Noctes Ambrosianae Volume 4 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1872 Excerpt: ...spirit that breathed in the bosoms of Thomson, and Ramsay, and Burns, --to the spirit that reigns a' owre Scotland, and hath its holy altars at this day in ilka hut and ilka shieling, did I fear to say, I--even I--have refined and elevated my theory of all the social affections far beyond the reach o' sic a meeserable deevil as Lowry Sterne; and that if people will whine owre dead asses, and neglect living mothers, the blame maun be attributed no to a refined and elevated theory o' the social affections; for I defy ony theory beneath the skies to be mair refined and elevated than is the practice o' the Christian, or imagination to conceive thochts or feelings half as beautifu' or shooblime as thousans that the real agonies of life, be they agonies o' wo or bliss, send into men's hearts, driving like hurricanes, or breathe they like the bush o' some lown place. Think o' the speerit o' a son or a father ca'd upon by nature to do his duty on some great emergency--think, sir, on his haen done it--and done it because he knew it was well-pleasing to God--and then show me, sir, any theory o' the social affections so high and so refined, that the mir.d wou'd feel a fall frae it, if required to ack in the light and glow o' common humanity? y0rth. Mr. Moore seems, by his mild-looking silence, James, to acquiesce Shepherd. Do you acquiesce, Mr. Muir? Wee , a nod's eneuch. North. But Mr. Moore, James, says, "that not only is the necessity of commerce with other minds less felt by such persons--(the men of a higher order of genius)--but, from that fastidiousness which the opulence of their own resources generates, the society of those less gifted with intellectual means than themselves, becomes often a restraint and burden, to which not all the charms of friendship, ...