It is almost unnecessary to add--yet our story would be incomplete perhaps without it--that the parents of Mr M'Arthur participated in his prosperity, and that in precise proportion with its advancement. Indeed, to minister to the comforts of the authors of his being was one of his first cares, and one of the very first purposes to which he applied the means which his good fortune put in his power--a circumstance indicative of so amiable and beautiful a trait of character, as would alone lessen our wonder at the singular degree of prosperity that attended its possessor--leaving us, is it does, impressed with a conviction that no one who owned such an excellent disposition could be otherwise than successful in the world. END OF VOL. VIII