The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-09-20
The Scot.

The Scot is not an animal that will remain
burrowing in corner. and feeding upon dry
peas when there are plenty of cornfelds in
vision, and plenty of wheaton bread to be
earned by the sweat of an honest mans brow.
The "Scot abroad" is character almost Is
well known as the Scot at home; and whether
in German wars of religion, or in French wars
of conquest-whether in scaling the cliffs Of
Crimea, quelling rebellion in India, debating
commercial treaties to slippery Chinese, track
ing the source of the Nile, or forcing q high
road through the wilds of Central Africa-you
will always find Scot with determination for
his companion and progress for his pioneer.
The great warehouses and manufactures in
Manchester, Liverpool, Brad ford, Leeds, and
elsewhere show, in the names of their most
active trading firms, the living witness of the
unwillingnsss of the Scot to confine his INTEL
ligent restlessness within the narrow bounds Of
his native country. Like the Greek, he has q
strong expansive power; and wherever he goes
like Wordsworth's peddler, who was an Athol
man, carries not only wares but wisdom along
with him. have found q Macdonald sleeping
quietly, after years of honorables activity, In
the remote churchyard of Hugh Town in the
Scilly Isles; and have no doubt, whoever
shall first reach the North Pole will ind
Scotsman already there, snugly sheltered under
snow-palace of his own construction. What
is the secret of this wonderful success of the
Scot In all parts of the world? think mainly
this, that, in addition to his restless working
faculty. and high determination to advance, he
is fundamentally thinking man. All the
stories that are current to characterize the
three peoples agree in this, that however strong
the Scot is in action, he always thinks before he
acts. When you ask him a question, he has
national habit of asking you another question
instead of giving direct reply. He wants to
sound you first whether you are worthy of an
answer. In this respect also he Is q Greek,
veritable Ulysses, as you may see in many
page of the Odyssey. This com bination OF
makes the Caledonian such good man of bus
iness. Work combined with Thought is busi-
ness: work without thought mere hustle. But
the thinking quality OF the Scot Is not always
directed to external ends attainable by materi-
al means He directs his thoughts also-as
every Intelligent type of humanity must do,
more or less-to the ideas after the likeness
OF which all significant realities are formed;
and then he becomes q metaphysicien and q
theologian; for theology is only the high
est power of philosophy; no man can think
consistently, or reason soundly, without ending,
where the unthinking man by q healthy in
stinct begins-with God. As a thinking man
the Scot does not manifest his intellectual pow
er like the Frenchman, by sudden flashes; or
like the Irishman, by odd jerks and amusive
springs. There ,s no springing and jumping.
He is full of deliberaton and calculation. He
may % represented by slow, heavy, weighty
elephant, bearing kings and conquerors on Its
back; or by useful milk COW, lelsurely recum-
bent on lush meadow; or by a sturdy drsy-
horse, or even by a bear sometimes; or fox,
bear; but never a monkey or grasshopper, or
a water-wsgtail. In his life he has always
plan; aud his thought he piles up into q sys-
tenn his dogmatic theology-his Calvinism-is
a scheme of Christian thought which, IL it does
not solve all problems, at least has the merit Of
training to pious purpose the sternly exercised
minds Of those who attempt to solve them.
The Germans also have attempted many i'm
possible problems; bat neither has their labor