Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 19

Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 19

In a little house in the Canongate of Edinburgh, there lived, not very long ago, Mr Gustavus MIver(for he never would allow himself to be called Ensign MIver, though that was his proper professional designation),as good a man as ever God put breath in, and as faithful a soldier as ever Lord Wellington commanded in the Peninsula. That is, doubtless, no small praise to one conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity; and heaven knows if it were not as true as Joves oath, it would never have been awarded by us. But he was remarkable in other respects than being honest; for he was six feet five without the aid of sock or buskin; and, if any man were to say that he was not four feet from acromion to acromion, he would assuredly be a big liar. But it is the head and face of a man that we like to look at; for, after all, what signifies (except in a warlike view, and ours is a peaceable one) a cart-load of mere bone and muscle, bound together with thick whangs of gristle, and yielding nothing but brute force, if it be not surmounted by a good microcosm of a head, with a good[2] dial-plate to let a man know what is going on within. Do we not see every day great clocks put on the tops of big steeples, and yet, though they are nearer the sun than the little time-piece with the deuce a body at all, they go like an intermitting fever, telling us at one time that we are hurrying to the grave, and at another, that time has nothing to do with us at all. So is it with men; and, for our part, we could never discover any proper legitimate sympathetic accordance between the trunk and cranium of mortals, any more than if (like pins) they had been made in pieces and one head clapped on a body just as the occipital condyles suited the straps to which they are attached. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 47011
Author: Wilson, John Mackay
Release Date: Sep 30, 2014
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Leighton, Alexander, 1800-1874