Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 edition. Excerpt: ... A FAMILY MEMOIR OP THE MACDONALDS. I. INTRODUCTORY. The love of preserving the memory of our forefathers seems in a great degree an inherent principle in our natures; and Mr. Gibbon, confessedly the first genealogical historian of our day, has very beautifully discussed this natural principle of mankind. He says: "A lively desire of knowing and of recording our ancestors so generally prevails that it must depend on the influence of some common principle in the minds of men. "We seem to have lived in the persons of our forefathers; it is the labour and reward of vanity to extend the period of this ideal longevity. "Our imagination is always active to enlarge the narrow circle in which nature has confined us; fifty or one hundred years may be allotted to an individual, but we step forward beyond death with such hopes as religion and philosophy will suggest; and we fill up the silent vacancy that precedes our birth, by associating ourselves with the authors of our existence. "Our calmer judgment will rather tend to moderate than suppress the pride of an ancient and worthy race. B The Satirist may laugh, the Philosopher may preach, but reason herself will respect the prejudices and habits which have been consecrated by the experience of ages. "Whenever the distinction of birth is allowed to form a superior order in the state, education and example should always, and often will, produce among them a dignity of sentiment and propriety of conduct which is guarded from dishonour by their own and the public esteem. "If we read of some illustrious line, so ancient that it has no beginning, so worthy that it ought to have no end, we sympathise in its various fortunes, nor can we blame the generous enthusiasm, or even the harmless vanity, of those...
