have become a psalter. But what was Alan's astonishment
to read on the title page the following words:--'Merry Thoughts for
Merry Men; or Mother Midnight's Miscellany for the Small Hours;' and
turning over the leaves, he was disgusted with profligate tales, and
more profligate songs, ornamented with figures corresponding in infamy
with the letterpress.

'Good God!' he thought, 'and did this hoary reprobate summon his family
together, and, with such a disgraceful pledge of infamy in his bosom,
venture to approach the throne of his Creator? It must be so; the book
is bound after the manner of those dedicated to devotional subjects,
and doubtless the wretch, in his intoxication, confounded the books
he carried with him, as he did the days of the week.' Seized with the
disgust with which the young and generous usually regard the vices of
advanced life, Alan, having turned the leaves of the book over in hasty
disdain, flung it from him, as far as he could, into the sea. He then
had recourse to the Sallust, which he had at first sought for in vain.
As he opened the book, Nanty Ewart, who had been looking over his
shoulder, made his own opinion heard.

'I think now, brother, if you are so much scandalized at a little piece
of sculduddery, which, after all, does nobody any harm, you had better
have given it to me than have flung it into the Solway.'

'I hope, sir,' answered Fairford, civilly, 'you are in the habit of
reading better books.'

'Faith,' answered Nanty, 'with help of a little Geneva text, I could
read my Sallust as well as you can;' and snatching the book from Alan's
hand, he began to read, in the Scottish accent:--"'IGITUR EX DIVITIIS
JUVENTUTEM LUXURIA ATQUE AVARITIA CUM SUPERBILI INVASERE: RAPERE,
CONSUMERE; SUA PARVI PENDERE, ALIENA CUPERE; PUDOREM, AMICITIAM,
PUDICITIAM, DIVINA ATQUE HUMANA PROMISCUA, NIHIL PENSI NEQUE MODERATI
HABERE." [The translation of the passage is thus given by Sir Henry
Steuart of Allanton:--'The youth, taught to look up to riches as the
sovereign good, became apt pupils in the school of Luxury. Rapacity and
profusion went hand in hand. Careless of their own fortunes, and eager
to possess those of others, shame and remorse, modesty and moderation,
every principle gave way.'--WORKS OF SALLUST, WITH ORIGINAL ESSAYS, vol.
ii. p.17.]--There is a slap in the face now, for an honest fellow that
has been buccaneering! Never could keep a groat of what he got, or hold
his fingers from what b