THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 47 



our youths is, as we have already said, more 

 than ever puzzling. The difficulty is felt, pei*- 

 haps, less in Scotland than in England. The 

 Scotch climate compels hardiness ; the Scotch 

 bodily strength makes it easy ; and Scotland, 

 with her mountain-tours in summer, and her 

 frozen lochs in winter, her labyrinth of sea-shore, 

 and, above all, that priceless boon which Provi- 

 dence has bestowed on her, in the contiguity of 

 her great cities to the loveliest scenery, and hills 

 where every breeze is health, affords facilities for 

 healthy physical life unknown to the Englishman, 

 who has no Arthur's Seat towering above his 

 London, no Western Islands spotting the ocean 

 firths beside his IManchcster. Field sports, with 

 the invaluable training which they give, if not 



" The reason firm," 

 yet still 



" The temperate will, 

 Kn<lnr:iiii I', lorciilght, Btrcngth, and skill," 



have become impossible for the greater number ; 



and athletic exercises are now, in P^ngland at 



least, so artificialized, so expensive, so mixed up 



wit}» drinking, ^.'ambling, and other evils of which 



wc need say nothing here, that one cannot wonder 



at any parents' shrinking fn»nj allowing their 



sons to meddle much with them. And yet the 



