106

A CLENCHER.

North. Can be enrolled

among the

"Phæbo digna locuti !"

Shepherd. But can a man who has ance enjoyed the holiest affections o' natur, in his ain heart, ever cease to cherish them in its inmost recesses?

North. Never.

Shepherd. But is it possible to cherish them far apart, and aloof frae their natural objects?

North. Impossible.

Shepherd. But can they be cherished, even amang their natural objects, without being brocht into active movement towards them, without cleaving to them, as you may see bees cleaving to the flowers as they keep sook, sookin intil their verra hearts?

North. They cannot.

Shepherd. Then Mr Muir's dished. For colleck a' thae premises, inferences, conclusions, admissions, axioms, propositions, corollaries, maxims, and apothegms intil ae GREAT TRUTH, and in it, beside a thousan' ithers, will be found this ane

North. "The sacrifice o' the entire man is the sacrifice o' the entire poet.”

Shepherd. Or, in other words, the man withouten a human heart, humanly warmed by the human affections, may as weel think o' becoming a poet, as a docken a sunflower. Muir's dished.

Mr

North. Mr Moore forgets, that without the practice of virtue, virtue

Languishes, grows dim, and dies;"

and that, without the indulgence of action, so do the highest and holiest feelings; so that the poet who neglects, disregards, shuns, or violates the duties of life, is forsaken of inspiration, and dies a suicide.

Shepherd. Ony mair nonsense o' Mr Muir's?

North. Lots.

Shepherd. But what's that paper-ba' that you're aye keepin rowin atween your fore-finger and your thoom?

North. Let me unroll it, and see-why, it's something quizzical.

Shepherd. Fling't ower. Let's receete it.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL IN HONOUR OF MAGA.

SUNG BY THE CONTRIBUTORS.

107

Noo-hearken till me-and I'll beat Mathews or Yates a' to sticks wi my impersonations.

1 For Colonel O'Shaughnessy see two articles in Blackwood's Magazine,

vol. xxi., written by Dr Macnish.

1 Dr Macnish, the author of The Anatomy of Drunkenness and The Philosophy of Sleep, wrote several articles in Blackwood's Magazine under the signature of "A Modern Pythagorean." He practised as a physician in Glasgow, where he died in 1837.

MOORE'S THEORY OF GENIUS.

109

North. Admirable impersonations! The faculty of imitation always belongs, in excess, to original minds.

Shepherd. Does't?

North. Mimicry is the farthest thing in the wide world from imitation.

Shepherd. Na. No the farthest thing in the wide warld, sir; but I cheerfully grant that a man may be a mere mime and nae imitawtor. I'm baith.

North. And besides, an original.

Shepherd. At Mister Muir again, sir, tooth and nail!

North. 66 The very habits of abstraction and self-study to which the occupations of men of genius lead, are in themselves necessarily of an unsocial and detaching tendency, and require a large portion of allowance and tolerance not to be set down as unamiable." So argueth Mr Moore, and that is another reason why men of genius are not "fitted for the calm affections and comforts that form the cement of domestic life."

Shepherd. I howp, sir, there's no muckle truth in that, although it soun's like a sort o' vague pheelosophy. Demolish't. North. The habits of abstraction and self-study, of which Mr Moore here speaks, are those of the poet. Now, so far from being, in themselves, necessarily of an unsocial and detaching tendency, they are pervaded by sympathy with all that breathes; and were that sympathy to die, so would the abstraction and self-study of the poet. True, that they seek and need seclusion from cark and care; and sometimes-say often- -even from the common ongoings of domestic life. But what then? Do not all professions and pursuits in this life do the same?

Shepherd. Ay, ye may weel ask that! A lawyer routin hours every day at the bar, and then dictatin papers or opinions a' afternoon, evening, and nicht, on to past his natural bed-time- —are his habits, pray, "better fitted for the calm affections and comforts that form the cement of domestic life," than them that's natural to the poet?

North. I should think not, James. They are very different from those of the poet-but much more disagreeable, and requiring, again to use Mr Moore's words, a large "portion of allowance and tolerance not to be set down as unamiable."

Shepherd. Yet amaist a' the lawyers I ken in the Parliament

110

HIS THEORY DEMOLISHED.

House' are excellent domestic characters,-that is to say, far frae being the dour deevils you wad suppose aforehaun' frae hearin them gullerin at the bar, and flytin on ane anither like sae mony randies. Gin they can fling aff the growl wi' the goun, and frae lawyers become men, mayna poets far mair easily and successfully do the same?

North. Undoubtedly, James. You might instance, in like manner, physicians and clergymen

Shepherd. Ay, the classes that profess to tak especial care o' our twa pairts, the body and the sowl. Hoo profoun', sir, ocht to be their self-study, and their study o' ither folk! Physicians, ane micht think, seein folk deein nicht and day, in a' manner o' agonies, and bein' accustomed to pocket fees by the death-bed-side, would become, in the core o' their hearts, as callous as custocks; and I shanna say that some o' them do not

North. Most eminent physicians are good men; and, what is better, pleasant men

Shepherd. What? Is't better to be pleasant than good?

North. Yes, James, for our present argument. According to Mr Moore, they, too, ought "to require a larger portion of allowance and tolerance, not to be set down as unamiable."

Shepherd. Then the clergy, again, were they to devote theirsels, tooth and nail, to their manifold duties, ane micht argue that they would hae time neither to sleep nor eat, nor attend to the ither common comforts and affections that form the cement of domestic life. Yet the clergy are far frae being a very immoral, irreligious, or home-hating class of people; and manses are amazingly crowded wi' weans, sir, on the very sma'est steepens

North. Why, certainly, according to Mr Moore's argument, a deep divine, engaged on some great theological work, would make but an indifferent husband. But look at him, Jamesyes, look at our Dr Wodrow

Shepherd. And look, I beseech you, at his pew o' weans. North. All the most distinguished poets of the age in Britain, are either middle-aged, or elderly, or old gentlemen. They are, therefore, not at all dangerous, personally, to the 1 The Parliament House in Edinburgh corresponds to Westminster Hall in London.

2 Randies scolding women.

3 Custocks-stalks of colewort.