CONTRASTED LANDSCAPES. 359 



or enveloped in cloud ; all the lower were dark as the 

 surface of a morass. The woods, brown and sombre, 

 seemed like the dark spots on the face of the moon, so 

 many cavities, scooped out of the sides of the hills. The 

 sky was of a dull leaden hue, the sea of a colour ap- 

 proaching to black except where edged along the shores 

 with a broad fringe of foam. I could think of it only 

 as a huge monster stretching its immense arms into the 

 bowels of the land, and could liken it only to the Brah- 

 minical hieroglyphs of the terrible man-lion starting 

 from its column, and tearing to pieces the blaspheming 

 prince. Was not the scene a gloomy one ? I did not 

 then know you were unwell, or the contrast would have 

 struck me still more forcibly. Your letter has tinged 

 all my thoughts with sadness.' 



'Cromarty, February 14, 1834. 



'I need hardly tell you that I never yet received 

 a more truly welcome letter than your last; the very 

 handwriting on the cover was worth a whole file of 

 ordinary epistles. I trust I am not too sanguine when 

 I anticipate for you many happy days in the future, 

 days in which you will live, as in the past, not more for 

 yourself than for your friends, and in which, enjoying all 

 that is truly good in the present world, you will only 

 occasionally be reminded that physical like moral evil 

 has a tendency to destroy itself, and that there is a world 

 in which evil, either physical or moral, can have no place. 

 I often think of the truly noble sentiment expressed in 

 your letter of the 8th January, and fully acquiesce in it. 

 No one can think aright of the weakness of our nature 

 without seeing that there is much to fear ; but then, no 

 one, on the other hand, can believe in the goodness of the 

 Almighty without feeling that there is much also to hope. 



' What shall I say of the warm interest you continue 



