sed like the shadow of a cloud upon a Highland glen— · like the ruffling of the wind upon a Highland lake. The castle, the loch, the river, the cliff-every field, every hill, every spot, and almost every bush, had its note of 15 recollection, and its tribute of praise. There is something exquisite in this-something which the inhabitants of thronged cities, cannot appreciate. But in the patriarchal land of the north, there is or there was, ere avarice laid it waste, or the love of 20 money made it a desolation-a love of every thing that was, as well as of every thing that is. The same ancient stone which sheltered the sire, shelters the son; against the tree which his father planted, no man will lift up an axe; and the resting-place of the departed is 25 sacred as long as life warms a heart, which was present when they were laid in the dust. In a great city, man, dependent on his own exertions, following the bent of his own passions or appetites, and reckless of every gratification but those of himself, is disjointed from man. 30 The tenants of the same roof, know not the names of each other, and to be parted by one paltry brick, makes a separation as complete, as though they dwelt at the antipodes. Not only is man disjointed from man, but age is disjointed from age. The people who inhabit a street 35 or a square, now know nothing and care nothing about those who inhabited it immediately before; and their brief memorial will be as quickly blotted out by the persons whom chance may afterwards place in the same situation. Thus, while the great city brings the bodies 40 of men together, it scatters their minds, breaks all the ties and links of sympathetic society, and piles up its tens and hundreds of thousands, (to all intents and purposes of deep feeling and delightful intercourse,) like the cold, hard, unadhering and unconnected particles of 45 a mountain of sand, which the wind of whim, or chance, or commerce, may whisk about just as the sand particles by the Red Sea are whisked about on the wings of the deadly saniel. In the retirement of the country, and especially in that country from which our humble 50 visiters have come, and to which our lovely heroine is looking, it is not so. There man is united to man, and age is linked with age, in the closest ties of friendship, the most delightful bonds of sympathy, the most touching reminiscences of sorrow, and the fondest anticipations 55 of hope. If a man would eat, drink, die, and be forgotten, let his dwelling place be in the city: if he would live, love, and be remembered, let him speed him to the glens of the mountains. EXERCISE 102. Summary Punishment.-WALTER SCOTT. It was under the burning influence of revenge that the wife of MacGregor commanded that the hostage exchanged for her husband's safety should be brought into her presence. I believe her sons had kept this 5 unfortunate wretch out of her sight, for fear of the consequences; but if it was so, their humane precaution only postponed his fate. They dragged forward at her summons a wretch already half dead with terror, in whose agonized features I recognised, to my horror and as10 tonishment, my old acquaintance Morris. He fell prostrate before the female chief, with an ef fort to clasp her knees, from which she drew back, as if his touch had been pollution, so that all he could do in token of the extremity of his humiliation, was to kiss 15 the hem of her plaid. I never heard entreaties for life poured forth with such agony of spirit. The ecstasy of fear was such, that, instead of paralyzing his tongue, as on ordinary occasions, it even rendered him eloquent; and, with cheeks as pale as ashes, hands compressed in 20 agony, eyes that seemed to be taking their last look of all mortal objects, he prayed but for life-for life he would give all he had in the world; it was but life he asked-life, if it were to be prolonged under tortures and privations:-he asked only breath, though it should be 25 drawn in the depths of the lowest caverns of their hills. 30 It is impossible to describe the scorn, the loathing, and contempt, with which the wife of MacGregor regarded this wretched petitioner for the poor boon of existence. She gave a brief command in Gaelic to her attendants, two of whom seized upon the prostrate suppliant, and hurried him to the brink of a cliff which overhung the flood. He set up the most piercing and dreadful cries, that fear ever uttered-I may well term them dreadful, 35 for they haunted my sleep for years afterwards. I was so much moved by this horrid spectacle, that, although in momentary expectation of sharing his fate, I did attempt to speak in his behalf, but, as might have been expected, my interference was sternly disregard40 ed. The victim was held fast by some, while others, binding a large heavy stone in a plaid, tied it round his neck, and others again, eagerly stripped him of some part of his dress. Half-naked, and thus manacled, they hurried him into the lake, there about twelve feet deep, 45 drowning his last death-shriek with a loud halloo of vindictive triumph, over which, however, the yell of mortal agony was distinctly heard. The heavy burden splashed in the dark blue waters of the lake, and the Highlanders, with their pole-axes and swords, watched an in50 stant, to guard, lest, extricating himself from the load to which he was attached, he might have struggled to regain the shore. But the knot had been securely bound; the victim sunk without effort; the waters which his fall had disturbed, settled calmly over him, 55 and the unit of that life for which he had pleaded so strongly, was forever withdrawn from the sum of human existence. EXERCISE 103. On the receipt of his Mother's Picture.-CowPER. Could Time, his flight reversed, restore the hours, When, playing with thy vesture's tissued flowers, The violet, the pink, the jessamine, I pricked them into paper with a pin, 5 (And thou wast happier than myself the while, 15 Thy unbound spirit into bonds again. Thou as a gallant bark from Albion's coast, Where spices breathe, and brighter seasons smile, 20 Her beauteous form reflected clear below, While airs impregnated with incense play Around her fanning light her streamers gay; So thou, with sails how swift! hast reached the shore, "Where tempests never beat, nor billows roar,' 25 And thy loved consort on the dangerous tide Of life long since has anchored by thy side. But me, scarce hoping to attain that rest, Always from port withheld, always distressedMe howling blasts drive devious, tempest-tossed, 30 Sails ripped, seams opening wide, and compass lost, And day by day some current's thwarting force, Sets me more distant from a prosperous course. Yet, O the thought, that thou art safe, and he! That thought is joy, arrive what may to me. 35 My boast is not, that I deduce my birth From loins enthroned, and rulers of the Earth; But higher far my proud pretensions riseThe son of parents, passed into the skies. Extract from EXERCISE 104. "The Grave."-MONTGOMERY. 1 There is a calm for those who weep; 2 The storm that wrecks the winter sky, 3 I long to lay this painful head, And aching heart, beneath the soil; 4 Art thou a wanderer?—hast thou seen 5 Though long of winds and waves the sport, 6 There is a calm for those who weep! 7 The soul, of origin Divine, God's glorious image, freed from clay, 8 The sun, is but a spark of fire, EXERCISE 105. Defence of Johnson.—CURRAN. Even if it should be my client's fate to be surrendered to his keepers-to be torn from his family—to have his obsequies performed by torch light-to be carried to a foreign land, and to a strange tribunal, where no 5 witness can attest his innocence, where no voice that he ever heard can be raised in his defence, where he must stand mute, not of his own malice, but the malice of his enemies-yes, even so, I see nothing for him to fear; -that all-gracious Being, that shields the feeble from the 10 oppressor, will fill his heart with hope, and confidence, and courage; his sufferings will be his armour, and his weakness will be his strength. He will find himself in the hands of a brave, a just, and a generous nation-he will find that the bright examples of her Russels and 15 her Sydneys have not been lost to her children. They |
