As the spring advanced, the beauty of the country around Garnock was gradually unfolded; the blossom was unclosed, while the church was embraced within the foliage of more umbrageous boughs.The schoolboys from the adjacent villages were, on the Saturday afternoons, frequently seen angling along the banks of the Lugton, which ran clearer beneath the churchyard wall, and the hedge of the minister's glebe; and the evenings were so much lengthened, that the occasional visitors at the manse could prolong their walk after tea.These, however, were less numerous than when the family were at home; but still Mr.Snodgrass, when the weather was fine, had no reason to deplore the loneliness of his bachelor's court.
It happened that, one fair and sunny afternoon, Miss Mally Glencairn and Miss Isabella Tod came to the manse.Mrs.Glibbans and her daughter Becky were the same day paying their first ceremonious visit, as the matron called it, to Mr.and Mrs.Craig, with whom the whole party were invited to take tea; and, for lack of more amusing chit-chat, the Reverend young gentleman read to them the last letter which he had received from Mr.Andrew Pringle.It was conjured naturally enough out of his pocket, by an observation of Miss Mally's "Nothing surprises me," said that amiable maiden lady, "so much as the health and good-humour of the commonality.It is a joyous refutation of the opinion, that the comfort and happiness of this life depends on the wealth of worldly possessions.""It is so," replied Mr.Snodgrass, "and I do often wonder, when I see the blithe and hearty children of the cottars, frolicking in the abundance of health and hilarity, where the means come from to enable their poor industrious parents to supply their wants.""How can you wonder at ony sic things, Mr.Snodgrass? Do they not come from on high," said Mrs.Glibbans, "whence cometh every good andperfect gift?Is there not the flowers of the field, which neither card nor spin, and yet Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these?""I was not speaking in a spiritual sense," interrupted the other, "but merely made the remark, as introductory to a letter which I have received from Mr.Andrew Pringle, respecting some of the ways of living in London."Mrs.Craig, who had been so recently translated from the kitchen to the parlour, pricked up her ears at this, not doubting that the letter would contain something very grand and wonderful, and exclaimed, "Gude safe's, let's hear't--I'm unco fond to ken about London, and the king and the queen; but I believe they are baith dead noo."Miss Becky Glibbans gave a satirical keckle at this, and showed her superior learning, by explaining to Mrs.Craig the unbroken nature of the kingly office.Mr.Snodgrass then read as follows:-Andrew Pringle, Esq,, to the Rev.Charles SnodgrassMy Dear Friend--You are not aware of the task you impose, when you request me to send you some account of the general way of living in London.Unless you come here, and actually experience yourself what I would call the London ache, it is impossible to supply you with any adequate idea of the necessity that exists in this wilderness of mankind, to seek refuge in society, without being over fastidious with respect to the intellectual qualifications of your occasional associates.In a remote desart, the solitary traveller is subject to apprehensions of danger; but still he is the most important thing "within the circle of that lonely waste"; and the sense of his own dignity enables him to sustain the shock of considerable hazard with spirit and fortitude.But, in London, the feeling of self- importance is totally lost and suppressed in the bosom of a stranger.A painful conviction of insignificance--of nothingness, I may say--is sunk upon his heart, and murmured in his ear by the million, who divide with him that consequence which he unconsciously before supposed he possessed in a general estimate of the world.While elbowing my way through the unknown multitude that flows between Charing Crossand the Royal Exchange, this mortifying sense of my own insignificance has often come upon me with the energy of a pang; and I have thought, that, after all we can say of any man, the effect of the greatest influence of an individual on society at large, is but as that of a pebble thrown into the sea.Mathematically speaking, the undulations which the pebble causes, continue until the whole mass of the ocean has been disturbed to the bottom of its most secret depths and farthest shores; and, perhaps, with equal truth it may be affirmed, that the sentiments of the man of genius are also infinitely propagated; but how soon is the physical impression of the one lost to every sensible perception, and the moral impulse of the other swallowed up from all practical effect.
