A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
afford ages ancient appearance believe better boat built called castle cattle chief church clan common commonly considered continued convenience conversation covered danger desire distance easily easy elegance English equal expected give given greater ground hand heard Highlands hills horses hundred ignorance improvement inhabitants islands journey kind knowledge known labour ladies Laird land language lately learned less live longer Maclean Macleod manners miles mind minister mountains Mull natural necessary never observed once passed perhaps present probably produce Raasay raised reason remains rent road rock Scotland seems seen shillings side sometimes soon standing stone sufficient supplied supposed taken tenants ther thing thought tion told travelled trees true walls whole wind young
Popular passages
Page 205 - I suppose my opinion of the poems of Ossian is already discovered. I believe they never existed in any other form than that which we have seen. The editor, or author, never could shew the original; nor can it be shewn by any other; to revenge reasonable incredulity, by refusing evidence, is a degree of insolence, with which the world is not yet acquainted ; and stubborn audacity is the last refuge of guilt.
Page 186 - mind upon the eye, or by the eye upon the mind, by which " things distant and future are perceived and seen as if they
Page 66 - I had indeed no trees to whisper over my head, but a clear rivulet streamed at my feet. The day was calm, the air soft, and all was rudeness, silence, and solitude. Before me, and on either side, were high hills which, by hindering the eye from ranging, forced the mind to find entertainment for itself. Whether I spent the hour well I know not ; for here I first conceived the thought of this narration.
Page 97 - The clans retain little now of their original character ; their ferocity of temper is softened, their military ardour is extinguished, their dignity of independence is depressed, their contempt of government subdued, and their reverence for their chiefs abated. Of what they had before the late conquest of their country, there remain 'only their language and their poverty.
Page 152 - To banish, the tacksman is easy, to make a country plentiful by diminishing the people, is an expeditious mode of husbandry ; but that abundance, which there is nobody to enjoy, contributes little to human happiness. As the mind must govern the hands, so in every society the man of intelligence must direct the man of labour.
Page 22 - ... barbarity. His history is written with elegance and vigour, but his fabulousness and credulity are justly blamed. His fabulousness, if he was the author of the fictions, is a fault for which no apology can be made ; but his credulity may be excused in an age when all men were credulous.
Page 258 - To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings.
Page 281 - The conversation of the Scots grows every day less unpleasing to the English ; their peculiarities wear fast away ; their dialect is likely to become in half a century provincial and rustick, even to themselves. The great, the learned, the ambitious, and the vain, all cultivate the English phrase, and the English pronunciation, and in splendid companies Scotch is not much heard, except now and then from an old lady.
Page 144 - To expand the human face to its full perfection, it seems necessary that the mind should cooperate by placidness of content, or consciousness of superiority.
Page 266 - Macfarlane, said he, may with equal propriety be said 300 to many; but I, and I only, am Macfarlane.
Bibliographic information
| Title | A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland |
| Author | Samuel Johnson |
| Publisher | J. Catnach, 1800 |
| Original from | Oxford University |
| Digitized | 24 Apr 2007 |
| Length | 288 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |