon wrote Shakespeare, or if he did
not he missed the opportunity of his life. Don't forget to speak
scornfully of the Victorian age; there will be time for meekness
when you try to better it. Very soon you will be Victorian or that
sort of thing yourselves; next session probably, when the freshmen
come up. Afterwards, if you go in for my sort of calling, don't
begin by thinking you are the last word in art; quite possibly you
are not; steady yourself by remembering that there were great men
before William K. Smith. Make merry while you may. Yet
light-heartedness is not for ever and a day. At its best it is
the gay companion of innocence; and when innocence goes--
as it must go--they soon trip off together, looking for something
younger. But courage comes all the way:

'Fight on, my men, says Sir Andrew Barton,
I am hurt, but I am not slaine;
I'll lie me down and bleed a-while,
And then I'll rise and fight againe.'

Another piece of advice; almost my last. For reasons you may guess
I must give this in a low voice. Beware of M'Connachie. When I