351 



Theee is a wicked passage in "Elia" where he says, " I 

 have been trying all my life to like Scotchmen, and am 

 obliged to desist from the experiment in despair. They 

 cannot like me, and in truth I never knew one of that 



nation who attempted to do it His conversation is 



as a book. You must speak upon the square with him. 

 He stops a metaphor like a suspected person in an enemy's 

 country. Above all, you must beware of indirect expres- 

 sions before a Caledonian. Clap an extinguisher on your 

 irony, if you are unhappily blest with a vein of it/' And 

 possibly, for this last insinuation, there may be foundation 

 in fact : at least, we have often been amused by witness- 

 ing the effect of the more indirect and subtile kinds of wit 

 on our sincere and solemn countrymen. Yet, upon occa- 

 sion, a Scotchman can be merry, and the land which gave 

 birth to Robert Burns and Harry Erskine, to Andrew 

 Thomson and Thomas Guthrie, can both produce and 

 appreciate humour. But it must be admitted that the 

 humour which suits us best is that sort which possesses a 

 certain breadth and vigour, and in order to be successful 



