Bright was the summer of 1296. The war which had desolated Scotland was then at an end.

The only impregnable citadel of virtue is religion; for there is no bulwark of mere morality, which some temptation may not overtop or undermine, and destroy.

Goodness is equally hateful to the wicked, as vice is to the virtuous.

A generous spirit is as eloquent in acknowledging benefits as it is bounteous in bestowing them.

National antipathy is the basest, because the most illiberal and illiterate of all prejudices.

Life is a warfare; and he who easily desponds deserts a double duty--he betrays the noblest property of man, which is dauntless resolution; and he rejects the providence of that All-Gracious Being who guides and rules the universe.

Compulsion hardly restores right; love yields all things.