Two brothers who were engaged in an expedition against some Scottish island had entered into an agreement, that he who should first touch the land with flesh and blood (a Scotch expression) should remain undisputed lord of it. Approaching the shore with all the force with which they could ply their oars, they came to a part where the projecting rocks barred all nearer approach; and both brothers, with their followers, dashed into the sea to swim to the island. As the elder saw that the younger was getting before him, he drew his short sword, laid his left hand on a point of rock, cut it off with one stroke, took it up by the fingers and threw it bleeding, past his brother on the shore: "God is my witness," cried he, "that my flesh and blood have first touched this land." And thus was he king of the island, which his descendants ruled for centuries with unlimited sway. _Feb. 8th._ The doctor finds me very patient--Good God! I have been taught patience--and to be just, adversity is an admirable school for the spirit. Adversity, however, if we look deep enough, arises only from these faults in us, which are corrected by it; and we may unconditionally affirm, that if men began and persevered in an undeviating course of reasonable and virtuous conduct, they would scarcely know suffering:--but their pleasures must then become so subtle and ethereal, that they would set but little value on any thing earthly. No more dinners,--at which to get indigestions. No more fame,--which they hunt after with such delighted vanity: no more of love's sweet and perilous risks: no pomp or show for the sake of surpassing others: it would be at last--God forgive me for saying so!--a very humdrum life--a dead calm, under an outward show of perfection. The essence of life, on the contrary, is motion and contrast. It would therefore be the greatest derangement and annoyance if we were all to become perfectly reasonable. But I don't think the danger very pressing.--You see my illness has not altered me: I should not have told you anything about it, but that this letter must go before I am quite recovered. You may, however, read it with perfect tranquillity of mind, and be assured that I mean to enjoy everything that a benevolent Creator has bestowed upon us, to my very latest breath; whether halfpence, or guineas; houses of cards, or palaces; soap-bubbles, or rank and dignities,--as time and circumstance present them;--and at last even death itself, and whatever here or elsewhere may follow it. The severer virtues just show their beautiful roots. Thus, for instance, I really enjoy my present temperance; I feel an ethereal lightness from it, and am more elevated than usual above all that is animal. Other _égarements_ are wholly out of the question; and all this gives me a foretaste of that purer pleasure to come--old age. For in certain things--let us but confess it frankly and freely--the wicked Frenchman is half in the right:--'que c'est le vice qui nous