I can give no reason why these lines came to me at this time; and for that very cause I repeat them here. For all I know, they may serve to complete the impression in the mind of the reader, as they were certainly a part of it for me. And this happened to me in the place of all others where I liked least to stay. When I think of it I grow ashamed of my own ingratitude. ‘Out of the strong came forth sweetness.’ There, in the bleak and gusty North, I received, perhaps, my strongest impression of peace. I saw the sea to be great and calm; and the earth, in that little corner, was all alive and friendly to me. So, wherever a man is, he will find something to please and pacify him: in the town he will meet pleasant faces of men and women, and see beautiful flowers at a window, or hear a cage-bird singing at the corner of the gloomiest street; and for the country, there is no country without some amenity—let him only look for it in the right spirit, and he will surely find. Footnotes {92} The Second Part here referred to is entitled ‘ACROSS THE PLAINS,’ and is printed in the volume so entitled, together with other Memories and Essays. {106} I had nearly finished the transcription of the following pages when I saw on a friend’s table the number containing the piece from which this sentence is extracted, and, struck with a similarity of title, took it home with me and read it with indescribable satisfaction. I do not know whether I more envy M. Theuriet the pleasure of having written this delightful article, or the reader the pleasure, which I hope he has still before him, of reading it once and again, and lingering over the passages that please him most. {136} William Abercrombie. See _Fasti Ecclesia Scoticanæ_, under ‘Maybole’ (Part iii.). {147} ‘Duex poures varlez qui n’ont nulz gages et qui gissoient la nuit avec les chiens.’ See Champollion—Figeac’s _Louis et Charles d’Orléans_, i. 63, and for my lord’s English horn, _ibid._ 96. {175} Reprinted by permission of John Lane. {190} ‘Jehovah Tsidkenu,’ translated in the Authorised Version as ‘The Lord our Righteousness’ (Jeremiah xxiii. 6 and xxxiii. 16). {231} Compare Blake, in the _Marriage of Heaven and Hell_: ‘Improvement makes straight roads; but the crooked roads, without improvement, are roads of Genius.’