as too narrow to contain my
thinking;--the thinking ability had been growing, but not the ability of
poetic expression; nay, much of the thinking seemed to be of a kind not
suited for poetic purposes at all;--and though it was of course far
better that I should come to know this in time, than that, like some,
even superior men, I should persist in wasting, in inefficient verse,
the hours in which vigorous prose might be produced, it was at least
quite mortifying enough to make the discovery with half a volume of
metre committed to type, and in the hands of the printer. Resolving,
however, that my humble name should not appear in the title-page, I went
on with my volume. My new friend the editor kindly inserted, from time
to time, copies of its verses in the columns of his paper, and strove to
excite some degree of interest and expectation regarding it; but my
recent discovery had thoroughly sobered me, and I awaited the
publication of my volume not much elated by the honour done me, and as
little sanguine respecting its ultimate success as well might be. And
ere I quitted Inverness, a sad bereavement, which greatly narrowed the
circle of my best-loved friends, threw very much into the background all
my thoughts regarding it.

On quitting Cromarty, I had left my uncle James labouring under an
attack of rheumatic fever; but though he had just entered his grand
climacteric, he was still a vigorous and active man, and I could not
doubt that he had strength of constitution enough to throw it off. He
had failed to rally, however; and after returning one evening from a
long exploratory walk, I found in my lodgings a note awaiting me,
intimating his death. The blow fell with stunning effect. Ever since the
death of my father, my two uncles had faithfully occupied his place;
and James, of a franker and less reserved temper than Alexander, and
more tolerant of my boyish follies, had, though I sincerely loved the
other, laid stronger hold on my affections. He was of a genial
disposition, too, that always remained sanguine in the cast of its hopes
and anticipations; and he had unwittingly flattered my vanity by taking
me pretty much at my own estimate--overweeningly high, of course, like
that of almost all young men, but mayhap necessary, in the character of
a force, to make headway in the face of obstruction and difficulty.
Uncle James, like _Le Balafre_ in the novel, would have "ventured his
nephew against the wight Wallace." I i