Page:Life memoirs & pedigree of Thomas Hamilton Dickson.pdf/25



It was on one of those nights when the queen of night's soft beams illuminated hill, vale, and mountain with a degree of splendour which words cannot comprehend, while the river itself seemed like a sheet of glass, or thousands of bright mirrors, I happened to be walking along the Kelvin, thinking upon my forlorn state, which is destitute of almost all the ordinary comforts of life, with one solitary exception, namely, health. The villagers consider me insane, or what they term daft, and should have no encouragement from them on that account, and they seem to think that this world should be inhabited by people that are wise, who endeavour to the utmost of their abilities to put in practice that thread-bare principle, "Haud awa' Hame," which is so much approved by men in every grade of society, and has been the chief cause of misery to thousands. When man lives in society to be selfish, and disregards every one's interest but his own, it deranges society, for society is like a machine. When one part is broken or disordered the other parts will not work, hence, I believe, is the chief cause of stagnation, depression, destitution, and misery of the mass of mankind,