CRITICAl, NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 127 



lingering clouds still rolling fantastically about its dim and spiry peak. Be- 

 low me, in a vast hollow, lay the dark surface of a loch, dotted with numbers 

 of stony isles, whose grey rocks and blossoming heather stood in beautiful 

 relief over the smooth murkiness of the water." — p. 301. 



After noting the joyful appearance of animated nature one clear 

 calm day in September, our author makes the following appropriate 

 reflections, which may serve as a hint to those who would introduce 

 bills to enforce the bette?- observance of the Sabbath. 



" I never witness a scene like this without wondering at and pitying those 

 gloomy religionists who imagine they do God service by rejecting the bless- 

 ings which he has spread before them. When I perceive all the inferior ani- 

 mals of creation so busy and so gay, I can never believe that man, the lord 

 of all, will be accounted guilty when joyous, and that he is profitable only 

 when self-tormented ; or that he will advance his interests hereafter in pro- 

 portion as he steels his heart against the sympathies which gladden this life 

 and disregards those prudential cares which may alleviate or remove its ills. 

 Virtue is not only consistent with cheerfulness, but rarely approaches per- 

 fection without it ; and he best serves his God who provides as largely as he 

 can for his own rational happiness and that of all his fellow creatures." — 

 p. 304. 



We shall now present our last extract, for the very good reason 

 that we have got to the end of the book. The journal closes with 

 the ensuing paragraphs, which may be taken as a kind of summary of 

 our author's opinion of the Highlands. 



" Throughout this whole excursion I have been singularly unfortunate in 

 weather; owing partly to the late period of my visit, but pi-incipally to the 

 extraordinary nature of the season. Yet in spite of circumstances so adverse 

 to enjoyment, and of the consequent solitariness of my rambles, I have de- 

 rived from them no inconsiderable share of pleasure, information, and health. 



" In the Highlands a stormy sky is seldom without its peculiar charms : it 

 throws down upon the wild landscape contrasted light and shade, magnifies 

 objects which are already intrinsically vast, and exhibits the face of Nature 

 in alternate majesty and grace. And when at last the sun shines out with 

 steadfast splendour, its cheering ray seems to light up the innermost cham- 

 bers of the heart, dispelling all fears and anxieties, and fully reconciling us 

 once more to our position on the globe. We then feel mere animal existence 

 to be a blessing; and in the actual enjoyment of the present hour, cease for 

 a while to hope for the future. 



" But whether I met with bright or stormy skies, I never roamed far 

 without encountering scenes of surpassing beauty or of startling grandeur. 

 And sure am I that whoever wanders through this romantic land, will find 

 whatever of poetry or of j)hilosophy his mind may possess awakened and 

 stirred within him. My path, too, was always cheered by the reflection 

 that I was among a race of men who had forgotten the ferocity, but not the 

 hospitality, of their fbrefiithers, and whose urbanity to the stranger called 

 forth my warmest sympathies, and raised in my estimation the standard of 

 humanity. No one could have come among them with less claim to kindness 

 than I had; and no one, surely, could have met with more. I have not set 

 down ihe half of it; and could still recount many an instance of good will 

 for which I cannot hope to make any return : for, in all human probability, 

 I shall never meet those kind-hearted Highlanders again, and never more 

 loiter among their beautiful glens. All that now lies in my power is to 

 acknowledge my obligations ; especially to one worthy family from whom I 



