ntation_ and race-origin. He believes it is still
possible to get definite information, by such means, of the
settlement and blending of Picts, Celts, Norsemen, and
Anglo-Saxons.

CHAPTER III.

ECCLESIASTICAL.

Sectarian feeling--Typical anecdotes--Music and
religion--Ethical teaching in schools--The Moderates--A savoury
book--The Sabbath--"The Men of Skye"--The auldest kirk--The
Episcopal Church--An interlude of metre--The Christian
Brethren--Drimnin in Morven--Craignish--A model
minister--Ministerial trials in olden times--An artful
dodger--Some anecdotes from Gigha--Growing popularity of Ruskin.

SECTARIAN FEELING.

In a small country township, all the influences that operate to divide
men into sects and parties are keenly and continuously felt. To a
dweller there, it is well-nigh impossible to keep out of the arena of
strife. Now that there is so much confusion and division in religious
matters, strong feeling is more easily stirred on any secular subject
that may happen to arise for discussion. If the Wee Frees, for example,
desire a new road in a certain direction, the United Frees will probably
deride the scheme and unanimously petition against it. Their antipathy
to each other becomes envenomed by their persistent proximity: if you
are a villager, you cannot get away from your adversary--in the morning,
when looking out of the window, you see him tilling his croft, mending
his nets, or washing his face in a tub at his front door. The fact that
he is there is an obstacle to your peace of mind. If you did not see
him so often, you would more readily come to believe that he possessed a
conscience and some shred of principle and decent doctrine.

In a distant seaside town a library had been procured, and (though
doctrine was not at stake at all) a most virulent debate at once arose
as to where it should be housed. The United Frees voted for the school;
the Wee Frees called aloud for the post-office. It would require the pen
of Dean Swift (who did such justice to the strife between the
Big-Endians and Little-Endians) to recount in appropriate style the
intrigues and stratagems of the rival religionists. The local teacher
did not wish the books in school _because_ the proposal came from the
enemy. He was powerfully supported by all the young fellows of the
place, whose reverence for him, born of recent severe whackings, was
limitless. This teacher had an eloquent