In other words, we are preparing to conduct our reader to the metropolis, there to associate with the demi-gods of genius, learning, wit, and taste. How circumscribed is man’s foresight! How impotent his sagacity! At a moment, when an individual, delineated in a preceding part of this narrative, was sitting with the Sexagenarian, both of them lamenting the narrow circle, the obscure, unpalatable, and unprofitable offices, to which their ill stars had apparently doomed them “for ever and for aye,” an express brought an alluring invitation to a permanent and advantageous situation in The fairest Capital of all the world. In a few passing days, nay, almost in a few hours, what a change of scene!! Retirement properly so called, for busy scenes and active employments; from a space in which there was not room for ambition, to one where ambition appeared to have no limit; from a spot where a few wild flowers occasionally charmed the sight with their beauty, and the senses with their fragrance, to the prolific and auspicious nursery of every science and every art; from knowing every body, to knowing nobody; from ⸺ to London!! Here let us take time to breathe awhile. He who for the first time in his life leaves the white cliffs of Dover, on an excursion to France, on his landing at Calais, is for a few moments bewildered with the strangeness, the novelty, the wonderful change of the scene. He feels as if he was removed to another planet. The language, the dress, the manners, every thing he beholds, dazzles and confounds him: till at length reflection and judgment resume their influence, and experience makes the contrast familiar. Such was, and such, under similar circumstances, will ever be, the first periods of residence in London, after a long familiarity with the quiet, repose, and ordinary pursuits of the country. The first impression, the first subject of reflection, the first determination, was that from which there was never any deviation—LITERATURE. A noble field opened its expanded bosom to emulation, exertion, honour, and reward. But how was an obscure, unknown individual, without connection, introduction, or seeming opportunity of any, to surmount the difficulties, perplexities, and intricacies, which threatened to obstruct his path, and interrupt his progress? Patience and perseverance finally succeeded, and over what opposition will not these qualities triumph?