Authors From Scotland

"But here the sons of science sport with the sentiments of mercy; and why, with a malicious grin, demands the modern sophist, why then is man furnished with the canine, or dog-teeth, except that nature meant him carnivorous?—Fallacious argument! Is the fitness of an action to be determined purely by the physical capacity of the agent? Because nature, kindly provident, has bestowed upon us a superabundance of animal vigour, does it follow that we ought to abuse, by habitual exertions, an excess of force, evidently granted to guard our existence on occasions of dire distress? In cases of extreme famine we destroy and devour each other; but from thence will any one pretend to prove, that man was made to feed upon his fellow men?"

"The butcher's knife hath laid low the delight of a fond dam, & the darling of Nature is now stretched in gore upon the ground."

"At all events, the pleasing persuasion that his work may have contributed to mitigate the ferocities of prejudice, and to diminish in some degree the great mass of misery which oppresses the animal world, will in the hour of distress convey to the Author's heart a consolation which the tooth of calumny will not be able to impoison."

"But far other is the fate of animals: for, alas! when they are plucked from the tree of Life, suddenly the withered blossoms of their beauty shrink to the chilly hand of Death. Quenched in his cold cold grasp expires the lamp of their loveliness, and struck by the livid blast of loathed putrefaction, their comely limbs are involved in ghastly horror. Shall we leave the living herbs to seek, in the den of death, an obscene aliment?—Insensible to the blooming beauties of Pomona, unallured by the fragrant fume that exhale from her groves of golden fruits, unmoved by the nectar of Nature, by the ambrosia of innocence, shall the voracious vultures of our impure appetite speed across the lovely scenes and alight in the loathsome sink of putrefaction to devour the funeral of other creatures, to load with cadaverous rottenness, a wretched stomach?"

"The Author is very far from entertaining a presumption that his slender labours (crude and imperfect as they are now hurried to the press) will ever operate an effect on the public mind—and yet, when he considers the natural bias of the human heart to the side of mercy, and observes on all hands the barbarous governments of Europe giving way to a better system of things, he is inclined to hope that the day is beginning to approach when the growing sentiment of peace and good-will towards men will also embrace, in a wide circle of benevolence, the lower orders of life."

"Ye sons of modern science, who court not wisdom in her walks of silent meditation in the grove, who behold her not in the living loveliness of her works, but expect to meet her in the midst of obscenity and corruption; ye who dig for knowledge in the depth of the dunghill, and who hope to discover wisdom enthroned amid the fragments of mortality, and the abhorrence of the senses; ye that with ruffian violence interrogate trembling nature, who plunge into her maternal bosom the butcher knife, and, in quest of your nefarious science, the fibres of agonizing animals, delight to scrutinize; ye dare also to violate the human form august; and, holding up the entrails of man, ye exclaim: behold the bowels of a carnivorous animal!—Barbarians! to these very bowels I appeal against your cruel dogmas; to these bowels, fraught with mercy, and entwined with compassion; to these bowels which nature hath sanctified to the sentiments of pity and of gratitude; to the yearnings of kindred, to the melting tenderness of love!"

"And, indeed, has not nature given, to almost every creature, the same spontaneous signs of the various affections? Admire we not in other animals whatever is most eloquent in man, the tremor of desire, the tear of distress, the piercing cry of anguish, the pity-pleading look, expressions that speak the soul with a feeling which words are feeble to convey?"

"Fatigued with answering the enquiries, and replying to the objections of his friends, with respect to the singularity of his mode of life, the Author of this performance conceived that he might consult his ease by making, once for all, a public apology for his opinions. Those who despise the weakness of his arguments will nevertheless learn to admit the innocence of his tenets, and suffer him to pursue, without molestation, a system of life that is more the result of sentiment than of reason, in a man who imagines that the human race were not made to live scientifically, but according to nature."

"Disgusted with continual scenes of slaughter and desolation, pierced by the incessant shrieks of suffering innocence, and, shocked by the shouts of persecuting brutality, the humane mind averts abhorrent from the view, and, turning her eyes to Hindostan, dwells with heart-felt consolation on the happy spot, where mercy protects with her right hand the streams of life, and every animal is allowed to enjoy in peace the portion of bliss which nature prepared it to receive."

"May the benevolent system spread to every corner of the globe; may we learn to recognize and to respect in other animals the feelings which vibrate in ourselves; may we be led to perceive that those cruel repasts are not more injurious to the creatures whom we devour than they are hostile to our health, which delights in innocent simplicity, and destructive of our happiness, which is wounded by every act of violence, while it feeds as it were on the prospect of well-being, and is raised to the highest summit of enjoyment by the sympathetic touch of social satisfaction."

"Thus have the wisdom and energy of British councils, and the steady bravery of British soldiers, united to overthrow one of the most powerful tyrants of the east; to accomplish as complete and as just a revolution, as can be found on the records of history; and to produce such an increase of revenue, resource, commercial advantage, and military strength to the British establishment in India, as must for years to come ensure a prosperous and happy tranquility, not only to the Company’s possessions, but to the native principalities, and to millions of inhabitants on the fertile plains of Hindostan."

"Mary had always had a taste for history, and now in the long days of captivity she seems to have given much of her time to this favourite study. The history of her own house, as well as that of the English royal family, must have had a deep and painful interest for her at a moment when she herself was threatened with a fate as tragic as any recorded in its darkest pages."

"Winning was never the most important thing to her. It was the only thing."

"How you see the world depends upon where you look."

"The hand that wields the knife shall never wear the crown."

"From the facts I have adduced in the course of this paper I must come to the conclusion that the theory which makes all the languages of Europe and Asia, from Bengal to the British Islands, however different in appearance, to have sprung from the same stock, and hence, all the people speaking them, black, swarthy, and fair, to be of one and the same race of man, is utterly groundless, and the mere dream of learned men, and perhaps even more imaginative than learned. I can by no means, then, agree with a very learned professor of Oxford, that the same blood ran in the veins of the soldiers of Alexander and Clive as in those of the Hindus whom, at the interval of two-and-twenty ages, they both scattered with the same facility. I am not prepared, like him, to believe that an English jury, unless it were a packed one of learned Orientalists, with the ingenious professor him- self for its foreman, would, "After examining the hoary documents of language," admit "the claim of a common descent between Hindu, Greek, and Teuton," for that would amount to allowing that there was no difference in the faculties of the people that produced Homer and Shakespear, and those that have produced nothing better than the authors of the Mahabharat and Ramayana; no difference between the home-keeping Hindus, who never made a foreign conquest of any kind, and the nations who discovered, conquered, and peopled a new world."

"Like others on the hippie trail to India, I thought of myself as a traveler rather than a mere tourist, someone on an indeterminate quest rather than a journey with a prescribed beginning and end. Had I been asked what I was seeking, I doubt my answer would have been very coherent. I had no destination, either of the geographical or spiritual kind. I was simply “on the road,” in that anarchic and ecstatic sense celebrated by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and other role models I revered at the time."

"I enjoyed nothing more than simply being on the way to somewhere else. I was quite content to peer for hours through the grimy, grease-smeared windows of a rattling bus with cooped chickens in the aisle, observing farmers bent over as they toiled in fields, women carrying babies on their backs, barefoot children playing in the dust, old men seated in the shade smoking hookahs, and all the shabby little towns and villages at which we stopped for sweet tea and unleavened bread. Yet as soon as we entered the telltale suburban sprawl of the city of our destination, my stomach would contract and I would feel anxious and restless again. I did not want to stop. My craving to keep moving was like an addiction."

"The Totall Discourse of the Rare Adventures and Painefull Peregrinations of Long Nineteene Yeares Travayles (1632)"

"The Gushing Teares of Godly Sorrow (1640)"

"A Most Delectable and True Discourse, of an Admired and Painefull Peregrination (1614, reissued 1616; new, expanded edition, 1623)"

"Purchas his Pilgrimes … the Second Part (1625)"

"And loe here is mine Effigie affixed with my Turkish habit, my walking staffe, & my Turban upon my head, even as I travelled in the bounds of Troy, and so through all Turkey: Before my face on the right hand standeth the Easterne and sole gate of that sometimes noble City, with a piece of a high wall, as yet undecayed: And without this Port runneth the River Simois (inclosing the old Grecian Campe) downe to the Marine, where it imbraceth the Sea Propontis: A little below, are bunches of grapes, denoting the vineyards of this fructiferous place; adjoyning neare to the fragments and ruynes of Priams Pallace, surnamed Ilium: And next to it a ravenous Eagle, for so this part of Phrigia is full of them: So beneath my feet ly the two Tombes of Priamus & Hecuba his Queene: And under them the incircling hills of Ida, at the West South west end of this once Regall Towne; & at my left hand, the delicious and pleasant fields of Olives and Figge-trees, wherewith the bowells of this famous soyle are interlarded."

"As for the science Practique, it doth first imbrace the Morall that some divide in three, to wit, Ethique, that doth forme the manners of one man, Secondly in Ecoenomick, that doth dispose the actions domesticke: The third in Politicque, that comprehend the actions Civill; concerning the government of Common-wealths, which containeth under it the whole science of right civilitie. And with Practique, is also placed Dialectique, the Art of memory, the Grammar, the Rhetorique, to which also may be joyned the Art Poetique, and of Histories. But for their particular divisions I am not prolixious, as inutile to my designe in hand; divers dedicate themselves to the knowledge of these sciences, not knowing that they forget the most necessary, to wit, the science of the world.... This science is onely acquisted by conversation, and haunting the company of the most experimented: by divers discourses, reports, by writs, or by a lively voyce, in communicating with strangers; and in the judicious consideration of the fashion of the living one with another. And above all, and principally by Travellers, and Voyagers in divers Regions, and remote places, whose experience confirmeth the true Science thereof; and can best draw the anatomy of humane condition."

"May not the scelerate hands of foure blood-shedding wolves facily devoure, and shake a peeces, one silly stragling lambe?"

"The Pilgrimes Farewell, to his Native Country of Scotland (1618)"

"All that can rationally be claimed is that a teacher or teachers named Jesus, or several differently named teachers called Messiahs, may have Messianically uttered some of these teachings at various periods, presumably after the writing of the Pauline epistles."

"...temples, called by the Europeans Pagodas are ... very numerous, especially In the southern provinces, and some of them of such remote antiquity, that no account is left, either in writing or by tradition, when or by whom they were erected. But the northern provinces being first conquered, the feat of the Mahomedan government fixed, and its greatest force exerted in those parts ; most of the temples were destroyed, the images of stone broken, and those of metal melted to cover the floors of the mosques and palaces, that the faithful Musulman should have the satisfaction daily to trample on what had been held sacred by the Hindoo."

"India is not only the Italy of Asia, it is not only the land of romance of art and beauty, and it is in religion, earth's central shrine. India is religion."

"I would have been a much more popular World Champion if I had always said what people wanted to hear. I might have been dead, but definitely more popular."

"When you've got dyslexia and you find something you're good at, you put more into it than anyone else; you can't think the way of the clever folk, so you're always thinking out of the box. So you sometimes can be considerably better at what you latch onto than anybody else. It saved my life, because I had been humiliated and frustrated."

"When the anchor is off the ground and the ship begins a voyage one of the first orders is "a hand aloft to the lookout.""

"It's 'Damn you, Jack - I'm all right!' with you chaps."

"The maritime importance of a nation in the ways of commerce is not wholly measured by the numbers and tonnage of fast and luxurious steamships possessed, but rather by the countless smaller and perhaps unimposing vessels that carry its national flag to remote places."

"When an ocean voyage is drawing to an end and the passengers are busily employed in their preparations for disembarking, the lookoutman's bell rings out with unusual frequency."

"In the same Kurumbranad District, William Logan records a famed temple being destroyed: ‘In Ponmeri amsham, 5 miles from Badagara, is a Siva temple which is 124½ feet by 87 feet. It is sculptured. The roof of the shrine is covered with copper. There is a granite slab at the eastern entrance . . . the temple is very old and was destroyed by Tippu’s soldiers.’57"

"So far as the history of Malabar region is concerned, the most dependable book for basic historical facts is definitely the Malabar Manual written by William Logan. Serving in various administrative positions including that of a Collector for 20 years upto 1886, he had gone through and extensively researched a variety of documents for preparing his well-acclaimed book. The present edition has been scrutinized, edited and published by the reputed Muslim historian, Dr. C.K. Kareem, with the support of Cochin and Kerala universities. Therefore, the authenticity of its contents cannot be doubted."

"According to the Malabar Manual of William Logan who was the District Collector for some time, Thrichambaram and Thalipparampu temples in Chirackal Taluqa, Thiruvangatu Temple (Brass Pagoda) in Tellicherry, and Ponmeri Temple near Badakara were all destroyed by Tipu Sultan. The Malabar Manual mention that the Maniyoor mosque was once a Hindu temple. The local belief is that it was converted to a mosque during the days of Tipu Sultan."

"The Company’s Resident at Calicut Sir Francis Gordon too had confirmed reports that the forces under Lally and Khan had received ‘orders to surround and extirpate the whole race of Nayars from Kottayam to Palghat.’"

"He had it (the dead body of the prince) dragged by elephants through his camp and it was subsequently hung up on a tree along with seventeen of the followers of the prince who had been captured alive."

"‘the factors now learnt that the Brahman messengers were no longer safe; a Brahman selected to convey the message refused to go; and assigned as his reason that there was a “report prevailing that the Nabob [Tipu] had issued orders for all the Brahmans on the coast to be seized and sent up to Seringapatam.”"

"Now, let us turn to the facts of history, compiled and presented in Malabar Manual of William Logan published over a hundred years ago. William Logan was Collector of Malabar and worked in various capacities for over twenty years in Kerala, before 1886. The highly acclaimed Malabar Manual was the result of his strenuous research and study of various official records, oral history, and legends of Kerala."

"200 Brahmans had been seized and confined, made Mussulmen, and forced to eat beef and other things contrary to their caste."

"Fact being that the Malabar Manual was first published just eight years after the 1876-78 famine, the statement that post the 1727 famine there was no record of any famine in Malabar is more of a deliberate attempt on the part of Logan to conceal the truth."

"Two things are essential to the astrologer, namely, a bag of cowries and an almanac, When any one comes to consult him he quietly sits down, facing the sun, on a plank seat or mat, murmuring some mantrams or sacred verses, opens his bag of cowries and pours them on the floor. With his right hand he moves them slowly round and round, solemnly inciting meanwhile a stanza or two in praise of his guru or teacher and of his deity, invoking their help. He then stops and explains what, lie has been doing, at the same time taking a handful of cowries from the heap and placing them on one side. In front is a diagram drawn with chalk on tire floor and consisting of twelve compartments. Before commencing operations with the diagram he selects three or five of the cowries highest up in tho heap and places them in a line on the right-hand side. These represent Ganapati (the Belly God, the remover of difficulties), the sun, the planet Jupiter, Sarasvati (the Goddess of speech), and his own Guru or preceptor. To all of those the astrologor gives due obeisance, touching his ears and the ground three times with both hands. The cowries are next arranged in the compartments of tho diagram and are moved about from compartment to compartment by the astrologer, who quotes meanwhile tho authority on which ho makes such moves. Finally he explains the result, and ends with again worshipping the deified cowries who were witnessing the operation as spectators."

"Like tho Pandava brothers, as they proudly point out, tho Kanisans used formerly to have one wife in common among several brothers, and this custom is still observed by some of them. Their custom of inheritance is consequently from father to son, and the son performs the funeral ceremonies. But in all other respects their marriage and death ceremonies seem to Have a Marumakkathayam origin."

"In North Malabar the caste generally follows the Marumakkathayam system of inheritance, while in South Malabar tho descent of property is generally from father to son. Not unfrequently, however; two brothers, or more oven, marry one wife. If she have but one son tho child is fathered on the elder brother."

"The younger cadets of Nambutiri families live with Nayar women merely reproduces in English the Malayali mode of describing the married life of these people and of the Nayars. It is part of the theory that the women they live with are not wives, that they may part at will, and that they may form now connections. This part of tho Malabar law has, in the hands of unenquiring commentators, brought much undeserved obloquy on the morality of tho people."

"The wild elephant is the most important animal of the district. Without his assistance, when domesticated, it would be difficult indeed to work the forests. Wherever you go in the forests you find numberless pitfalls excavated for his capture; but, as a rule, they are mostly old ones, half filled in. Numbers of .elephants are captured by Nayars and Mappillas, and broken in for timber dragging, winch is done entirely by the teeth ; the elephant seizing a thick cable made of grewia fibre in his trunk, and biting the end between his molars, drags the log, to which the other end of the cable has been made fast."

"The most characteristic custom of tho Nayars is connected with their marriages. Every Nayar girl is married in one sense at a very early age. The tali is tied round her neck before she attains puberty, and it is considered to be disgraceful in her relations not to have this ceremony performed before that event takes place. The tying of tho tali is a great event in each household, and frequently several girls go through this ceremony simultaneously. When this can be managed it enables the family to make a greater display than they would probably be able to afford if there was a separate ceremony for each girl."