ertainty produce in the mind of a
youthful lover. I am not sure if the ladies understand the full value of
the influence of absence, nor do I think it wise to teach it them, lest,
like the Clelias and Mandanes of yore, they should resume the humour of
sending their lovers into banishment. Distance, in truth, produces in
idea the same effect as in real prospective. Objects are softened, and
rounded, and rendered doubly graceful; the harsher and more ordinary
points of character are mellowed down, and those by which it is
remembered are the more striking outlines that mark sublimity, grace,
or beauty. There are mists, too, in the mental, as well as the natural
horizon, to conceal what is less pleasing in distant objects, and there
are happy lights, to stream in full glory upon those points which can
profit by brilliant illumination.

Waverley forgot Flora Mac-Ivor's prejudices in her magnanimity,
and almost pardoned her indifference towards his affection, when he
recollected the grand and decisive object which seemed to fill her whole
soul. She, whose sense of duty so wholly engrossed her in the cause of
a benefactor,--what would be her feelings in favour of the happy
individual who should be so fortunate as to awaken them? Then came the
doubtful question, whether he might not be that happy man,--a question
which fancy endeavoured to answer in the affirmative, by conjuring up
all she had said in his praise, with the addition of a comment much more
flattering than the text warranted. All that was commonplace--all that
belonged to the everyday world--was melted away and obliterated in those
dreams of imagination, which only remembered with advantage the points
of grace and dignity that distinguished Flora, from the generality of
her sex, not the particulars which she held in common with them,
Edward was, in short, in the fair way of creating a goddess out of a
high-spirited, accomplished, and beautiful young woman; and the time was
wasted in castle-building, until, at the descent of a steep hill, he saw
beneath him the market-town of--.

The Highland politeness of Callum Beg--there are few nations, by the
way, who can boast of so much natural politeness as the Highlanders
[The Highlander, in former times, had always a high idea, of his own
gentility, and was anxious to impress the same upon those with whom
he conversed. His language abounded in the phrases of courtesy and
compliment; and the habit of carrying arms, and mix