The elder Merle is the most rigid of Puritans, a
light of his own sect ; and though by nature a gentle
and amiable man, impregnated with the dour theol-
ogy and stem tenets of his creed. His son James
commits what is in his father's eyes the impardon-
able sin of falling in love with the daughter of the
village innkeeper. The poor boy is preached over
and prayed over, not only by his father, but by
several worthy divines, among whom the famous
John Brown, of Haddington, is introduced. Prayers
and preachings have, however, no effect in turning
the young man from the girl whom he loves. Un-
luckily for everybody, after an agitating scene,
in which old Merle proclaims his undying oppo-
sition to a marriage between his son and the
publican's daughter, he is struck with paralysis,
and seems like to die. Then the son is prevailed
upon, sorely against his will, to promise his dying
father that he will not marry the girl of his choice
unless his aunt, in whose fidelity to her creed the
father evidently trusts, should give her consent
to his doing so. The story ends happily, the young
man, when he finds that his betrothed is fretting
herself into the grave, taking the law into his own
hands, and boldly relinquishing^ the promise ex-
torted from him on the plea that it alone coidd save
his father's life. But before this "happy ending"
is reached, the hero has to pass through various
experiences in Glasgow, and these experiences
not only enable the author to draw some graphic
pictures of Glasgow life in the middle of the eigh-

24



''JAMES MERLE"

teenth century, but furnish an excuse for the in-
troduction of many amusing characters. The
strongest feature of the book is the serious spirit
in which it discusses various religious and meta-
physical questions. There are free references to
the prophets and the psalmist. The Bible is, in-
deed, constantly in requisition for illustrations to
the story, and always it is treated in a spirit of genu-
ine reverence. The feeUng for scenery, which was
so marked a feature of Black's later writings, is
plainly visible in James Merle, though the author
never ventures upon any long flights of descriptive
writing, his references to the beauties of nature
being as terse as they are effective.
