6 THE BANK ACCOUNTANT. 



so affected by the motion of the vessel, that he has not 

 tasted food since we left Cromarty. And yet, from his 

 previous mode of life, he must surely have been accus- 

 tomed to motion much more violent. I brought you 

 acquainted one evening, if I recollect right, with Cole- 

 ridge's rhyme of the " Ancient Mariner." It is a won- 

 derful poem. On shore I regarded it as merely a wild 

 and somewhat barbarous trophy of a powerful, but unre- 

 gulated, imagination ; at sea I can perceive that there is 

 much of truth as well as of imagination in it. I never 

 thoroughly understood the love-poetry of Burns, never 

 felt that his language is, so entirely above that of all other 

 poets, the language of the heart, until I became acquaint- 

 ed with you. A short trip at sea has enabled me to 

 make a similar discovery regarding the language of Cole- 

 ridge. It is thoroughly nautical ; there is sea in every 

 line of it.' 



On Friday he is watching the pale sands upon 

 the coast of Moray ; on Sunday morning he is in 

 the Frith of Forth. ' We are bearing up the Frith in 

 gallant style, within less than a mile of the shore. 

 Yonder is the Bass, rising like an immense tower out of 

 the sea. How have times changed since the excellent 

 of the earth were condemned, by the unjust and the dis- 

 solute, to wear out life on that solitary rock ! My eyes 

 fill as I gaze on it. The persecutors have gone to their 

 place ; the last vial has long since been poured out on 

 the heads of the infatuated Stewarts, whose short-sighted 

 policy would have rendered men faithful to their princes 

 by making them untrue to their God. But the noble 

 constancy of the persecuted, the high fortitude of the 

 martyr, still live. There is a halo, my Lydia, encircling 

 the brow of that rugged rock ; and from many a solitary 

 grave, and many a lonely battle-field, there come voices 



