Memoirs of Alexander Bethune: Embracing Selections from His Correspondence and Literary Remains |
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Aberdeenshire able acquainted Alexander Bethune Andrew Combe appear attempt benevolence Bethune's blank verse brother called character cheerful circumstances cold comfort copies DAY DREAMS Dear Sir deep early Economy Edinburgh endeavour extracts father favour feel felt Fife FIFESHIRE genuity George Combe give Glasgow gone half-crowns hands happy heart hereti Hill honour hope hour humble interest John Bethune KENNOWAY kind labour Lectures letter literary live Lochend look Martinmas matter melancholy ment mind mother MOUNTPLEASANT nature never Newburgh notice once opinion pain pardon perhaps Perth piece Poems poor present prison published racter reader reason recollect regard respect river Tay scarcely scene Scotland Scottish Peasantry seems sentiments Shortrede Sing situation sketch society soon sorrow sort spirit story suffer sympathy taste thing thought tion toil verse volume whole wish writing young
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Page 320 - Sound needed none, Nor any voice of joy ; his spirit drank The spectacle : sensation, soul, and form All melted into him ; they swallowed up His animal being ; in them did he live, And by them did he live ; they were his life. In such access of mind, in such high hour Of visitation from the living God, Thought was not ; in enjoyment it expired.
Page 320 - Ocean and earth, the solid frame of earth And ocean's liquid mass, beneath him lay In gladness and deep joy. The clouds were touched. And in their silent faces did he read Unutterable love. Sound needed none. Nor any voice of joy ; his spirit drank The spectacle : sensation, soul, and form All melted into him ; they swallowed up His animal being ; in them did he live, And by them did he live ; they were his life.
Page 320 - What soul was his, when, from the naked top Of some bold headland, he beheld the sun Rise up, and bathe the world in light...
Page 90 - UNLIKE all other things earth knows, (All else may fail or change,) The love in a Mother's heart that glows, Nought earthly can estrange. Concentrated and strong, and bright, A vestal flame it glows With pure, self-sacrificing light, Which no cold shadow knows. All that by mortal can be done, A Mother ventures for her son: If marked by worth or merit high, Her bosom beats with ecstasy ; And though he own nor worth nor charm, To him her faithful heart is warm. Though wayward passions round him close,...
Page 60 - Let others fear, to me more dear Than all the pride of May: The tempest's howl, it soothes my soul, My griefs it seems to join; The leafless trees my fancy please, Their fate resembles mine!
Page 193 - Four years he lingers ; friends begin to arise from one quarter and another, but he, not altogether wisely or well, refuses all pecuniary help. At last Mr. Hugh Miller recommends him to be editor of a projected " Non-Intrusion" paper in Dumfries, with a salary, to him boundless, of £100 a year.
Page 192 - WHEN evening's lengthened shadows fall On cottage roof and princely hall, Then brothers with their brothers meet, And kindred hearts each other greet, And children wildly, gladly press, To share a father's fond caress: But home to me no more can bring Those scenes which are life's sweetening. No friendly heart remains for me, Like star to gild life's stormy sea, No brother, whose affection warm The gloomy passing hours might charm. Bereft of all who once were dear, Whose words or looks were wont...
Page 91 - And when those kindred chords are broken Which twine around the heart; When friends their farewell word have spoken. And to the grave depart; When parents, brothers, husband, die, And desolation only At every step meets her dim eye, Inspiring visions lonely, — Love's last and strongest root below, Which widowed mothers only know, Watered by each successive grief, Puts forth a fresher, greener leaf: Divided streams unite in one, And deepen round her only son; And when her early friends are gone,...
Page 355 - In the same grave with John, rest the remains of his brother, Alexander Bethune, the last member of a worthy family, who died June 13th, 1843, aged 38. With scarcely any school education, and under the pressure of poverty and the severest toil, he produced several works of much merit, illustrative of the character and manners, and conducive to the improvement, of his own class of society ; and was as remarkable for his independence of spirit and private virtues, as for his literary attainments.
Page 13 - I did not think there was so much beauty in a locality so little talked of. Around me lay the hills reposing in quiet grandeur, and before me lay the "Loch of Lindores, which in the calm twilight of a summer's evening appears like the eye of nature looking up to its Maker in the spirit of meek and quiet devotion.