The kind fair friend by nature made his own."

from her he expected truth, fidelity, and a certain kind of respectful attachment, chastened by

"Pious awe, and fear to have offended."

from the habits descended from old times, women looked up to their husbands as the representatives of warriors and of worthies; and as beings, born to protect them by their courage, and provide for them by exertions of a kind of which they themselves were incapable.

The wife, again, independent of mental charms or personal attractions, was endeared to the husband by this tacit homage, and by a tie, more prevalent by far here, than in more polished societies. She was the mother of his children; to her he was indebted for the link that connected him with the future descendants of his almost idolized ancestors.

No highlander ever once thought of himself as an individual. Amongst these people, even the meanest mind was in a manner enlarged by association, by anticipation, and by retrospect. In the most minute, as well as the most serious concerns, he felt himself one of many connected together by ties the most lasting and endearing. He considered himself merely with reference to those who had gone before, and those who were to come after him; to these immortals who lived in deathless song and heroic narrative; and to these distinguished beings who were to be born heirs of their fame, and to whom their honours, and, perhaps, their virtues, were to be transmitted.

This might be supposed merely to cherish pride; but, besides this, it had a highly moral tendency. It was this intimate association with the memory of the past, with the hopes of the future,

and with the interest and honour of his cotemporary kindred, that, mingling with all his thoughts and feelings, set him beyond the reach of every species of egotism, even that of being solely influenced by his own taste and fancy, in the most intimate of all connections.

Whatever might be the motive which produced a marriage, it was very rarely unhappy.

To a genuine highlander, the mother of his children was a character so sacred, that to her he was never deficient in indulgence, or even respect. To her he could forgive any thing, provided her conduct did not impeach the honour of their mutual progeny, or create doubt, where suspicion would be misery.

I cannot here avoid observing the happy effects of plain good sense untutored in the schools, in regulating the most important of all earthly concerns, and of the benign influence of those salu

tary prejudices by which the reign of the affections is made to supersede that of the passions.

It really harmonizes the mind to contemplate the economy of human life, among those who have been at best considered as a semi-barbarous people, when contrasted with the effects of a vicious and selfish refinement. There, without any depth of reflection, or subtilty of argument, the mere habit of consulting the general good of these most dear to us, in preference to our own fancies and humours, regulates and renders easy the first social duties. There, those who are united together by bonds which cannot be broken without a disarrangement of the whole domestic system, do not think decay of beauty, difference of taste, or even disagreement of temper, sufficient to warrant the very wanderings of attachment. In fact, they have been habituated to think separation an impos

sible thing; and it is wonderful how the mind accomodates itself to evils for which

it knows no remedy.

Where a man has been accustomed to

pleasures in the

seck and to find his

Where his chil

bosom of his family. dren, bred up under his eye, and taught to look for happiness in his favour, rejoice in his smile like flowers in sunshine. Whatever materially affects them becomes with him a paramount consideration.

It could never enter into the minds of such parents, to tear asunder ties the most tender for their own selfish gratification. How dreadful would it appear to those unsophisticated beings to act any part, the result of which must be habituating young minds, whom it is the first human duty to cherish and instruct, to take part with one parent against another; or, perhaps, lose respect and affection for both. This, indeed, is not