MIDGES 



IN the Highlands the doctrine that God created 

 all living things with a purpose in some way 

 related to the service of man remains of un- 

 challenged validity. The person who questions 

 it is at once recognized as no better than he should 

 be, and unfit for membership of the Free Kirk. 

 I asked a pillar of that sanctuary how he disposed 

 of the midges, but it was almost too easy a question 

 to be worthy of so profound a theologian. Midges, 

 he told me, like a great many other things, were 

 brought into being to prevent us from getting too 

 well pleased with this world. It is a yale of 

 tears, and it is well we should not forget it. .We 

 dwell in tabernacles, and it is bad for the higher 

 life if we take it into our heads that they are 

 lasting dwelling-places. And much more to the 

 same effect. 



This theory has the merit that it fits all the 

 facts contemplated by it. Life in the Highlands, 

 particularly their more westerly and wetter parts, 

 is not such during the winter months as to 

 encourage the lotus -eating state of mind. But 

 generally in early summer there falls a perfectly 

 delightful time when the glens are good to live 

 in, a time which, if it endured, would transform 



