Ossian Collection > Loch Etive and the sons of Uisnach

OBAN AND DALMALLY.
303
removed, and even that was not sufficient ; but the removal of
some of the walls at last sent them away. I wonder what
became of them. There was here at least an apology for
driving- away people.
Margaet.- -But why were the people bad } Perhaps they
were starved.
Cameron: — Their field of labour was too small, and
they fought against powers too great for them ; with better
chance of success they might have been better men ; but
powerless wrath is a melancholy sight, and the old woman
and her curses haunt me, and therefore I spoke. Curses give
a bad effect to language, and people who use them are lowered
in their own eyes and in the eyes of others, not because they
are always worse, but because it is a habit taken up by the
ignorant, weak, and bad, on account of its being an easy mode
of apparent revenge, whilst the curses themselves are often
the production of cultivated minds. On the other hand, we
sometimes find the worst persons refuse to curse in words ;
they even bless, because they know the effect of appearance,
and hypocrisy is a power.
Loudoun. — There is little doubt that the Saxon people
altered the character of the Gaelic population and kept it from
its natural development for centuries. I at least believe it. It
is the character of revolutions to destroy the past, and the
new requires long building. Men who fight become rough ;
they lose homes, leisure, and culture. For this reason the
living world moves forward by a succession of ups and downs
like our own hills and glens. Sometimes it remains longer
at one place than at another.
Even this spot changes. It used to be very difficult to come