Scotland/Scots > Reminiscences of a Highland parish

A HIGHLAND PARISH.
224
highland mingle ; of precipice and waterfall, with
all the varied lights and shadows which heathy
hill sides, endless hill tops, dark corries, ample
bays and rocky shores, can create at morn, noon¬
day, or evening, from sun and cloud,—a glorious
panorama extending from the far west bey ond the
giant point of Ardnamurchan, “ the height of the
great ocean,” to the far east, where Ben Cruachan
and “the Shepherds of Etive Glen” stand senti¬
nels in the sky. No sea king could select a more
appropriate resting-place than this, from whence
to catch a glimpse, as his spirit walked abroad
beneath the moonlight, of galleys coming from the
Northland of his early home; nor could an old
saint find a better, if he desired that after death
the mariners, struggling with stormy winds and
waves, might see his cross from afar, and thence,
in extremis, snatch comfort from this symbol of
faith and hope; nor could any man, who in the
frailty of his human nature shrunk from burial in
lonely vault, and who wished rather to lie where
birds might sing, and summer’s sun shine, and
winter’s storms lift their voices to God, and the
beautiful world be ever above and around him,