Alexander MacDonald M.A. (Edinburgh), takes 'the finest sight a Scotsman ever sees', the road to London. Political views: radical. Philosophical tendency: Utilitarian. Private inclinations: towards his own sex. Favourite poet: Robert Burns. Fortune: none. Influential friends: none. Social graces: minimal. Intellect: superior. He anticipates finding friends and comrades – maybe even, since a man may hope, a lover – among those of similar kind. He is going to be surprised. Very surprised.

Contains:
Encrypted passages in a curious commonplace book
Had we never lov'd sae kindly, we had ne'er been broken-hearted
Ingenuity may provide what nature does not
Building a Heaven in Hell's despair
Ring out the false, ring in the true
A silent declaration
[The greater part of all this except the first section is set well after the conclusion of Clorinda's memoirs]