el, for the purpose o' getting some wrang tenets
introduced into it, and thereby turning it into blasphemy and ridicule."

I confess, to my shame, that I was so overcome by this jumble of
nonsense that a chillness came over me, and, in spite of all my efforts
to shake off the impression it had made, I fell into a faint. Samuel
soon brought me to myself, and, after a deep draught of wine and water,
I was greatly revived, and felt my spirit rise above the sphere of
vulgar conceptions and the restrained views of unregenerate men. The
shrewd but loquacious fellow, perceiving this, tried to make some
amends for the pain he had occasioned to me by the following story,
which I noted down, and which was brought on by a conversation to the
following purport:

"Now, Penpunt, you may tell me all that passed between you and the
wives of the clachan. I am better of that stomach qualm, with which I
am sometimes seized, and shall be much amused by hearing the sentiments
of noted witches regarding myself and my connections."

"Weel, you see, sir, I says to them, 'It will be lang afore the deil
intermeddle wi' as serious a professor, and as fervent a prayer as my
master, for, gin he gets the upper hand o' sickan men, wha's to be
safe?' An', what think ye they said, sir? There was ane Lucky Shaw set
up her lang lantern chafts, an' answered me, an' a' the rest shanned
and noddit in assent an' approbation: 'Ye silly, sauchless, Cameronian
cuif!' quo she, 'is that a' that ye ken about the wiles and doings o'
the Prince o' the Air, that rules an' works in the bairns of
disobedience? Gin ever he observes a proud professor, wha has mae than
ordinary pretensions to a divine calling, and that reards and prays
till the very howlets learn his preambles, that's the man Auld Simmie
fixes on to mak a dishclout o'. He canna get rest in Hell, if he sees a
man, or a set of men o' this stamp, an, when he sets fairly to work, it
is seldom that he disna bring them round till his ain measures by hook
or by crook. Then, Oh! it is a grand prize for him, an' a proud Deil he
is, when he gangs hame to his ain ha', wi' a batch o' the souls o' sic
strenuous professors on his back. Aye, I trow, auld Ingleby, the
Liverpool packman, never came up Glasco street wi' prouder pomp when he
had ten horse-laids afore him o' Flanders lace, an' Hollin lawn, an'
silks an' satins frae the eastern Indians, than Satan wad strodge into
Hell with a packlaid o' the souls o' proud