whilst yet a boy, when reading the simple tale. of his favourite hero, performs already, in imagination, the deeds for which he is so much renowned, and longs for the period when the energies of riper years will enable him to rival. the glory of the man, who seems to his infant mind to possess little in common with the other beings of his race but the name. If in this way Alexanders and Cæsars be formed, perhaps to be the scourge of their own age, the terror of the world, and the guilty object of unthinking admiration to the, people of future times, how pleasing is it to reflect, that in the same manner also are produced Platos, and Bacons, and Newtons, philanthropists, philosophers, and moralists, men who will be the ornament and the source of ever-growing enjoyment to the human kind!

ness.

An inquisitive turn of mind is generally accompanied with some degree of thoughtfulA Highlander is both inquisitive and thoughtful, so is an Irishman; though I am inclined to think, that he has not got quite so much of the pensive philosopher in his nature. He can much more easily become jocular than a Highlander; nor is he so apt to make those moral reflections on the common incidents of life. The latter has a degree of tender melancholy in his disposition which influences.

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most of his habits of thinking; whereas the former, though far from being destitute of melancholy, is not subject in the same degree to its controul. It is difficult for me, and perhaps impossible in itself, accurately to draw, on this delicate head, the line of distinction That there is a difference, however, will be readily admitted, and this may have been partly occasioned by the following circumstances.*

First, there is a vast contrariety in the scenery of the Highlands to that of Ireland. That of the one is wild, and rugged, and sublime, calculated to cherish a deep toned thoughtfulness: that of the other is hilly and beautiful, but not generally bold, and seems less adapted to elevate the imagination, or to increase the tender pensiveness of the heart. In the one case, "the solemn and touching "reflection perpetually recurs, of the weakness "and insignificance of perishable man, whose "generations pass away into oblivion with all “their toils and ambition, while nature holds "on her unvarying course, and pours out her "streams and renews her forests with undecay"ing activity, regardless of the fate of her

* The causes which have operated to produce a difference in the character of the Highlander and native Irish are more fully considered in the following chapter.

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"proud and perishable sovereign:" while in the other case the same loftiness of conception is less frequently cherished, the same ardent and pleasing sensibility is perhaps less uniformlyexcited, the same dark, and mournful, and affecting images do not present themselves. Besides, the Highlander generally passes his life more retired and in a manner much more solitary than the Irishman, and is often left altogether to his own reflections, and to the impressions which a wild and mountain scenery produces.

In Leitrim and in some parts of the county of Donegal, the character of the natives approximates nearer to that of a Highlander, than elsewhere. The scenery of both these counties is wild and romantic.

Secondly, these two characters are placed in very different circumstances in a moral point of view; and it is on this particular that I am disposed to place most stress. The one possesses the advantages of an enlightened education, and of moral and religious instruction, while the other unhappily is in a great measure destitute of both these blessings. Now, it is probable that the difference in the character of the Hibernian and Caledonian, as it regards deep thoughtfulness, is chiefly owing to this differ

ence in their situation. In poetry, and bards, and music, and in tales of the times of old, they have been, in former ages at least, pretty much on a level: these, therefore, while their influence continued could produce little variation in the national mode of feeling. But when sensibility is under the guidance of moral sentiment, it dignifies the character, it chastens the imagination, and it makes a feeling which originally existed in the same degree in different individuals, appear different only from its being variously modified.

Acuteness and shrewdness are also qualities which strongly mark the Irish character; and yet these valuable qualities are often concealed by that appearance of simplicity, and that blundering precipitancy which so mightily amuse every stranger. Indeed, these last dispositions seem not very compatible with any extraordinary quickness of apprehension, and might lead one to suppose, were it not for the most undeniable evidence to the contrary, that it really had no existence. But let any one converse with an Irishman on any subject that is not altogether beyond his understanding, and he will find him shrewd though unlettered, and not quite unintelligent, though on most subjects uninformed; possessing a wonderful facility of comprehension, and an equally singular talent

for acute and original remark. These enduements when found in a person educated and polished, and when allied, as in his case they generally are, with a brilliant playfulness of fancy, produce the happiest effect, and form a character at once pleasing and original.

Strong local attachment forms a very prominent part of this character. The Irishman like the Highlander must often go from home; he must go in search of that bread which his country denies him, but he can never forget the cottage of his early years: whether in the east or west, though even buried amid the ignorance and vice of St. Giles's, the lovely valley in which he first began to live, and the green hills of his native isle, with all the soft and endearing associations which they awaken, never cease to warm his imagination, nor, to his latest hour, do they depart from his memory. The wild and simple strains which first delighted him in the cabin, while they sooth his sorrows in a foreign clime, cherish his fondness for home, by exciting the tenderest and most delightful sympathies of the human heart. The beautiful language of the poet who sung the pleasures of hope, is as conformable to truth on this head as it is poetical; and describes the force of the amor patria, much better than any dissertation on the subject.