56 THE BANK ACCOUNTANT. 



what they say is characteristic : it is mainly the dramatic 

 form, not the dramatic substance, that is wanting. 



To illustrate the careful finish of this book, it would 

 be easy to find a number of passages exquisite descrip- 

 tions of landscape, specially felicitous similitudes, apt 

 and eloquent reflections ; but to select from these one 

 or two brief enough for quotation, and decisively the best 

 to be had, would be exceedingly difficult. It seems 

 preferable, therefore, to take by way of sample a passage 

 which is not remarkable for style, but is fitted to convey 

 a fair general idea of the character, interest, and power 

 of the book. I allude to the account of Donald Miller, 

 referred to with enthusiasm by Mr Camithers. The 

 story is introduced with a statement, not quoted here, 

 respecting severe storms which, for successive winters, 

 had visited Cromarty. 



DONALD MILLER. 



' Donald was a true Scotchman. He was bred a shoe- 

 maker ; and painfully did he toil late and early for about 

 twenty-five years with one solitary object in view, which, 

 during all that time, he had never lost sight of no, not 

 for a single moment. And what was that one ? In- 

 dependence a competency sufficient to set him above 

 the necessity of further toil ; and this he at length 

 achieved without doing aught for which the severest 

 censor could accuse him of meanness. The amount of 

 his savings did not exceed four hundred pounds ; but 

 rightly deeming himself wealthy for he had not learned 

 to love money for its own sake he shut up his shop. 

 His father dying soon after, he succeeded to one of the 

 snuggest, though most perilously situated, little pro- 

 perties, within the three corners of Cromarty ; the sea 

 bounding it on the one side, and a stream small and 



