Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

26 SOUTH UIST.
man who was consulted as a barometer could prognosti-
cate the weather by sneezing, and so on. He who has
swallowed Micromegas might find room for Tom Thumb.
Martin was not a man to have choked upon a ghost or
two, more or less ; but there is no arguing about tastes.
De credulitate infidelium is matter of ancient remark
and were it not business much too grave for such ram-
bling letters as these, I might draw comparisons (there
are worse drawn every day) between Martin and the
followers of Epicurus and Spinosa; philosophers of a
credulity beyond all bounds, who receive without con-
cern what is impossible or improbable, reserving their
disbelief for that alone which they do not choose to
believe : but I must not proceed.
Having arrived thus far, however, among the Islands,
it is time to think of giving a sketch of their history,
which, if very obscure, is not involved in such utter
darkness as has been commonly supposed. Without it,
1 despair of rendering much of what is to follow intel-
ligible : and if you find it long, you can only treat it like
Polonius's beard.
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