He moved freely up and down the whole social scale, blind to the
imaginary distinctions of blood and title and the extrinsic differences
of wealth, seeing true superiority in an honest manly heart, and bearing
himself wherever he found it as an equal and a brother. His
correspondents were of every social grade--peers and peasants; of every
intellectual attainment--philosophers like Dugald Stewart, and simple
swains like Thomas Orr; and of almost every variety of calling, from
professional men of recognised eminence to obscure shopkeepers, cottars,
and tradesmen. They include servant-girls, gentlewomen, and ladies of
titled rank; country schoolmasters and college professors; men of law of
all degrees, from poor John Richmond, a plain law-clerk with a lodging
in the Lawnmarket, to the Honourable Henry Erskine, Dean of the Faculty;
farmers, small and large; lairds, large and small; shoemakers and
shopkeepers; ministers, bankers, and doctors; printers, booksellers,
editors; knights, earls--nay, a duke; factors and wine-merchants; army
officers, and officers of Excise. His female correspondents were women
of superior intelligence and accomplishments. They can lay claim to a
large proportion of his letters. Mrs. McLehose takes forty-eight; Mrs.
Dunlop, forty-two; Maria Riddell, eighteen; Peggy Chalmers, eleven.
These four ladies received among them rather more than one-fourth of the
whole of his published correspondence. No four of his male
correspondents can be accredited with so many, even though George
Thomson for his individual share claims fifty-six.

It is rather remarkable that so few of the letters are addressed to his
own relatives. His cousin, James Burness of Montrose, and his own
younger brother William receive, indeed, ten and eight respectively; but
to his other brother Gilbert, with whom he was on the most affectionate
and confidential terms, there fall but three; to his wife only two; one