fairly satisfied
ourselves with contemplating the cave, we all entered the boat and
sailed round by the Clamshell Cave (where the basaltic columns are bent
like the ribs of a ship), and the Rock of the Bouchaille, or the
herdsman, formed of small columns, as regular and as interesting as the
larger productions. We all clambered to the top of the rock, which
affords grazing for sheep and cattle, and is said to yield a rent of L20
per annum to the proprietor. Nothing but the wide surface of the ocean
was visible from our mountain eminence, and after a few minutes' survey
we descended, returned to the boat, and after regaining the
steam-vessel, took our farewell look of Staffa, and steered on for
Tobermory.

_Highland Note-Book_.

[Illustration: FINGAL'S CAVE, STAFFA.]

* * * * *

ON CHEERFULNESS.

[Illustration: Letter I.]

I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as
an act, the former as a habit of the mind. Mirth is short and transient,
cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Those are often raised into the
greatest transports of mirth, who are subject to the greatest
depressions of melancholy: on the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does
not give the mind such an exquisite gladness, prevents us from falling
into any depths of sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that
breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment;
cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with
a steady and perpetual serenity.

Men of austere principles look upon mirth as too wanton and dissolute
for a state of probation, and as filled with a certain triumph and
insolence of heart that is inconsistent with a life which is every
moment obnoxious to the greatest dangers. Writers of this complexion
have observed, that the sacred Person who was the great pattern of
perfection, was never seen to laugh.

Cheerfulness of mind is not liable to any of these exceptions; it is of
a serious and composed nature; it does not throw the mind into a
condition improper for the present state of humanity, and is very
conspicuous in the characters of those who are looked upon as the
greatest philosophers among the heathen, as well as among those who have
been deservedly esteemed as saints and holy men among Christians.

If we consider cheerfulness in three lights, with regard to ourselves,
to those we converse with, and the great Author of our being, it wi