The sole result of her meditations
was the resolve to get some amusement out of him by means of
a knowledge of his history superior to his own.
CHAPTER XXX: THE REVIVAL
Before the close of the herring fishing, one of those movements of
the spiritual waters, which in different forms, and under different
names, manifest themselves at various intervals of space and of
time, was in full vortex. It was supposed by the folk of Portlossie
to have begun in the village of Scaurnose, but by the time it was
recognized as existent, no one could tell whence it had come, any
more than he could predict whither it was going. Of its spiritual
origin it may be also predicated with confidence that its roots lay
deeper than human insight could reach, and were far more interwoven
than human analysis could disentangle.
One notable fact bearing on its nature was, that it arose amongst
the people themselves, without the intervention or immediate
operation of the clergy, who indeed to a man were set against it.
Hence the flood was at first free from the results of one influence
most prolific of the pseudo spiritual, namely, the convulsive efforts
of men with faith in a certain evil system of theology, to rouse a
galvanic life by working on the higher feelings through the electric
sympathies of large assemblages, and the excitement of late hours,
prolonged prayers and exhortations, and sometimes even direct
appeal to individuals in public presence.
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