 of the present generation. To the which
objection, if, peradventure, any such shall be started, my answer shall be
threefold: -
    First, Gandercleugh is, as it were, the central part - the navel (si fas sit
dicere) of this our native realm of Scotland; so that men, from every corner
thereof, when travelling on their concernments of business, either towards our
metropolis of law, by which I mean Edinburgh, or towards our metropolis and mart
of gain, whereby I insinuate Glasgow, are frequently led to make Gandercleugh
their abiding stage and place of rest for the night. And it must be acknowledged
by the most sceptical, that I, who have sat in the leathern armchair, on the
left-hand side of the fire, in the common room of the Wallace Inn, winter and
summer, for every evening in my life, during forty years by-past (the Christian
Sabbaths only excepted), must have seen more of the manners and customs of
various tribes and people, than if I had sought them out by my own painful
travel and bodily labour. Even so doth the tollman at the well-frequented
turnpike on the Wellbrae-head, sitting at his ease in his own dwelling, gather
more receipt of custom, than if, moving forth upon the road, he were to require
a contribution from each person whom he chanced to meet in his journey, when,
according to the vulgar adage, he might possibly be greeted with more kicks than
halfpence.
    But, secondly, supposing it again urged, that Ithacus, the most wise of the
Greeks, acquired his renown, as the Roman poet hath assured us, by visiting
states and men, I reply to the Zoilus who shall adhere to this objection, that,
de facto, I have seen states and men also; for I have visited the famous cities
of Edinburgh and Glasgow, the former twice, and the latter three times, in the
course of my earthly pilgrimage. And, moreover, I had the honour to sit in the
General Assembly (meaning, as an auditor, in the galleries thereof), and have
heard as much goodly speaking on the law of patronage, as, with the
fructification thereof in mine own understanding, hath made me be considered as
an oracle upon that doctrine ever since my safe and happy return to
Gandercleugh.
    Again - and thirdly, If it be nevertheless pretended that my information and
knowledge of mankind, however extensive, and however painfully acquired, by
constant domestic inquiry, and by foreign travel, is, natheless, incompetent to
the task of
