he Great
Controversy between God and the Devil_, a book with which I was, and am
still, unacquainted.

Dr. Johnson's remarks on Iona remain the most eloquent tribute to the
island. He never wrote anything finer. All the children in the Iona
school should be made to learn the piece by heart.[32]

It is most gratifying to think that Christianity has been the great
purifying force in Europe. The introduction of Christianity into the
world must be reckoned as the most revolutionary event of history.
Nothing was ever more needed. To one who knows the morality of the most
brilliant society of the Greeks and Romans, there is no need to extol
the pure and lofty moral tone of Jesus of Nazareth. But those who have
not read the masterpieces of ancient art, with their mingled beauty and
foulness, may be assured that literature owes more to Christianity than
has ever yet been told. With Christianity a great healthy breeze swept
over the world. Men became ashamed of wallowing in the mire. An ideal
was raised up before them for their worship and imitation. The old Adam
and his deeds needed stern repression after the wild iniquities of the
effete society of imperial Rome. The spirit needed to curb the flesh,
literature needed to be cleansed. We, living to-day and nursed on the
accumulated tradition of so many anterior Christian centuries, are
sometimes disposed to minimise the debt we owe, in pure and simple
morality, to the teachings of the New Testament. I find it impossible to
imagine what the world would be without these teachings. They renewed
the world, they made it do penance for its sins, they made advance
practicable. An entirely retrograde movement is impossible when once man
is indoctrinated with a grand ideal.

[32] Boswell's religious instincts come well out in his account
of the visit to Iona. Two of his descendants, Messrs. Albert and
James Boswell, devoted themselves entirely to religion, and were
well known in Ayrshire, thirty years ago, as zealous evangelists.
These two gentlemen went on a preaching campaign through the
northern islands, and did much highly appreciated philanthropic
and religious work there. They were members of the sect called
Plymouth Brethren.

APPIN.

In this chapter (as, indeed, in all the others) I am rummaging among my
souvenirs for materials that are in some way noteworthy. It is utterly
impossible to exhaust the romance and glamour of the Highlands. Tho