from Dingwall, in Ross-shire. Thus he was not only a Scot, but a
Scot with a strong infusion of the Celtic element, the element
whence the Scotch derive most of what distinguishes them from the
English. The Scot is more excitable, more easily brought to a glow
of passion, more apt to be eagerly absorbed in one thing at a time.
He is also more fond of abstract intellectual effort. It is not
merely that the taste for metaphysical theology is commoner in
Scotland than in England, but that the Scotch have a stronger relish
for general principles. They like to set out by ascertaining and
defining such principles, and then to pursue a series of logical
deductions from them. They are, therefore, somewhat bolder
reasoners than the English, less content to remain in the region of
concrete facts, more eager to hasten on to the process of working
out a body of speculative doctrines. The Englishman is apt to plume
himself on being right in spite of logic; the Scotchman delights to
think that it is through logic he has reached his conclusions, and
that he can by logic defend them. These are qualities which Mr.
Gladstone drew from his Scottish blood. He had a keen enjoyment of
the processes of dialectic. He loved to get hold of an abstract
principle and to derive all sorts of conclusions from it. He was
wont to begin the discussion of a question by laying down two or
three sweeping propositions covering the subject as a whole, and
would then proceed to draw from these others which he could apply to
the particular matter in hand. His well-stored memory and boundless
ingenuity made this finding of such general propositions so easy a
task that a method in itself agreeable sometimes appeared to be
carried to excess. He frequently arrived at conclusions which the
judgment of the sober auditor did not approve, because, although
they seemed to have been legitimately deduced from the general
principles just enunciated, they were somehow at variance with the