Circle of converse
could not have supplied, but to minds naturally disposed to
elegance.
Reason and truth will prevail at last. The most learned of the
Scottish Doctors would now gladly admit a form of prayer, if the
people would endure it. The zeal or rage of congregations has its
different degrees. In some parishes the Lord's Prayer is suffered:
in others it is still rejected as a form; and he that should make
it part of his supplication would be suspected of heretical
pravity.
The principle upon which extemporary prayer was originally
introduced, is no longer admitted. The Minister formerly, in the
effusion of his prayer, expected immediate, and perhaps perceptible
inspiration, and therefore thought it his duty not to think before
what he should say. It is now universally confessed, that men pray
as they speak on other occasions, according to the general measure
of their abilities and attainments. Whatever each may think of a
form prescribed by another, he cannot but believe that he can
himself compose by study and meditation a better prayer than will
rise in his mind at a sudden call; and if he has any hope of
supernatural help, why may he not as well receive it when he writes
as when he speaks?
In the variety of mental powers, some must perform extemporary
prayer with much imperfection; and in the eagerness and rashness of
contradictory opinions, if publick liturgy be left to the private
judgment of every Minister, the congregation may often be offended
or misled.
There is in Scotland, as among ourselves, a restless suspicion of
popish machinations, and a clamour of numerous converts to the
Romish religion. The report is, I believe, in both parts of the
Island equally false. The Romish religion is professed only in Egg
and Canna, two small islands, into which the Reformation never made
its way. If any missionaries are busy in the Highlands, their zeal
entitles them to respect, even from those who cannot think
favourably of their doctrine.
The political tenets of the Islanders I was not curious to
investigate, and they were not eager to obtrude. Their
conversation is decent and inoffensive. They disdain to drink for
their principles, and there is no disaffection at their tables. I
never heard a health offered by a Highlander that might not have
circulated with propriety within the precincts of the King's
palace.
Legal government has yet something of novelty to which they cannot
perfectly conform. The ancient spirit, that appealed only to the
sword, is yet among them. The tenant of Scalpa, an island
belonging to Macdonald, took no care to bring his rent; when the
landlord talked of exacting payment, he declared his resolution to
keep his ground, and drive all intruders from the Island, and
continued to feed his cattle as on his own land, till it became
necessary for the Sheriff to dislodge him by violence.
