[Footnote 4: It was in June, 1782.]

* * * * *

VIII.--To MR. JOHN MURDOCH, SCHOOL-MASTER, STAPLES INN BUILDINGS,
LONDON.

LOCHLIE, _15th January_, 1783.

DEAR SIR,--As I have an opportunity of sending you a letter without
putting you to that expense which any production of mine would but ill
repay, I embrace it with pleasure, to tell you that I have not
forgotten, or ever will forget, the many obligations I lie under to your
kindness and friendship.

I do not doubt, Sir, but you will wish to know what has been the result
of all the pains of an indulgent father, and a masterly teacher; and I
wish I could gratify your curiosity with such a recital as you would be
pleased with;--but that is what I am afraid will not be the case. I
have, indeed, kept pretty clear of vicious habits; and in this respect,
I hope, my conduct will not disgrace the education I have gotten; but as
a man of the world, I am most miserably deficient. One would have
thought that, bred as I have been, under a father who has figured pretty
well as _un homme des affaires_, I might have been what the world calls
a pushing active fellow; but to tell you the truth, Sir, there is hardly
anything more my reverse. I seem to be one sent into the world to see
and observe; and I very easily compound with the knave who tricks me of
my money, if there be anything original about him which shows me human
nature in a different light from anything I have seen before. In short,