rgy that acts through them in different states, but two
particular powers or energies, as unlike in their natures, and as
capable of acting apart, as seeing and hearing. Even powers which seem
to have so much in common, that the same words are sometimes made use of
in reference to both, may be as distinct as smelling and tasting. We
speak of the _cunning_ workman, and we speak of the _cunning_ man; and
refer to a certain faculty of contrivance manifested in dealing with
characters and affairs on the part of the one, and in dealing with
certain modifications of matter on the part of the other; but so
entirely different are the two faculties, and, further, so little
dependent are they, in at least their first elements, on intellect, that
we may find the cunning which manifests itself in affairs, existing, as
in Angus, totally dissociated from mechanical skill; and, on the other
hand, the cunning of the artisan, existing, as in the idiot of the
Maolbuie, totally dissociated from that of the diplomatist. In short,
regarding idiots as persons of fragmentary mind, in whom certain primary
mental elements may be found standing out in a state of great
entireness, and all the more striking in their relief from the
isolation, I came to view them as _bits of analysis_, if I may so
express myself, made to my hand by Nature, and from the study of which I
could conceive of the structure of minds of a more complete, and
therefore more complex character. As children learn the alphabet from
cards, each of which contains only a letter or two a-piece, printed
large, I held at this time, and, with a few modifications, hold still,
that those primary sentiments and propensities which form the basis of
character, may be found separately stamped in the same way on the
comparatively blank minds of the imbecile; and that the student of
mental philosophy might learn from them what may be regarded as the
alphabet of his science, much more truthfully than from those
metaphysicians who represent mind as a power not manifested in
contemporaneous and separable faculties, but as existing in consecutive
states.

Cromarty had been fortunate in its parish ministers. From the death of
its last curate, shortly after the Revolution, and, the consequent
return of its old "outed minister," who had resigned his living for
conscience' sake, twenty-eight years before, and now came to spend his
evening of life with his people, it had enjoyed the services of a serie