The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

68 The Highland Monthly.
sympathies and antipathies that cannot be controlled by
the judgment of the mind—the manifest but inscrutable
way in which the mind influences and is influenced by
others, and that also through none of the channels by which
ties of material interest are formed and regulated, are some
insoluble quantities of the sub-problem of life that concerns
the present condition of man. In my own experience I
have been often perplexed by the phenomena of memory
pictures reproduced in odd ways. I find no satisfactory
explanation in metaphysical writings. As far as the repro-
duction of images of dead matter, scenery and such like, is
concerned, I am satisfied with the association of ideas as
the efficient cause. But I have frequently laboured in vain
to discover any connection between the previous train of
ideas and the abrupt recollection of an absent friend. It
seemed to me as if my friend had a longing to confer with
me, and through the mysterious agency of sympathy his
wish raised a recollection of him in my mind. The
incident which occurred to meat this time seems to confirm
this view, nor does it stand alone in the experiences of
myself and friends.
When I dropped the drum ecclesiastic as previously
narrated, I took to literary pursuits, which, in course of
time, brought me competent remuneration. I dabbled a
good deal in antiquarianism, and in my part of the country
was accepted as quite an oracle, respecting family history
and pedigrees. An accident gave me the chance of obliging
a powerful patron. A title was on the point of going
a-begging for heirs. The last of an old line was tottering
childless to the grave. A difificulty happened as to who
was heir of line. There were many claimants who traced
their descent from a baron of the sixteenth century. After
that time the lords of H had singularly small families,
and although the line had remained unbroken for eight
descents, it had seldom above a double strand, and now it
was hanging by the last thread of one old man's life.
There were six claimants descended from one man, the