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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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THE SKERRYVOKE LIGHTHOUSE . ( The Skerryvore is a very dangerous reef of rocks , chiefly under water , situated about eleven miles west of Tyree , and twenty of Iona . The name is from the Gaelic , and signifies " the Great Rock . " It lies so low that it is not visible from any great distance , and it is surrounded by an almost perpetual surf , so that it has been the cause of many shipwrecks . A lighthouse was completed upon it in 1843 , and the light exhibited for the first time on the 1 st of February , 1844 . Its erection occupied six seasons , during which , as the engineer , Mr . Alan Stevenson , observes in the preface to his delightful account of the lighthouse , in spite of almost daily perils , no loss of either life or limb occurred . This is referred to in Verse XV . The allusion in Verse XII . is to the fact that a temporary barrack , erected in the summer of 1838 , was totally swept away the next winter . ) SKERRYVORE . A goodly bmd of stalwart men Pushed off from Scotland ' s shore ; Their path was o ' er the stormy sea—They rowed for Skerryvore . They went not forth on vengeance bound , Man against brother man , To say , " Our Might shall pass for Right , We Will because we Can" ; They went not forth to dig for gold , For gems , or precious ore ; The very seaweed scarce can cling To waveworn Skerryvore : An awful rock , it veils its head Beneath the stormy waves , And shatters ships , and scatters wrecks , And hides from men their graves . That goodly band , they reached its strand , They climbed upon that tomb ; Each took his stand , and raised his hand , They spoke across the gloom : — " Our Brothers' cries have reached the skies , Their blood stains all the Deep ; Thou hast made many a mother mourn , And lonely orphan weep . " Thou shalt not kill , or do more ill , Thou shalt be marked like Cain , That men may see , and flee from thee Far off upon the main . " Then rose the Sea in fearful wrath , And spoke with sullen roar : — " This rock is mine , I love the Dead , I will keep Skerryvore . " " Name not the Dead , oh Sea ! " they said , ' Of Drowned thou hast full store ; Thou well canst spare to us this rock , We will have Skerryvore . " Then spake the Sea : — " God gave to me—His child—the Land to win . " " But God gave us both Land and Sea , We are His next of kin . " And we shall fight to try our right—We Men , and thou the Sea ; And , if thy Might can quench our Light , Thou shalt the Victor be . " Six years went past , from first to last , — They struggled with the Sea ; And when at first its fury burst , It won the victory . But when the summer lull had come And hushed the Sea to sleep , They watched their time , they won the Rock , And triumphed o ' er the Deep . Day after day they toiled away , Little at night they slept ; With anxious eye they scanned the sky , And careful watch they kept . God ' s guiding hand was with that band , His eye was o ' er them all ; His mighty arm kept each from harm , Not one did faint or frill .
Tier upon , tier , they raised the pier , Slowly they built the tower , Until at last it mocked the blast , And the Sea owned their power . And now it stands to bless all hands , And , -with its beaming eye , It watches far the mariner , And warns him whence to fly . And sometimes , on a summer eve , The Sea looks up and smiles , And on its bosom fondly hangs The Lighthouse of the Isles . All free from fears the Sailor steers , And dreads the Rock no more ; The blessed Light makes Day of Night , — The Light of Skerryvore ! V . V
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BEAUTY . . People talk fluently of Beauty , but more fluently than well . Their ideas are in terrible confusion on the subject , because they are led away from the real question by prejudices in favour of what they call " moral beauty , " which makes them oblivious of the great fact that the Creator ' s hand has been as lavish in the physical as in the moral world . It is a part of our Christian metaphysics to condemn the body in favour of an exclusive soul . But take any object in the universe and contemplate its beauty . Look at this Azalea , for example , which I am holding upwards in the light . Note the grace of
these sprigs ; see how the white shines from the dark leaves with a force of contrast most striking , almost harsh ; no , not harsh , you say : but so harmonious , so sweet in both of the two colours contrasted , that the unity of sweetness softens the contrast into unison ; the bright white and the deep green are the night and day of this little world that I hold in my hand—the two parts of one round integrity . Now , look closer ; look at that surface , softer than ivory , whiter than the teeth cradled in the lips of beauty , dazzlingly white ; yet so softly moulded , so lusciously polished , and yet again so sweetly sharp , that while you look into it your heart is stirred with wonder at the skill and sweet wit of the virtue that makes this he as we see it . Now smell
it—that remote fragrant and fresh perfume , how honey-sweet but fresh with life ! Do you not love this flower , as you would love the bright face of one your heart had bowed to ? What is this beauty but a completeness of each thing in its kind , making us specially aware of the fulness of good therein compacted , provoking us to love ? Why is our idea of human beauty so touching to us but because it is more human , and more thoroughly understood by us . Does it not move us to love ?
Beauty is completeness of type , and the types nearest to us most affect us . I love this dear Azalea , which grows beside me , for the beauty which I am allowed to see in it ; I love still more the beautiful woman , that is my mate , and walks beside me in this outer Eden of a planet . When organization , erring from its type , is less complete , its powers of affecting me , at least on the sudden , are diminished . And this , I have often thought , explains why beauty , which so powerfully enslaves in woman , loses its paramount influence with time ; while we grow used to plainness , and learn to think it beautiful .
Affection craves above all things affection . In the beautiful , rstrong in obeying the ordained law , the functions of life keep best their appointed movement . The most vigorous organizations can acquire strength in special exercises , and not . become , as coarser organizations do , turgid with redundant fibre—as the antelope keeps its slender form , and the outline of the agile Lucile Grahn refuses to leave its gracile contour to acquire the massive forms common among dancers . Perfection of the tissues—tight smooth vocal cords and strong lungs—conduces to a sweet voice . Features
undistorted by individual accidents of form , voice unbroken by casual defects , can best , and in most widely-understood language , express the feelings of typical humanity . Caeteris paribus , a beautiful organization , undisturbed by external influences , will have the most typical feelings—those which we most affect ; but whatever feelings it has , it will express in the gestures of the countenance by a language clear and undistorted . Plainness is a dialect new to us at first ; the gestures of the unsymmetrical features , deviating from the type , do not accurately inform us of the inner intent j but , with use , we learn that dialect : once learned , the coveted language of affection reaches us without let
or adulteration ; and then we say that plainness has grown " beautiful " in our eyes . Then tbe beauties of affection are displayed to us without disguise . A All love at first sight is created by the aspect of beauty . And it is no fable . If you appeal to intellect , take your judgment fram that . What do the highest intellects say ? How is it that the poets , those perfect philosophers in the elementary essential philosophy of humanity—how is it that they inake all their men and women beautiful ?—and painters the same ? Do they despise the physical , or ignore the " moral and intellectual " povyer of " meie beauty" ?
I do not know what people mean by " mere beauty . " They might as well talk of mere sunlight , mere goodness , mere affection ! Beauty is Beauty godlike in its power , godlike in its perfection . To say that ifc is not something else is to ask the moral of the Rose . To me the Rose is enough ; lovely in itself , but lovelier , I admit , when nestling in the whi . e wonder ot her bosom where my aching head would fain repose !
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" Oh ! you would eat them , you would /* said the Rabbit . ' * No ! better eat me than them . No , no /' " Well , well , " said the Cat , "I don't know ; I suppose I couldn't answer for myself . I don't think I am right , for duty is pleasant , and it is very unpleasant to be so hungry ; but I suppose you must go . You seem a good Rabbit . Are you happy , Rabbit ?" " Happy ! oh , dear beautiful Cat ! if you spare me to my poor babies ! " " Poob , pooh ! " said the Cat peevishly ; " I don ' t want fine speeches ; I meant whether you thought it worth while to be alive ! Of course you do ! It don't matter . Go , and keep out of my way ; for , if I don ' t get my dinner , you may not get off another time . Get along , Rabbit .
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July 6 , 1850 . ] fcflfc * , *«»**? 35 ?
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 6, 1850, page 357, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1845/page/21/
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