6 Meditations on Mountains. [Juny, 
but that she presses her cheer upon you with more earnestness and 
repetition than you are accustomed to, she acts the lady, or rather she is 
the lady, without any acting at all. On her left sits a thin young man, 
with a look wavering between bashfulness and confidence. He goes by 
the name of the master ; is a student in divinity ; and, during the long 
vacation of his college, acts as tutor to the boys that you have already 
seen. There is a respect for the learning and occupation of the master 
which are probably new to you; and Mrs. Gilchrist considers that she is 
paying attention to the interests of her children, when she shews kind- 
ness to the young man to whom the formation of their minds is entrusted. 
Gilchrist himself is not a man of many words; but those that he does 
make use of are to the purpose; and though “the master” does not 
obtrude his lore upon you, he shews that consciousness of its possession 
and its worth, which is so becoming, and even promising, at his years. 
After supper, the whole family assemble, the “ bigh ha’ bible” is taken 
out of its goat-skin case, and the simple people perform their nightly 
devotion to their Maker, with an earnestness in which you cannot trace 
either bigotry or fanaticism. Men and ages differ in their customs and 
opinions ; but the man who would not feel pleasure in witnessing the 
piety of such a family as this, performed in the wilderness, and with no 
view to gain the approbation of men, would not have very strong claims 
to rank as the ornament of any age. 
The devotions being ended, the domestics, and such of the young 
people as are able to keep awake during the service, retire to their 
repose, while the mistress of the house produces the favourite bowl, 
which is kept sacred for family events and instances of hospitality ; and 
by its appearance you may judge that you are a favourite of the first 
class—for had you been one of the second, the jug, of less honour and 
smaller dimensions, would have been substituted: 
Conscious of having discharged his duty to God and man according to 
the best of his knowledge and ability, Angus Gilchrist sets himself to 
the mixing of his bowl of punch with a science and a glee, which the 
former gravity of the man would not have led you to expect; and, as 
the glass circulates, license of omission being given to “the master,” both 
on account of his youth and his profession, Angus Gilchrist gradually _ 
uncoils and comes out ; and you discover why “the fair maid of Moulin- __ 
dervan” should have adhered to her choice of him in spite of the proud 
hostility of her kinsfolks. Under all his steadiness in the conducting of 
his business, under all his regularity in his devotion, Angus Gilchrist — 
was (and why should he not be?) what is usually called a glorious fel- 
low. He loved his friend, and could afford to entertain him ; his glass, 
and. well could he stand it ; his joke, and he could give it point; and 
his story, and he could tell it with exquisite humour or deep pathos, 
according to the tenor of the incidents. Those who have not seen pru- — 
dence and good sense united to a warm heart and a glowing imagination é ‘f 
—those who have been in the habit of mistaking hypocrisy, which turns 
human life into gloom, for religion, which makes it all sunshine—those 
who, ignorant of the true spirit of religion, are foolish enough to sup- 
pose that a proper feeling of the bounty of the Creator, and a proper 
reverence for his power and gratitude for his goodness, should make men ‘ 
enjoy with less zest the good things which he gives, or display in a less 
attractive form the powers which he implants—may lose their senses in 
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Sa Ss = 
