.
Thus, as in men, in peopled states, we find
Unequal powers, and varied tones of mind:
Timid or dauntless, high of thought or low,
O'erwhelmed with phlegm, or fraught with fire they glow
And as the sculptor's art is better shown
In Parian marble than in porous stone,
Wreaths fresh or sear'd repay refinement's toil,
As genius owns or dulness stamps the soil.
Where isles of coral stud the southern main,
And painted kings and cinctured warriors reign,
Nations there are who native worth possess,--
Whom every art shall court, each science bless:
And tribes there are, heavy of heart and slow,
On whom no coming age a change shall know."

There was, I suspect, a waste of effort in all this planning; but some
men seem destined to do things clumsily and ill, at many times the
expense which serves to secure success to the more adroit. I despatched
my Ode to the newspaper, accompanied by a letter of explanation; but it
fared as ill as my Address to the Institution; and a single line in
italics in the next number intimated that it was not to appear. And thus
both my schemes were, as they ought to be, knocked on the head. I have
not schemed any since. Strategy is, I fear, not my forte; and it is idle
to attempt doing in spite of nature what one has not been born to do
well. Besides, I began to be seriously dissatisfied with myself: there
seemed to be nothing absolutely wrong in a man who wanted honest
employment taking this way of showing he was capable of it; but I felt
the spirit within rise against it; and so I resolved to ask no more
favours of any one, even should poets' corners remain shut against me
for ever, or however little Institutions, literary or scientific, might
favour me with their notice. I strode along the streets, half an inch
taller on the strength of the resolution; and straightway, as if to
reward me for my magnanimity, an offer of employment came my way
unsolicited. I was addressed by the recruiting serjeant of a Highland
regiment, who asked me if I did not belong to the Aird? "No, not to the
Aird; to Cromarty," I replied. "Ah, to Cromarty--very fine place! But
would you not better bid adieu to Cromarty, and come along with me? We
have a capital grenadier company; and in our regiment a stout steady
man is always sure to get on." I thanked him, but declined his
invitation; and, with an apology on his part, which was not in the least
needed or expecte