...sensations much more forcibly than I am capable of doing : ' WE were now treading that illusjiifiu.s_Island, which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions,...benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of religion. To abstracythe mind from_ all loca) amptign would be imppssible, if it were endeavoured^ an3 wpuld hp...

...visited Iona in the autumn of 1773, and his words about it are still the fittest that have been spoken. " We were now treading that illustrious island which was once the luminary of Caledonian religions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and...

...familiar to the ear as one of the choicest examples cf Johnsonese: — " We are now," he says, ' ' treading that illustrious island which was once the...whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived tEe benefit of knowledge and the blessings of religion." And again there is this fine sentence at the...

...eloquent paslages which dwell on the memory, the reflection that introduces the account of Icolmkill, " once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence...benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of religion," is remarkable for its piety, pathos, and sublimity. " To abstract the mind from all local emotion would...

...Western Islands which Boswell at one point introduces into his own narrative, a meditation on lona, " 'whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived...benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of religion' ": " 'whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or...

...contemplated through the journey from the first sights of ruined cathedrals in St. Andrews and Aberbrothick: We were now treading that illustrious island, which was once the luminary of the Caledoman regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and...

...superstition."5 The emotional climax of Johnson's journey comes in his visit to the moldering churches on lona, "that illustrious island, which was once the luminary...benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of religion" (148). (The monastery that St. Columba founded on lona in 563 provided the center from which missionaries...

...church profaned and hastening to the ground." At Icolmkill, Johnson rises magnificently to the occasion: "Once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence...benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of religion . . . That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon,...

...Columba preached the gospel to the Scots. It was Johnson who found words appropriate to the place. We were now treading that illustrious island, which...benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion . . . That man is little to be envied. . . . whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of lona.166...