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proached within even a day's march, the Beal fires blazed, first upon Tulloch-n'-Ard, and then upon the summits of all the crags and squūrs in that most singularly formed of lands; and ere the invading party had gained the only pass (and it was a long and difficult one) by which the country could be entered, that pass was brown with targets and beaming with claymores; while along the summit of the mountains, on each side, files of men stood ready with levers to swing the masses of granite, of two or three tons weight, from their beds on the steep, and send them booming into the ravine below with a force against which no precaution of the wisest commander could have been of any avail. Alaster M'Cra, the father of our hero, (for he was a hero in his way,) was the fleetest foot that, within the range of tradition, had trodden the mountains of Kintail; and it was generally supposed that he was appointed collector of the rents of the exiled M'Kenzie, which, when collected, were regularly carried abroad to their owner by a daring freeman of the sea, whose name, as Donhuil Spainiel, is still cherished by the few remains of that gallant and unconquerable people, who are now left to deplore that the mansion of their chief is a habitation for the gannet and the osprey; that the property has passed into new hands; and that a new people have brought a new industry, which, though it has quadrupled the productions of the district, has driven the plough of ruin over every monument and trace of those who so long dwelt there. Barrow after barrow was scattered, sometimes in quest of the rude urns of the Northmen, but more frequently that the clay of the old inhabitants might fatten the fields of the new. Cairn after cairn was taken down; one "judgment circle" was removed after another; and, though they spared it for a little time, the reputed, and, in the belief of the natives, the indubitable grave of the mighty Diarmid himself yielded to the passion for change. It was lone, and, among monuments, was lovely. Fast

by the margin of the sea, which at that place is as transparent as glass, as the breeze steals up the inlet, at the head of which the monument was situated,—the waves murmur among the pebbles as if singing their solem requiem for the repose of the hero. Over the little mound, with which time has nearly encased the stone coffin, two weeping birches used to hang their fragrant festoons, while, to give every finish to the enjoyment of at least one sense, the woodroof and the wild hyacinth vied in perfume with each other—the one, in its living scent, typical of the fame of the hero when alive; the other, fragrant only when withered, as good a type of that fame which cannot be made to perish. But we must not allow ourselves to be seduced to linger at the grave of Diarmid; though, in sooth, if we wished for a mood of mind more touching than another, we know not whither we should go to find its equal.

It was conjectured that, in consequence of the service performed by old M'Cra, the son received his education at the expense of the exiled family. At any rate, no sooner had Donald mastered the whole lore of the parish, which lore was then a portion of one of the books of the New Testament and some of the leading questions in the Assembly's Catechism, written in Gaelic (these fragments of theology were pasted upon the staves of a cask, which the sea had drifted in), than he was removed to the capital of the Highlands, and, after due residence there, sent to King's College, Aberdeen, from which sober seminary the essential instructers of the Highlanders have emanated ever since it had a foundation, or, at least, since they had such instructers. Of the extent of Donald's acquirements, whether at Inverness or at Aberdeen, there remains no evidence; the only event at all worthy of being remembered, with which his name is coupled, was the celebrated slaughter of Dauney, the janitor; who, after a mock trial, was led to the block, laid upon it, and killed in an instant by a

gentle stroke of a wet towel across his throat.

One thing is certain; the experience which the Minister had of the world at these places, neither enlisted him in its pleasures nor allured him to its imitation; for, though it was believed in his native glen, that the power of the M'Kenzie (who had then just been restored, and had swung, as most of the chieftains swung, from the activeness of rebellion to the passiveness of worshipping royalty) was second only, if not, indeed, superior to that of the king himself, and could have procured for Mr. M'Cra the very foremost appointment in the island, he was contented to return to his native glen immediately when the period of his study expired; nor did he again leave it except to attend the meetings of the Presbytery and Synod, and the latter he frequented as seldom as he could. During his absence, too, he had attended so closely to his books, or, at least, had been so incurious in all the matters that he might have learned respecting the manners of men, that he returned to the glen altered in nothing but in years and information, the latter consisting of two portions some half-acquired Latin, which he was gradually to forget, and a great deal of mystical theology, which was destined to increase at a greater ratio than the other diminished. What to do with the student fresh from college in a place where nobody could read English but the minister, and he was scarcely in possession of a book, would have been a puzzle to many; and in these times, when reading constitutes so much of the business and pleasure of all who can find leisure for it, it would have been difficult to imagine how the life of M'Cra could at all be borne. There is, however, a voice in every object in nature; and in a romantic and lovely land that voice is pleasant as well as loud.

We are not sure but our reverend anchorite derived more exquisite pleasure, with occasional glimpses of a finer philosophy, from the volume of uncultivated nature around him, than

many can procure from the best furnished library. Nor was this study wholly unproductive of fruit. It is proved by the history both of nations and of individuals, that if there be intellect which cannot come in the way of science and ordinary literature, it will spontaneously burst forth in poetry. The earliest mental productions of all nations, of which any trace remains, are poetical, and may in general be considered as songs; poetry is the first to be found and the first to ripen in the revivals of literature; and whenever what is called a genius springs up in pastoral countries, where there are no marvels of art and machinery to attract the attention, it invariably appears in poetry. With our hero the general principle was not broken; and before he had settled twelve months in his native place, the lads on the hill and the lasses in the valley were carolling blithely the strains of Donald M'Cra.

One step of renown leads to another; and when mental improvement is once in any way hegun, there is a native impetus, which it requires very considerable resistance to stop. Accordingly, the elevation of Donald to the dignity of poet to the glen was soon followed by his elevation to the more important office of schoolmaster; and the love of song among the people was succeeded by a love for information. Thus an arena was opened for Donald to win laurels in the sight of all those who constituted the world to his care or even to his knowledge; and, from the state in which he found matters, the conquest was an easy one. We have mentioned the extent of the school books, at the time of his own initiatory instruction; and as his aged predecessor had, for several years, lost his sight and nearly his senses, the system had fallen off. The boards were abandoned, and had become obliterated by the smoke that filled the hovel which was called the school-house; so that the whole instruction the old schoolmaster gave, consisted of small scraps on religious subjects, neither very well put

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the terrors of winter set in, the roads, which were then bad The best seasons, had become altother impassable, he used to send off, r the edification of the regents and tudents at the college, the whole of the discourses in one parcel, the delivery of which was to bring him half a year nearer to the sacerdotal office; and the discourses thus sent, and which were bonâ fide his own productions, gained him as much credit, and were perhaps as conclusive evidence of his progress in the sacred study, as ..if he had been resident at the university; while, probably, the simplicity of of his habits, and the little that there in was to distract his mind, were better ef moral qualifications than if he had, at ay the most precarious period of life, lat- been exposed to those temptations in lied society, against which it but too fre5ac- quently happens that the study of dihis vinity is no certain or absolute pro1s, by tection.

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that is With all these hopes and advantoward tages, however, there were still drawor twice backs: Mr. M'Cra was completely And there excluded from what was called societext of ty; had no means whatever of knowing this ho- the world; and, therefore, was forced be asked to limit his information to that system dent's own of divinity which he could form out of bably was, the two or three books he possessed, -session's and from the conversation of those ns of the elders of the congregation who were young men the depositaries alike of religious and mselves for of traditionary lore. In consequence ise be ex- of this, he was a singular compound; In extreme and if any man was ever in danger of st in the case erring through excess of faith, Mr. her indulgence M'Cra was that man. He believed half-sessional all that had been told him by the Aberdonian professors; he believed all that was found in the two or three clerical books he possessed; if any other written matter, whether the History of Gulliver, or that of Jack and the Giants, came by fragments in his way, he failed not implicitly to believe that; and from this universality of faith it was easy for him to believe,

d in the incler, during which 'n any district of the glen alluded rt of the country, ; so that the atsed with, provided End among his resistitute who will read

together, nor very well adapted to the comprehension of his young auditors. Mr. M'Cra, from the reputed influence he had with the chief of the clan, easily prevailed upon the interested to erect a more commodious place for instruction. The school-house now rose with walls, formed alternately of turf and stone, with window holes closed with turf in tempestuous weather, but open when the days were good; and thus it was a palace compared with the former one, which, like the more ancient houses of the Highlanders, was a trench having a bank thrown up on each side partially covered with a roof, but with an opening in the middle, for the admission of light and the escape of smoke, which made it a matter of some difficulty to find out a dry corner in those storms of wind and rain by which that part of the country is so frequently visited.

Mr. McCra had carried with him, from Aberdeen, a few dozen copies of the " 'Assembly's Catechism," in English; and these he elaborated into school-books-by pasting the large alphabets, at the beginning, upon the former boards, for the use of his younger scholars; and treasuring up the remainder, as initiatory books, for the more advanced, until they should be able to grapple with the Bible itself, the ultimate object of knowledge in those days, of which he had provided himself with two copies. One of these, carefully fortified with a casing of goat-skin, he destined for the future use of the school. Nor were the materials of writing altogether wanting a neighboring mountain furnished argillaceous schistus or slate; and by a good deal of labor with a stone and sand they were brought to such a surface that rude lines and figures could be traced upon them with an angular fragment of stalactite.

Thus prepared for his labor, and having the esteem and the respect of all the glen, Mr. M'Cra opened his session with probably as much heartfelt pride, and as strong hopes of success, as ever were felt by a professor

on first commencing his duty in the chair of an university; and though there were few to see, and, with the exception of the minister, none who could appreciate the labors of the instructer of Inverdonhuil, he toiled on, cheered by the thought that he was doing good, and solaced with the idea that at some future period his present pupils would be able to appreciate the value of his exertions, and by their gratitude compensate him for the apparent neglect in which those exertions were made. Nor was the fulfilment of his hope extended to that remote distance, as though he had been a teacher in a district already educated, and had begun the directing the studies of "young gentlemen from the age of three to nine ;" for most of the pupils were rather advanced in youth, some of them trenching on the verge of manhood, and the majority of them sought the instructions of Mr. M'Cra of their own volition, and as having previously been captivated by the chaunting of his songs. Thus his labor was an experiment on human nature which it is seldom in the power of man to make. The understandings of those with whom he had to deal had been more or less exercised upon the occurrences around them, the traditions of the glen, the oral instructions of the catechist in religious matters, and the annual examination of the minister. Instead, therefore, of having, as is usually the case, the labor of training those in the external technicalities of learning, who are incapable of entering into the spirit of what is taught, he had only to teach those who were already conversant with thinking, to clothe their ideas in a new language, and acquire a knowledge of those symbols, of the signification of which they were already informed. In consequence of this, the progress that they made would, but for the knowledge of its causes, have been looked upon as little less than miraculous; and, perhaps, there never was a people who acquired the capacity of reading their own vernacular tongue in so short a period as

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