. . . “I am glad now, as things have turned out, that you did not send me £10. I knew you could only do it by having recourse to Lamb. But if I had failed in my main negociation I should probably have left Edinburgh this very day, the moment I received your dispatch, at farthest.
“My reception at Edinburgh has been, as I knew it
would be, kind and flattering in the extreme. I have already been introduced to
one-half of the literati of their city. Yesterday I was introduced to Jeffrey, the formidable editor and proprietor
of the Edinburgh Review. I am
going on Tuesday with Constable, to
spend two days with Dugald Stewart, the
crack metaphysician of Great Britain, nine miles from this town. To-day I
received an invitation to dine with the Earl of
Buchan, the elder brother to Lord
Erskine, which Constable made me refuse,
because he, who was also invited, could not go with me. I did not like to
refuse, and I do not like the persons who are to dine here to-day, but what
could I do? I could not disoblige Constable. He therefore
made me write that, next Sunday were equally convenient, I would stay one day
longer in Edinburgh than I had proposed, to have the honour of dining with his
lordship. . . . Under the circumstances, I cannot well disap-
| 236 | WILLIAM GODWIN |
