human
Invisible and Incomprehensible
gpt
Fat sort o' minister hae ye gotten, Geordie?
human
Oh, weel; he's no muckle worth. We seldom get a glint o' him; six days o' th' week he's envees'ble, and on the seventh he's encomprehens'ble.
gpt
Character
human
Run and get it, and meet me at the cross, at four o'clock.
gpt
Well, have you got your character with you?
human
Na, replied the youth;
gpt
It's a good day, his usual reply is,
human
Aweel, sir, I've seen waur. Such a man does not say his wife is an excellent woman. He says,
gpt
She's no' a bad body. A buxom lass, smartly dressed, is
human
No' sae vera unpurposelike. The richest and rarest viands are
gpt
No' sae bad. The best acting and the best singing are designated as
human
No' bad. A man noted for his benevolence is
gpt
No' the warst man in the worilt. A Scotchman is always afraid of expressing unqualified praise. He suspects if he did so it would tend to spoil the object of his laudations, if a person, male or female, old or young; or, if that object were a song, a picture, a piece of work, a landscape, or such, that those who heard him speak so highly of it would think he had never in his life seen or heard anything better, which would be an imputation on his knowledge of things.
human
is not exactly the motto of the normal Scotchman. He is quite ready to admire admirable things, but yet loath to admit it, only by inference, that he had never witnessed or experienced anything better. Indeed, he has always something of the like kind which he can quote to show that the person, place or thing in question is only comparatively good, great, clever, beautiful, or grand. Then, when anybody makes a remark, however novel, that squares with a Scotchman's ideas, he will say,
gpt
That's just what I've offen thoucht!
human
That's exactly ma way of thinking!
gpt
That's just what I aye say!
human
That's just what I was actually on the point o' saying!
gpt
Sir, it will shoost pe five o'clock on my wee watchy; but whether she'll be two oors too slow, or two oors too fast, I dinna ken.
human
As sure's I leeve I never touched it, an' its waggin' yet!
gpt
or, as they would say,
human
An old woman, bustling into kirk rather late, found the preacher had commenced, and opening her Bible, nudged her next neighbor, with the inquiry:
gpt
What's the grund?
human
Oh, rejoined the other, who happened to be a brother minister, and therefore a privileged critic,
gpt
You must beware, says Charles Lamb,
human
Native
gpt
Are you a native of this parish?
human
Maistly, yer honor,
gpt
I mean, were you born in this parish?
human
Na, yer honor; I wasna born in this parish, but I'm maist a native for a' that.
gpt
You come here when you were a child, I suppose you mean?
human
Na, sir, I'm just here about sax year, noo.
gpt
Then how do you come to be nearly a native of this parish?
human
Weel, ye see, whan I cam' here, sax year sin', I jist weighed eight stane, an' I'm fully seventeen stane noo; sae ye see that about nine stane a' me belangs to this parish an' the ither eight comes frae Camlachie.
gpt
A Call to a Wider Sphere
human
Go where there is most sin, sir.