4 Meditations on Mountains. [ Jury, 
over you in concatenation and reasoning, while you are so much superior 
to him in facts. But though to you it may seem singular, the cause is 
by no means either deep or unnatural. We men of the town have a world 
before us every day, and a new one the next ; and before we have had 
time to think of one object, a hundred new ones are assailing us on all 
quarters. We cannot, therefore, think, if we would; and, as we have 
occupation and excitement without thought, the will in us soon dies ; 
and if there were no other proof of existence save the “ cogito’’ of 
Descartes, none of us would be able to establish the fact of our being. 
While Angus is getting his lesson, and turning that which with you 
is mere memory into rude philosophy, his better half is adding the 
stranger’s share and the stranger’s dainty to the evening. A youth of 
fourteen or fifteen, of short stature, but firm and well-built, with his 
bare feet on the sward, and his storm-bleached hair about his ears, shoots 
past you with the light and bounding step ofa fawn ; and, with a rude 
fishing apparatus, begins to thrash the stream just where it takes its 
first eddy and ripple, after leaving the lake. Short space is he gone, ere 
he again returns with a dozen of excellent trout, as the reward o* his 
skill; and, pulling his top-lock to the stranger, with that half-inquiring, 
half-askance air, which is the indication of talent in a rustic of middle 
boyhood, Donald glides into the house, to add the produce of his sport 
to the supper store ; and then he is off like lightning, to aid in the fold- 
ing of the herds and flocks. 
The younger branches of the family have heard the glad tidings that 
there is a stranger; and they come to take you with all the wariness of 
a besieging army. The first parallel is in the midst of the trees, and 
each fires its observation and wonder from behind one which shall 
cover it from your notice. You are engaged in answering the queries, 
and wondering at the inferences of the father ; you do not, therefore, 
** open your fire” at all, which, at this stage of the attack, would in all 
probability drive the assailants away. Emboldened, they run their 
second parallel at the very foremost of the trees ; and, before they have 
been long there, little Angus, who is his father’s favourite, and spoken gt, x 
to be made a doctor, because he is the seventh son, boldly appears upon 
the glacis of the sward, and anon takes a position on the other side of — 
his father. The “ colley dog” comes also, and, after “the usual com- * 
pliments” to his master, lays his rough nose on your lap, wagging his 
tail, and offering to shake hands. Then the rank of the children closes 3 & 
in; and, though they still keep at a respectful distance, they have notin 
their air much of that sheepishness which you would expect in so lonely — 
and isolated a situation. ee! 
The arrival of the faithful dog is a signal that the cows and ewes are — 
in the milking-pens; and Angus Gilchrist, with some of the pride of 
«© a man of substance,” and an apology for the trouble he gives you (he _ 
has no idea that, within reascnable hours, any man could be tired with 
walking), invites you to walk with him to the evening survey; and, 
though your joints may be a little stiff, you cannot refuse. You 
make way by the little path which winds among the birches, as the 
masses of stone will allow it; and, as the dew has now began to fall, the 
canopy over you is delightfully fragrant. There are no nightingales or 
even linnets in such situations; but the heath-cock raises his voice on 
the height, and is answered by the bittern from the hollow; yet the 
ms 
