circumstances, which render it no longer surprising that the
Edinburgh folk should be, as they think themselves, the most
accomplished people in the world. But, alas! from the moment I
placed my foot on board that cruel vessel, of which the very idea is
anguish, all thoughts were swallowed up in suffering-swallowed, did
I say? Ah, my dear Bell, it was the odious reverse--but imagination
alone can do justice to the subject. Not, however, to dwell on what
is past, during the whole time of our passage from Leith, I was
unable to think, far less to write; and, although there was a
handsome young Hussar officer also a passenger, I could not even
listen to the elegant compliments which he seemed disposed to offer
by way of consolation, when he had got the better of his own
sickness. Neither love nor valour can withstand the influence of
that sea-demon. The interruption thus occasioned to my observations
made me destroy my journal, and I have now to write to you only
about London--only about London! What an expression for this human
universe, as my brother calls it, as if my weak feminine pen were
equal to the stupendous theme!

But, before entering on the subject, let me first satisfy the
anxiety of your faithful bosom with respect to my father's legacy.
All the accounts, I am happy to tell you, are likely to be amicably
settled; but the exact amount is not known as yet, only I can see,
by my brother's manner, that it is not less than we expected, and my
mother speaks about sending me to a boarding-school to learn
accomplishments. Nothing, however, is to be done until something is
actually in hand. But what does it all avail to me? Here am I, a
solitary being in the midst of this wilderness of mankind, far from
your sympathising affection, with the dismal prospect before me of
going a second time to school, and without the prospect of enjoying,