.

So let us float upon our oars behind the shadow of this rock, nor
approach nearer the sacred retreat of misery. Let us not gaze too
intently into the glades, for we might see some figure there who wished
to be seen nevermore, and recognise in the hurrying shadow the living
remains of a friend. How profound the hush! No sigh--no groan--no
shriek--no voice--no tossing of arms--no restless chafing of feet! God
in mercy has for a while calmed the congregation of the afflicted, and
the Isle is overspread with a sweet Sabbath-silence. What medicine for
them like the breath of heaven--the dew--the sunshine--and the murmur of
the wave! Nature herself is their kind physician, and sometimes not
unfrequently brings them by her holy skill back to the world of clear
intelligence and serene affection. They listen calmly to the blessed
sound of the oar that brings a visit of friends--to sojourn with them
for a day--or to take them away to another retirement, where they, in
restored reason, may sit around the board, nor fear to meditate during
the midnight watches on the dream, which, although dispelled, may in all
its ghastliness return. There was a glorious burst of sunshine! And of
all the Lomond Isles, what one rises up in the sudden illumination so
bright as Inch-Cruin?

Methinks we see sitting in his narrow and low-roofed cell, careless of
food, dress, sleep, or shelter alike, him who in the opulent mart of
commerce was one of the most opulent, and devoted heart and soul to show
and magnificence. His house was like a palace with its pictured and
mirrored walls, and the nights wore away to dance, revelry, and song.
Fortune poured riches at his feet, which he had only to gather up; and
every enterprise in which he took part prospered beyond the reach of
imagination. But all at once--as if lightning had struck the dome of his
prosperity, and earthquake let down its foundations, it sank, crackled,
and disappeared--and the man of a million was a houseless, infamous, and
bankrupt beggar. In one day his proud face changed into the ghastly
smiling of an idiot--he dragged his limbs in paralysis--and slavered out
unmeaning words foreign to all the pursuits in which his active
intellect had for many years been plunged. All his relations--to whom it
was known he had never shown kindness--were persons in humble condition.
Ruined creditors we do not expect to be very pitiful, and people asked
what was to become of him till he died. A poor