Some few deals of wood.
There are eight lines of a little poem called “An Samhla,” or The Comparison, which reminds us of the generally subjective state of mind which the Highland men were wont to cultivate so assiduously. In Morrison of Harris and in Macrae of Petty we see the extreme spiritual self-analysis which they carried on. I also give a rendering of a few verses of a fair poem on those given to riches. It has the same preaching ring that we find in the one on the state of the world:—
THE COMPARISON.
I’m like a barrel sealed,
Whose stores the others cannot see;
The gazer scans in vain;
Good wine or poison it may be:
But strike thou in some spot
Where all the staves are not so sound,
Soon thou shalt see the stuff