synagogue, against 'right-hand extremes and left-hand
defections.' And surely there are few worse extremes
than this extremity of zeal; and few more deplorable
defections than this disloyalty to Christian love.
Shakespeare wrote a comedy of 'Much Ado about Nothing.'
The Scottish nation made a fantastic tragedy on the same
subject. And it is for the success of this remarkable
piece that these bells are sounded every Sabbath morning
on the hills above the Forth. How many of them might
rest silent in the steeple, how many of these ugly
churches might be demolished and turned once more into
useful building material, if people who think almost
exactly the same thoughts about religion would condescend
to worship God under the same roof! But there are the
chalk lines. And which is to pocket pride, and speak the
foremost word?


CHAPTER V.
GREYFRIARS.


IT was Queen Mary who threw open the gardens of the
Grey Friars: a new and semi-rural cemetery in those days,
although it has grown an antiquity in its turn and been
superseded by half-a-dozen others. The Friars must have
had a pleasant time on summer evenings; for their gardens
were situated to a wish, with the tall castle and the
tallest of the castle crags in front. Even now, it is
one of our famous Edinburgh points of view; and strangers