The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-03-04
SCOTTISH CHARACTER.
The Good and the Bad About the
scotch.


scotch.
The Rev Robert Mckenzie elivered
an interesting lecture last night in Fort
Street Church on Traits of Scottish
| Character" A very good audience assem-
bled to hear the reverend gentleman,
whose lecture was of an interesting and
amusing description. The following is
brief synopsis of 1t: Scotland is little
country. From certain point on Beulo-
mond you can see half of the Kingdom at
glance. 1t has played large part in
the tragedy of the worlds history and in
the domain of its literature. 1t is not the
country so much as the people, and their
characteristics, however, that have been
most noted. This character, like their
national thistle, is distinct, even unique.
1t has generally been approved by the out
side world. No one is ashamed of having
Scotch blood in their veins. There are
bad Scetchmen, as there are fallen
angels, and when they are bad, like
these also, they are very bad. The
good qualities of the Scotch may be
mate, making the people, by necessity, in
dustrious, prompt, thrifty and ingenious.
Shut in by the storms of winter, pastoral
in their habits, they become extremely
fond of home. Scotchmen coming out into
the world find its seas no less stormy, aud
are themselves not better than other peO-
pie ; but in this home-love they have bet
ter anchor, and are often ADLER to outride
moral circumstances that engulf others.
Scenery has much to do with the charac-
ter. The mountains and the sea are
everywhere in sight. Nature is seen there
in her widest and calmest moods. Every
hillside and valley are the scenes of old
battles, and every shore has its record OF
shipwreck. Every heather-bell is red
with the blood of patriots, and every grain
of earth is the dust of heroes. ImaginR-
ton cannot be idle in such scenes, and
Imagination begets superstition. Much
as superstition is to be regretted, it is yet
only the contorted forms of eternal truths.
Better to believe in witches, demons and
ghosts than to see nothing spiritual in the
heavens above or in the earth beneath.
Classic countries had centuries of time
in which they saw naiads and nymphs
and Olympian gods, and also centuries in
which they deemed the Pantheon empty
and the Academy unable to teach any
thing about the future. But it was in the
first era, while they were ''very super
stitious," that they gave US the works of
genius which make them and their coun-
try immortal. Scotland was long isolated
and missed the impulse that first carried
| France and England into modern civiliza-
ton. 1t was also, especially the northern
half, long unconquered, giving the
people the still retained principle of
| independence and bravery and the
sense of individual worth. g mans
a man for a. that" was the final
expression of a long continued uni
versaI opinion. Persecution burned in
the peculiarities, and when a man carries
| his beliefs through the fire, he thinks he
has an indisputable right to them and
that there is something of jndestructible
value in them. Many phases are fast
| disappearing but there still continue GER
tain peculiarities of thought, of feeling,
and of will, which mark the Scotchman
everywhere, which give him his power in
this world and his grip on the world tc
come.
At the conclusion of the lecture, Prof.
Merritt, of Punahou College, rendered DR..
Mckenzie the thanks of the audience, and
stated that the receipts of the evening
were about $3.50, which would be applied
to the enlargement of the library of the
College. He concluded by appealing fol
help to make up the total sum of $1,000
which was needed to complete the work.