dear friend to whom this letter is addressed, viz. the
facility with which I have, in moments of indolence, suffered my motions
to be, directed by any person who chanced to be near me, instead of
taking the labour of thinking or deciding for myself. I had employed for
some time, as a sort of guide and errand-boy, a lad named Benjamin, the
son of one widow Coltherd, who lives near the Shepherd's Bush, and I
cannot but remember that, upon several occasions, I had of late suffered
him to possess more influence over my motions than at all became the
difference of our age and condition. At present, he exerted himself to
persuade me that it was the finest possible sport to see the fish taken
out from the nets placed in the Solway at the reflux of the tide, and
urged my going thither this evening so much, that, looking back on the
whole circumstances, I cannot but think he had some especial motive for
his conduct. These particulars I have mentioned, that if these papers
fall into friendly hands, the boy may be sought after and submitted to
examination.

His eloquence being unable to persuade me that I should take any
pleasure in seeing the fruitless struggles of the fish when left in the
nets and deserted by the tide, he artfully suggested, that Mr. and Miss
Geddes, a respectable Quaker family well known in the neighbourhood
and with whom I had contracted habits of intimacy, would possibly be
offended if I did not make them an early visit. Both, he said, had been
particularly inquiring the reasons of my leaving their house rather
suddenly on the previous day. I resolved, therefore, to walk up to Mount
Sharon and make my apologies; and I agreed to permit the boy to attend
upon me, and wait my return from the house, that I might fish on my way
homeward to Shepherd's Bush, for which amusement, he assured me, I would
find the evening most favourable. I mention this minute circumstance,
because I strongly suspect that this boy had a presentiment how the
evening was to terminate with me, and entertained the selfish though
childish wish of securing to himself an angling-rod which he had often
admired, as a part of my spoils. I may do the boy wrong, but I had
before remarked in him the peculiar art of pursuing the trifling objects
of cupidity proper to his age, with the systematic address of much riper
years.

When we had commenced our walk, I upbraided him with the coolness of
the evening, considering the season, the easterly wind,