fear one lies more to one's self than to any one else), every page
should confute, refute, and utterly abjure its _predecessor_.

"Another scribble from Martin Baldwin the petitioner; I have neither
head nor nerves to present it. That confounded supper at Lewis's has
spoiled my digestion and my philanthropy. I have no more charity than a
cruet of vinegar. Would I were an ostrich, and dieted on fire-irons,--or
any thing that my gizzard could get the better of.

"To-day saw W. His uncle is dying, and W. don't much affect our Dutch
determinations. I dine with him on Thursday, provided _l'oncle_ is not
dined upon, or peremptorily bespoke by the posthumous epicures before
that day. I wish he may recover--not for _our_ dinner's sake, but to
disappoint the undertaker, and the rascally reptiles that may well
wait, since they _will_ dine at last.

"Gell called--he of Troy--after I was out. Mem.--to return his visit.
But my Mems. are the very land-marks of forgetfulness;--something like a
light-house, with a ship wrecked under the nose of its lantern. I never
look at a Mem. without seeing that I have remembered to forget. Mem.--I
have forgotten to pay Pitt's taxes, and suppose I shall be surcharged.
'An I do not turn rebel when thou art king'--oons! I believe my very
biscuit is leavened with that impostor's imposts.

"Ly. Me. returns from Jersey's to-morrow;--I must call. A Mr. Thomson
has sent a song, which I must applaud. I hate annoying them with censure
or silence;--and yet I hate _lettering_.

"Saw Lord Glenbervie and his Prospectus, at Murray's, of a new Treatise
on Timber. Now here is a man more useful than all the historians and