The Genius of Scotland; or, Sketches of Scottish Scenery, Literature and Religion
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Title: The Genius of Scotland; or, Sketches of Scottish Scenery, Literature and Religion
Author: Robert Turnbull
Release date: February 10, 2012 [eBook #38822]
Language: English
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THE GENIUS OF SCOTLAND;
Or
Sketches of Scottish Scenery, Literature and Religion.
by
REV. ROBERT TURNBULL
FOURTH EDITION.
New York:
Robert Carter, 58 Canal Street
1848.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847,
by Robert Carter,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the Southern District of New York.
Stereotyped by Thomas B. Smith,
216 William Street, New York
PREFACE.
Having been born and educated in Scotland, and possessing a tolerable
acquaintance with its History and Literature, the Author of the
following Work felt that he had some facilities for giving to the people
of this country a just idea of his native Land. The plan of his work is
somewhat new, combining in a larger degree, than he has hitherto seen
attempted, descriptions of Scenery, with Literary and Biographical
Sketches, portraitures of character social and religious, incidents of
travel, and reflections on matters of local or general interest. Hence
he has omitted many things which a mere tourist would not fail to
notice, and supplied their place with sketches of more enduring
interest. He would particularly invite attention to the sketches of
Knox, Burns, Wilson, Chalmers, Bruce, 'The Ettrick Shepherd,' and Sir
Walter Scott. His rambles through fair or classic scenes are thus
enlivened with useful information. In a word, it has been his endeavor,
in an easy natural way, to give his readers an adequate conception of
the Scenery, Literature, and Religion of Scotland.
HARTFORD, CONN.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface 1
CHAPTER I.
Beauty an Element of the Mind--Our Native Land--Auld Lang Syne--General
Description of Scotland--Extent of Population--Spirit of the People--The
Highlands--The Lowlands--Burns's 'Genius of Scotland'--Natural and Moral
Aspects of the Country--'The Cotter's Saturday Night'--Sources of
Prosperity 11
CHAPTER II.
The city of Edinburgh--Views from Arthur's Seat--The Poems of
Richard Gall--'Farewell to Ayrshire'--'Arthur's Seat, a
Poem'--Extracts--Craigmillar Castle--The Forth, Roslin Castle
and the Pentland Hills--Liberty 32
CHAPTER III.
Walk to the Castle--The Old Wynds and their Occupants--Regalia of
Scotland--Storming of the Castle--Views from its Summit--Heriot's
Hospital--Other Hospitals--St. Giles's Cathedral--Changes--The
Spirit of Protestantism 42
CHAPTER IV.
John Knox's House--History of the Reformer--His Character--Carlyle's
View--Testimony of John Milton 53
CHAPTER V.
Edinburgh University--Professor Wilson--His Life and Writings, Genius
and Character 62
CHAPTER VI.
The Calton Hill--Burns's Monument--Character and Writings of 'the
Peasant Poet'--His Religious Views--Monument of Professor Dugald
Stewart--Scottish Metaphysics--Thomas Carlyle 77
CHAPTER VII.
Preaching in Edinburgh--The Free Church--Dr. Chalmers--A Specimen
of his Preaching--The Secret of his Eloquence 99
CHAPTER VIII.
Biographical Sketch of Dr. Chalmers 113
CHAPTER IX.
Dr. John Brown of Edinburgh--Rev. John Brown of Whiteburn--Professor
John Brown of Haddington--Rev. Dr. Candlish--Specimen of his
Preaching 126
CHAPTER X.
Ride into the Country--The Skylark--Poems on the Skylark by
Shelley and the 'Ettrick Shepherd'--Newhall--'The Gentle
Shepherd'--Localities and Outlines of the Story--Its Popularity
in Scotland 138
CHAPTER XI.
Biographical Sketch of Allan Ramsay--Lasswade--Ramble along the
banks of the North Esk--Glenesk--A Character--Anecdote of Sir
Walter Scott--Hawthornden--Drummond, the Poet--His Character
and Genius--Sonnets--Chapel and Castle of Roslin--Barons of
Roslin--Ballad of Rosabella--Hunting Match between Robert Bruce
and Sir William St. Clair 157
CHAPTER XII.
Ramble through the Fields--Parish Schools--Recollections of Dominie
Meuross--The South Esk--Borthwick and Crichtoun Castles--New Battle
Abbey--Dalkeith--Residence of the Duke of Buccleugh--'Scotland's
Skaith,' by Hector Macneil--His Character and Writings--Extracts
from the 'History of Will and Jean' 183
CHAPTER XIII.
City of Glasgow--Spirit of the Place--Trade and Manufactures--The
Broomielaw--Steam--George's Square--Monuments to Sir Walter Scott,
Sir John Moore, and James Watt--Sketch of the Life of Watt--Glasgow
University--Reminiscences--Brougham--Sir D. K. Sandford--Professor
Nichol and others--High Kirk, or Glasgow Cathedral--Martyrdom
of Jerome Russel and John Kennedy 197
CHAPTER XIV.
The Necropolis--Jewish Burial Place--Monument to John Knox--Monuments
of William Macgavin and Dr. Dick--Reminiscences--Character and
Writings of Dr. Dick--Pollok and 'the Course of Time'--Grave of
Motherwell--Sketch of his Life--His Genius and Poetry--'Jeanie
Morrison'--'My Heid is like to rend, Willie'--'A Summer Sabbath
Noon' 209
CHAPTER XV.
Dumbarton Castle--Lochlomond--Luss--Ascent of Benlomond--Magnificent
Views--Ride to Loch-Katrine--Rob Roy Macgregor--'Gathering of Clan
Gregor'--Loch-Katrine and the Trosachs--The City of Perth--Martyrdom
of Helen Stark and her husband 231
CHAPTER XVI.
Sabbath Morning--'The Sabbath,' by James Grahame--Sketch of his
Life--Extracts from his Poetry--The Cameronians--'Dream of the
Martyrs,' by James Hislop--Sabbath Morning Walk--Country Church--The
Old Preacher--The Interval of Worship--Conversation in the
Church-yard--Going Home from Church--Sabbath Evening 244
CHAPTER XVII.
Lochleven--Escape of Queen Mary from Lochleven Castle--Michael
Bruce--Sketch of his Life--Boyhood--College
Life--Poetry--'Lochleven'--Sickness--'Ode to Spring'--Death--'Ode
to the Cuckoo' 260
CHAPTER XVIII.
Dunfermline--Ruins of the Abbey--Grave of Robert Bruce--Malcolm
Canmore's Palace--William Henryson, the poet--William Dunbar--Stirling
Castle--Views from its Summit--City of Stirling--George Buchanan
and Dr. Arthur Johnston--Falkirk--Linlithgow--Story of the Capture
of Linlithgow Castle--Spirit of War--Arrival in Edinburgh 284
CHAPTER XIX.
Journey to Peebles--Characters--Conversation on Politics--Scottish
Peasantry--Peebles--'Christ's Kirk on the Green'--A Legend--An old
Church--The Banks of the Tweed--Its ancient Castles--The Alarm
Fire--Excursion to the Vales of Ettrick and Yarrow--Stream of
Yarrow--St. Mary's Lake and Dryhope Tower--'The Dowie Dens of
Yarrow'--Growth of Poetry--Ballads and Poems on Yarrow by Hamilton,
Logan and Wordsworth 295
CHAPTER XX.
Hamlet and Church-yard of Ettrick--Monument to Thomas
Boston--Birth-place of the Ettrick Shepherd--Altrieve
Cottage--Biographical Sketch of the Ettrick Shepherd--The Town of
Selkirk--Monument to Sir Walter Scott--Battle-field of Philiphangh 319
CHAPTER XXI.
Return to the Banks of the Tweed--Abbotsford--The Study--Biographical
Sketch of Sir Walter Scott--His Early Life--Residence in the
Country--Spirit of Romance--Education--First Efforts as an
Author--Success of 'Marmion'--Character of his Poetry--Literary
Change--His Novels--Pecuniary Difficulties--Astonishing
Efforts--Last Sickness--Death and Funeral 334
CHAPTER XXII.
Melrose Abbey--The Eildon Hills--Thomas the Rhymer--Dryburgh--Monuments
to the Author of 'The Seasons' and Sir William Wallace--Kelso--Beautiful
Scenery--A Pleasant Evening--Biographical Sketch of Leyden, Poet,
Antiquary, Scholar and Traveller--The Duncan Family--Journey
Resumed--Twisel Bridge--Battle of Flodden--Norham Castle--Berwick
upon Tweed--Biographical Sketch of Thomas Mackay Wilson, author of 'The
Border Tales'--Conclusion--'Auld Lang Syne' 351
GENIUS OF SCOTLAND.
CHAPTER I.
Beauty an Element of the Mind--Our Native Land--Auld Lang
Syne--General Description of Scotland--Extent of Population--Spirit
of the People--The Highlands--The Lowlands--Burns's 'Genius of
Scotland'--Natural and Moral Aspects of the Country--'The Cotter's
Saturday Night'--Sources of Prosperity.
The theory has become prevalent among philosophers, and even among
literary men, that beauty is more an element of the mind than of
external objects. Things, say they, are not what they seem. Their
aspects are ever varying with the minds which gaze upon them. They
change even under the eyes of the same individuals. A striking
illustration of this may be found in the opening stanza of Wordsworth's
Ode to Immortality.
There was a time when meadow, grove and stream,
The earth and every common sight
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
It is the mind then, which transfers its own ethereal colors to the
forms of matter, and invests scenes and places with new and peculiar
attractions. Like the light of the moon streaming through a leafy grove
and transforming its darkness into its own radiant beauty, the spirit of
man diffuses its own inspiration through the universe,
"Making all nature
Beauty to the eye and music to the ear."
Now if this theory be true, it follows that no country will appear to us
so beautiful as the one which happens to be endeared to our hearts by
early recollections and pleasant associations. No matter how rude and
wild,--that spot of all others on earth, will appear to us the sweetest
and most attractive! 'New England,' says a native of Massachusetts or of
Vermont, 'is the glory of all lands. No hills and vales are more
picturesque than hers, no rivers more clear and beautiful.' 'Visit
Naples, and die!' exclaims the Neapolitan, proud of his classic home.
'Green Erin, my darling,' is the fond language of the Hibernian, 'first
gem of the ocean, first flower of the sea.' 'Here's a health,' shouts
the native of Caledonia, 'bonny Scotland to thee!' Others may speak
disparagingly of the sour climate and barren soil of Scotland; but to a
native of that country, the land of his fathers is invested with all the
charms of poetry and romance. Every spot of its varied surface is
hallowed ground. He sees its rugged rocks and desolate moors mantled
with the hoary memories of by-gone days, the thrilling associations of
childhood and youth. Therefore, with a meaning and emphasis, which all
who love their native land will appreciate, he appropriates the words of
the poet:--
Land of the forest and the rock,
Of dark blue lake and mighty river,
Of mountains reared aloft to mock,
The storm's career, the lightning's shock,
My own green land forever!
Land of the beautiful and brave!
The freeman's home, the martyr's grave!
The nursery of giant men,
Whose deeds have linked with every glen,
The magic of a warrior's name!
Does not Scotland, however inferior, in some respects it may be deemed
to other lands, possess a peculiar charm to all cultivated minds?[1]
What visions of ancient glory cluster around the time-honored name!
What associations of 'wild native grandeur,'--of wizard beauty, and
rough magnificence. What gleams of 'poetic sunlight,'--what
recollections of martial daring by flood and field,--what hallowed faith
and burning zeal,--what martyr toils and martyr graves, monuments of
freedom's struggles and freedom's triumphs in moor or glen,--what
'lights and shadows' of love and passion,--what ancient songs, echoing
among the hills,--what blessed sabbath calm,--what lofty inspiration of
the Bible and covenant,--in a word, what dear and hallowed memories of
that 'Auld lang syne,' indigenous only to Scotland, though known
throughout the world! Should this be deemed enthusiastic, let it, and
all else of a similar character which may be found in this volume, be
ascribed to a natural and not unpardonable feeling on the part of the
writer. The remembrance of 'Auld lang syne' can never be extinguished.
Except the hope of heaven, it is our best and holiest heritage.
[Footnote 1: The following eloquent passage from an address by the
Honorable Edward Everett, before the "Scots' Charitable Society,"
Boston, well illustrates the fact referred to.
"Not to speak of the worthies of ages long passed; of the Knoxes, the
Buchanans, and the early minstrelsy of the border; the land of your
fathers, sir, since it ceased to be a separate kingdom, has, through the
intellect of her gifted sons, acquired a supremacy over the minds of men
more extensive and more enduring, than that of Alexander or Augustus. It
would be impossible to enumerate them all,--the Blairs of the last
generation, the Chalmerses of this; the Robertsons, and Humes; the
Smiths, the Reids, the Stuarts, the Browns; the Homes, the Mackenzies;
the Mackintoshes, the Broughams, the Jeffreys, with their distinguished
compeers, both on physical and moral science. The Marys and the
Elizabeths, the Jameses and the Charleses will be forgotten, before
these names will perish from the memory of men. And when I add to them
those other illustrious names--Burns, Campbell, Byron, and Scott, may I
not truly say, sir, that the throne and the sceptre of England will
crumble into dust like those of Scotland: and Windsor Castle and
Westminster Abbey will lie in ruins as poor and desolate as those of
Scone and Iona, before the lords of Scottish song shall cease to reign
in the hearts of men.
For myself, sir, I confess that I love Scotland. I have reason to do so.
I have trod the soil of the
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood,
I have looked up to the cloud-capt summit of Ben Lomond; have glided
among the fairy islets of Loch Katrine; and from the battlements of
Stirling Castle, have beheld the links of Forth sparkling in the morning
sun. I have done more, sir; I have tasted that generous hospitality of
Scotland, which her Majesty's Consul has so justly commemorated; I have
held converse with her most eminent sons; I have made my pilgrimage to
Melrose Abbey, in company with that modern magician, who, mightier than
the magician of old that sleeps beneath the marble floor of its chancel,
has hung the garlands of immortal poesy upon its shattered arches, and
made its moss-clad ruins a shrine, to be visited by the votary of the
muse from the remotest corners of the earth, to the end of time. Yes,
sir, musing as I did, in my youth, over the sepulchre of the wizard,
once pointed out by the bloody stain of the cross and the image of the
archangel:--standing within that consecrated enclosure, under the
friendly guidance of him whose genius has made it holy ground; while
every nerve within me thrilled with excitement, my fancy kindled with
the inspiration of the spot. I seemed to behold, not the vision so
magnificently described by the minstrel,--the light, which, as the tomb
was opened,
broke forth so gloriously,
Streamed upward to the chancel roof,
And through the galleries far aloof:
But I could fancy that I beheld, with sensible perception, the brighter
light, which had broken forth from the master mind; which had streamed
from his illumined page all-gloriously upward, above the pinnacles of
worldly grandeur, till it mingled its equal beams, with that of the
brightest constellations, in the intellectual firmament of England."]
As 'Auld Lang Syne' brings Scotland one and all,
Scotch plaids, Scotch snoods, the blue hills and clear streams,
The Dee, the Don, Balgownies brig's black wall,
All my boy feelings, all my gentler dreams
Of what I then dreamt, clothed in their own pall,
Like Banquo's offspring; floating past me seems
My childhood, in this childishness of mind;
I care not;--'tis a glimpse of 'Auld Lang Syne.'
BYRON.
Beautiful is New England, resembling as she does, in many of her
features, 'Auld Scotia's hills and dales,' and moreover being much akin
to her, in religious sentiment and the love of freedom; so that a native
of either might well be forgiven for clinging with peculiar fondness to
the land of his birth, and, in certain moods of mind, prefering it to
all the world beside. Though far away, and even loving the place of his
estrangement, he cannot, if he would, altogether renounce those ties
which bind him to his early home. A 'viewless chain,' which crosses
ocean and continent, conveys from the one to the other that subtle, yet
gracious influence, which is quicker and stronger than the lightning's
gleam. Let no one then be surprised if a Scotsman in New England, the
cherished land of his adoption, should solace his mind with the
recollection of early days, and endeavor to set before others the
characteristic beauties and excellences of his native country.
O Caledonia, stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood,
Land of my sires! What mortal hand,
Can e'er untie the filial band
That knits me to thy rugged strand!
"Scotland," as one of her own sons has expressed it, "is a wee bit
country," but possessed of "muckle pith and spirit." Its surface is
rough and mountainous, with beautiful patches of rich arable land along
the courses of its streams, and extensive level meadows, called Carses,
as the Carse of Falkirk, and the Carse of Gowrie. It is of unequal
breadth, being much indented with bays and creeks, and stretches some
two hundred and eighty miles in length, reckoning from its most
southerly point, the Mull of Galloway, to Dunnet's Head, its most
northern extremity. This probably would be a little farther than from
"Maiden Kirk to Johnny Groat's," the "from Dan to Beersheba" of
Scotland. Clustering around its western and northern sides are the
Hebrides, the Shetland and the Orkney islands; wild and rocky isles,
with rude and primitive inhabitants, constituting the Ultima Thule of
Great Britain. In Scotland, a considerable portion of the land is
uncultivated, consisting of heathy hills, mountains and moors; and the
most of that which is cultivated has been rendered productive by the
hand of art and industry. Like Switzerland, it is comparatively a poor
country, but has been made rich by the generative powers of mind. Her
wealth consists in the brawny arms and vigorous intellects of her sons.
The climate is cold and variable, though milder in winter than that of
New England, and in summer cooler, and upon the whole, more agreeable,
except when dense fogs and long-continued rains prevail.
The population is over two millions and a half, and is gradually
increasing, though the people, like those of New England, are greatly
given to migration, and may be found in every part of the world. Its
commerce and manufactures are, for its size, very extensive. They have
increased, since 1814, from twenty-five to thirty per cent. Agriculture
and the mechanic arts have been carried to a high degree of perfection.
While the people are characteristically cautious and slow, "looking
before they leap," to quote one of their favorite proverbs, they are
bold and enterprising, and thus leap long and successfully. Few nations
have accomplished so much in literature or trade, in science or the arts
of industry. Their highest distinction, however, consists in their
spirit of love and fealty, their leal-heartedness, their contempt of
sham, their passionate love of freedom, their zeal for God and the
truth! Obstinate and wrong-headed at times, characteristically dogmatic,
and perhaps a little intolerant, their very faults lean to virtue's
side, and go to the support of goodness. Their punctiliousness and
pride, their dogged adherence to what they conceive to be right, and
their vehement mode of defending it, constitute the rough and prickly
bark which defends the precious tree. One thing is certain, they are
transparent as daylight, and honest as their own heathy hills.
They are preeminently a religious people, protestant to the backbone,
occasionally rough and impetuous in the expression of their opinions,
but never formal, never indecorous. A profound enthusiasm, bordering on
fanaticism, a passionate, though not boisterous or canting devotion, a
fine sense of the grand and beautiful, intermingled with a keen
conscientiousness, an ardent love of freedom, with a boundless trust in
God, form the great elements of their religious life. Their theology is
chiefly Calvinistic, apparently philosophical and dogmatic, but rather
less so than popular and practical. Of cathedrals, old and dim, of
masses, chants and processions, the pomp and circumstance of a
magnificent ritual, they have none.[2] But of old and glorious memories,
solemn temples among the woods and hills, hallowed grave-yards, blessed
sacraments, and national enthusiasm, they have abundance. Their religion
is a part of the soil. It is indigenous to the country. It grew up among
the mountains, was nursed by 'wizard streams,' and 'led forth' with the
voice of psalms, among 'the green pastures of the wilderness.' Somewhat
forbidding at first, like the rough aspect of the country, it appears
equally picturesque and beautiful, when really known and loved. It is
the religion not of form but of substance, of deep inward emotion, not
of outward pretension and show. Neither is it a sickly sentimentalism
which lives on poetic musings, and matures only in cloistered shades and
moonlight groves; but it is a healthy, robust principle which goes forth
to do and to suffer the will of Heaven. Its head and heart are sound,
and its works praise it in the gate. Beautiful as the visions of fancy,
it is yet strong as the everlasting hills among which it was reared. In
a word, it is the religion of faith and love, the religion of the old
puritans, of the martyrs and confessors of primitive times. Welling out
forever from the unstained fountains of the Word of God, it has marked
its course over the fair face of Scotland, with the greenest verdure,
the sweetest flowers.
[Footnote 2: This is spoken, of course, of the great body of the
people.]
Scotland is naturally divided into Highlands and Lowlands. The former
includes, besides the various groups of islands on the north and
north-west coast, the counties of Argyle, Inverness, Nairn, Ross,
Cromarty, Sutherland and Caithness, with portions of Dumbarton,
Stirling, Perth, Forfar, "Aberdeen awa," Banff and Elgin, or the more
northerly regions of the country, protected and beautified by the mighty
range of the Grampians, commencing at the southern extremity of Loch
Etive, and terminating at the mouth of the Dee on the eastern coast. The
Highlands again are divided into two unequal portions by the beautiful
chain of lochs, or lakes running through the Glenmore-Nan-Albin, or
Great Glen of Caledonia, forming some of the wildest and richest scenery
in the world. To the north are the giant mountains of Macdui, Cairngorm,
Ben-Aven and Ben-More, while nearer the Lowlands, rise the lofty
Ben-Lomond, and the hoary Ben-Awe. Under their shadows gleam the storied
lochs, the wild tarns and trosachs, whose picturesque and romantic
beauties have been immortalized by the pens of Burns, Scott, and Wilson.
To the south and east of the Grampian range, and running parallel to
them, you discover a chain of lower and more verdant hills, bearing the
well known and poetical names of the Sidlaw, Campsie and Ochil hills.
These are divided by the fertile valleys of the Tay and Forth. Between
them and the Grampians lies the low and charming valley of Strathmore.
The "silver Tay," one of the finest rivers in Scotland, rises in
Breadalbane, expands into lake Dochart, flows in an easterly direction
through the vale of Glendochart, expands again into the long and
beautiful Loch Tay, which runs like a belt of silver among the hills,
whence issuing, it receives various accessions from other streams,
passes on in a southerly direction to Dunkeld, famous for its ancient
Abbey and lovely scenery, skirts the ancient and delightful city of
Perth, below which it is joined by its great tributary the Earn, which
flows, in serpentine windings, through the rich vale of Strath-Earn,
touches the populous and thriving town of Dundee, and gradually widens
into the Firth of Tay, whose clear waters mirror the white skiff or
magnificent steamer, and imperceptibly mingle with the waves of the
Northern Sea. Further north, the rapid Spey, springing from the 'braes
of Badenoch' near Lochaber, passes tumultuously through a rough and
mountainous country, lingering occasionally, as if to rest itself in
some deep glen, crosses the ancient province of Moray, famous for its
floods, so admirably described by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, passes
Kinrara, "whence, for a few miles, it is attended by a series of
landscapes, alike various, singular and magnificent," after which, it
moves, with a monotonous aspect, and a steady pace, to the sea. Portions
of the country through which this river passes are exceedingly sterile
and wild. Covered with the birch, the alder and the pine, varied by
rugged rocks and desolate moors, it admirably corresponds to our
notions of Caledonia, in her ancient and primitive integrity.
In the more remote and northern regions of the Highlands, and in most of
the Scottish isles, the Gaelic, or Erse, a primitive and energetic
tongue, somewhat akin to the Welsh or Irish, is spoken by a majority of
the inhabitants. In other parts of Scotland, the English, with a
Scottish idiom, is the prevalent speech. The literature of the Gaelic is
exceedingly limited, confined chiefly to old ballads, songs and
traditionary stories. The poems of Ossian are doubtless the production
of Macpherson, their professed translator, while they probably contain a
few translated fragments, and some traditionary facts and conceptions
afloat among the Highlanders, ingeniously interwoven with the main
fabric of the work.
The Highlanders are a simple-hearted, primitive race, mostly poor, and
imperfectly educated. Those of them that are wealthy and well educated,
are said to be remarkably acute, courteous, and agreeable.
The Lowlands of Scotland comprehend the south and southeastern portions
of the country, and though not the grandest and most romantic, are by
far the best cultivated, and in some respects the most beautiful.
Including the level ground on the eastern coast to the south of the
Moray Firth, they stretch along the coast through portions of
Perthshire, and the old kingdom of Fife, towards the regions bounded on
either side, by the river and the Firth of Forth, and thence to
Kircudbright and the English border, including the principal cities,
the most fertile tracts of arable land, the rivers Forth, Clyde and
Tweed, and the range of the Cheviot hills, which extend from the north
of England towards the north-west, join the Louther hills in the region
of Ettrick and Yarrow, with their 'silver streams,' pass through the
southern part of Ayrshire and terminate at Loch Ryan, in the Irish
Channel. The Clyde is the most important commercial river in Scotland.
Taking its origin among the mountains of the south, not far from the
early home of its beautiful and more classic sisters, the Tweed and the
Annan, it runs in many capricious windings, in a northwesterly
direction, leaps in foaming cascades first at Bonnington, and then at
Cora Linn, rushes on through the fine country of Lanarkshire, till,
joined by many tributary streams, it passes through the large and
flourishing city of Glasgow, bearing upon its bosom the vast commerce
and population of the neighboring regions, flows around the walls of old
Dumbarton Castle, with its time-worn battlements and glorious memories,
in sight, too, of the lofty Ben Lomond, and the beautiful lake which it
protects, touches the ancient city of Greenock, expands into the Firth
of Clyde, and gradually loses itself amid the picturesque islands which
adorn the western coast of Scotland.
Were it possible, by placing ourselves upon some lofty elevation, to
take in at one glance, the whole of this varied landscape of lake,
river, and mountain; of tarn, trosach and moor, with verdant vales, and
woody slopes between, we should confess that it was one of as rare
beauty and wild magnificence as ever greeted the vision of man. And were
our minds steeped in ancient and poetic lore, we should be prepared to
appreciate the faithfulness and splendor of Burns's allegorical
description of the "Genius of Scotland."
"Green, slender, leaf-clad holly boughs,
Were twisted gracefu' round her brows,
I took her for some Scottish Muse,
By that same token,
And come to stop those reckless vows
Would soon be broken.
A hair-brained sentimental trace,
Was strongly marked in her face;
A wildly witty-rustic grace,
Shone full upon her,
Her eye e'en turned on empty space,
Beamed keen with honor.
Her mantle large, of greenish hue,
My gazing wonder chiefly drew,
Deep _lights and shadows_ mingling threw
A lustre grand;
And seemed, to my astonished view
A _well known land_!
Here rivers in the sea were lost;
There mountains in the skies were tost;
Here tumbling billows marked the coast,
With surging foam;
There, distant shone, Art's lofty boast,
The lordly dome.
Here Doon poured down his far-fetched floods;
There well fed Irwine stately thuds:
Auld hermit Ayr staw through his woods,
On to the shore;
And many a lesser torrent scuds
With seeming roar.
Low in a sandy valley spread,
An ancient _borough_ reared her head
Still as in Scottish story read,
She boasts a race,
To every nobler virtue bred,
And polished grace.
By stately tower or palace fair
Or ruins pendent in the air
Bold stems of heroes here and there,
I could discern;
Some seemed to muse, some seemed to dare
With feature stern."
Now, imagine the whole of this country, studded at no remote intervals,
with churches and schools well supported, and well attended by young and
old. Think of her ancient and able Universities, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St.
Andrews, and Aberdeen, including in the last, Marischal College and
Kings College, with an average attendance of from 2500 to 3000 students,
with their learned and amiable professors, extensive libraries, and fine
collections in Natural History. Think of her innumerable high schools,
private schools, public and private libraries, literary institutes and
ancient hospitals, some for the body and some for the mind, and connect
the whole with her heroic history, her poetical enthusiasm, her
religious faith, her fealty to God and man, and you will have some faint
conception of the beauty and glory of Scotland.
But the impression would be deepened, could you behold the land,
beautified and ennobled by her sabbath calm, as once in seven days, she
rests and worships before the Lord. Could you but hear the voice of her
church-going bells, and go to the house of God, in company with her
thoughtful but cheerful population; could you sit in some "auld warld"
kirk, and hear some grey-haired holy man dispense, with deep and tender
tones, the word of everlasting life; could you hear a whole congregation
of devout worshippers make the hills ring again, with their simple
melody; above all, could you place yourself in some deep shady glen, by
the "sweet burnie," as it "wimples" among the waving willows, or the
yellow broom, or sit down on the green "brae side," enamelled with
"gowans," on some sacramental occasion, when thousands are gathered to
hear the preaching of the gospel, and with simple ritual, to commemorate
the dying love of the Redeemer! Could you see the devout and happy looks
of the aged, and the sweet but reverent aspect of children and youth, as
the tones of some earnest preacher thrilled them with emotions of holy
gratitude, in view of the "loving kindness of the Lord," you would
instinctively feel that Scotland,--free, Protestant Scotland, was a
happy land, and would be prepared to exclaim with the sweet singer of
Israel: "Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound, they shall
walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance."
"How with religious awe impressed
They open lay the guileless breast;
And youth and age with fears distressed
All due prepare,
The symbols of eternal rest
Devout to share.
How down ilk lang withdrawing hill,
Successive crowds the valleys fill;
While pure religious converse still
Beguiles the way,
And gives a cast to youthful will,
To suit the day.
How placed along the sacred board,
Their hoary pastor's looks adored,--
His voice with peace and blessing stored,
Sent from above,
And faith and hope, and joy afford
And boundless love.
O'er this with warm seraphic glow,
Celestial beings pleased bow;
And whispered hear the holy vow,
'Mid grateful tears;
And mark amid such scenes below
Their future peers."[3]
[Footnote 3: Letter to Robert Burns, by Mr. Telford, of Shrewsbury, a
native of Scotland.]
Or you might leave this scene, and study the Scottish character with
some shepherd boy on the hills, as he reads God's word upon the
greensward, and meditates on things divine, while tending his flocks far
from the house of God, on the sabbath day, a circumstance to which
Grahame in his poem of the Sabbath, has touchingly referred, and which
Telford has thus described:
"Say how, by early lessons taught,
Truth's pleasing air is willing caught!
Congenial to the untainted thought,
The shepherd boy,
Who tends his flocks on lonely height,
Feels holy joy.
Is aught on earth so lovely known,
On sabbath morn, and far alone.
His guileless soul all naked shown
Before his God--
Such prayers must welcome reach the throne
And bless'd abode.
O tell! with what a heartfelt joy
The parent eyes the virtuous boy;
And all his constant kind employ,
Is how to give
The best of _lear_ he can enjoy,
As means to live."
The scenes of "the Cotter's Saturday Night," one of the sweetest poems
in any language, are exact transcripts from real life, as Burns himself
intimates. His father was "a godly man," and was wont, morning and
evening, to "turn o'er, wi' patriarchal grace, the big ha' Bible," and
worship God, with his family. Where in Italy or in Austria will you meet
aught so beautiful or thrilling as the following?
"The cheerfu' supper done, wi' serious face,
They round the ingle form a circle wide,
The sire turns o'er wi' patriarchal grace
The big _ha' Bible_ ance his father's pride:
His bonnet reverently is laid aside,
His lyart haffets[4] wearing thin and bare:
Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide
He wales a portion with judicious care;
And 'Let us worship God!' he says with solemn air.
They chant their artless notes in simple guise,
They tune their hearts, by far their noblest aim;
Perhaps _Dundee's_ wild warbling measures rise,
Or plaintive _Martyrs_ worthy of the name,
Or noble Elgin beats the heavenward flame,
The sweetest far of _Scotia's_ holy lays.
Compared with these Italian trills are tame;
The tickled ears no heartfelt raptures raise,
Nae unison hae they with our Creator's praise.
The priest-like father reads the sacred page,
How Abram was the friend of God on high,
Or Moses bade eternal warfare wage
With Amalek's ungracious progeny;
Or how the royal bard did groaning lie
Beneath the stroke of Heaven's avenging ire;
Or Job's pathetic plaint and wailing cry;
Or rapt Isaiah's wild seraphic fire;
Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre.
Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme:
How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed,
How He who bore in Heaven the second name,
Had 'not on earth whereon to lay his head;'
How his first followers and servants sped;
The precepts sage they wrote to many a land:
How he who lone in Patmos banished,
Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand;
And heard great Babylon's doom pronounced by Heaven's command.
Then kneeling down to Heaven's eternal King,
The saint, the father, and the husband prays,
Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing,
That thus they all shall meet in future days:
There ever bask in uncreated rays,
No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear,
Together hymning their Creator's praise,
In such society, yet still more dear;
While circling time moves round in an eternal sphere.
Compared with this how poor religion's pride,
In all the pomp of method and of art,
When men display to congregations wide,
Devotion's every grace except the heart;
The Power incensed the pageant will desert,
The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole;
But haply in some cottage far apart,
May hear well pleased the language of the soul,
And in His book of life the inmates poor enroll."
[Footnote 4: Withered cheeks.]
These are the elements of a people's greatness. These are the perennial
sources of their ruth and loyalty, their freedom and virtue. These guard
the domestic graces, these bind the commonwealth in holy and enduring
bands. Better than splendid mausoleums and gorgeous temples, better than
costly altars and a pompous ritual, better than organ blasts and rolling
incense, better by far than mass and breviary, confessional and priestly
absolution! For while the most imposing forms of Religion are often
heartless and dead, these sacred rites of a Christianity pure and
practical, ever possess a vital power,--a power to quicken and save.
"From scenes like these auld Scotia's grandeur springs,
That makes her loved at home, revered abroad;
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings,
'An honest man's the noblest work of God.'
* * * * *
O Scotia! my dear, my native soil!
For whom my warmest wish to heaven is sent,
Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil,
Be blest with health and peace and sweet content!
And oh, may Heaven their simple lives prevent
From luxury's contagion, weak and vile!
Then howe'er crowns and coronets be rent,
A virtuous populace may rise the while,
And stand a wall of fire around their much loved Isle."
But we have dwelt long enough on general topics. If the reader will
accompany us, we will ramble together in some particular scenes,
meditating, as we go, on things new and old, and chatting, in lively or
in sombre mood, as the humor may seize us. First of all then, let us
visit "Auld Reekie," as the inhabitants often call it, or more
classically, "the modern Athens," the beautiful and far famed metropolis
of Scotland.
CHAPTER II.
The city of Edinburgh--Views from Arthur's Seat--The Poems of
Richard Gall--"Farewell to Ayrshire"--"Arthur's Seat, a
Poem"--Extracts--Craigmillar Castle--The Forth, Roslin Castle and
the Pentland Hills--Liberty.
We will enter the city on the west side, as if we were coming from
Glasgow, pass through Prince's Street, with its elegant buildings and
fine promenades, skirting that enclosure of walks and shrubbery, just
under the frowning battlements of the Castle, and adorned with the
superb statue of Sir Walter Scott, rising rapidly to its completion;
then turn the corner at right-angles, cross the North Bridge, enter High
Street, and thence plunge down the hill into the old Canongate; and
without waiting to look at "the Heart of Midlothian," or even the
beautiful ruins of Holyrood House, at the foot of the hill, let us turn
to the right, and climb the rocky sides of "Arthur's Seat" with its
summit of verdure overlooking the city and the neighboring country. For
there the whole panorama of the city will spread itself before us,
surrounded with magnificent scenery, stretching far and wide from the
Pentland Hills on the one side to the Firth of Forth on the other, from
Stirling Castle on the west to the German Ocean on the east. Here we are
then, on the very highest point of the mountain, with the warm sunshine
around us, tempered as it is by the fresh "westlin wind," at once so
sweet and bland. Aye, aye! this is beautiful! What a landscape! How
varied and yet how harmonious! Not only beautiful exceedingly, but
ineffably grand and striking! Beneath us is the fine old city--new and
old at the same time, lying nearly square, with its lofty buildings and
elegant monuments, handsome parks and green shrubberies. To the left is
the older part of the city, rising gradually from the palace of Holyrood
at our feet, and crowned by the Castle, which is built upon a granite
rock, whose rough sides, terminating abruptly to the north and west,
hang over Prince's Street and the lower part of the city.
"There watching high the least alarms,
Thy rough rude fortress gleams afar;
Like some bold veteran gray in arms
And pierced with many a seamy scar:
The ponderous wall and massy bar,
Grim rising o'er the rugged rock;
Have oft withstood assailing war,
And oft repelled the invader's shock."--Burns.
Before us and stretching away towards the Forth and the city of Leith is
"the new town," surmounted on this side by the Calton Hill, on which
stand the monuments of Dugald Stewart and Admiral Nelson, the unfinished
Parthenon, and the monument of Robert Burns,--beautiful and imposing
objects, reminding us of the Acropolis of Athens, and affording fine
relief to the long ranges of smooth and polished buildings beyond.
Behind us are the Pentland Hills with their verdant slopes and historic
recollections. To the right lie the city and bay of Leith, "the Piraeus"
of Edinburgh, the long winding shore in the direction of Portobello, and
"the dark blue deep" of the ocean, studded with white sails, glistening
in the summer radiance. To the north, at a distance of a few miles, you
see the majestic Firth of Forth, and beyond, "in cultur'd beauty," the
"Kingdom of Fife," with the distant range of the Ochil and Campsie
hills. From this point also you can see, at a distance of some three
miles, the gray ruins of Craigmillar Castle, famous in the annals of
Scotland, as the residence of Queen Mary, and the scene of those secret
machinations, which ended in the tragedy of Holyrood; Inch Keith with
its lofty lighthouse; the isle of May, once consecrated to St. Adrian,
and on which stands another "star of hope" to the mariner; and old
Inchcolm, famous for its ancient convent founded by St. Colomba, one of
the patron saints of Scotland. How gloriously, light and shade, land and
ocean, park and woodland, old castles and hoary ruins, frowning rocks
and smiling meadows mingle and blend in this rare and magnificent
landscape.
"Traced like a map the landscape lies
In cultur'd beauty stretching wide;
There Pentland's green acclivities,
There ocean, with its azure tide;
There Arthur's Seat, and gleaming through
Thy southern wing Dun Edin blue!
While in the orient, Lammer's daughters,
A distant giant range are seen,
North Berwick Law, with cone of green,
And Bass amid the waters." Delta.[5]
[Footnote 5: Supposed to be Dr. Moir.]
Here you can easily understand the reason why Edinburgh has been thought
to resemble the city of Athens. Mr. Stuart, author of the "Antiquities
of Athens," was the first to call attention to this fact, and his
opinion has often been confirmed since. Dr. Clarke remarks that the
neighborhood of Athens is just the Highlands of Scotland, enriched with
the splendid remains of art. Another acute observer states that the
distant view of Athens from the Aegean Sea is extremely like that of
Edinburgh from the Firth of Forth, "though," he adds, "certainly the
latter is considerably superior." "The resemblance," says J. G. Kohl,
the celebrated German traveller, "is indeed very striking. Athens, like
Edinburgh, was a city of hills and valleys, and its Ilissus was probably
not much larger than the Water of Leith. Athens, like Edinburgh, was an
inland town, and had its harbor, Piraeus, on the sea-coast. The mountains
near Edinburgh very much resemble those near Athens. I have little
doubt, however, that Athens is more honored by being compared to
Edinburgh, than Edinburgh to Athens; for it is probable that the scenery
and position of the Northern are more grand and striking in their
beauty, than those of the Southern Athens."
By the way there is a beautiful poem in the Scottish dialect, entitled
"Arthur's Seat," written by Richard Gall, a young man of great promise,
the friend and correspondent of Burns. He struggled with poverty, and
like Fergusson and Michael Bruce, was cut off prematurely, but not
before he had written some exquisite poems, in the style of Burns, whom
he greatly admired. He was contemporary with the unfortunate but gifted
Tannahill of Paisley, and possessed a kindred taste in song writing.[6]
His "Farewell to Ayrshire," commencing--
"Scenes of woe and scenes of pleasure,
Scenes that former thoughts renew;
Scenes of woe and scenes of pleasure,
Now a sad and last adieu!
Bonnie Doon sae sweet at gloaming,
Fare thee weel before I gang--
Bonnie Doon where early roaming,
First I weaved the rustic sang"--
has been often printed, on account of its locality and associations, as
the composition of Burns. He is doubtless greatly inferior to Burns, and
not quite equal to Bruce or even Tannahill, but his verses possess great
sweetness, and contain some graphic and beautiful descriptions. This is
the case especially, with "Arthur's Seat," his longest and most
elaborate poem. As its sketches of scenery in and around Edinburgh, are
at once accurate and pleasing, and as it is entirely unknown in America,
we will take the liberty of quoting some of its finest passages.
[Footnote 6: Tannahill was a weaver in Paisley. He excelled in song
writing. Under the pressure of poverty and deep depression of spirits he
committed suicide.]
Gazing from Arthur's Seat, the poet invokes the genius of Burns--
"To sing ilk bonny bushy bower,
Adorned with many a wild-born flower;
Ilk burnie singing through the vale,
Where blooming hawthorns scent the gale;
And ilka sweet that nature yields,
In meadow wild or cultur'd fields;
The cultur'd fields where towering strang
The sturdy aik his shadows flang;
Where lonely Druids wont to rove,
The mystic tenants of the grove."
He aptly and strikingly interweaves historical and poetical allusions.
The following contains a fine contrast, and a striking description of
the ruins of Craigmillar Castle, in the vicinity of Edinburgh.
"Yes, ARTHUR, round thy velvet chair,
Ilk chequered picture blushes fair,
And mixed with nature's landscape green,
The varied works o' art are seen.
Here starts the splendid dome to view,
Mang sylvan haunts o' vernal hue;
There some auld lanely pile appears,
The mouldering wreck o' former years,
Whose tottering wa' nae mair can stand
Before fell Time's resistless hand;
Sic as Craigmillar's Castle gray,
That now fa's crumbling to decay,
A prey to ilka blast that blaws
An' whistles through its royal ha's--
Where mirth ance burst with joyfu' sound
And melting music rang around,
Ah! there dull gloomy silence reigns,
The mossy grass creeps o'er the stanes,
And howlets loud at e'enin's fa',
Rejoice upon the ruined wa'."
Craigmillar Castle naturally suggests the name of the beautiful and
unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots, who once resided within its lordly but
now forsaken halls. The poet therefore breaks out into the following
animated and pathetic strains, which, it has been said, will bear a
comparison with Mr. Burke's celebrated rhapsody on the unfortunate Queen
of France.
"There was a time when woman's charms
Could fire the warlike world of arms,
And breed sic wae to auld and young,
As Helen wept and Homer sung,
But Mary o' ilk stay bereft,
Misfortune's luckless child was left;
Nae guileless friend to stem her grief,
The bursting sigh her whole relief.--
O ye whose brave forefathers bled,
And oft the rage of battle led,
Wha rushing o'er the crimson field,
At Bannockburn made Edward yield;
Ye wha still led by glory's flame,
Make terror mix wi' Scotia's name--
Where slept your dauntless valor keen
When danger met your injured Queen?"
His descriptions of the Forth and the neighboring regions, of the
Pentland hills, and the scenery of the Esk, are strikingly beautiful.
"What varied scenes, what prospects dear
In chequer'd landscape still appear!
What rural sweets profusely thrang
The flowery Links of Forth alang,
O'er whose proud shivering surface blue
Fife's woods and spires begirt the view;
Where Ceres gilds the fertile plain
An' richly waves the yellow grain,
An' Lomond hill wi' misty showers,
Aft weets auld Falkland's royal towers,
Nor distant far, upon the ear
The popling Leven wimples clear,
Whose ruined pile and glassy lake
Shall live in sang for Mary's sake.[7]
* * * * *
Return fond muse frae haunts sae fair,
To Lothian's shore return ance mair,
And let thy lyre be sweetly strung,
For peerless Esk remains unsung.
Romantic stream, what sweets combine
To deck ilk bank and bower o' thine!
For now the sun, wi' cheerfu' rays
Glows soft o'er a' thy woody braes,
Where mony a native wild flower's seen,
Mang birks and briars, and ivy green,
An' a' the woodland chorists sing
Or gleesome flit on wanton wing,
Save where the lintie mournfully
Sabs sair 'aneath the rowan tree,
To see her nest and young ones a'
By thoughtless reaver borne awa.'
* * * * *
What saftening thoughts resistless start,
And pour their influence o'er the heart;
What mingling scenes around appear
To musing meditation dear,
When wae we tent fair grandeur fa'
By Roslin's ruined Castle wa'![8]
O what is pomp? and what is power?
The silly phantoms of an hour!
Sae loudly ance from Roslin's brow[9]
The martial trump of grandeur blew,
While steel-clad vassals wont to wait
Their chieftain at the portalled gate;
And maidens fair, in vestments gay,
Bestrewed wi' flowers the warrior's way.
But now, ah me! how changed the scene!
Nae trophied ha', nae towers remain;
Nae torches bleeze wi' gladsome light,
A guiding star in dead o' night;
Nae voice is heard, save tinkling rill,
That echoes from the distant hill."
[Footnote 7: The reference here is to the residence, or rather
imprisonment of Mary in Lochleven Castle.]
[Footnote 8: Roslin Castle, on the banks of the Esk, about seven miles
from Edinburgh.]
[Footnote 9: _Brow_, in Scotland, is often pronounced as if spelt
_brue_.]
How exquisite, and how entirely and peculiarly Scottish is the
following:
"Now tent the Pentlands westlin's seen,
O'erspread wi' flowery pastures green;
Where, stretching wide, the fleecy ewes[10]
Run bleating round the sunny knowes,
And mony a little silver rill
Steals gurgling down its mossy hill;
And vernal green is ilka tree
On bonny braes o' Woodhouselee."
[Footnote 10: _Ewes_, pronounced as if it were _yowes_.]
The genius of Scotland is one of freedom, of independent thought, and
unfettered action in matters civil and religious. This produced the
Reformation; this generated the recent secession from the 'Kirk;' this
characterizes the literature of the nation. We cannot, therefore,
refrain from making one more quotation, which breathes the lofty spirit
of freedom:
"Alas! sic objects to behold,
Brings back the glorious days of old,
When Scotia's daring gallant train,
That ever spurned a tyrant's chain,
For dearest independence bled,
And nobly filled their gory bed--
So o'er yon mountains stretching lang,
Their shields the sons of Freedom rang,
When Rome's ambition wild, burst forth,
An' roused the warriors of the north,
When CALGACH urged his dauntless train,
And freedom rush'd through ilka vein,
And close they met the haughty foe,
And laid fu' mony a tyrant low;
As fierce they fought, like freemen a',
Oh! glorious fought--yet fought to fa'!
They fell, and thou sweet LIBERTY,
Frae Grampia's blood-stained heights did flee,
And fixed thy seat remote, serene,
Mang Caledonia's mountains green.
Fair Maid! O may thy saftest smile
For ever cheer my native isle!"
CHAPTER III.
Walk to the Castle--The old Wynds and their Occupants--Regalia of
Scotland--Storming of the Castle--Views from its Summit--Heriot's
Hospital--Other Hospitals--St. Giles's Cathedral--Changes--The
Spirit of Protestantism.
Let us now descend into the city. We will not linger long in old
Holyrood Palace, interesting as it is, nor dwell upon "the stains" of
Rizzio's blood in Queen Mary's room, as these have been described a
thousand times, and are familiar to every one. Neither will we spend
time in gazing upon the spot where once stood that quaint old gaol,
called "The Heart of Midlothian," made classic by the pen of Scott, in
the beautiful story of Jeanie Deans. Neither will we visit the old
"Parliament House" and the "Advocates' Library;" but we will pass right
up through High Street, amid those colossal buildings, rising, on either
side, to the height of six, seven, and even eight and ten stories,
swarming with inhabitants; and dive into one or two of those close, dark
wynds, where reside, in countless multitudes, the poorest and most
vicious of the people. Here, it must be confessed, are some strange
sights and appalling noises. Yet it is not quite so bad as some have
represented it. All large cities have their poor and vicious
inhabitants, and although those of the Scottish metropolis are
tolerably dirty and vastly degraded, they bear no comparison to the
lazzaroni of Naples and the beggars of Rome. Some of the streets and
wynds are narrow enough and vile enough, but they contain, after all,
many worthy people, who own a Bible, and read it too; and were you only
to become thoroughly acquainted with them, you would be surprised to
find how much of honesty and kindly affection still dwell in their
hearts. In ancient times the houses in these very "closes" or "wynds"
were inhabited by the nobility and gentry. Hence Grey's Close,
Morrison's Close, Stewart's Close, &c. They built their houses in these
narrow streets in order to be more secure from the attacks of their
enemies, and to be the better able to defend the principal thoroughfares
into which they opened. In Blythe's Close may be seen the remains of the
palace of the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise. In another stand the old
houses of the Earls of Gosford and Moray. One of the largest old palaces
is now inhabited by beggars and rats.
It would be a great improvement if these miserable dwellings could be
removed, and replaced by better streets and houses; a still greater one,
if the people could only be induced to abandon the use of whiskey, for
then they would abandon their hovels as a matter of course. Their
besetting sin is the love of strong drink, though this has been
gradually diminishing for the last few years throughout Scotland. It is
to be hoped that the pious and moral portion of the community will unite
in a strong effort to reclaim this degraded class of their
fellow-townsmen, and that the time will speedily come when the only
reproach which rests upon their fair fame shall be wholly obliterated.
But let us leave this region, the only unpleasant one in the whole of
this magnificent city, and ascend to the old Castle, where we shall see
the Regalia of Scotland, preserved in a little room at the top of the
Castle. These regalia consist of the crown of Robert Bruce the hero of
Bannockburn, the sceptre of James the Fifth, a sword presented by Pope
Julius the Second to James the Sixth, and other articles of inferior
note. It is somewhat singular that the Regalia should have lain
concealed from 1745 to the year 1818. At the time of the Union in 1707
between England and Scotland, they were walled up by some Scottish
patriots, in order to prevent their being removed to London.
What recollections of the stormy but glorious history of Scotland
cluster around the mind, while gazing at that antique-looking crown
which adorned the head of the Bruces and the ill-fated Mary. The freedom
and prosperity now enjoyed by the nation had a gloomy and tempestuous
birth. Their very religion, placid and beautiful now, was cradled amid
the war of elements and the shock of battle. But, thanks to God, it is
all the purer and stronger for its rough and tempestuous youth.
Draw near to the edge of that battlement, and look down over the
frowning rock. Would it be possible, think you, to storm the Castle from
that side? One would suppose it beyond the power of man. It has been
done, however, and the circumstance illustrates the spirit of hardihood
and enterprise which has ever distinguished the people of Scotland. In
the year 1313, when the Castle was in the possession of the English,
Randolph, Earl of Moray, was one day surveying the gigantic rock, when
he was accosted by one of his men at arms with the question, "Do you
think it impracticable, my lord?" Randolph turned his eyes upon the
speaker, a man a little past the prime of life, but of a firm well-knit
figure, and bearing in his keen eye and open forehead marks of
intrepidity which had already gained him distinction in the Scottish
army. "Do you mean the rock, Francis?" said the Earl; "perhaps not, if
we could borrow the wings of our gallant hawks."[11]
[Footnote 11: We give the version of Leitch Ritchie, who has thrown the
facts into the form of a dialogue, and given a false name to the hero;
otherwise the narration is entirely authentic.]
"There are wings," replied Francis, with a thoughtful smile, "as strong,
as buoyant, and as daring. My father was keeper of yonder fortress."
"What of that? You speak in riddles."
"I was then young, reckless, high-hearted: I was screwed up in that
convent-like castle; my sweetheart was in the plain below"--
"Well, what then?"
"'Sdeath, my lord, can you not imagine that I speak of the wings of
love? Every night I descended that steep at the witching hour, and every
morning before the dawn I crept back to my barracks. I constructed a
light twelve-foot ladder, by means of which I was able to pass the
places that are perpendicular; and so well, at length, did I become
acquainted with the route, that in the darkest and stormiest night, I
found my way as easily as when the moonlight enabled me to see my love
in the distance waiting for me at the cottage door."
"You are a daring, desperate, noble fellow, Francis! However, your
motive is now gone; your mistress"--
"She is dead; say no more; but another has taken her place."
"Ay, ay, it's the soldier's way. Women will die or even grow old; and
what are we to do? Come, who is your mistress now?"
"MY COUNTRY! What I have done for love, I can do again for honor; and
what I can accomplish, you, noble Randolph, and many of our comrades can
do far better. Give me thirty picked men, and a twelve-foot ladder, and
the fortress is our own!"
"The Earl of Moray, whatever his real thoughts of the enterprise might
have been, was not the man to refuse such a challenge. A ladder was
provided, and thirty men chosen from the troops; and in the middle of a
dark night, the party, commanded by Randolph himself, and guided by
William Francis, set forth on their desperate enterprise.
"By catching at crag after crag, and digging their fingers into the
interstices of the rocks, they succeeded in mounting a considerable way;
but the weather was now so thick, they could receive but little
assistance from their eyes; and thus they continued to climb, almost in
utter darkness, like men struggling up a precipice in the night-mare.
They at length reached a shelving table of the cliff, above which the
ascent, for ten or twelve feet, was perpendicular; and having fixed
their ladder, the whole party lay down to recover breath.
"From this place they could hear the tread and voices of the 'check
watches,' or patrol, above; and, surrounded by the perils of such a
moment, it is not wonderful that some illusions may have mingled with
their thoughts. They even imagined that they were seen from the
battlements, although, being themselves unable to see the warders, this
was highly improbable. It became evident, notwithstanding, from the
words they caught here and there in the pauses of the night-wind, that
the conversation of the English soldiers above related to a surprise of
the Castle; and at length these appalling words broke like thunder on
their ears: 'Stand! I see you well!' A fragment of the rock was hurled
down at the same instant; and as rushing from crag to crag it bounded
over their heads, Randolph and his brave followers, in this wild,
helpless, and extraordinary situation, felt the damp of mortal terror
gathering upon their brow, as they clung with a death-grip to the
precipice.
"The startled echoes of the rock were at length silent, and so were the
voices above. The adventurers paused, listening breathless; no sound was
heard but the sighing of the wind, and the measured tread of the
sentinel who had resumed his walk. The men thought they were in a
dream, and no wonder; for the incident just mentioned, which is related
by Barbour, was one of the most singular coincidences that ever
occurred. The shout of the sentinel and the missile he had thrown, were
merely a boyish freak; and while listening to the echoes of the rock, he
had not the smallest idea that the sounds which gave pleasure to him
carried terror and almost despair into the hearts of the enemy.
"The adventurers, half uncertain whether they were not the victims of
some illusion, determined that it was as safe to go on as to turn back;
and pursuing their laborious and dangerous path, they at length reached
the bottom of the wall. This last barrier they scaled by means of their
ladder; and leaping down among the astonished check-watches, they cried
their war-cry, and in the midst of answering shouts of 'treason!
treason!' notwithstanding the desperate resistance of the garrison,
captured the Castle of Edinburgh."
Sit down here on the edge of this parapet. That huge cannon there is
called Mons Meg, from being cast at _Mons_, in Flanders, and reminds us,
somewhat significantly, of the terrible use to which all the
arrangements of the Castle are applied.[12] How singular, that men have
to be governed and controlled like bull-dogs, that castles and dungeons,
halters, and cannon, are necessary to keep them from stealing each
other's property, or cutting each other's throats! Surely mankind have
ills enough to bear without turning upon each other like tigers.
[Footnote 12: At present it is used as a barracks for soldiers and a
magazine of arms.]
"Many and sharp the numerous ills,
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves,
Regret, remorse, and shame;
And man, whose heaven-erected face
The smiles of love adorn,
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn."
BURNS.
But all is quiet now. The tendency of the times is to peace; and
Edinburgh Castle, Mons Meg, and the whole array of cannon bristling over
the precipice, are but objects of natural curiosity or of poetical
interest.
Do you see yonder turreted building, with high pointed gables and
castellated walls, in the Elizabethan style, just beyond the Grass
Market. That is George Heriot's Hospital, one of the proudest monuments
of the city, and one of the most beautiful symbols of its peaceful
prosperity. It was founded by the rich and benevolent George Heriot,
jeweller to King James the Sixth, "Jingling Geordie," as he is quaintly
termed in the "Fortunes of Nigel." It is of vast extent, as you
perceive, and presents a good specimen of the mixed style of
architecture prevalent in the days of Queen Mary. The object of this
noble institution is the maintenance and education of poor and
fatherless boys, or of boys in indigent circumstances, "freemen's sons
of the town of Edinburgh." Of these, one hundred and eighty receive
ample board and education within its walls. By this means they are
thoroughly prepared for the active business of life, each receiving
at his dismissal a Bible, and other useful books, with two suits of
clothes chosen by himself. Those going out as apprentices are allowed
$50 per annum for five years, and $25 at the termination of their
apprenticeship. Boys of superior scholarship are permitted to stay
longer in the institution, and are fitted for college. For this purpose
they receive $150 per annum, for four years. Connected with this
institution are seven free schools, in the different parishes of the
city, for the support of which its surplus funds are applied. In these
upwards of two thousand children receive a good common school education.
The girls, in addition to the ordinary branches, are taught knitting and
sewing.
In addition to these provisions for the education of the poor, there are
also ten "bursaries," or university scholarships, open to the
competition of young men, not connected with the institution. The
successful candidates receive $100 per annum for four years. No wonder
that Sir Walter Scott felt authorized to put into the mouth of the
princely founder of these charities the striking sentiment: "I think
mine own estate and memory, as I shall order it, has a fair chance of
outliving those of greater men."
Edinburgh abounds in charitable hospitals, and particularly in free
educational institutions, in the support of which the citizens evince a
laudable enthusiasm. Thus, for example, we have Watson's Hospital, the
Merchant Maiden's Hospital, the Trades' Maiden Hospital, Trinity College
Hospital, Cauvin's Hospital, a little out of the city; Gillespie's
Hospital, Donaldson's Hospital, Chalmers's Hospital, the House of
Refuge, the House of Industry, the Strangers' Friend Society, the
Institution for the Relief of poor old Men, and another for the Relief
of indigent old Women, and many others.
Below us, on one side of High Street, you see the fine old Gothic
Cathedral of St. Giles. It was founded in the twelfth or thirteenth
century, and named after St. Giles, abbot and confessor, and tutelar
saint of Edinburgh in the olden time. The Scottish poet, Gavin Douglas,
bishop of Dunkeld, was sometime provost of St. Giles. He translated
Virgil into English, the first version of a classic ever made in
Britain, and was the author of "The Palace of Honor," from which some
have absurdly supposed that John Bunyan borrowed the idea of the
"Pilgrim's Progress." This edifice is interesting, chiefly as connecting
the past with the present condition of Scotland, and indicating the
mighty transitions through which it has passed. In the fifteenth century
incense ascended from forty different altars within its walls; now it
contains three Protestant places of worship. Once it enshrined the
relics of St. Giles; now its cemetery contains the body of John Knox! On
the 13th of October, 1643, "the solemn League and Covenant" was sworn to
and subscribed within its walls, by the Committee of the Estates of
Parliament, the Commission of the Church, and the English Commission.
The sacred vessels and relics which it contained, including the arm-bone
of the patron saint, were seized by the magistrates of the city, and the
proceeds of their sale applied to the repairing of the building.
Puritanism has thus often showed itself a rough and tempestuous
reformer; nevertheless it possesses wonderful vitality, and has
conferred upon Scotland the blessings of civil and religious liberty.
Its outer form is often hard and defective, and its movements irregular
and convulsive, but its inner spirit is ever generous and free. Its
rudeness and excess none will approve; its life, energy, and activity,
all will admire. It came forth, like a thunder-cloud, from the
mountains. Its quick lightning-flashes went crashing amid the old images
of papal worship. The atmosphere of spiritual pollution was agitated and
purified. Upon the parched ground fell gentle and refreshing showers.
The sun of freedom began to smile upon hill and valley, and the whole
land rejoiced under its placid influence.
CHAPTER IV.
John Knox's House--History of the Reformer--His
Character--Carlyle's View--Testimony of John Milton.
Let us now descend from the Castle, and, passing down High Street, turn
to the left, at the head of the Nether-bow, where we shall see the house
of that stern but glorious old reformer, John Knox. There it is, looking
mean enough now among those miserable gin-shops, paint-shops, and so
forth; yet hallowed by the recollections of the past. Over the door is
an inscription, invisible from the numerous sign-boards that cover it,
containing the spirit and essence of that lofty Puritanism which Knox
preached:
"LUFE . GOD . ABOVE . ALL . AND . YOUR . NICHBOUR . AS . YOURSELF."
In this house Knox lived many years; here also he died in holy triumph;
and from that little window he is said frequently to have addressed the
populace. A rude stone effigy of the Reformer may be seen at the corner,
and near it, cut in the stone, the name of God, in Greek, Latin, and
English. It is gratifying to know that measures have recently been taken
to erect a monument to Knox, near this spot, which shall be worthy of
his memory.
The character of Knox has been terribly blackened by heartless and
infidel historians, and especially by sickly sentimentalists of the
Werter school. Nevertheless, he was a noble-hearted, truth-loving,
sham-hating, God-fearing, self-sacrificing man; a hero in the proper
sense of the word, a minister of righteousness, an angel of Reform. Not,
indeed, a soft, baby-faced, puling sentimentalist; but a lofty,
iron-hearted man, who "never feared the face of clay," and did God's
will, in spite of devils, popes, and kings. His history possesses the
deepest and most romantic interest. It is one of the most magnificent
passages in Scottish story. Bruce battled for a crown; Knox battled for
the truth. Both conquered, after long toils and struggles; and conquered
mainly by the might of their single arm. But the glory which irradiates
the head of the Reformer far outshines that of the hero of Bannockburn,
for the latter is earthly and evanescent; the former celestial and
immortal.
John Knox was born in Haddington, not far from Edinburgh, of poor but
honest parents, in the year 1505; grew up in solitude; was destined for
the church; received a thorough collegiate education; became an honest
friar; wore the monk's cowl for many years; adopted silently and
unostentatiously the principles of the Protestant Reformation; spent
much of his time in teaching, and in the prosecution of liberal studies,
of which he was considered a master; was suddenly and unexpectedly
called, at St. Andrews, by the unanimous voice of his brethren, to the
preaching of the Word, and the defence of their religious liberties;
after a brief struggle with himself yielded to the call, nobly threw
himself into the breach, at the hazard of his life, attacked "Papal
idolatry" with unsparing vigor, was seized by the authorities, and sent
a prisoner to France in 1547, where he worked in the galleys as a slave,
but evermore maintaining his lofty courage and cheerful hope; was set at
liberty two years afterwards; preached in England in the time of Edward
the Sixth; refused a bishopric from the best of kings; retired to the
continent at the accession of Mary, residing chiefly at Geneva and
Frankfort; returned to Scotland in 1555; labored with indomitable
perseverance to establish Protestantism; rebuked the great for
immorality, profaneness and rapacity, and succeeded in greatly
strengthening the cause of truth and freedom. At the earnest
solicitation of the English congregation in Geneva, he went thither a
second time; there he published "The First Blast of the Trumpet against
the Monstrous Regiment (Government) of Women," directed principally
against Mary, Queen of England, and Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland,
two narrow-minded miserable despots; returned to Scotland in 1559;
continued his exertions in behalf of Christ's truth; did much to
establish common schools; finally saw Protestantism triumphant in
Scotland; and died in 1572, so poor that his family had scarce
sufficient to bury him, but with the universal love and homage of his
countrymen, a conscience void of offence, and a hope full of
immortality. "He had a sore fight of an existence; wrestling with popes
and principalities; in defeat, contention, life-long struggle; rowing as
a galley-slave, wandering as an exile. A sore fight, but he won it.
'Have you hope?' they asked him in his last moment when he could no
longer speak. He lifted his finger, 'pointed upwards with his finger,'
and so died. Honor to him! His works have not died. The letter of his
work dies, as of all men's; but the spirit of it never."[13]
[Footnote 13: Carlyle--"Hero Worship," p. 174.]
Knox has been much abused for his violent treatment of Queen Mary. His
addresses and appeals to her have been characterized as impudent and
cruel; but, thoroughly inspected, they will be found the reverse. Strong
and startling they were, but neither impudent nor cruel. Doubtless they
fell upon her ear like the tones of some old prophet, sternly rebuking
sin, or vindicating the rights of God. Mary was a woman of matchless
beauty; and had she been educated differently, might have blessed the
world with the mild lustre of her Scottish reign; but she was the dupe
of bad counsels, in spirit and practice a despot, the plaything of
passion, and the reckless opposer of the best interests of her country.
Her beauty and sufferings have shed a false lustre over her character;
above all, have aided in concealing the terrible stain of infidelity to
her marriage vows, and the implied murder of her wretched husband,
charges which her apologists can extenuate, but not deny. But, forsooth,
it is an insufferable thing for a plain honest-hearted man like John
Knox to tell the truth to such an one! She was young, beautiful,
fascinating; and however recklessly, madly, ruinously wrong, he must
not advise her--above all, must not warn her! Now, such a notion may
possibly commend itself to your "absolute gentlemen, of very soft
society, full of most excellent differences and great showing; indeed,
to speak feelingly of them, who are the card and calendar of gentry;"
but it cannot be imposed upon our plain common sense. Mary was a queen,
however, and John Knox a poor plebeian! Aye, aye! that is a difficulty!
Kings and queens may do what they please. The people are made for them,
not they for the people. And sure enough it is a vulgar thing to oppose
them in their ambitious schemes, or to tell them the honest truth
be-times! Poor John Knox! thou must fall down and worship "a painted
bredd" after all. A beautiful queen must be spared, if Scotland should
perish. But looking at the matter from the free atmosphere of New
England, we maintain that John Knox was of higher rank than Mary Queen
of Scots. He was more true, more heroic, more kingly, than all the race
of the Stuarts. He had a right, in God's name, to speak the truth, "to
reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all long-suffering." Hence, though his
words were stern and appalling, they were uttered with a kind and
generous intention. "Madame," said Knox, when he saw Mary burst into
tears from vexation and grief, "in God's presence I speak; I never
delighted in the weeping of any of God's creatures, yea, _I can scarcely
well abide the tears of mine own boys_, when mine own hands correct
them, much less can I rejoice in your Majesty's weeping; but seeing I
have offered unto you no just occasion to be offended, I must sustain
your Majesty's tears, rather than I dare hurt my conscience, or betray
the commonwealth by silence."
Yes, he was a stern old puritan, a lion of a man, who made terrible
havoc among the "painted bredds" of Popery, and turned back the fury of
wild barons and persecuting priests. "His single voice," says Randolph,
"could put more life into a host than six hundred blustering trumpets."
Single handed, he met the rage of a disappointed government and an
infuriated priesthood, and conquered by the silent might of his
magnanimous audacity. In the wildest whirl of contending emotion, he
never lost sight of the great end of his being, as a servant of God, nor
swerved a hair's breadth from truth and right.
Yet this stern old Covenanter was not without a touch of gentleness and
even of hilarity. He loved his home, his children, and his friends. An
honest, quiet laugh often mantled his pale earnest visage. "They go far
wrong," says Carlyle, whose thorough appreciation of such men as Luther,
Cromwell, and Knox, is truly refreshing amid the vapid inanities or
coarse prejudices of ordinary historians, "who think that Knox was a
gloomy, spasmodic, shrieking fanatic. Not at all. He is one of the
solidest of men. Practical, cautious, hopeful, patient; a most shrewd,
observing, quietly discerning man. In fact, he has very much the type of
character we assign to the Scotch at present: a certain sardonic
taciturnity is in him; insight enough; and a stouter heart than he
himself knows of. * * An honest-hearted, brotherly man; brother to the
high, brother also to the low; sincere in his sympathy with both."
Knox, doubtless, had his faults; and what of that? He made some
mistakes! and what, too, of that? Was he not a true man, and a true
minister of God's Word? Did he not accomplish a great and beneficial
work of Reform; and, having done this, did he not die a sweet and
triumphant death? God has set his seal upon him, and upon his work; and
that is enough for us.
We hesitate not, with Carlyle, to name the Reformation under Knox as the
great era in Scottish history, as the one glorious event which gave life
to the nation. Thence resulted freedom, activity, purity of morals,
science, national and individual greatness. Previous to this event
Scotland possessed only a rough, tumultuous physical life; her
politics--dissensions and executions; her religion--a puerile
superstition;--her literature--ballads and monkish legends; her
joy--hunting, fighting, and drinking! But the Reformation breathed into
her the breath of a spiritual existence. Her national prosperity dates
from that era. Thence proceeded faith and order, education, industry,
and wealth. "It was not a smooth business; but it was welcome surely,
and cheap at that price, had it been far rougher. On the whole, cheap at
any price, as life is. The people began to _live_; they needed first of
all to _do that_, at what cost and costs soever. Scottish literature and
thought, Scotch industry, James Watt, David Hume, Walter Scott, Robert
Burns. I find Knox and the Reformation acting in the heart's core of
every one of these persons and phenomena; I find that, without the
Reformation, they would not have been. Or what of Scotland? The
Puritanism of Scotland became that of England, of New England. A tumult
in the High Church of Edinburgh spread into a universal battle and
struggle over all these realms; and there came out of it, after fifty
years' struggling, what we all call 'the Glorious Revolution,' a Habeas
Corpus Act, Free Parliaments, and much else."
It has become fashionable of late, in certain quarters, to undervalue
the Reformation, and contemn those great and rugged spirits by whom it
was accomplished. A sentimental, baby-hearted, superstition-smitten
generation, cannot appreciate those mighty men, and mightier reforms of
the olden time. But how well and worthily does the large-hearted and
ethereal Milton speak of it: "When I recall to mind, at last, after so
many dark ages, wherein the huge over-shadowing train of error had
almost swept all the stars out of the firmament of the church; how the
bright and blissful Reformation, by Divine power, struck through the
black and settled night of ignorance and anti-Christian tyranny,
methinks a sovereign and reviving joy must needs rush into the bosom of
him that reads or hears, and the sweet odor of the returning Gospel
imbathe his soul with the fragrancy of Heaven. Then was the sacred Bible
sought out of the dusty corners, where profane falsehood and neglect
had thrown it, the schools opened, divine and human learning raked out
of the embers of forgotten tongues; the princes and cities trooping
apace to the new-erected banner of salvation; the martyrs, with the
unresistible might of weakness, shaking the powers of darkness, and
scorning the fiery rage of the red old dragon."[14] A noble testimony
like this far outweighs all the cant of a whining sentimentalism. Its
truth, as well as its eloquence, all must admit.
[Footnote 14: "Of Reformation in England." By John Milton.]
CHAPTER V.
Edinburgh University--Professor Wilson--His Life and Writings,
Genius and Character.
We will now re-enter High Street, and thence turn at right angles into
South-bridge Street, and proceed to the University. It is a large and
imposing structure, but fails to produce its proper impression from the
circumstance of being wedged in among such a mass of other buildings. We
enter by a magnificent portico on the right, supported by Doric columns,
twenty-six feet in height, each formed of a single block of stone, and
find ourselves in a spacious quadrangular court, surrounded by the
various college edifices. The buildings are of free stone, beautifully
polished, and of recent erection, the old buildings, which were
unsightly and incommodious, having been taken down to make way for this
elegant and spacious structure. The University itself was founded by
King James the Sixth, in the year 1582, and has enjoyed uninterrupted
prosperity to the present time. The average number of students is from
ten to twelve hundred. The Rev. Dr. Lee, one of the most amiable and
learned men, is at present Principal of the University, and the various
chairs are filled by gentlemen of distinguished talent. The students are
not resident within the college, but choose their boarding-houses, at
pleasure, in any part of the city. They are not distinguished, as at
Glasgow and Oxford by any peculiar badge; are of all ages, and enjoy the
liberty of selecting the classes which they attend. Those however who
take degrees are required to attend a particular course, but this is not
done by more than one-half or at most two-thirds of the students. The
government of the University is not particularly strict. The
examinations are limited and imperfect; and hence it is very possible
for a young man to slip through the University, without contracting any
great tincture of scholarship. It is mainly the talent of the
professors, and the high literary enthusiasm they inspire, which sustain
the institution. There are thirty-four foundations for bursaries or
scholarships, the benefit of which is extended to eighty students. The
aggregate amount is about fifty dollars a year, for each. The Annual
Session lasts from October to May, with an occasional holiday, and a
week or two's vacation at Christmas. The rest of the year which includes
most of the summer and autumn is vacation, which gives the professors an
opportunity for rest and preparation, and the students facilities either
for private study, or for teaching and other employments. This order
prevails in all the other Scottish Universities, and is attended with
many advantages. But a truce to general remarks.
We have not time to visit the Museum, which is quite extensive and
admirably arranged, nor the Library, which is distinguished by its ample
dimensions and beautiful decorations. Neither can we dwell upon the
celebrated men who have encircled this Institution with a halo of
literary and scientific glory. But we will step into that door in front
of us, ascend the stairs, and enter the lecture-room of Professor
Wilson, the far famed "Christopher North," poet and novelist, orator,
critic and philosopher. The young gentlemen have assembled, but the
Professor has not yet come in. Good looking but noisy fellows these!
Some of them, you perceive, are very young, others are considerably
advanced in years. Most of them are well dressed, some poorly so. A few
look studious and care-worn, but the majority hearty and joyous. How
their clear loud laugh rings through the hall! They are from all ranks
of society, some being the sons of noblemen, others of farmers and
mechanics. Most of them probably have wherewithal to pay their college
expenses, but not a few, you may rely on it, are sorely pinched. The
Scots are an ambitious, study-loving race, and quite a number of these
young men are struggling up from the depths of poverty; and if they do
not die in the effort, will be heard of, one of these days, in the
pulpit, or at the bar.
But there comes the Professor, bowing graciously to the students, while
he receives from them a hearty "ruff," as the Scots call their energetic
stamping. What a magnificent looking man! Over six feet high, broad and
brawny, but of elegant proportions, with a clear, frank, joyous looking
face, a few wrinkles only around the eye, in other respects hale and
smooth, his fine locks sprinkled with gray, flowing down to his
shoulders, and his large lustrous eye beaming with a softened fire. His
subject is "the Passions." He commences with freedom and ease, but
without any particular energy,--makes his distinctions well, but without
much precision or force; for, to tell the honest truth, philosophical
analysis is not his particular forte. Still, it is good, so far as it
goes, and probably appears inferior chiefly by contrast. But he begins
to describe. The blood mantles to his forehead, thrown back with a
majestic energy, and his fine eye glows, nay, absolutely burns. And now
his impassioned intellect careers, as on the wings of the wind, leaping,
bounding, dashing, whirling, over hill and dale, rises into the clear
empyrean, and bathes itself in the beams of the sun. His audience is
intent, hushed, absorbed, rapt! He begins, however, to descend, and O!
how beautifully, like a falcon from "the lift," or an eagle from the
storm-cloud. And, now he skims along the surface with bird-like wing,
glancing in the sunlight, swiftly and gracefully. How varied and
delicate his language, how profuse his images, his allusions how
affecting, and his voice, ringing like a bell among the mountains. At
such seasons his style, manner and tone, are unequalled. Chaste and
exhilarating as the dew of the morning in the vale of Strathmore, yet
rich and rare as a golden sunset on the brow of Benlomond. But listen,
he returns to his philosophical distinctions,--fair, very fair, to be
sure, but nothing special, rather clumsy perhaps, except in regard to
his language. True, undoubtedly, but not profound, not deeply
philosophical, and to me, not particularly interesting. His auditors
have time to breathe. You hear an occasional cough, or blowing of the
nose. A few of the students are diligently taking notes, but the rest
are listless. This will last only a moment, and now that he is
approaching the close of his lecture, he will give us something worth
hearing. There, again he is out upon the open sea. How finely the sails
are set, and with what a majestic sweep the noble vessel rounds the
promontory, and anchors itself in the bay.[15]
[Footnote 15: The writer describes not an imaginary, but an actual
lecture of Professor Wilson's, which he heard some years ago.
We have honestly given our own impressions relative to Wilson's
metaphysical powers, and stated simply what we heard and saw while
attending his Lectures in Edinburgh University. Others however may have
different impressions; and we cheerfully append the following from
_Gilfillan_ as an offset to our strictures:
"It is probable that the very variety and versatility of Wilson's powers
have done him an injury in the estimation of many. They can hardly
believe that an actor, who can play so many parts, is perfect in all.
Because he is, confessedly, one of the most eloquent of men, it is
doubted whether he can be profound: because he is a fine poet, he must
be a shallow metaphysician;--because he is the Editor of _Blackwood_, he
must be an inefficient professor. There is such a thing on this round
earth, as diffusion along with depth, as the versatile and vigorous mind
of a man of genius mastering a multitude of topics, while others are
blunderingly acquiring one, or as a man 'multiplying himself among
mankind, the Proteus of their talents,' and proving that the Voltairian
activity of brain has been severed, in one splendid instance, at least,
from the Voltairian sneer and the Voltairian shallowness. Such an
instance as that of our illustrious Professor, who is ready for every
tack,--who can, at one time, scorch a poetaster to a cinder, at another
cast illumination into the 'dark deep holds' of a moral question, by a
glance of his genius; at one time dash off the picture of a Highland
glen, with the force of a Salvator, at another, lay bare the anatomy of
a passion with the precision and force of an Angelo,--write, now, the
sweetest verse, and now the most energetic prose,--now let slip, from
his spirit, a single star, like the 'evening cloud,' and now unfurl a
_Noctes_ upon the wondering world,--now paint Avarice till his audience
are dying with laughter, and now Emulation and Sympathy till they are
choked with tears,--write now 'the Elder's Deathbed,' and now the
'Address to a Wild Deer,'--be equally at home in describing the
Sufferings of an Orphan girl, and the undressing of a dead Quaker, by a
congregation of ravens, under the brow of Helvellyn."--_Literary
Portraits_, p. 209.]
Instead of spending our time gazing at public buildings, let us continue
our conversation about the Professor, whose life has been a tissue of
interesting and romantic events. We shall find it profitable as well as
pleasant, to glance at the principal points in his history, as they tend
to throw light on the Genius of Scotland.
John Wilson is the oldest son of a wealthy manufacturer in the city of
Paisley, and was born there in the year 1788, and is now therefore
fifty-eight years of age. He was reared and educated, with almost
patrician indulgence, and inherited from his father a considerable
amount of property, variously estimated from twenty to fifty thousand
pounds sterling. Of course he enjoyed the best facilities for acquiring
a thorough and polished education. His instructor in classical learning
was Mr. Peddie of Paisley, to whom a public dinner was given in 1831 by
his friends and pupils. Professor Wilson was present, and on proposing
the health of his venerable preceptor, delivered a brilliant oration,
not the least interesting portion of which had reference to his somewhat
erratic course at school. "Sometimes," said he, "I sat as dux--sometimes
in the middle of the class--and I am obliged to confess, that on some
unfortunate occasions, I was absolutely _dolt_!" The confession was
received, of course, with roars of laughter.
From this school he was entered at the University of Glasgow, when he
was little more than thirteen years of age. But he was tall for his
years, and possessed an original and remarkably exuberant mind; and
though distinguished at this time, more for the vigor of his physical
constitution, and the buoyancy of his spirits, than for any particular
attainments in literature, he generally kept his standing among his
fellow students, many of whom were greatly his seniors.
From Glasgow he was transferred to Oxford, and here he first
distinguished himself as a man of genius. He contended in the annual
competition for the Newdigate prize of fifty guineas for the best fifty
lines of English verse, and though the contest was open to not less than
two thousand individuals, he carried off the palm from every competitor.
At Oxford as at Glasgow he was distinguished for his fine athletic
frame, his joyous and even boisterous spirits, and his excessive
devotion to all sorts of gymnastics, field sports and frolicking. This
however was blended with an extraordinary devotion to literature, and a
peculiar simplicity and frankness of character, which rendered him a
universal favorite. It is well known that at Oxford great latitude is
enjoyed, especially by "gentlemen commoners," as they are called, to
which class Wilson chose to belong. It is expected that the "gentlemen
commoners" shall wear a more splendid costume,--spend a good deal more
money,--and enjoy various immunities, which amount occasionally to a
somewhat unbridled license. "Once launched on this orbit," says a fellow
student of Wilson's, writing to a friend in America, "Mr. Wilson
continued to blaze away for four successive years. * * * Never did a
man, by variety of talents and variety of humors, contrive to place
himself as the connecting link between orders of men so essentially
repulsive of each other; from the learned president of his college, Dr.
Routh, the Editor of parts of Plato, and of some theological selections,
with whom Wilson enjoyed unlimited favor, down to the humblest student.
In fact from this learned Academic Doctor, and many others of the same
class, ascending and descending, he possessed an infinite gamut of
friends and associates, running through every key; and the diapason
closing full in groom, cobbler, stable boy, barber's apprentice, with
every shade and hue of blackguard and ruffian. In particular, amongst
this latter kind of worshipful society, there was no man who had any
talents, real or fancied, for thumping, or being thumped, but had
experienced some taste of his merits from Mr. Wilson. All other
pretensions in the gymnastic arts he took a pride in humbling or in
honoring, but chiefly did his examinations fall upon pugilism; and not a
man who could either 'give,' or 'take,' but boasted to have been
punished by Wilson of _Mallens_ (corruption of Magdalen) College."
Whether the statement of Wilson's pugilistic attainments is not somewhat
exaggerated we have not the means of deciding. All reports however go to
confirm its general accuracy. His career was certainly a wild and
hazardous one, and would have ruined an ordinary man. But underlying the
wild exuberance of Wilson's nature, there was a solid foundation of good
feeling and good sense, which ever and anon manifested itself, and
finally formed the principal element of his character. Besides, he could
never forget the holy instructions of his childhood. Scotland throws a
thousand sacred influences around the hearts of her children; and hence,
wild and wayward in their youth, they not unfrequently live to be the
safeguards of virtue and the ornaments of society.
It may be well supposed that on leaving Oxford, in the very hey-day of
youth, with an amazing exuberance of animal spirits, and the command of
an ample fortune, he must have run a somewhat extravagant career. He
purchased a beautiful estate on the banks of Windermere, not far from
the residences of Southey, Coleridge and Wordsworth, and yielded himself
to the full enjoyment of every pleasure. Having built upon his estate a
new and splendid edifice, he furnished it with every appliance of taste
and luxury, and succeeded by his "magnificent" style of housekeeping,
in spending a large amount of his property. He gave himself up to the
most diversified pursuits, now conning his literary treasures, and now
frolicking in sailor jacket and trowsers, with the young men of the
country.
The following, from a writer already quoted, will give a lively idea of
Wilson's habits and appearance, at this period of his life. "My
introduction to him--setting apart the introducee himself--was memorable
from one circumstance, viz., the person of the introducer. _William
Wordsworth_, it was, who in the vale of Grasmere, if it can interest you
to know the place, and in the latter end of 1808, if you can be supposed
to care about the time, did me the favor of making me known to John
Wilson. I remember the whole scene as circumstantially as if it belonged
to but yesterday. In the vale of Grasmere--that peerless little vale
which you, and Gray, the poet, and so many others have joined in
admiring as the very Eden of English beauty, peace, and pastoral
solitude--you may possibly recall, even from that flying glimpse you had
of it, a modern house called Allan Bank, standing under a low screen of
woody rocks, which descend from the hill of Silver Horn, on the western
side of the lake. This house had been recently built by a wealthy
merchant of Liverpool; but for some reason, of no importance to you or
me, not being immediately wanted for the family of the owner, had been
let for a term of three years to Mr. Wordsworth. At the time I speak of,
both Mr. Coleridge and myself were on a visit to Mr. Wordsworth, and
one room on the ground floor, designed for a breakfasting room, which
commands a sublime view of the three mountains, Fairfield, Arthur's
Chair, and Seat Sandal, was then occupied by Mr. Coleridge as a study.
On this particular day, the sun having only just risen, it naturally
happened that Mr. Coleridge--whose nightly vigils were long--had not yet
come down to breakfast; meantime and until the epoch of the Coleridgean
breakfast should arrive, his study was lawfully disposable to profane
uses. Here, therefore, it was, that opening the door hastily in quest of
a book, I found seated, and in earnest conversation, two gentlemen, one
of them my host, Mr. Wordsworth, at that time about thirty-eight years
old; the other was a younger man, by at least sixteen or seventeen
years, in a sailor's dress, manifestly in robust health--_fervidus
juventa_, and wearing upon his countenance a powerful expression of
ardor and animated intelligence, mixed with much good nature. _Mr.
Wilson of Elleray_--delivered as the formula of introduction, in the
deep tones of Mr. Wordsworth--at once banished the momentary surprise I
felt on finding an unknown stranger where I had expected nobody, and
substituted a surprise of another kind. I now understood who it was that
I saw; and there was no wonder in his being at Allan Bank, as Elleray
stood within nine miles; but (as usually happens in such cases) I felt a
shock of surprise on seeing a person so little corresponding to the one
I had half unconsciously prefigured to myself."
Mr. Wilson here appears in a comparatively grave and dignified aspect.
The same writer describes him in quite a different scene. Walking in the
morning, he met him, with a parcel of young "harum skarum" fellows on
horseback, chasing an honest bull, which had been driven off in the
night from his peaceful meadow, to furnish sport to these "wild
huntsmen." About this time, also, he was the leader of a "boating club,"
which involved him in great expense. They had no less than two or three
establishments for their boats and boat-men, and innumerable appendages,
which cost each of them annually a little fortune. The number of their
boats was so great as to form a little fleet, while some of them were
quite large and expensive. One of these in particular, a ten-oared
barge, was believed at the time to have cost over two thousand dollars.
In consequence of these and other expenses, and perhaps the loss of some
of his patrimony by the failure of a trustee, subjected him to the
necessity of seeking a change of life. This led to his becoming a
candidate for the chair of Moral Philosophy in the University of
Edinburgh.
Previous to this he had formed plans of extensive travel. One was a
voyage of exploration to Central Africa and the sources of the Nile.
Another was concocted with two of his friends, with whom he proposed to
sail from Falmouth to the Tagus, and landing wherever accident or fancy
might determine, to purchase mules, hire Spanish servants, and travel
extensively in Spain and Portugal, for eight or nine months; then, by
such of the islands in the Mediterranean as particularly attracted them,
they were to pass over into Greece, and thence to Constantinople.
Finally, they were to have visited the Troad, Syria, Egypt, and perhaps
Nubia!
But the reduction of his means, and his marriage with a young and
beautiful English lady, to whom he was greatly attached, broke up these
extravagant schemes. His marriage took place in 1810. Two sons and three
daughters were the fruits of it; and the connection has doubtless proved
one of the happiest events in the Professor's life. Death however has
entered this delightful circle. "How characteristic of him," says
Gilfillan, "and how affecting, was his saying to his students, in
apology for not returning their essays at the usual time, 'I could not
see to read them in the Valley and the Shadow of Death.'"
His application in 1820 for the professorship of Moral Philosophy which
he now fills, was successful, notwithstanding he had for his competitor
one of the profoundest thinkers, and most accomplished writers of the
age, Sir William Hamilton, who conducted himself in the affair with the
greatest dignity and urbanity. Many things were said, at the time,
derogatory to Wilson's personal character, and his fitness to fill the
chair of Moral Philosophy. The matter probably was decided, more with
reference to political considerations than any thing besides, as at that
time party politics ran exceedingly high. Professor Wilson has
disappointed the expectations of his enemies, to say the least, and has
been gaining in the esteem and good will of all classes of the
community.
His splendid career as a poet, editor, critic and novelist, is well
known. His poems, the principal of which are the "Isle of Palms," and
the "City of the Plague," are exquisitely beautiful, but deficient in
energy, variety and dramatic power. He excels in description, and
touches, with a powerful hand, the strings of pure and delicate
sentiment. Nothing can be finer than his "Address to a Wild Deer"--"A
Sleeping Child"--"The Highland Burial Ground," and "The Home Among the
Mountains" in the "City of the Plague." His tales and stories, such as
"Margaret Lindsay," "The Foresters," and those in "The Lights and
Shadows of Scottish Life," are well conceived, and charmingly written.
They breathe a spirit of the purest morality, and are highly honorable
not only to the head but to the heart of their eloquent author. But it
is in criticism and occasional sketching in which he chiefly excels. In
this field, so varied and delightful, he absolutely luxuriates. His
series of papers on Spenser and Homer are remarkable for their delicate
discrimination, strength and exuberance of fancy. No man loves Scotland
more enthusiastically, or describes her peculiar scenery and manners
with more success. Here his "meteor pen," as the author of the Corn Law
Rhymes aptly called it, passes like sunlight over the glowing page. His
descriptions of Highland scenery and Highland sports are instinct with
life and beauty. In a word, to quote the eulogy of the discriminating
Hallam, "Wilson is a writer of the most ardent and enthusiastic genius,
whose eloquence is as the rush of mighty waters."
Professor Wilson's nature is essentially poetical. It is sensitive,
imaginative and generous. It is also said to be deeply religious. Age
and experience, reflection, and the Word of God, which he greatly
reveres, have tamed the wild exuberance of his youth, strengthened his
better principles, and shed over his character the mellow radiance of
faith and love. "The main current of his nature," says Gilfillan, "is
rapt and religious. In proof of this we have heard, that on one
occasion, he was crossing the hills from St. Mary's Loch to Moffat. It
was a misty morning; but as he ascended, the mist began to break into
columns before the radiant finger of the rising sun. Wilson's feelings
became too much excited for silence, and he began to speak, and from
speaking began to pray; and prayed aloud and alone, for thirty miles
together in the misty morn. We can conceive what a prayer it would be,
and with what awe some passing shepherd may have heard the incarnate
voice, sounding on its dim and perilous way."
CHAPTER VI.
The Calton Hill--Burns's Monument--Character and Writings of "the
Peasant Poet"--His Religious Views--Monument of Professor Dugald
Stewart--Scottish Metaphysics--Thomas Carlyle.
Let us take a walk on the Calton Hill, this afternoon; we shall find
some objects of interest there. At the termination of Prince's Street,
commences Waterloo Place, in which are situated the Stamp Office, Post
Office, Bridewell and the Jail. This also leads to Calton Hill, and is
one of the most delightful promenades in the city. We skirt around the
Hill, a little to the right, pass the beautiful and spacious buildings
of the Edinburgh High School on the left, one of the best educational
institutions in Scotland, continue our walk a short distance, and come
to a round building on the farther declivity of the hill. That is
"Burns's Monument." By giving a small douceur to the keeper, we are
permitted to enter the interior, in the center of which stands a statue
of the poet, by Flaxman. Beautiful and expressive certainly, as a work
of art, but it is not quite equal to one's conception of the poet. The
forehead is particularly fine--open, massive and high, with an air of
lofty repose. The mouth is unpoetical and vulgar--at least _something_
of this is visible in its expression. It wants the chiseled delicacy, as
well as gracious expression of noble and generous feeling which we
naturally look for in the countenance of Burns. But the likeness, we
understand, is defective. In his best days, Burns had a noble, and
almost beautiful countenance. In stature he was about five feet ten
inches, of great agility and muscular vigor. His countenance was open
and ruddy, with a fine, frank, generous expression, eyes large and
radiant, forehead arched and lofty, with curling hair clustering over
it, and his mouth, especially when engaged in animated conversation, or
lighted with a smile, wreathed with intelligence and good humor.
Burns has been termed "the Shakspeare of Scotland." And certainly no
poet has ever been regarded, in that country, with such enthusiastic
love and reverence. With all his faults, some of which were bad enough,
all classes of the Scottish people, from the noble to the peasant,
cherish him in their heart of hearts. Indeed he is a sort of national
idol, to whom all feel bound to do reverence, notwithstanding his
admitted failings. Nor is this a matter of surprise. For, taken as a
whole, the poetry of Burns is the poetry of nature--of the heart--and
especially of the Scottish heart. It represents the genius of the
nation--wild, beautiful and free, shaded by thoughtfulness, and set off
by devotion, at once merry as her mountain brooks, yet deep, strong and
passionate as the stormy ocean which encircles her coast. "Tam
O'Shanter," or "Halloween," the "Cotter's Saturday Night," or "Mary in
Heaven," are the two extremes of the picture. In Burns, Scotland saw
incarnated her poetry and song, her music and passion, her love and
devotion, her seriousness and merriment, her strong-hearted adherence to
integrity and truth, her occasional recklessness and madness of spirit,
her love of nature, her veneration for God. The grave and the gay, the
old and the young, the religious and the reckless, all saw themselves
represented in the glorious fragments of his witching poetry. Hence the
enthusiasm with which his first volume of poems was received. It seemed
as if a new realm had been added to the dominions of the British muse--a
new and glorious creation fresh from the hand of nature. There the humor
of Smollett, the pathos and tenderness of Sterne and Richardson, the
real life of Fielding, and the description of Thomson, were all united
in delineations of Scottish manners and scenery by the Ayrshire
ploughman! The volume contained matter for all minds--for the lively and
sarcastic, the wild and the thoughtful, the poetical enthusiast and the
man of the world. So eagerly was the book sought after, that when copies
of it could not be obtained, many of the poems were transcribed and sent
round in manuscript among admiring circles. His songs are the songs of
Scotland. A few have been furnished by Tannahill, Fergusson, Ramsay and
others; but the main body of the most exquisite and most popular
Scottish melodies are from the pen of Burns. Evermore they echo among
her heathy hills and bosky dells. You hear them by the sides of her
"bonnie burns," and along the shores of her silver lakes and "rivers
grand." At evening gray, they are heard resounding from gowan'd braes
and "birken shaws," in the shadow of haunted woods, and hoary ruins; and
especially, on winter nights, and "tween and supper times" from her ten
thousand happy "inglesides." In Burns's "Cotter's Saturday Night" are
seen his reverence for religion "pure and undefiled," combined with
exquisite description and melodious verse; in "Tam O'Shanter," his vivid
fancy and dramatic energy; in "Halloween," his spirit of humor and fun;
in his "Lines to a Mountain Daisy," his fine moral sense and tenderness
of spirit; and in his "Address to Mary in Heaven," his true heartedness,
and sweet lyric power. His native country is beautifully pictured in all
his poetry. The "Banks of the Dee," "Edina's lofty seat," "Old Coila's
hills and streams"--the "Braes of Yarrow"--"Allan Water"--"Bonnie
Doon"--"Sweet Afton among her green braes"--"Auld hermit Ayr," "Stately
Irwine," "The birks of Aberfeldy,"--where "summer blinks o'er flowery
braes," the "lovely Nith, with fruitful vales and spreading
hawthorns,"--"Gowrie's rich valley and Firth's sunny shores," "the clear
winding Devon,"--"Castle Gordon,--where waters flow and wild woods
rave,"--"the banks and braes and streams around the Castle of
Montgomery,"--Bannockburn, Ellerslie and Sheriff Muir;--these, and a
thousand other beautiful or storied scenes, mirror themselves in the
stream of his sweet and varied verse.
Some vulgar and foolish things he has written; and we condemn them as
heartily as others. But his poetry embodies much that is pure and
beautiful and true, much of which Burns had no occasion to repent, even
on a deathbed, and much of which his native country may well be proud.
He was somewhat intemperate, but not to the extent which is generally
supposed. Strong temptations,--the habits of the times--the folly of his
friends, who thoughtlessly introduced him to the gaities of the
metropolis, and then left him to contempt and penury, broke down his
constitution, and consigned him to a premature grave. But he was not a
man of base and vulgar passions. His was not the cold heart of the
sceptic, nor the envenomed spirit of the villain. It was a wild and
wayward heart, I grant, but honest and true, generous and kind. The
temple was shattered by the lightnings of Heaven, but it was a temple
still; and from its broken altars ever and anon ascended the sweet
incense of prayer and praise. Burns could never forget his good old
father, and the hallowed influences of religion, shed upon his young
heart. He loved the Psalms of David, and the holy melodies of his native
land; and we presume often sang them, of an evening, accompanied, as he
himself intimates, with "the wild woodland note," of his beloved wife.
Several of his letters to Miss Dunlop and others indicate a strong
conviction of the Divine existence and the immortality of the soul, his
struggles against the doubts which haunted his spirit, and his earnest
longing for purity and perfection. "You may perhaps think it an
extravagant fancy," he says in a letter to Mr. Aiken, "but it is a
sentiment which strikes home to my very soul; though sceptical on some
points of our current belief, yet I think, I have every evidence for the
reality of a life beyond the stinted bourn of our present existence;"
and then adds--"O thou great, unknown Power, thou Almighty God! who has
lighted up reason in my breast, and blessed me with immortality! I have
frequently wandered from that order and regularity necessary for the
perfection of thy works, yet thou hast never left me nor forsaken me."
Having expressed to Mrs. Dunlop his strong conviction of the immortality
of the soul, he writes as follows, "I know not whether I have ever sent
you the following lines, or if you have ever seen them; but it is one of
my favorite quotations, which I keep constantly by me in my progress
through life, in the language of the Book of Job,
"Against the day of battle and of war."--
spoken of religion:
"'Tis _this_ my friend that streaks our morning bright,
'Tis this that gilds the horror of our night.
When wealth forsakes us, and when friends are few;
When friends are faithless, or when foes pursue;
'Tis this that wards the blow, or stills the smart,
Disarms affliction, or repels her dart;
Within the breast bids purest raptures rise.
Bids smiling Conscience spread her cloudless skies."
One of the most beautiful letters ever written by Burns has reference to
this subject, and was addressed to the same lady, on New Year's
day.--"This, dear Madam, is a morning of wishes; and would to God that I
came under the Apostle James's description!--'the prayer of the
righteous man availeth much.' In that case, Madam, you should welcome in
a year full of blessings: everything that obstructs or disturbs
tranquillity and self-enjoyment should be removed, and every pleasure
that frail humanity can taste should be yours. I own myself so little a
Presbyterian, that I approve of set times and seasons of more than
ordinary acts of devotion for breaking in on that habitual routine of
life and thought, which is so apt to reduce our existence to a kind of
instinct, or even sometimes, and with some minds, to a state very little
superior to mere machinery.
"This day, the first Sunday of May, a breezy, blue skyed noon, sometime
about the beginning, and a hoary morning and calm sunny day about the
end of Autumn,--these, time out of mind, have been with me a kind of
holy day. * * * * I believe I owe this to that glorious paper in the
Spectator, "The Vision of Mirza;" a piece that struck my young fancy
before I was capable of fixing an idea to a word of three syllables. 'On
the fifth day of the moon, which, according to the custom of my
forefathers, I always _keep holy_, after having washed myself, and
offered up my morning devotions, I ascended the high hill of Bagdad, in
order to pass the rest of the day in meditation and prayer.'
"We know nothing, or next to nothing of the substance or structure of
our souls, so cannot account for those seeming caprices in them, that
one should be particularly pleased with this thing, or struck with that,
which, on minds of a different cast, makes no extraordinary impression.
I have some favorite flowers in spring, among which are the mountain
daisy, the harebell, the foxglove, the wild brier rose, the budding
birch, and the hoary hawthorn, that I view and hang over with particular
delight. I never heard the loud solitary whistle of the curlew in a
summer noon, or the wild, mixing cadence of a troop of gray plover in an
autumnal morning, without feeling an elevation of soul like the
enthusiasm of devotion or poetry. Tell me, my dear friend, to what can
this be owing? Are we a piece of machinery, which like the Aeolian harp,
passive, takes the impression of the passing accident? Or do these
workings argue something within us above the trodden clod? I own myself
partial to such proofs of those awful and important realities--a God
that made all things--man's immaterial and immortal nature--and a world
of weal or woe beyond death and the grave."
A fit comment on this and other passages of similar import in his
letters is the following affecting poem, entitled "A Prayer in the
Prospect of Death." It seems to us to utter the deep throbbings of the
poet's spirit:
"Why am I loth to leave this earthly scene?
Have I so found it full of pleasing charms?
Some drops of joy, with draughts of ill between;
Some gleams of sunshine 'mid renewing storms;
Is it departing pangs my soul alarms?
Or death's unlovely, dreary, dark abode?
For guilt, for guilt, my terrors are in arms;
I tremble to approach an angry God,
And justly smart beneath his sin avenging rod.
Fain would I say, 'forgive my foul offence!'
Fain promise never more to disobey;
But should my Author health again dispense,
Again I might desert fair virtue's way;
Again in folly's path might go astray;
Again exalt the brute and sink the man.
Then how should I for heavenly mercy pray;
Who act so counter heavenly mercy's plan,
Who sin so oft have mourn'd, yet to temptation ran?
O thou great Governor of all below,
If I may dare a lifted eye to Thee,
Thy nod can make the tempest cease to blow,
Or still the tumult of the raging sea;
With that controling power assist ev'n me,
Those headlong furious passions to confine,
For all unfit I feel my powers to be,
To rule their torrent in the allowed line;
O aid me with thy help, Omnipotence Divine!"
After writing thus far, we read for the first time, "The Genius and
Character of Burns," by Professor Wilson, the richest garland yet
wreathed around the poet's brow; and we are happy to find the views
expressed above fully corroborated by that distinguished writer. It is
true that Wilson delineates the character of Burns with enthusiastic
admiration; but his views are so discriminating, and withal backed by
such an array of facts, that no candid man can deny their correctness.
We cannot therefore resist the temptation of making the following
extract, in which the finest discrimination is blended with the largest
charity. Long may the Literature of Scotland be guarded by such a
critic! But one thing must not be forgotten here, namely, that no one,
and especially one personally unacquainted with Burns, can pronounce in
regard to his actual spiritual state. Whether he was truly 'born of
God,' and notwithstanding the errors of his life, died a Christian and
went to heaven, is happily not a question which we are called to decide.
"We have said but little hitherto of Burns's religion. Some have denied
that he had any religion at all--a rash and cruel denial--made in the
face of his genius, his character, and his life. What man in his senses
ever lived without religion? "The fool hath said in his heart, There is
no God"--was Burns an atheist? We do not fear to say that he was
religious far beyond the common run of men, even them who may have had a
more consistent and better considered creed. The lessons he received in
the "auld clay biggin" were not forgotten through life. He speaks--and
we believe him--of his "early ingrained piety" having been long
remembered to good purpose--what he called his "idiot piety"--not
meaning thereby to disparage it, but merely that it was in childhood an
instinct. "Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name!" is
breathed from the lips of infancy with the same feeling at its heart
that beats towards its father on earth, as it kneels in prayer by his
side. No one surely will doubt his sincerity when he writes from Irvine
to his father--"Honor'd sir--I am quite transported at the thought,
that ere long, perhaps soon, I shall bid an eternal adieu to all the
pains, and uneasinesses, and disquietudes of this weary life; for I
assure you I am heartily tired of it, and, if I do not very much deceive
myself, I could contentedly and gladly resign it. It is for this reason
I am more pleased with the 15th, 16th, and 17th verses of the 7th
chapter of Revelations, than with any ten times as many verses in the
whole Bible, and would not exchange the noble enthusiasm with which they
inspire me, for all that this world has to offer. '15. Therefore are
they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. 16. They shall
hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on
them, nor any heat. 17. For the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne
shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters;
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.'" When he gives
lessons to a young man for his conduct in life, one of them is, "The
great Creator to adore;" when he consoles a friend on the death of a
relative, "he points the brimful grief-worn eyes to scenes beyond the
grave;" when he expresses benevolence to a distressed family, he
beseeches the aid of Him "who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb;" when
he feels the need of aid to control his passions, he implores that of
the "Great Governor of all below;" when in sickness, he has a prayer for
the pardon of all his errors, and an expression of confidence in the
goodness of God; when suffering from the ills of life, he asks for the
grace of resignation, "because they are thy will;" when he observes the
sufferings of the virtuous, he remembers a rectifying futurity;--he is
religious not only when surprised by occasions such as these, but also
on set occasions; he had regular worship in his family while at
Ellisland--we know not how it was at Dumfries, but we do know that there
he catechised his children every Saturday evening;--Nay, he does not
enter a Druidical circle without a prayer to God.
He viewed the Creator chiefly in his attributes of love, goodness and
mercy. "In proportion as we are wrung with grief, or distracted with
anxiety, the ideas of a superintending Deity, an Almighty protector, are
doubly dear." Him he never lost sight of, or confidence in, even in the
depths of his remorse. An avenging God was too seldom in his
contemplations--from the little severity in his own character--from a
philosophical view of the inscrutable causes of human frailty--and most
of all, from a diseased aversion to what was so much the theme of the
sour Calvanism around him; but which would have risen up an appalling
truth in such a soul as his, had it been habituated to profounder
thought on the mysterious corruption of our fallen nature.
Sceptical thoughts as to revealed religion had assailed his mind, while
with expanding powers it "communed with the glorious universe;" and in
1787 he writes from Edinburgh to a "Mr. James M'Candlish, student in
physic, College, Glasgow," who had favored him with a long
argumentative infidel letter, "I, likewise, since you and I were first
acquainted, in the pride of despising old women's stories, ventured on
'the daring path Spinoza trod;' but experience of the weakness, not the
strength of human powers, _made me glad to grasp at revealed religion_."
When at Ellisland, he writes to Mrs. Dunlop, "My idle reasonings
sometimes make me a little sceptical, but the necessities of my heart
always give the cold philosophizings the lie. Who looks for the heart
weaned from earth; the soul affianced to her God; the correspondence
fixed with heaven; the pious supplication and devout thanksgiving,
constant as the vicissitudes of even and morn; who thinks to meet with
these in the court, the palace, in the glare of public life! No: to find
them in their precious importance and divine efficacy, we must search
among the obscure recesses of disappointment, affliction, poverty and
distress." And again, next year, from the same place to the same
correspondent, "That there is an incomprehensibly Great Being, to whom I
owe my existence, and that he must be intimately acquainted with the
operations and progress of the internal machinery, and consequent
outward deportment of this creature he has made--these are, I think,
self-evident propositions. That there is a real and eternal distinction
between vice and virtue, and consequently, that I am an accountable
creature; that from the seeming nature of the human mind, as well as
from the evident imperfection, nay positive injustice, in the
administration of affairs, both in the natural and moral worlds, there
must be a retributive scene of existence beyond the grave, must, I
think, be allowed by every one who will give himself a moment's
reflection. I will go farther and affirm, that from the sublimity,
excellence, and purity of his doctrine and precepts, unparalleled, by
all the aggregated wisdom and learning of many preceding ages, though
_to appearance_ he was himself the obscurest and most illiterate of our
species: therefore Jesus was from God." Indeed, all his best letters to
Mrs. Dunlop are full of the expression of religious feeling and
religious faith; though it must be confessed with pain, that he speaks
with more confidence in the truth of natural than of revealed religion,
and too often lets sentiments inadvertently escape him, that, taken by
themselves, would imply that his religious belief was but a
Christianized Theism. Of the immortality of the soul, he never expresses
any serious doubt, though now and then, his expressions, though
beautiful, want their usual force, as if he felt the inadequacy of the
human mind to the magnitude of the theme. "Ye venerable sages, and holy
flamens, is there probability in your conjectures, truth in your
stories, of another world beyond death; or are they all alike baseless
visions and fabricated fables? If there is another life, it must be only
for the just, the amiable, and the humane. What a flattering idea this
of the world to come! Would to God I as firmly believed it as I ardently
wish it."
How, then, could honored Thomas Carlyle bring himself to affirm, "that
Burns had no religion?" His religion was in much imperfect--but its
incompleteness you discern only on a survey of all his effusions, and by
inference; for his particular expressions of a religious kind are
genuine, and as acknowledgments of the superabundant goodness and
greatness of God, they are in unison with the sentiments of the
devoutest Christian. But remorse never suggests to him the inevitable
corruption of man; Christian humility he too seldom dwells on, though
without it there cannot be Christian faith: and he is silent on the need
of reconcilement between the divine attributes of Justice and Mercy. The
absence of all this might pass unnoticed, were not the religious
sentiment so prevalent in his confidential communications with his
friends in his most serious and solemn moods. In them there is frequent,
habitual recognition of the Creator; and who that finds joy and beauty
in nature has not the same? It may be well supposed that if common men
are more ideal in religion than in other things, so would be Burns. He
who has lent the colors of his fancy to common things, would not
withhold them from divine. Something--he knew not what--he would exact
of man--more impressively reverential than anything he is wont to offer
to God, or perhaps can offer in the way of institution--in temples made
with hands. The _heartfelt_ adoration always has a grace for him--in the
silent bosom--in the lonely cottage--in any place where circumstances
are a pledge of its reality; but the moment it ceases to be _heartfelt_,
and visibly so, it loses his respect, it seems as profanation. "Mine is
the religion of the breast;" and if it be not, what is it worth? But it
must also revive a right spirit within us; and there may be gratitude
for goodness, without such change as is required of us in the gospel. He
was too buoyant with immortal spirit within him not to credit its
immortal destination; he was too thoughtful in his human love not to
feel how different must be our affections if they are towards flowers
which the blast of death may wither, or towards spirits which are but
beginning to live in our sight, and are gathering good and evil here for
an eternal life. Burns believed that by his own unassisted
understanding, and his own unassisted heart, he saw and felt those great
truths, forgetful of this great truth, that he had been taught them in
the Written Word. Had all he learned in the "auld clay biggin" become a
blank--all the knowledge inspired into his heart during the evenings,
when "the sire turned o'er wi' patriarchal air, the big ha'-bible, ance
his father's pride," how little or how much would he then have known of
God and Immortality? In that delusion he shared more or less with one
and all--whether poets or philosophers--who have put their trust in
natural Theology. As to the glooms in which his sceptical reason had
been involved, they do not seem to have been so thick--so dense--as in
the case of men without number, who have, by the blessing of God, become
true Christians. Of his levities on certain celebrations of religious
rites, we before ventured an explanation; and while it is to be
lamented that he did not more frequently dedicate the genius that shed
so holy a lustre over "The Cotter's Saturday Night," to the service of
religion, let it be remembered how few poets have done so--alas! too
few--that he, like his tuneful brethren, must often have been deterred
by a sense of his own unworthiness from approaching its awful
mysteries--and above all, that he was called to his account before he
had attained his thoughtful prime."
Speaking of Burns's last sickness, Professor Wilson says: "But he had
his Bible with him in his lodgings, and he read it almost
continually--often when seated on a bank, from which he had difficulty
in rising without assistance, for his weakness was extreme, and in his
emaciation he was like a ghost. The fire of his eye was not
dimmed--indeed fever had lighted it up beyond even its natural
brightness; and though his voice, once so various, was now hollow, his
discourse was still that of a Poet. To the last he loved the sunshine,
the grass, and the flowers; to the last he had a kind look and word for
the passers-by, who all knew it was Burns. Laboring men, on their way
from work, would step aside to the two or three houses called the Brow,
to know if there was any hope of his life; and it is not to be doubted
that devout people remembered him, who had written the Cotter's Saturday
Night, in their prayers. His sceptical doubts no longer troubled him;
they had never been more than shadows; and he had at last the faith of a
confiding Christian."
Leaving Burns's Monument, we ascend the hill, in the opposite direction,
pass the unfinished Parthenon, consisting only of a few elegant columns,
and intended to commemorate the battle of Waterloo, the Observatory, and
the Monument of Professor Playfair, the celebrated mathematician and
astronomer, and reach the elegant though not imposing monument of
Professor Dugald Stewart, not the most acute, but certainly the most
finished and instructive of all the writers of the Scottish metaphysical
school. Let us linger here, a few moments, for the name of Professor
Stewart is peculiarly dear to Scotland. No man was ever more
enthusiastically regarded by his pupils, or more generally loved and
revered by the community. Dr. Reid of Glasgow University, the immediate
predecessor and preceptor of Stewart, was a man of an acute and original
mind, though not possessed of half the grace and fluency of his
illustrious pupil. It was Reid however that first gave clearness and
method to the metaphysics of Scotland. His writings on first principles,
or, as he called them, principles of Common Sense, gave a death-blow, at
least in Scotland, to the _ideal theory_ of Berkeley and Hume, and
greatly affected the course of philosophical investigation not only in
England but in France. In fact, his philosophy supplanted, for a time,
the infidel metaphysics of Hume and the French rationalists. It cut the
roots equally of idealism and sensualism, and was eagerly received by
thoughtful men in Europe and in this country. It can be seen running
like a sunbeam, through the speculations of Royer Collard, Constant,
Jouffroy and even of Cousin. Based on the Baconian method, it proceeded,
modestly and unostentatiously, to ascertain, and then to classify the
facts of mind; and, because it projected no splendid theories, or
blazing fancies, it has been rejected by superficial and visionary
thinkers, with some degree of contempt. After all, it may yet be
recognized, by all genuine philosophers, as the only true scientific
method. In the hands of Stewart and of Brown, his colleague and
successor, it began to assume a lofty and attractive position; but alas!
it has remained stationary for the want of strong and true-hearted
defenders. Stigmatized by the Germans as "pallid and insular--timid and
cold," it has been forsaken, of late, by the more popular metaphysical
writers, for the brilliant and astounding, but ever varying visions of
the Transcendental School. Smitten with the love of Ontology, or the
doctrine of "the absolute and the essential," scorning the methods of
Bacon and Newton as empirical and shallow, and setting their foot on the
modest, perhaps timid speculations of Reid and Stewart, metaphysicians
have plunged one after another into the abyss of an absolute
Spiritualism, where, amid the glimmerings of a half-dark and lurid
radiance, may be seen the disciples of Kant and Fichte, Hegel and
Schelling, floundering in the gloom, changing places continually, now
rising towards the light of heaven, and then sinking in the "abysmal
dark."
The writings of Reid, Stewart and Brown have exerted a great influence
on the thinking of Scotland, which, even among the common people, has a
somewhat metaphysical turn. Combining with religion and poetry, it has
given to both a peculiar depth and earnestness of tone. In some it is
deeply practical, in others speculative and visionary.
Thomas Carlyle, the product chiefly of Scotland, but partly also of
Germany--or perhaps, rather, a magnificent "lusus naturae," has a large
amount of Scottish shrewdness, enthusiasm and speculation, overlaid and
burnished with German spiritualism and romance. A native of Annandale,
and imbued with the religion of the Covenant, and the poetry of the
hills, he has wandered off into the fields of metaphysical speculation,
where, amid dreams of gorgeous and beautiful enchantment, he is evermore
uttering his burning oracular words, of half pagan, and half Christian,
wisdom. A genuine _Teufelsdroeckh_,--he is yet a genuine _Scot_, and
cannot therefore forget the holy wisdom of his venerable mother, and his
Annandale home.[16]
[Footnote 16: The following graphic description of the residence,
personal appearance and conversation of Carlyle is from the pen of
Elizur Wright, Junr. "Passing the long lines of new buildings which have
stretched from Westminster up the Thames, and engulphed the old village
of Chelsea, in omnivorous London, you recognize at last the old Chelsea
Hospital, one of the world-famous clusters of low brick palaces, where
Britain nurses her fighting men when they can fight no more. A little
past this and an old ivy-clad church, with its buried generations lying
around it, you come to an antique street running at right angles with
the Thames, and a few steps from the river, you find Carlyle's name on
the door. A Scotch lass ushers you into the second story front chamber,
which is the spacious workshop of the world-maker. Here are lots of
books--ponderous tomes in Latin, Greek, and black letter English,--some
are on shelves occupying nearly all the walls, and some are piled on
tables and a reading rack as having just been read. The furniture speaks
of Scotch economy, and the whole face of things of more than common
Scotch tidiness. In fact, a superbly wrought bell-rope indicates that
the wife is a true hero worshipper. Carlyle is a mere man, ordinary
size, lofty and jutting brow, keen--exceedingly keen eye, and modest
unassuming manners. His voice is melodious, and with its rich Scotch
cadence, and rapid flow, reminds you of Thalberg's music in some strange
out of the way key. Just set him agoing, and he runs without stopping,
giving you whole masses of history, painting and poetry, and a great
mass of the boundless system of Carlyleism. There is nothing which he
does not touch; and figures of speech come tumbling in from all corners,
top and bottom of the universe, as the merest matter of course. Doubt,
hesitation or qualification have no place among his opinions, he having
kicked them all out of doors when he began his philosophy."
Many inquiries have been made respecting Carlyle's religious opinions;
but it is difficult to say anything very decisive in reply. That he has
a deep reverence for the Christian faith,--that he strongly inclines to
a sort of transcendental orthodoxy,--that he loves, moreover,
true-hearted piety, and is himself a model of integrity and affection
cannot be doubted. He often speaks of Jesus as divine,--as the most
perfect of all heroes--as the God man--as the Divine man. He possesses a
profound sympathy for the higher and more beautiful forms of Christian
virtue, and describes the lives and characters of good men with the
liveliest relish. We incline therefore to believe, that notwithstanding
his transcendental speculations, and philosophical doubts, he has a true
(though not thoroughly defined) heart faith in the essential doctrines
of the Christian system. Clouds and darkness hang upon the horizon of
his spiritual vision, but gloriously irradiated with light from heaven,
and here and there opening into vistas of serene and ineffable beauty.
Many of his followers, we think, do not understand him, and we fear,
will never reach his purity and elevation of mind. They are more likely
to be led astray, by the magnificent illusions of his gifted but
somewhat erring fancy. Instead of resting in the simple-hearted and
heroic faith which he loves so much to describe, they may plunge into
the abysses of doubt and despair.]
CHAPTER VII.
Preaching in Edinburgh--The Free Church--Dr. Chalmers--A Specimen
of his Preaching--The Secret of his Eloquence.
Edinburgh has ever been distinguished for its preachers. In former times
the classic Blair, the fervid Walker, the impassioned Logan, the
judicious Erskine, the learned Jamieson, the exquisite Alison, the
candid Wellwood and the energetic Thomson delighted and instructed all
classes of the community. To these have succeeded a host of learned and
truly eloquent men, some of whom are members of "the Kirk," others of
the Episcopal communion, and others of the various bodies of
Presbyterian "Seceders," Congregationalists and Baptists. Among the
clergymen of the Free Church, Dr. Chalmers of course is "_facile
princeps_;" Dr. Candlish, in effectiveness and popularity probably
stands next, while Drs. Cunningham, Bruce, Gordon and Buchanan, the Rev.
James Begg, and one or two others form a cluster of influential and
eloquent preachers. Among the Congregationalists, Rev. William L.
Alexander is the most learned and polished. He has written ably on the
Tractarian controversy and on the connection of the Old and New
Testaments, and recently received a pressing invitation to become
associated with Dr. Wardlaw of Glasgow, as assistant pastor and
Professor of Theology. He is a fine looking man, being some six feet
high, with expressive features, dark penetrating eyes, and massive black
hair, clustering over a fair and lofty forehead. His manner is dignified
and agreeable, but not particularly impassioned.
Among the "seceding" Presbyterians, Dr. John Brown, minister of
Broughton Place, and one of the Professors of Theology in the United
Secession Church, the Rev. Dr. Johnstone and the Rev. James Robertson of
the same communion are among the most effective preachers in Scotland.
The Baptists are justly proud of the learned and polished Christopher
Anderson, author of an able work on the "Domestic Constitution," and an
elaborate "History of the English Bible"--the Rev. William Innes, one of
the most amiable and pious of men, and the Rev. Jonathan Watson, whose
earnest practical discourses are well appreciated by his intelligent
audience. Mr. Innes at one time was a minister of the established
Church, with a large salary and an agreeable situation, but abandoned it
for conscience' sake, as he could not approve of the union of Church and
State, nor of some of the peculiarities of Presbyterianism. His pious,
consistent course, and liberal, catholic spirit, have won for him the
admiration of all denominations of Christians.
Bishop Terrot of the Episcopal Church is somewhat high in his church
notions, but is regarded as an amiable and learned man, while the Rev.
Mr. Drummond and others of the same church, are able and influential
preachers. Among those who adhere to "the Kirk" as it was, the Rev. Dr.
Muir is one of the most accomplished, and the Rev. Dr. Lee, of the
University, the most learned and influential.
Taken as a whole, the Edinburgh clergy are fair representatives of the
Scottish preachers generally. Those therefore who wish to form a just
estimate of the spirit and power of the pulpit in Scotland, have only to
hear them repeatedly, in their respective places of worship. They hold
doctrinal views somewhat diverse, though essentially one, adopt
different styles of preaching, and in certain aspects different styles
of life. Yet they manifestly belong to the same great family, and preach
the same glorious gospel. They are remarkably distinguished for their
strong common sense, laborious habits, pious spirit and practical
usefulness. Occasionally they come into keen polemical strife; but it
amounts to little more than a gladiatorial exhibition, or rather a light
skirmishing, without malice prepense, or much evil result. Generally
speaking, they are not pre-eminently distinguished for their learning,
though certainly well informed, and devoted to the great work of their
ministry. They are more practical than speculative, more devout than
critical, more useful than renowned. They live in the hearts of their
flocks, and the results of their labors may be seen in the integrity,
good order and industry of the people. It is not our purpose to say much
on the subject of the recent "break" in the Scottish church, in which,
as the members of the "Free Church" assert, the supremacy of Jesus
Christ is concerned. The intrusion by lay patrons, of unpopular
ministers upon the churches, is certainly a vicious practice, and ought
to be abolished. But this is only a fragment of a greater and more vital
question, pertaining to the spirituality and authority of Christ's
church, which must be settled one of these days. The Free Church
movement has developed much fine enthusiasm, and no small amount of
self-denial; and the results will doubtless be favorable to the progress
of spiritual freedom; but this is only a single wave of a mighty and
ever increasing tide, which is destined to sweep, not over Scotland
alone, but over the world. In this place, however, we cannot refrain
from expressing our conviction that this division in the Presbyterian
ranks is not properly a schism or a heresy. It breaks up an existing
organization, but affinity remains. The doctrines and discipline of the
two churches are essentially the same. The one may be purer and stronger
than the other, but they are members of the same family, professedly
cherish the same spirit, and aim at the accomplishment of the same ends.
This, too, may be said of nearly all the other sects; so that in
Scotland, there is more real unity among Christians than there is in
Papal Rome. The latter is one, only as a mountain of ice, in which all
impurities are congealed, is one. The unity of the former is like that
of the thousand streams which rush from the Alpine heights, proceeding,
as they do, from a common source, and finally meeting and blending in a
common ocean.
But enough of general speculation and description. Dr. Chalmers is to
preach at Dr. Candlish's church, so let us go to hear him. He has lost
something of his early vigor, but retains enough of it to make him the
most interesting preacher in Scotland or the world. Let us make haste,
or we shall fail of obtaining a seat. Already the house is filled with
an expectant congregation. The Doctor comes in, and all is hushed. He is
dressed in gown and bands, and presents a striking and venerable
appearance. His serious, earnest aspect well befits his high office. He
is of the middle height, thick set and brawny, but not corpulent. His
face is rather broad, with high cheek bones, pale, and as it were
care-worn, but well formed and expressive. His eyes are of a leaden
color, rather dull when in a state of repose, but flashing with a
half-smothered fire when fairly roused. His nose is broad and lion-like,
his mouth, one of the most expressive parts of his countenance, firm, a
little compressed and stern, indicating courage and energy, while his
forehead is ample and high, as one might naturally suppose, covered with
thin, straggling grey hair. He reads a psalm in a dry, guttural
voice--reads a few verses of Scripture, without much energy or apparent
feeling, and then offers a brief, simple, earnest, and striking prayer.
By the way, the Doctor's prayers are among his most interesting
exercises. He is always simple, direct, reverent, and occasionally quite
original and striking. You feel while joining in his devotions, that a
man of genius and piety is leading your willing spirit up to the throne
of God. How striking, for example, when he calls us to remember "that
every hour that strikes,--every morning that dawns, and every evening
that darkens around us, brings us nearer to the end of our pilgrimage."
Yet he has no mouthing or mannerism, in this solemn exercise. He is not
_making_, but offering a prayer. His tones are earnest and solemn; most
manifest it is that his soul is holding intimate fellowship with the
Father of Spirits.
But he announces his text--1 John iv. 16. "God is love"--a text from
which he has preached before; but no matter for that.[17] He commences,
with a few broken sentences, pronounced in a harsh tuneless voice, with
a strong Scottish accent. The first feeling of a stranger would be that
of disappointment, and apprehension that the discourse was to prove a
failure. This was the case with Canning and Wilberforce, who went to
hear Dr. Chalmers, when he preached in London. They had got into a pew
near the door, when "the preacher began in his usual unpromising way, by
stating a few nearly self-evident propositions, neither in the choicest
language, nor in the most impressive voice; 'If this be all,' said
Canning to his companion, 'it will never do.' Chalmers went on,--the
shuffling in the congregation gradually subsided. He got into the mass
of his subject; his weakness became strength, his hesitation was turned
into energy; and bringing the whole volume of his mind to bear upon it,
poured forth a torrent of most close and conclusive argument, brilliant
with all the exuberance of an imagination which ranged over all nature
for illustrations, and yet managed and applied each of them with the
same unerring dexterity, as if that single one had been the study of his
whole life. 'The tartan beats us,' said Mr. Canning, 'we have no
preaching like that in England.'"
[Footnote 17: In looking over the Doctor's printed works, we have found
this discourse in a somewhat different garb from that in which we have
presented it. We were not at first aware of this, or we might have
selected some other discourse; for it was our good fortune to hear the
Doctor frequently. This and other delineations, however, are taken from
personal observation.]
It may be well to state here that Chalmers is a slavish reader,--that
is, he reads every thing he says,--but then he reads so naturally, so
earnestly, so energetically, that manuscript and everything else is
speedily forgotten by the astonished and delighted hearer.
He proceeds with his subject--_God is love_. His object, as announced,
is not so much to elucidate the thought or idea of the text, as to
dislodge from the minds of his hearers, the dread and aversion for God,
existing in all unregenerate men. He insists, in the first place, that
it is not as a God of love, that the Deity is regarded by mankind--but
simply as God, as a being mysterious and dreadful, a being who has
displeasure towards them in his heart. This arises from two causes--the
first, that they are ignorant of this great and awfully mysterious
Being--the second, that they have sinned against him. This feeling then
is displaced first by the incarnation of the Deity in the person of his
Son, so that we may know him and love him as a Father and a friend; and
secondly, by the free pardon of our sin, through the sacrifice of the
Cross. The division is rather awkward; but it serves the purpose of the
preacher, who thus brings out some of the most sublime peculiarities of
the Gospel, and applies them with overwhelming force and pathos to the
sinner's heart. Under the first head, he shows, in language of uncommon
energy, that it is impossible for man, in his present state, to regard a
being so vast, so mysterious, and so little known as God, except with
superstitious dread. "All regarding him," says he, "is inscrutable; the
depths of his past eternity, the mighty and unknown extent of his
creation, the secret policy or end of his government--a government that
embraces an infinity of worlds, and reaches forward to an infinity of
ages; all these leave a being so circumscribed in his faculties as man,
so limited in his duration, and therefore so limited in his experience,
in profoundest ignorance of God; and then the inaccessible retirement in
which this God hides himself from the observation of his creatures here
below, the clouds and darkness which are about the pavilion of his
throne, the utter inability of the powers of man to reach beyond the
confines of that pavilion, render vain all attempts to fathom the
essence of God, or to obtain any distinct conception of his person or
being, which have been shrouded in the deep silence of many centuries,
insomuch that nature, whatever it may tell us of his existence, places
between our senses and this mighty cause a veil of interception."
It is not unnatural to dread such a being. Nature, though full of God,
furnishes no clear and satisfying evidence of his designs; for sunshine
and shower, green fields and waving harvests are intermingled with
tempests and hurricane, blight and mildew, destruction and death. "While
in one case we have the natural affection and unnumbered sweets of many
a cottage, which might serve to manifest the indulgent kindness of him
who is the universal parent of the human family; we have on the other
hand the cares, the heart-burnings, the moral discomforts, often the
pining sickness, or the cold and cheerless poverty, or, more palpably,
the fierce contests and mutual distractions even among civilized men;
and lastly, and to consummate all, the death,--the unshaken and
relentless death with which generation after generation, whether among
the abodes of the prosperous and the happy, or among the dwellings of
the adverse and unfortunate, after a few years are visited, laying all
the varieties of human fortune in the dust,--these all bespeak if not a
malignant, an offended, God."
But this vague uncertainty and dread are corrected and displaced by the
incarnation of the Deity in the person of Christ--"the brightness of the
Father's glory and the express image of his person." "The Godhead then
became palpable to human senses, and man could behold, as in a picture,
and in distinct personification, the very characteristics of the Being
that made him."
Upon this idea, a favorite one with Dr. Chalmers, he dwells with the
profoundest interest, presenting it with a strength of conception and
exuberance of illustration which makes it clear and palpable to the
minds of all. How his heart glows, almost to bursting, with the sublime
and thrilling idea that God is manifest in the flesh. How he pours out,
as in a torrent of light, the swelling images and emotions of his
throbbing spirit. "We could not scale the height of that mysterious
ascent which brings us within view of the Godhead. It is by the descent
of the Godhead unto us that this manifestation has been made; and we
learn and know it from the wondrous history of him who went about doing
good continually. We could not go in search of the viewless Deity,
through the depths and vastnesses of infinity, or divine the secret, the
untold purposes that were brooding there. But in what way could a more
palpable exhibition have been made, than when the eternal Son, enshrined
in humanity, stepped forth on the platform of visible things, and there
proclaimed the Deity? We can now reach the character of God in the human
looks, in the human language of Him who is the very image and visible
representative of the Deity; we see it in the tears of sympathy he shed;
we hear it in the accents of tenderness which fell from his lips. Even
his very remonstrances were those of a deep and gentle nature; for they
are remonstrances of deepest pathos--the complaints of a longing spirit
against the sad perversity of men bent on their own ruin."
Not content with this clear and ample exhibition of his views, he
returns to it, as if with redoubled interest, and though presenting no
new conception upon the point, delights to pour upon it the exuberant
radiance of his teeming imagination. The hearers, too, are as interested
as he, and catch with delight the varying aspects of his peculiar
oratory. In fact, their minds are in perfect sympathy and harmony with
his; and tears start to every eye, as he bursts out, as if applying the
subject to himself, in the following beautiful and affecting
style:--"Previous to this manifestation, as long as I had nothing before
me but the unseen God, my mind wandered in uncertainty, my busy fancy
was free to expatiate, and its images filled my heart with disquietude
and terror; but in the life and person and history of Jesus Christ, the
attributes of the Deity are brought down to the observation of the
senses, and I can no longer mistake them, when, in the Son, who is the
express image of his Father, I see them carried home to my understanding
by the evidence and expression of human organs--when I see the kindness
of the Father, in the tears that fell from the Son at the tomb of
Lazarus--when I see his justice blended with his mercy, in the
exclamation, 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!' by Jesus Christ, uttered with a
tone more tender than human bosom or human sympathy ever uttered--I feel
the judgment of God himself flashing conviction on my conscience, and
calling me to repent, while his wrath is suspended, and he still waiteth
to be gracious!"
But a more distinct and well-grounded reason for distrust and fear in
reference to the Deity arises from the consciousness of guilt. In spite
of ourselves, in spite of our false theology, we feel that God has a
right to be offended with us, that he is offended with us, and not only
so, but that we deserve his displeasure. This he shows is counteracted
by the doctrine of the atonement: "Herein is love, not that we loved
him, but that he loved us, and sent his Son into the world to be a
propitiation for our sins." By the fact of the incarnation, a conquest
is gained over the imagination haunted with the idea of an unknown God;
so also by that of the atonement, a conquest is gained over the solid
and well-grounded fear of guilt. This idea the Doctor illustrates with
equal force and beauty, showing that by means of the Sacrifice of the
Cross, justice and mercy are brought into harmony, in the full and free
pardon of the believing penitent. By this means the great hindrance to
free communion with God is taken away. Guilt is cancelled, for the sake
of Him who died, and the poor trembling sinner is taken to the bosom of
Infinite Love. "In the glorious spectacle of the Cross, we see the
mystery revealed, and the compassion of the parent meeting in fullest
harmony with the now asserted and now vindicated prerogative of the
Lawgiver. The Gospel is a halo of all the attributes of God, and yet the
pre-eminent manifestation there is of God as love, which will shed its
lustre amid all the perfections of the Divine nature. And here it should
be specially remarked, that the atonement was made for the sins of the
whole world; God's direct and primary object being to vindicate the
truth and justice of the Godhead. Instead of taking from his love, it
only gave it more emphatic demonstration; for, instead of love, simple
and bending itself without difficulty to the happiness of its objects,
it was a love which, ere it could reach the guilty being it groaned
after, had to force the barriers of a necessity which, to all human
appearance, was insuperable." With this fine idea the Doctor concludes
his discourse, presenting it with a mingled tenderness and vehemence of
style and tone perfectly irresistible. "The love of God," he exclaims,
"with such an obstacle and trying to get over it, is a higher exhibition
than all the love which radiates from his throne on all the sinless
angels. The affirmation that God is love, is strengthened by that other,
to him who owns the authority of Scripture, that God _so_ loved the
world--I call on you to mark the emphatic _so_--as to give his
only-begotten Son. 'He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for
us all;' or that expression, 'herein is love, not that we loved God, but
that he loved us, and gave his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.'
There is a moral, a depth, an intensity of meaning, a richness of
sentiment that Paul calls unsearchable, in the Cross of Christ, that
tells emphatically that God is righteousness, and that God is love."
Such is a feeble and imperfect outline of a rich and eloquent discourse,
from one of the richest and most expressive texts in the Bible. But we
cannot transfer to the written or printed page the tone, look and
manner, the _vivida vis_, the natural and overwhelming energy, the
pathos and power of tone, which thrill the hearer as with the shocks of
a spiritual electricity. It is this peculiar energy which distinguishes
Chalmers, and which distinguishes all great orators. His mind is on fire
with his subject, and transfers itself all glowing to the minds of his
hearers. For the time being all are fused into one great whole, by the
resistless might of his burning eloquence. In this respect Chalmers has
been thought to approach, nearer than any other man of modern times, the
style and tone of Demosthenes. His manner has a torrent-vehemence, a
sea-like swell and sweep, a bannered tramp as of armies rushing to
deadly conflict. With one hand on his manuscript, and the other jerked
forward with electric energy, he thunders out his gigantic
periods, as if winged with "volleyed lightning." The hearers are
astonished,--awed,--carried away,--lifted up as on the wings of the
wind, and borne "whithersoever the master listeth."
CHAPTER VIII.
Biographical Sketch of Dr. Chalmers.
As an evangelical divine, a preacher of great strength and earnestness,
a man of a truly devout and generous spirit, of great independence,
energy and perseverance, a leader of the Free Church of Scotland, and a
successful advocate of the doctrine of Christ's supremacy, Dr. Chalmers
may be regarded as a fair embodiment of the religious spirit of his
native land. In his mode of thinking, in his doctrinal belief and
practice, especially in his devout and fervid eloquence, the Doctor is
eminently Scottish. His whole spirit is bathed in the piety of "the
Covenant." On this account a brief sketch of his history will not be
inappropriate in this place.
Thomas Chalmers, D. D., was born about the year 1780, in the town of
Anstruther in Fifeshire, the birth-place of another man of genius,
Professor Tennant, of St. Andrews, the celebrated author of "Anster
Fair," one of the most facetious poems in the language, and making a
near approach to the dramatic energy of "Tam O'Shanter." Young Chalmers
gave decided indications of genius and energy, and was sent to the
College of St. Andrews, and soon became "a mathematician, a natural
philosopher, and though there was no regular professor of that science
at St. Andrews, a chemist." After having been licensed as a preacher, he
officiated for sometime, as assistant minister, at Cavers in
Roxburghshire. He was subsequently called to the care of the parish
church in Kilmany, beautifully situated "amid the green hills and
smiling valleys," of his native county. He was ordained on the 12th of
May, 1803, and soon displayed the vigor and activity of his mind. In
addition to his regular parochial engagements, he devoted much attention
to botany and chemistry; lectured on the latter science and kindred
subjects in the neighboring towns; became an officer in a volunteer
corps; assisted the late Professor Vilant in teaching the mathematical
class in the College of St. Andrews; on the succeeding session opened a
private class of his own, on the same branch of science, to which all
the students flocked; and wrote one or two books, and several pamphlets
on the topics of the day. His first publication appeared at Cupar in
Fife on what was called the Leslie Controversy. It was written in the
form of a letter addressed to Professor Playfair; and abounds in talent,
wit and humor. It was published anonymously, and for a long time was not
known to be his. He vindicates in it very powerfully, the divines of the
Church of Scotland, from the imputation of a want of mathematical
talent, a reproach which he thought Professor Playfair had thrown upon
them. He also wrote a volume on the resources of the country, which
attracted much attention, as a work of ability and eloquence.
From these statements it must be evident that Dr. Chalmers had but
little time to devote to the spiritual interests of his parish. He
performed his _stated_ duties, it is true, but devoted his energies
chiefly to literary and scientific pursuits. Indeed he was in religious
belief a rationalist, and had not yet adopted those profound and
spiritual convictions which subsequently formed the main-spring of his
ministry. In 1805 he offered himself as a candidate for the vacant chair
of Mathematics in the University of Edinburgh, with considerable chances
of success, but afterwards withdrew his name at the earnest solicitation
of his friends, who wished to retain him in the Church.
When Dr. Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopedia was projected Dr. Chalmers
was engaged as one of the contributors, and wrote the article
"Christianity," which was subsequently published in a separate form. It
was about this time that his mind underwent a radical change on the
subject of vital religion. He discovered the utter inefficiency of a
utilitarian morality, for the renovation and guidance of man, and
eagerly embraced those peculiar views of evangelical faith, which
recognize the sacrifice and intercession of Christ as a ground of hope
to the fallen, the necessity of "being born of the Spirit," and the
ineffable beauty and blessedness of "a life hid with Christ in God." It
is said that this change took place while writing the article referred
to; he then felt the necessity of acting upon his own principles, of
yielding his heart absolutely and forever, to the truths of that
Revelation, the reality and authority of which he was called to prove.
It will be remembered by those acquainted with the article in question,
that he takes the ground that a divine revelation must necessarily be
mysterious; that coming from God, it must belong to the infinite
and the obscure, and thus contain many things which shock our
preconceptions,--that _a priori_ objections to its doctrines are
therefore null and void, and that the whole must be received, without
exception or modification. He insists that while we have experience of
man, we have little or no experience of God, that the thoughts of such a
Being must infinitely transcend ours, and in all probability contradict
ours, especially with reference to the great problem touching the
salvation of the guilty. If then the genuineness and authenticity of the
sacred books can be proved as historical facts, we have nothing to do
with the revelation which they contain, but to receive it with adoring
gratitude and submission. The incarnation of the Godhead, the sacrifice
of the Cross, justification by faith, the re-birth of the soul by the
Holy Spirit, the resurrection of the body, and eternal judgement are
revealed facts or truths, already proved, and must therefore constitute
the heart's-creed of every true believer. These doctrines consequently
were embraced by Chalmers himself, and formed thenceforward the subjects
of his preaching to the people. A great excitement ensued. The community
was aroused--multitudes were converted. Chalmers preached with the
greatest fervor and unction, and hundreds flocked to hear him from the
neighboring parishes. This produced inquiry, and he found it necessary
to give explanations in reference to the causes which had effected such
a change in his ministry. In this view the following will be read with
interest and profit:
"And here I cannot but record the effect of an actual though undesigned
experiment which I prosecuted upwards of twelve years amongst you. For
the greater part of that time I could expatiate on the meanness of
dishonesty, on the villany of falsehood, on the despicable arts of
calumny--in a word upon all those deformities of character which awaken
the natural indignation of the human heart against the pests and the
disturbers of society. Now, could I, upon the strength of these warm
expostulations, have got the thief to give up his stealing, and the evil
speaker his censoriousness, and the liar his deviations from truth, I
should have felt all the repose of one who had gotten his ultimate
object. It never occurred to me that all this might have been done, and
yet every soul of every hearer have remained in full alienation from
God; and that even could I have established in the bosom of one who
stole such a principle of abhorrence at the meanness of dishonesty that
he was prevailed upon to steal no more, he might still have retained a
heart as completely unturned to God, and as totally unpossessed of a
principle of love to Him as before. In a word, though I might have made
him a more upright and honorable man, I might have left him as destitute
of the essence of religious principle as ever. But the interesting fact
is that during the whole of that period in which I made no attempt
against the natural enmity of the mind to God, while I was inattentive
to the way in which this enmity is dissolved, even by the free offer on
the one hand, and the believing acceptance on the other, of the Gospel
salvation; while Christ, through whose blood the sinner, who by nature
stands afar off, is brought near to the Heavenly Lawgiver whom he has
offended, was scarcely ever spoken of, or spoken of in such a way as
stripped him of all the importance of his character and offices, even at
this time I certainly did press the reformations of honor, and truth,
and integrity among my people; but I never even heard of any such
reformations being effected amongst them. If there was anything at all
brought about in this way, it was more than I ever got any account of. I
am not sensible that all the vehemence with which I urged the virtues
and the proprieties of social life had the weight of a feather on the
moral habits of my parishioners. And it was not till I got impressed
with the utter alienation of the heart in its desires and affections
from God; it was not till reconciliation to Him became the distinct and
the prominent object of my ministerial exertions; it was not till I took
the scriptural way of laying the method of reconciliation before them;
it was not till the free offer of forgiveness through the blood of
Christ was urged upon their acceptance, and the Holy Spirit given
through the channel of Christ's mediatorship to all who ask him, was
set before them as the unceasing object of their dependence and their
prayers; it was not, in one word, till the contemplations of my people
were turned to these great and essential elements in the business of a
soul providing for its interest with God, and the concerns of its
eternity, that I ever heard of any of those subordinate reformations
which I aforetime made the earnest and the zealous, but I am afraid, at
the same time, ultimate object of my earlier ministrations. To servants,
whose scrupulous fidelity has now attracted the notice and drawn forth,
in my hearing, a delightful testimony from your masters, what mischief
ye would have done, had your zeal for doctrines and sacraments been
accompanied by the sloth and remissness, and what, in the prevailing
tone of moral relaxation, is counted the allowable purloining of your
earlier days! But a sense of your heavenly Master's eye has brought
another influence to bear upon you; and while you are thus striving to
adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things, you may, poor as
you are, reclaim the great ones of the land to the acknowledgment of the
faith. You have, at least, taught me that to preach Christ, is the only
effective way of preaching morality in all its branches; and out of your
humble cottages have I gathered a lesson, which I pray God I may be
enabled to carry with all its simplicity into a wider theatre, and to
bring, with all the power of its subduing efficacy upon the vices of a
more crowded population."
In 1815 Dr. Chalmers was translated to the Tron church of Glasgow, and
here displayed all the resources of his brilliant and vigorous mind.
Fired with a generous ardor for the salvation of souls, he poured the
truth of God upon rapt and crowded congregations. In addition to the
indefatigable performance of his ministerial duties, he embarked with
eagerness in plans for the amelioration of the condition of the poor. He
urged the importance of free school education, and although he had to
encounter much prejudice, he accomplished a large amount of good for the
city of Glasgow. His views upon this subject are developed in a large
work, published at the time, on the "Christian and Civic Condition of
Large Towns,"--a production somewhat elaborate and diffuse, but
abounding in important suggestions and earnest appeals.
In 1816 he was invited to preach before the King's Commissioner in the
High Church of Edinburgh. His discourse on that occasion comprised the
essence of his astronomical sermons, and was probably "as magnificent a
display of eloquence as was ever heard from the pulpit." The effect upon
the audience was immediate and electric. It broke upon them like a
shower of light from the opening heavens. By means of this discourse his
fame was perhaps first widely established. From that day crowds followed
him wherever he went, and, to quote his own words, he began to feel the
burden "of a popularity of stare, and pressure and animal heat."
In 1819 Dr. Chalmers removed to the new church and parish of St.
John's, in which place the writer, while a student at Glasgow College,
had the pleasure of hearing some of his thrilling discourses. He was
then in the hey-day of life, full of mental and bodily vigor, and
preached with a rapidity, force, and pathos perfectly overwhelming. He
continued to devote himself to the interests of the poor, and indeed
took part in every plan which contemplated the welfare of society.
In 1823 he was elected Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University
of St. Andrews, "where he imparted a very different character to this
course from the mere worldly cast which it too generally assumes in our
universities." Firmly convinced of the great truths of the Gospel, he
infused into his prelections the spirit of a profound and earnest
godliness. While here, he also delivered a separate course of lectures
on Political Economy, as connected with the chair of Moral Philosophy.
It may be supposed from his frequent changes that Dr. Chalmers was
either a fickle or an ambitious man. But those best acquainted with the
circumstances, feel assured that this could not possibly have been the
case. He neither increased his income nor his popularity by means of
these changes, and all, we doubt not, were made with a view to greater
usefulness. In one instance, certainly, he proved his disinterestedness
by refusing the most wealthy living in the Church of Scotland, the west
parish of Greenock, which was presented to him by the patron.
He was more than once offered an Edinburgh church, but uniformly
declined it; as he had long conceived that his widest sphere of
usefulness was a theological chair. He was accordingly elected to this
office, in the University of Edinburgh, and soon attracted the attention
of a large and enthusiastic class of students. His lectures were able
and brilliant; but this, in our judgment, was not the principal cause of
his success. It consisted, as we believe, in his own ardor and
enthusiasm, and the consequent ardor and enthusiasm which he inspired in
his pupils. "At one time the object of the young men seemed to be to
evade attendance on the Divinity Lecture; now the difficulty became to
get a good place to hear their eloquent instructor." By this means much
good was accomplished for the Church of Scotland, by diffusing amongst
its ministry a true evangelical spirit. Still we believe that Dr.
Chalmer's true sphere of labor was the pulpit, and that here alone he
could exert his widest influence. It is true he preached occasionally
while occupying the chair of Divinity, and gave a series of lectures on
Church Establishments, which at that time he earnestly defended. "He
considered that each established _church_ throughout the land may be
termed a centre of _emanation_, from which Christianity, with proper
zeal, be made to move by an aggressive and converting operation, on the
wide mass of the people; whilst a dissenting _chapel_ he views as a
centre of _attraction_ only for those who are religiously disposed."
Recently the Doctor has found his _centre_ of _emanation_ sadly
curtailed. The union of church and state has proved, even to him, a
prodigious hindrance and difficulty--a proof this, that theory and fact
are very different things.
It was while Professor of Theology in Edinburgh, as we believe, that he
visited London, and attracted so much attention by his sermons and
lectures. While there, Mr. Canning, Lord Castlereagh, Lord Eldon, the
Duke of Sussex, with several branches of the Royal Family, whom, as the
journals remarked, "they were not accustomed to elbow at a place of
worship," were found anxiously waiting to hear this modern Chrysostom.
Caught by the irresistible charm of true genius and piety, they listened
with wonder and delight to his honest and earnest appeals. They felt and
acknowledged that his sermons, "as far transcended those of the mawkish
productions to be frequently met with, as does the genius of Milton or
of Newton surpass that of the common herd of poets and philosophers." It
was a sublime sight to behold crowds of all ranks and conditions
listening devoutly to the vehement exhortations of this man of God.
"Can earth afford
Such genuine state, pre-eminence, so free,
As when arrayed in Christ's authority,
He from the pulpit lifts his awful hand;
Conjures, implores, and labors all he can
In resubjecting to Divine command
The stubborn spirit of rebellious man?"
WORDSWORTH.
Dr. Chalmers, as all are aware, is the principal leader of the Free
Church movement. He has uniformly asserted the supremacy of Christ in
his own church, and the right of the people to the election of their
pastors. This being denied and withheld by the legal authorities in
Scotland, Dr. Chalmers, and the noble host of ministers and churches
that agreed with him, departed in a body from "the Established Kirk." In
1843 he relinquished his station as Professor of Theology in the
University; and since that time has occupied the same office, in
connection with "the Free Church of Scotland." He is now considerably
advanced in years. His head is silvered with gray, and much of his
natural strength is abated. But his mind is yet clear and strong, his
heart calm and joyful; and we can only hope and pray that he may be
spared many years to come, as an ornament to his country, and an honor
to the Church.
It is not our purpose in this place to say much on the subject of the
published works of Dr. Chalmers. These are quite voluminous. The English
edition of his works consists of twenty-five duodecimo volumes. Of these
the two first volumes on _Natural Theology_, the third and fourth on the
_Evidences of Christianity_, the fifth on _Moral Philosophy_, the sixth,
_Commercial Discourses_, the seventh, _Astronomical Discourses_, and the
last four on _Paul's Epistle to the Romans_, are the most interesting
and valuable.[18] In style and arrangement, in logic and definition,
they possess some obvious defects, but ever indicate a genius of the
highest order, a heart burning with love and zeal, a conscience void of
offence toward God and toward all men; and a devotion, akin to that of
angels and the spirits of just men made perfect.[19]
[Footnote 18: All these, with the addition of four volumes of Sermons,
forming the Theological Works of Dr. Chalmers, have been republished, in
handsome form, by Mr. Carter of New York.]
[Footnote 19: In the introduction to "Vinet's Vital Christianity," I
have given a more elaborate estimate of the mental peculiarities of Dr.
Chalmers, in connection with those of Vinet, "the Chalmers of
Switzerland."
Since the above sketch was written Dr. Chalmers has gone to his rest. He
died suddenly and unexpectedly on the 31st of May, 1847.]
CHAPTER IX.
Dr. John Brown of Edinburgh--Rev. John Brown of
Whiteburn--Professor John Brown of Haddington--Rev. Dr.
Candlish--Specimen of his Preaching.
Before leaving the Edinburgh clergy, I wish to give you some account of
the Rev. Dr. John Brown, minister of Broughton Place Chapel, and
Professor of exegetical Theology in the United Secession Church, one of
the most amiable and accomplished of the Scottish ministers. He is the
son of the Rev. John Brown of Whiteburn, and the grandson of the Rev.
John Brown of Haddington, of whom I shall have something to say before
the close of the chapter.
Dr. Brown is between fifty and sixty years of age, with a fine form and
expressive countenance. Rather tall and slender, he looks much as one
might conceive the Apostle John to have done. His countenance is mild
and dignified, nose slightly aquiline, brow arched and high, eyes dark
and piercing, and his mouth indicative of mingled firmness and delicacy
of character. His hair, once dark as the ravens, bears the marks of age
and thought. In his youth, he was extremely vigorous and active; but he
is evidently passing into "the sere and yellow leaf."
Dr. Brown is a man of decided talent, though distinguished more for
clearness and strength of intellect, than for genius and imagination.
His mind is highly cultivated, but it seldom glows and sparkles. His
discourses are always interesting and instructive, but not often
thrilling or overpowering. They never fall below mediocrity, are always
clear, sensible and useful, but perhaps never rise to the highest heaven
of invention. In this respect he much resembles the celebrated Dr.
Wardlaw, though, as a speaker, he is more effective. Dr. Wardlaw
uniformly reads his sermons, Dr. Brown does not even use notes. He
preaches probably from memory, as is the case with most of the Scottish
clergy. They practice "the committing" of their sermons from their
youth, and acquire astonishing facility in this exercise, on which
account their preaching is often distinguished as much for its accuracy,
as its energy and freedom. Dr. Brown appears to great advantage in the
pulpit. His ease, energy, gracefulness and variety of tone, attitude,
and expression, are equally striking. Occasionally he hesitates for a
word, but never fails to find the right one. His language is remarkably
full and accurate. His topics, too are uniformly well selected, clearly
divided and thoroughly discussed. If he does not, like Chalmers, awe and
subdue his audience, he seldom fails to interest and instruct them. His
style is lucid and vivacious, and well adapted to useful practical
preaching. A tone of deep and fervid piety pervades the whole, giving
the impression that a man of God is addressing to you the messages of
Heaven.
Dr. Brown is orthodox, but liberal in his views and feelings. As a
theologian he belongs to the school of the moderate Calvinists. In
connection with the late amiable and accomplished Dr. Balmer of Berwick,
he was called to account some years ago, for his views of the atonement,
which he regards not as a restricted, but as a universal blessing, that
is to say, as a blessing, intended for the benefit not of a class, but
of the whole world. This gave rise to a war of words, and to much
useless recrimination in the courts of the United Secession Church,
which have left the matter pretty much where it was before. Dr. Brown's
views, however, are becoming prevalent in Scotland.
Dr. Brown has done much to promote the study of Biblical Literature,
which has received comparatively little attention in Scotland. As
theologians the Scottish preachers are sound and practical, but with the
exception of Dr. Campbell of Aberdeen, and Dr. McKnight of Edinburgh,
they have not distinguished themselves for their critical
investigations. A new spirit begins to prevail among them. The highly
respectable denomination with which Dr. Brown is connected, is making
rapid advances in this interesting branch of Biblical study.
Dr. Brown has taken an active part in the discussion of the question
touching the seperation of Church and State, and has published one or
two pamphlets upon the subject. In polemics he has always evinced a
sober and generous spirit.
The family, from which the subject of these remarks is descended, has
been highly distinguished for its talents and piety. The most of its
members have been eminent and useful preachers for several generations.
Dr. Brown's father, the Rev. John Brown, of Whiteburn, was for many
years one of the most devout and useful ministers of the Secession
Church. Indeed, he was a perfect patriarch in the rural district, where
he exercised his ministry. Every one knew him and loved him, as a man of
singular goodness and apostolic zeal. When a boy the writer used to
attend his church, and well does he remember his meek and venerable
countenance, and the thrilling tones of his musical voice. He rode about
his parish on an old white pony, fat and good-natured like his master;
and never failed, when he met one of his youthful parishioners, to stop
and enter into conversation with him. "Weel, my lad," he would say,
patting my head, "how d'ye do--and how's your faither, and how's your
mither? And a' the family, are they weel? Gie them my compliments. And
now you maun be a good boy; dinna forget to say your prayers, and God
will bless you. Gude day!" So off he would amble with a benignant smile,
leaving a sweet and holy impression behind him, not forgotten to this
very day. In preaching, Mr. Brown had a peculiar tone or tune, which at
times was perfectly thrilling. He frequently used the Scottish dialect
in the more pathetic and practical parts of his discourses, and by this
means produced a great impression upon his simple-hearted hearers. His
style, too, was naturally quaint and terse, and this, set off by his
benignant look, his varied and tender tones, often made his sermons very
memorable. Some of his illustrations I remember now, though I ceased to
hear him preach in my eighth year, having been removed to another part
of the country. The following are specimens, perhaps not the best that
might be given, but certainly characteristic. "There are three sorts of
folks in the world; the butterfly, the wasp, and the bee. The butterfly
is the gaudy fool, the wasp is the malicious wicked, but the bee is the
gude Christian!" Imagine this, and the following, uttered with a
peculiar sing-song and most expressive look and emphasis. "When ye see
reek coming out at the chimney, ye may conclude there's fire in the
house; so, when ye hear a man cursing and swearing, ye may be sure that
the fire of hell is kindled in that man's heart!" "O my friends, hold on
and persevere in the good ways of the Lord. A few more losses and
crosses, a few more troubles and trials, and we'll cross the swellings
o' Jordan, and then, O then, we'll sit and sing thegither on the hills
of Zion!" "Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to
give you the kingdom. O the heart of our heavenly Father is a heart of
tenderness and love. He will never leave you, nor forsake you. Why, only
think on't--ye'r his ain dear bairns; he'll tak you by the han', and
lead you through the wilderness, till he bring you safe to the Heavenly
Canaan, the hame of his children, the inheritance of his family!"
Good old man! he has gone, long since, to that blessed "hame" where
faithful ministers meet their beloved flocks, and "sing together on the
hills of Zion!"
Mr. Brown had a brother _Ebenezer_, minister of Inverkeithing, who was
still more distinguished as a preacher. In his boyhood he was "a great
rogue," and used to teaze his "douce" and pious brother John, and
occasion a good deal of trouble to his worthy father. But he was
converted when a young man, and became an exceedingly devout and
eloquent preacher. I had the pleasure of hearing him preach once in the
open air, at a sacramental occasion connected with his brother's
congregation in Whiteburn, but have a very indistinct recollection of
the discourse. But I well remember his earnest look, and the thrilling
tones of his powerful voice. He was of small stature, but spoke with
great force and vehemence, and occasionally with the same sing-song
voice, common among the old Scottish preachers. The congregation was
rapt: a solemn stillness pervaded the atmosphere all around, so that one
could hear the chirpings of the grasshopper, and the song of the bird in
the neighboring woods, during the pauses of his long and earnest
sentences.
The father of John Brown of Whiteburn, and grandfather of Dr. John Brown
of Edinburgh, was the celebrated professor John Brown, author of the
Self-Interpreting Bible, Exposition of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism,
and other works; and teacher of Theology in the United Secession Church.
He was an extraordinary man. When a poor shepherd boy, he conceived the
idea of learning Latin and Greek, and having procured a few old books,
actually accomplished the task, while tending his cattle on the hills.
So successful was he, that some of the old and superstitious people in
the neighborhood concluded that he must have been assisted by "the evil
spirit." On one occasion he went to Edinburgh, plaided and barefoot,
walked into a bookseller's shop, and asked for a Greek Testament. "What
are you going to do with a Greek Testament?" said the bookseller. "Read
it," was the prompt reply. "Read it!" exclaimed the sceptical
bookseller, with a smile; "ye may have it for nothing if ye'll read it."
Taking the book, he quietly read off a few verses, and gave the
translation; on which he was permitted to carry off the Greek Testament
in triumph.
Professor Brown was an eminently holy man. He was equally distinguished
for his simplicity and dignity of character. His preaching was much
admired by old and judicious persons. On one occasion, when he and
others were assisting a brother minister in services preparatory to the
celebration of the Lord's Supper, which services in Scotland usually
take place on the last days of the week preceding the "sacramental
sabbath," and are frequently held in the open air, a couple of gay young
men had been out hunting, and on their return home drew near to the
large congregation who were listening at that moment to the preaching of
an eloquent but somewhat showy divine. After standing a few moments, the
one said to the other, "Did you ever hear such preaching as that?"
"No," he replied with an oath, "but he don't believe a word of it!"
After this preacher had closed, there stood up, in the "tent," (a
temporary pulpit erected in the open air for the accommodation of the
ministers,) an old, humble looking man, who announced his text in a
trembling voice, as if he were afraid to speak in God's name. He went
on, and became more and more interesting, more and more impressive. The
young men were awed, and listened with reverent attention to the close,
when the one, turning to the other, said, "And what d'ye think of that?"
"Think of it," he replied, "I don't know what to think. Why, didn't you
see how every now and then he turned round in the tent, as if Jesus
Christ were behind him, and he was asking, 'Lord, what shall I say
next?'" This preacher was John Brown, the secret of whose pulpit
eloquence was, the inspiration of an humble and contrite heart, touched
by the finger of the Almighty; an eloquence as far transcending that of
the mere orator as the divine and heavenly transcends the human and
earthly. This too, was the eloquence of the early Scottish
preachers,--of Knox and Rutherford, of Guthrie and Erskine, of Cameron
and Boston. This fired the hearts of the people with a holy and
all-conquering zeal; this shed a glory over the death of the martyrs,
and diffused among their descendants the love of "the Covenant" and the
love of God. May this ever continue to be the eloquence not only of the
Church in Scotland but of the Church throughout the world!
There is one other preacher in Edinburgh, of whom it would be desirable
to give a full-length portrait. I refer to Dr. Candlish, certainly one
of the most popular and effective preachers in the Free Church of
Scotland. But I am not in possession of the materials for such a
portrait, having heard him preach only once, and being imperfectly
acquainted with the events of his life. He is probably about forty-five
years of age, rather short of stature, and not particularly imposing or
prepossessing in appearance. His face is rather long and sallow, but set
off by an immense forehead, dark bushy hair, and a pair of fine black
eyes. He stands bolt upright in the pulpit, and speaks in a clear,
strong, deliberate, yet rapid voice. Judging from his published
discourses, and the single specimen which I heard, I should think him
destitute of pathetic power. He is evidently most at home in the regions
of ratiocination. His language is copious, energetic, and harmonious. In
clearness and finish it is decidedly superior to that of Chalmers, and
little inferior to Robert Hall's. It possesses a stateliness, combined
with a bounding energy, which render it very effective. His method is
remarkably lucid, and his reasoning strong and convincing. In fancy, in
touching pathos, in overwhelming energy, in the vivid lightning flashes
of genius, he is greatly inferior to Chalmers; but in clearness of
definition, in compactness and purity of style, in strength of logic,
and in completeness of arrangement and finish, he must be acknowledged
superior. His discourses are highly evangelical. They abound in clear
and instructive statements, and defences of the cardinal truths of the
Gospel. If deficient, it is in directness and pungency of appeal, in
holy pathos, in solemn and subduing unction.
As a debater, Dr. Candlish stands pre-eminent. He may not possess the
ponderous strength of Cunningham, the overpowering energy of Chalmers,
the quick and versatile humor of Guthrie, or the eloquent polish of
Buchanan. But he possesses, in unusual combination, clearness of method,
logical acumen, force and beauty of style, and an easy, graceful,
commanding elocution. When Chalmers dies, we predict that Candlish will
be the leader in the courts of the Free Church of Scotland.
Dr. Candlish has published quite a number of occasional sermons, and a
volume of lectures on the record of the Creation in the book of Genesis.
These lectures are interesting and instructive, but to our taste, they
are too diffuse and elaborate, and not sufficiently critical, or rather
exegetical and compact. They say much about a thing, without actually
saying the thing itself. But this is rather the fault of their design or
plan, than of their execution, which as a whole indicates a high degree
of talent. They contain many fine passages, and valuable suggestions.
Among his published discourses, one of the best is on the "Incompetency
of Reason, and the Fitness of Revelation;" from Acts xvii. 23. "Whom
therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." The following
passage from that discourse will give a fair idea of his power. Speaking
of the mournful condition of those who delight to investigate the works
of God, but have never found God himself, he says:--"They may feel a
proud and high satisfaction, arising from the importance of the
knowledge acquired in the successful employment of their powers and
faculties of mind. But brethren, they scarcely meet, in all the various
and diversified tracks which they take, and in all the endless varieties
of objects which encounter their judgments--they scarcely ever meet
their God; they scarcely ever find him in the way; they scarcely ever
seek him. In the wondrous elements, the richly scattered treasures of
power, and wisdom and goodness, through which they make their progress,
they cannot shut their eyes to the presence of God; they must
acknowledge a God: but it is God with attributes of their own choosing,
not the God of Scripture,--the God of nature, not the God of justice.
_Him_ they exclude from their view; _Him_ they do not like to retain in
their thoughts; and in the circumstances in which they cultivate the
idea of a God, if mingling in their researches at all, they strip their
ideas of all which might remind them of their unsettled controversy with
Him. Conceive of a man in such a state, so blind as to have exercised
his powers of discovery, in the full blaze of all the glory and the
terrible majesty of a just God and a Saviour, without really finding
him, condemned to carry on his future work of discovery with a clear and
startling apprehension of all the moral attributes of God--his
holiness,--his justice,--his truth--all as manifested in the cross of
Christ, and all still carried on in a carnal mind and a self-condemned
heart. Where now will be the joy of his lofty inquiries? Where now the
triumph of his lofty powers of knowledge? Every object he contemplates
now, is connected with the idea of a righteous God; every subject he can
examine now, is fraught with the presence of a righteous God; every new
ray of light that meets his eye, reveals to him a righteous God; every
sound carries to his ear the name of God, repeated by a thousand echoes.
He can make no experiment now that will not show him more of the wonders
and terrors of God. He can look at nothing, he can think of nothing,
that does not speak to him of God, and remind him of his justice: and
all the bold traces of his profound discoveries regarding nature, now do
but suggest reminiscences of nature's God as a God of judgment; and so
the very faculty which was ever his pride and admiration,--the capacity
of deep reflection and enlightened inquiry, does but add new sting and
torture to his reprobate mind, by suggesting always, everywhere, and in
all things, new images and representations of that awful, that Almighty
Being, whom he has chosen to make his foe."
CHAPTER X.
Ride into the Country--The Skylark--Poems on the Skylark by Shelley
and the 'Ettrick Shepherd'--Newhall--'The Gentle
Shepherd'--Localities and Outlines of the Story--Its Popularity in
Scotland.
'Tis a beautiful morning in early June. The sun is peeping over Arthur's
Seat, and glancing from the turrets of the old Castle. The carriage is
ready, and Sandy the driver is cracking his whip with impatience. So,
take your place, and let us be off. Passing 'Bruntsfield Links' we
plunge into the very heart of the country, so rich and varied, with park
and woodland scenery, handsome villas, and sweet acclivities. Yonder is
Merchiston Castle, the birth-place of the celebrated Napier, the
inventor of Logarithms. A little further on, we reach the smiling
village of Morningside, and pass some pretty country residences, with
pleasant grounds and picturesque views. We enter a narrow and thickly
wooded dell, through which tinkles a small rivulet, called the Braid
Burn. At
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