34 ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY LIFE [ch. il 
almost all who have been obliged to undergo a 
temporary exile from their native land wish to 
return to it,, and to spend the last years of their 
sublunar existence in the place where they first 
drew breath. The remembrance of scenes of this 
kind were rising in my mind yesterday. I was 
coming into the vicinity of the Isles. I had friends 
there whom I loved. The mountains and lakes 
and heaths and rivers of that land, bleak and 
barren as it is, are dear to me and ever will be. 
AVas it then blameable in me to wish to spend a 
few days there? If mankind were utterly desti¬ 
tute of this attachment to localities, many of the 
great operations dependent on sociality and con¬ 
currence of sentiment and operation could not be 
performed. ... I feel at this moment a glowing 
attachment to the land of my forefathers which 
almost outshines every other. ” 
On approaching Inveraray on his route, he 
writes:— 
.“Here I fell in with a woman seated on a 
chair fixed to a hand barrow, together with a man 
who appeared to be her husband, and a boy. The 
woman desired me to carry her to a house at the 
distance of nearly a quarter of a mile. « It is too 
far off,’ said I. However, I thought I might do a 
worse action, and so, with the assistance of the 
man, carried her to the place mentioned. The 
usual 'May God in heaven reward you/ was, of 
course, applied as a recompense, accompanied, 
however, with an 'as I hope He will/ which very 
plainly intimated that doubts were entertained 
regarding the accomplishment of the wish. Poor 
fool, thought I, if God rewarded every action of 
this kind, it would be an easy matter to purchase 
rewards enough/’ 
