[The Black Dwarf by Sir Walter Scott]@TWC D-Link bookThe Black Dwarf INTRODUCTION 12/18
When irritated by persons for whom he entertained little respect, his misanthropy displayed itself in words, and sometimes in actions, of still greater rudeness; and he used on such occasions the most unusual and singularly savage imprecations and threats." [SCOTS MAGAZINE, vol.lxxx.
p.207.] Nature maintains a certain balance of good and evil in all her works; and there is no state perhaps so utterly desolate, which does not possess some source of gratification peculiar to itself, This poor man, whose misanthropy was founded in a sense on his own preternatural deformity, had yet his own particular enjoyments.
Driven into solitude, he became an admirer of the beauties of nature.
His garden, which he sedulously cultivated, and from a piece of wild moorland made a very productive spot, was his pride and his delight; but he was also an admirer of more natural beauty: the soft sweep of the green hill, the bubbling of a clear fountain, or the complexities of a wild thicket, were scenes on which he often gazed for hours, and, as he said, with inexpressible delight.
It was perhaps for this reason that he was fond of Shenstone's pastorals, and some parts of PARADISE LOST.
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