Attempt > Volume 3

86 THE ATTEMPT.
surrounding churches, offices and shops. One country couple, in their admiring
tour through Edinburgh, stood in open-mouthed and silent wonder before that florid
and torch-crowned edifice at the foot of the Mound. With a sturdy thump on the
ground of her family umbrella, the woman exclaimed, " Eh, mon ! isna that graund 1"
" Ay ! 'tis that, and a braw herbur for the spawries !"
" To what base uses may we come, Horatio ! "
Or, perhaps, the hard lines wrought in stone please you less than the artistic effects
combined from high and low, from light and shade. Then what other city has
chosen for itself such a lovely site ? Where can you find green hills amid the stoney
streets, and upraised terraces, and towers showing most nobly 1 Look either way
from the North Bridge, eastward by the Calton Hill, and Arthur Seat, down to the sea,
or westward through the North Loch valley, now a railroad, through pleasant gardens,
with a new view of the Castle, the High Street, the Monument. Or take a morning
walk on Salisbury Crags, to look down and see the light white smoke transformed
into a bridal veil over Scotia's Queen. Or to the Corstorphine Hills, to look afar off
to see the sun rise behind it, and throw it into bright relief; or to dart your eyes
through the arrow-like streets, why, it would make you an artist. There are two
Picture Galleries,—a modern one, of which you must judge for yourself, and an
ancient one, of which you must allow others to judge for you,-—besides other more
private collections of statues and paintings, and everywhere you wander you have a
chance to find (sub rosa),
"Lovely faces
Lighting up the pleasant places."
Are you rather deep in the learned professions ] Divinity, for instance ? The
General Assemblies, and the ministers and professors here, will surely suffice; for the
Colleges, the press, and the people dote on divinity.
Or rather Law ? Whose wigs are so big as ours 1 The courts and the lawyers will
serve even for you.
Or Medicine ? Have we not the most famous doctors and most submissive
patients ? boldest experiments and discoveries, clever professors, and a fine infirmary !
with an accompanying badly-ventilated and case-producing district in our old town
closes and lanes; with strong eastern sea-breezes, blowing coughs and colds through
our rather well-ventilated hilly new streets.
Philosophy ? Our deductive philosophy and metaphysics would puzzle any ordinary
brain,—if you are extraordinary, you are beyond us. The learned " Ologies " find
also a place with us, in the shrine of Technology. Are you interested in Geology 1