October 1.—­Wrote my task, then walked from one till half-past four.  Dogs took a hare.  They always catch one on Sunday—­a Puritan would say the devil was in them.  I think I shall get more done this evening.  I would fain conclude the volume at the Treaty of Tilsit, which will make it a pretty long one, by the by.  J.B. expressed himself much pleased with Nap., which gives me much courage.  He is gloomy enough when things are not well.  And then I will try something at my Canongate.  They talk about the pitcher going to the well; but if it goes not to the well, how shall we get water?  It will bring home none when it stands on the shelf, I trow.  In literature, as in love, courage is half the battle.

    “The public born to be controlled
    Stoops to the forward and the bold.”

October 2.—­Wrote my task.  Went out at one and wrought in the wood till four.  I was made happy by a letter from my nephew, little Walter, as we used to call him, from his age and size, compared to those of his cousin.  He has been kindly received at Bombay by the Governor Mountstuart Elphinstone, and by Sir Thomas Bradford.  He is taking his ground, I think, prudently, and is likely to get on.  Already first Lieutenant of Engineers—­that is well to begin with.

Colonel Ferguson, Miss Margaret, and some ladies, friends of theirs, dine, also Mr. and Mrs. Laidlaw, and James Laidlaw, and young Mr. N. Milne.

October 3.—­I wrote my task as usual, but, strange to tell, there is a want of paper.  I expect some to-day.  In the meantime, to avoid all quarrel with Dame Duty, I cut up some other leaves into the usual statutory size.  They say of a fowl that if you draw a chalk line on a table, and lay chick-a-diddle down with his bill upon it, the poor thing will imagine himself opposed by an insurmountable barrier, which he will not attempt to cross.  Suchlike are one-half of the obstacles which serve to interrupt our best resolves, and such is my pretended want of paper.  It is like Sterne’s want of sous when he went to relieve the Pauvre Honteux.

October 4.—­I ought to record with gratitude to God Almighty the continued health of body and mind, which He hath vouchsafed to grant me.  I have had of late no accesses either of bile or of nervous affection, and by mixing exercise with literary labour, I have escaped the tremor cordis which on other occasions has annoyed me cruelly.  I went to the inspection of the Selkirkshire Yeomanry, by Colonel Thornhill, 7th Hussars.  The Colonel is a remarkably fine-looking man, and has a good address.  His brow bears token of the fatigues of war.  He is a great falconer, and has promised to fly his hawks on Friday for my amusement, and to spend the day at Abbotsford.  The young Duke of B. was on the field looking at the corps, most of whom are his tenants.  They did very well, and are fine, smart young men, and well mounted.  Too few of them though, which is a pity.  The exercise is a work which in my time I have loved well.