essed to
give than to receive; and it was doubtless a wise provision of nature,
and worthy, in this point of view, the special attention of moralists
and philosophers, that his old associates, the grand gentlemen, did not
now often come his way; seeing that his inability any longer to give
would cost him, in the circumstances, great pain.

I was much with my cousin George in his new dwelling. It was one of the
most delightful of Highland cottages, and George was happy in it, far
above the average lot of humanity, with his young wife. He had dared, in
opposition to the general voice of the district, to build it half-way up
the slope of a beautiful tomhan, that, waving with birch from base to
summit, rose regular as a pyramid from the bottom of the valley, and
commanded a wide view of Loch Shin on the one hand, with the moors and
mountains that lie beyond; and overlooked, on the other, with all the
richer portions of the Barony of Gruids, the church and picturesque
hamlet of Lairg. Half-hidden by the graceful birchen trees that sprang
up thick around, with their silvery boles and light foliage, it was
rather a nest than a house; and George, emancipated, by his reading, and
his residence for a time in the south, from at least the wilder beliefs
of the locality, failed to suffer, as had been predicted, for his
temerity; as the "good people," who, much to their credit, had made
choice of the place for themselves long before, never, to his knowledge,
paid him a visit. He had brought his share of the family library with
him; and it was a large share. He had mathematical instruments too, and
a colour-box, and the tools of his profession; in especial, large
hammers fitted to break great stones; and I was generously made free of
them all,--books, instruments, colour-box, and hammers. His cottage,
too, commanded, from its situation, a delightful variety of most
interesting objects. It had all the advantages of my uncle's domicile,
and a great many more.

The nearer shores of Loch Shin were scarce half a mile away; and there
was a low long promontory which shot out into the lake, that was covered
at that time by an ancient wood of doddered time-worn trees, and bore
amid its outer solitudes, where the waters circled round its terminal
apex, one of those towers of hoary eld--memorials, mayhap, of the
primeval stone-period in our island, to which the circular erections of
Glenelg and Dornadilla belong. It was formed of undressed ston