The
Malignant Influence Of Calvinism Has Blasted Ceremony And Decency
Together; And If The Remembrance Of Papal Superstition Is
Obliterated, The Monuments Of Papal Piety Are Likewise Effaced.
It has been, for many years, popular to talk of the lazy devotion
of the Romish clergy; over the sleepy laziness of men that erected
churches, we may indulge our superiority with a new triumph, by
comparing it with the fervid activity of those who suffer them to
fall.
Of the destruction of churches, the decay of religion must in time
be the consequence; for while the publick acts of the ministry are
now performed in houses, a very small number can be present; and as
the greater part of the Islanders make no use of books, all must
necessarily live in total ignorance who want the opportunity of
vocal instruction.
From these remains of ancient sanctity, which are every where to be
found, it has been conjectured, that, for the last two centuries,
the inhabitants of the Islands have decreased in number. This
argument, which supposes that the churches have been suffered to
fall, only because they were no longer necessary, would have some
force, if the houses of worship still remaining were sufficient for
the people. But since they have now no churches at all, these
venerable fragments do not prove the people of former times to have
been more numerous, but to have been more devout. If the
inhabitants were doubled with their present principles, it appears
not that any provision for publick worship would be made. Where
the religion of a country enforces consecrated buildings, the
number of those buildings may be supposed to afford some
indication, however uncertain, of the populousness of the place;
but where by a change of manners a nation is contented to live
without them, their decay implies no diminution of inhabitants.
Some of these dilapidations are said to be found in islands now
uninhabited; but I doubt whether we can thence infer that they were
ever peopled. The religion of the middle age, is well known to
have placed too much hope in lonely austerities. Voluntary
solitude was the great act of propitiation, by which crimes were
effaced, and conscience was appeased; it is therefore not unlikely,
that oratories were often built in places where retirement was sure
to have no disturbance.
Raasay has little that can detain a traveller, except the Laird and
his family; but their power wants no auxiliaries. Such a seat of
hospitality, amidst the winds and waters, fills the imagination
with a delightful contrariety of images. Without is the rough
ocean and the rocky land, the beating billows and the howling
storm: within is plenty and elegance, beauty and gaiety, the song
and the dance. In Raasay, if I could have found an Ulysses, I had
fancied a Phoeacia.
DUNVEGAN
At Raasay, by good fortune, Macleod, so the chief of the clan is
called, was paying a visit, and by him we were invited to his seat
at Dunvegan.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 42 of 110
Words from 21311 to 21812
of 56696
