able Deaths of
some of the most remarkable Apostates and Bloody Persecutors, from
the Reformation till after the Revolution.' This constitutes a sort of
postscript or appendix to John Howie of Lochgoin's 'Account of the Lives
of the most eminent Scots Worthies.' The author has, with considerable
ingenuity, reversed his reasoning upon the inference to be drawn from
the prosperity or misfortunes which befall individuals in this world,
either in the course of their lives or in the hour of death. In the
account of the martyrs' sufferings, such inflictions are mentioned only
as trials permitted by providence, for the better and brighter display
of their faith, and constancy of principle. But when similar afflictions
befell the opposite party, they are imputed to the direct vengeance of
Heaven upon their impiety. If, indeed, the life of any person obnoxious
to the historian's censures happened to have passed in unusual
prosperity, the mere fact of its being finally concluded by death,
is assumed as an undeniable token of the judgement of Heaven, and, to
render the conclusion inevitable, his last scene is generally garnished
with some singular circumstances. Thus the Duke of Lauderdale is said,
through old age but immense corpulence, to have become so sunk in
spirits, 'that his heart was not the bigness of a walnut.'

NOTE 3.--LAMENTATION FOR THE DEAD

I have heard in my youth some such wild tale as that placed in the
mouth of the blind fiddler, of which, I think, the hero was Sir Robert
Grierson of Lagg, the famous persecutor. But the belief was general
throughout Scotland that the excessive lamentation over the loss of
friends disturbed the repose of the dead, and broke even the rest of the
grave. There are several instances of this in tradition, but one struck
me particularly, as I heard it from the lips of one who professed
receiving it from those of a ghost-seer. This was a Highland lady, named
Mrs. C---- of B------, who probably believed firmly in the truth of an
apparition which seems to have originated in the weakness of her nerves
and strength of her imagination. She had been lately left a widow by her
husband, with the office of guardian to their only child. The young man
added to the difficulties of his charge by an extreme propensity for a
military life, which his mother was unwilling to give way to, while
she found it impossible to repress it. About this time the Independent
Companies, formed for the preservati