the younger inhabitants of the glen the discourse for him. Other than acquired at least some knowledge of this there were no means of procedure a strange language under the tuition for Mr. M'Cra; and accordingly, beof Mr. M'Cra. fore the terrors of winter set in, and the roads, which were then bad in the best seasons, had become altogether impassable, he used to send off, for the edification of the regents and students 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 his habits, and the little that there was to distract his mind, were better moral qualifications than if he had, at the most precarious period of life, been exposed to those temptations in society, against which it but too frequently happens that the study of divinity is no certain or absolute protection.

Fame and success like these could not be concealed even within the steep fastnesses that separated glen Donhuil from the adjacent districts; and the schoolmaster of that country had ascribed to him as many of the attributes of natural and supernatural power, as if he had been a second Friar Bacon. The reward thus came far more speedily, and to a far greater extent, than the laborer had anticipated; and I that made him devote himself to his pursuit with increasing assiduity; and also awakened in him some traces of an ambition which he had not felt at first-that of aspiring to the pulpit of some Highland parish-the one in which he was born and had his chief renown, if possible. The easy way in which divinity, at least in the latter years of the course, can be studied at the King's College, tended to accelerate the consummation of his hopes. The process is, or was, by what are called half-sessions; that is to say, the student journeys toward the hall of the college once or twice in the course of the season, and there delivers a homily from some text of scripture. The delivery of this homily (and no question is to be asked as to whether it is the student's own or not) was held, and probably was, equal in value to one half-session's attendance on the prelections of the professors; and thus many young men were enabled to qualify themselves for orders, who would otherwise be excluded from the church. In extreme cases, and among the rest in the case under consideration, further indulgence was granted. These half-sessional discourses are delivered in the inclement part of the year, during which travelling is difficult in any district of the north, and from the glen alluded to, to the eastern part of the country, generally impossible; so that the attendance is dispensed with, provided the student can find among his resident fellows a substitute who will read

With all these hopes and advantages, however, there were still drawbacks: Mr. M'Cra was completely excluded from what was called society; had no means whatever of knowing the world; and, therefore, was forced to limit his information to that system of divinity which he could form out of the two or three books he possessed, and from the conversation of those elders of the congregation who were the depositaries alike of religious and of traditionary lore. In consequence of this, he was a singular compound; and if any man was ever in danger of erring through excess of faith, Mr. M'Cra was that man. He believed 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,

illustrations from things that are familiar to the people. If one of Mr. M'Cra's Gaelic discourses, which were productive of sighs and groans, and even stronger emotions, had been literally translated into English, it would not have been a bit more intelligible to an English reader: but yet so well were they adapted to those to whom they were addressed, that when, on the demise of his predecessor, he got to the pinnacle of his ambition, he was accounted the star of the presbytery. Such, indeed, were his piety and renown, that the only daughter and heiress of the former incumbent surrendered at the first summons; and the Reverend successor was beneficed, wived, and housed all in the same year. No sooner was he thus settled. than he began to project reforms in the kirk establishment, which, in the end, led to a change in the economy and manners of the whole glen.

knowledge, with those vagaries of they can borrow all their imagery and credulity that lie beyond the boundaries of reason and experience. In the same spirit which leads us to condemn, in Mr. M'Cra, the ghost, the kelpie, the amulet, and the witch, we should have had reason to condemn much of what was set before him by the moral philosophy regent at King's College; only the advantage was that this supplemental superstition he did not understand. The people among whom he picked up his first opinions had imported many of their religious notions from the army of Gustavus Adolphus. These notions had got certainly not less austere in the keeping, and, therefore, "vain philosophy" was as much a matter of objurgation with them as was a bypothesis contrary to his own views to a theoretical philosopher. Even the "Elements of Euclid," which Mr. M'Cra heard repeated pro forma, were looked upon as something which "smacked of the black art ;" and we doubt not that, in mastering the Pons Asinorum, he verily believed that he could have raised the devil. At all events he never tried.

Still, in consequence of what he did with the ABC's and the Catechisms, the fame of the schoolmaster of Inverdonhuil penetrated into the neighboring glens, and he was reported to be alike a miracle in science and sanctity. He was the oracle of the catechists, the pride of the whole parish, with the exception, perhaps, of the minister, who did not brook an eclipse.

Time rolled on, however; the old minister became infirm; and, as the living did not admit of even the scanty support of a Highlander in supplement to that of the invalid, Donald was appointed assistant and successor. In this situation his fame extended apace. It is a peculiarity in the Gaelic language that they who know the least of the sciences and literature of the rest of the world, can be the most eloquent in the use of it, because then

The kirk itself was, at the time of his appointment, a singular structure; and stood, sadly rebuked by the ruins of the old catholic chapel, that were hard by. The chapel had been of stone, and from the part that remained had been elegant for the situation. The kirk, on the other hand, had walls of turf, and a roof of heather. Such of the people as were not more than two miles distant came, stool in hand, to the service; and they, from the more remote part of the glen, were accommodated upon the trunks of two or three unhewn trees, raised a little above the mud floor upon stones. As the roof was seldom water-tight, the floor was always a few inches deep of mire in rainy weather; but that, instead of being an inconvenience to the Highlanders, was an advantage. It saved them the trouble of wading into a brook, without which lubrication, the brogues of untanned hide which they then wore were as hard as iron.*

Though the ministers of the Scot

Time has worked great changes. The Commissioners for building Highland Churches are erecting them at an expense of 15001. each, for church and manse.

tish kirk have been denuded of many his error, or rather he felt it, in a threadbare coat, to the replacing of which the marcs were devoted, and in having some difficulty in taking up such a position in the pulpit as enabled him to avoid the autumnal rain. The minister saw his error; and knowing that it was vain to wrestle with the prejudices of the people, he caused proclamation to be made, that the "O. P.'s" of Inverdonhuil were triumphant. The termination was more felicitous than that of the "O. P." row in London ; and not twelve months elapsed before the kirk, which was rather deserted in the struggle, was thronged, and well thatched, while there was a visible, and, in the eyes of those by whom it was effected, a gratifying improvement in the costume of the minister.

of those powers and privileges, which were in full enjoyment and exercise among the priesthood whom they succeeded, they have retained, with much pertinacity, judicial powers in certain infractions of the law. Various modes of expiation for these infractions are established by custom in different places; and in the parish of Inverdonhuil, the onus of keeping the kirk thatched with heather lay upon them. Not that they did the business by contract, but that the offender was amerced in so many burdens, together with a fine of a marc Scots, or thirteenpence one-third of a penny, in addition to each burden. The pecuniary mulcts went nominally to the poor; but as there was nobody in the parish that ever thought of applying for, or even accepting any part of them, they came ultimately to the minister, as also did the heather from the roof of the kirk, when it had served its time as thatch, and was dry enough for being conveniently and profitably used as fuel. The predecessor of Mr. M'Cra was an easy and indulgent man, and fined each offender only in one marc, and one burden of heather; and so well did matters thrive under his indulgent care, that the kirk, though not water-tight, as we have said, was in better condition than at any time since its first erection. When Donald came into office he wished to play the Phineus in this way; and accordingly, though against the remonstrances of some of the elders, caused proclamation to be made, that the penalties were to be doubled -two marcs and two burdens of heather, per sinner. Good actions

are sometimes attributed to bad motives, and, by thus getting bad names, fail in their effects. So it fared in the case before us; the godly said, that the order came from vain-glory, as to the heather-and avarice, as touching the money; and the erring abstained from their errors-not from any new-born love of virtue-but that they might starve the minister, and drench the congregation. Donald saw

Having thus found that little was to be done in the way of what the illuminati of the north are accustomed to call "barren morality," and declaim against as a matter which ought to be kept apart from faith, the minister took the opposite tack. He established prayer-meetings, and doubled the number of annual assemblages for public examination. These matters were highly gratifying to the people.

The old showed off their knowledge, and wrangled about their points of mystery, and their cases of conscience; and the young found a vast increase of those "walks and conversations," which were to them the principal charms of such assemblings. The minister of Inverdonhuil acquired prudence by experience, confining his present objurgations to general subjects, such as "the beast and the false prophet," and humanely casting a veil over any failings of a flock who were so attentive to the ordinances of religion, and so respectful to its minister. Sabbath-breaking, indeed, got no quarter; for a girl, of not more than ten years old, was made to stand before the congregation and be rebuked, for inadvertently humming a verse of one of the minister's own songs on the sabbathmorning. Sleeping during the service, which those who walk twenty

*The answer in the Catechism is, "God's wrath and curse, both in this life, and that which is to come." 99