Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	great_a	see_v	world_n	7,593	5	4.4143	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52112	A late voyage to St. Kilda, the remotest of all the Hebrides, or the Western isles of Scotland with a history of the island, natural moral, and topographical : wherein is an account of their customes religion, fish, fowl, &c. : as also a relation of a late impostor there, pretended to be sent by St. John Baptist / by M. Martin, gent.	Martin, Martin, d. 1719.	1698 (1698)	Wing M847	47,099	181

Wind follows some Hours afterwards It is observed of the Sea betwixt St. Kilda and the Isles Lewis Harries c. that it rages more with a North Wind than when it Blows from any other Quarter And it is likewise observed to be less raging with the South Wind than any other They know the time of the Day by the Motion of the Sun from one Hill or Rock to another upon either of these the Sun is observed to appear at different times and when the Sun doth not appear they measure the Day by the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea which they can tell exactly though they should not see the Shoar for some Days together Their knowledge of the Tides depends upon the changes of the Moon which they likewise observe and are very nice in it They use for their Diversion short Clubs and Balls of Wood the Sand is a fair Field for this Sport and Exercise in which they take great Pleasure and are very nimble at it they play for some Eggs Fowls Hooks or Tobacco and so eager are they for Victory that they strip themselves to their Shirts to obtain it They use Swimming and Diving and are very expert in both The Women have their Assemblies in the middle of the Village where they discourse of their Affairs but in the mean time employing their Distaff and Spinning in order to make their Blankets they Sing and Jest for Diversion and in their way understand Poetry and make Rhimes in their Language Both Men and Women are very Courteous as often as they passed by us every Day they Saluted us with their ordinary Compliment of God save you each of them making their respective Courtesies Both Sexes have a great Inclination to Novelty and perhaps any thing may be thought new with them that is but different from their way of managing Land Cattel Fowls c. A parcel of them were always attending the Minister and me admiring our Habit Behaviour and in a word all that we did or said was wonderful in their Esteem but above all Writing was the most astonishing to them they cannot conceive how it is possible for any Mortal to express the Conceptions of his Mind in such Black Characters upon White Paper After they had with admiration argued upon this Subject I told them That within the compass of Two Years or less if they pleased they might easily be taught to Read and Write but they were not of the Opinion that either of them could be obtained at least by them in an Age. The Officer in his Embassy in July last Travelled so far as to Land on the Continent next to Sky and it was a long Journy for a Native of St. Kilda so to do for scarce any of the Inhabitants ever had the opportunity of Travelling so great a way into the World They observed many wonderful things in the course of their Travels but they have a Notion that Mack-Leod's Family is Equivalent to that of an Imperial Court and believe the King to be only Superior to him They say his Lady wore such a strange Lowland Dress that it was impossible for them to describe it they admired Glass Windows hugely and a Looking-Glass to them was a prodigy they were amazed when they saw Cloth Hangings put upon a thick Wall of Stone and Lime and condemn'd it as a thing very Vain and Superfluous They reckon the Year Quarter and Month as generally is done all Britain over They compute the several Periods of Time by the Lives of the Proprietors and Stewards of whose great Actions they have a Tradition of which they discourse with as great satisfaction as any Historian reflecting on the Caesars or greatest Generals in the World They account Riding one of the greatest pieces of Grandeur here upon Earth and told me with a strange admiration that Mack-Leod did not Travel on foot as they supposed all other Men did and that they had seen several Horses kept on purpose by him for Riding One of their Number Landing in the Isle of Harries enquired who was the Proprietor of those Lands They told him that it was Mack-Leod which did not a little raise his Opinion of him this Man afterwards when he was in the Isle of Sky and had Travelled some Miles there one Day standing upon an Eminence and looking round about him he fancied he saw a great part of the World and then enquired to whom those Lands did belong and when one of the Company had acquainted him that Mack-Leod was Master of those Lands also the St. Kilda Man lifting up his Eyes and Hands to Heaven cried out with admiration O Mighty Prine who art Master of such Vast Territories This he express'd so emphatically in the Irish Language that the Saying from that time became a Proverb whenever any body would express a Greatness and Plenitude of Power One of the things they wondred most at was the growth of Trees they thought the Beauty of the Leaves and Branches admirable and how they grew to such a height above Plants was far above their Conception One of them marvelling at it told me That the Trees pulled him back as he Travelled through the Woods They resolved once to carry some few of them on their Backs to their Boats and so to take them to St. Kilda but upon second thoughts the length of the Journy being through the greatest part of the Isle of Sky deterr'd them from this undertaking for though they excell others in Strength yet they are very bad Travellers on foot they being but little used to it One of their Number having Travelled in the Isle of Sky to the South part of it thought this a prodigious Journy and seeing in the opposite Continent the Shire of Inverness divided from Sky only by a narrow Sea enquired of the Company if that was the Border of England One of the St. Kilda Men after he had taken a pretty large Dose of Aqua-Vitae and was become very heavy with it as he was falling into a Sleep and fancying it was to have been his last express'd to his Companions the great satisfaction he had in meeting with such an easy passage out of this World For said he it is attended with no kind of Pain In short their Opinion of Foreign Objects is as remote from the ordinary Sentiments of other Mankind as they are themselves from all Foreign Converse I must not omit acquainting the Reader that the Account given of the Seamens Rudeness to the Inhabitants has created great prejudices in them against Seamen in general and though I endeavoured to bring them into some good Opinion of them it will not be I hope improper here to deliver the Terms upon which the Inhabitants are resolved to receive Strangers and no otherwise They will not admit of any Number exceeding Ten and those too must be Unarmed for else the Inhabitants will oppose them with all their might but if any Number of them not exceeding that abovesaid come Peaceably

and with good designs they may expect Water and Fire Gratis and what else the place affords at the easiest rates in the World The Inhabitants of St. Kilda are much happier than the generality of Mankind as being almost the only People in the World who feel the sweetness of true Liberty What the Condition of the People in the Golden Age is feign'd by the Poets to be that theirs really is I mean in Innocency and Simplicity Purity Mutual Love and Cordial Friendship free from solicitous Cares and anxious Covetousness from Envy Deceit and Dissimulation from Ambition and Pride and the Consequences that attend them They are altogether ignorant of the Vices of Foreigners and governed by the Dictates of Reason and Christianity as it was first delivered to them by those Heroick Souls whose Zeal moved them to undergo danger and trouble to plant Religion here in one of the remotest Corners of the World There is this only wanting to make them the Happiest People in this Habitable Globe viz. That they themselves do not know how happy they are and how much they are above the Avarice and Slavery of the rest of Mankind Their way of living makes them contemn Gold and Silver as below the Dignity of Human Nature they live by the Munificence of Heaven and have no Designs upon one another but such as are purely suggested by Justice and Benevolence There being about Thirty of the Inhabitants one Day together in the Isle Soa they espied a Man with a Grey Coat and Plad in a Shirt floating on the Sea upon his Belly and saw likewise a Mall pecking at his Neck this Vision continued above a Quarter of an Hour and then disappeared but shortly after one of the Spectators chanc'd to fall into the Sea and being Drowned resembled the forewarning Vision in all things and the Mall was also seen upon his Neck this was told me by the Steward some Years before and afterwards was confirmed to me by such as were themselves Eye-witnesses of it None of the Inhabitants pretended to the Second Sight except Roderick the Impostor and one Woman and she told her Neighbours that she saw some Weeks before our coming a Boat different from that of the Steward with some Strangers in it drawing near to their Isle An Account of one Roderick supposed to have bad Conversation with a Familiar Spirit and pretending to be Sent by St. John the Baptist with New Revelations and Discoveries AFTER our Landing the Minister and I according to our first resolution examined the Inhabitants apart by themselves concerning the New pretended Religion delivered to them by their False Prophet All of them Young as well as Old both Men and Women unanimously agreed in this following Account They did heartily Congratulate the Minister's Arrival and at the same time declared their Abhorrence of the Impostor's Delusions and with repeated Instances begg'd for the Lord's sake that he might be for ever removed out of the Isle This Impostor is a Comely well-proportioned Fellow Red-hair'd and exceeding all the Inhabitants of St. Kilda in Strength Climbing c. He is Illiterate and under the same circumstances with his Companions for he had not so much as the Advantage of ever seeing any of the Western Isles all his Converse being only with the Steward's Retinue who were as ignorant of Letters as himself In the Eighteenth Year of his Age he took the Liberty of going to Fish on a Sunday a practice altogether unknown in St. Kilda and he asserts That in his return homeward a Man in Lowland Dress i. e. a Cloak and Hat appeared to him upon the Road at this unexpected Meeting Roderick falls flat on the Ground in great disorder upon which this Man desired him not to be surprized at his Presence for he was John the Baptist immediately come from Heaven with good Tidings to the Inhabitants of that place who had been for a long time kept in Ignorance and Error that he had Commission to Instruct Roderick in the Laws of Heaven for the Edification of his Neighbours Roderick answered That he was no way qualified for so great a Charge the pretended John Baptist desired him to be of good Courage for he would instantly make him capable for his Mission and then delivered to him the following Scheme in which he so mixed the laudable Customs of the Church with his own Diabolical Inventions that it became impossible for so Ignorant a People as they to distinguish the one from the other The First and Principal Command which be imposed upon them was that of the Friday's Fast which he enjoined to be observed with such strictness as not to allow one of them to taste any kind of Food before Night no not so much as a Snuff of Tobacco which they love dearly this bare Fast without any Religious Exercise attending it was the first Badge and Cognizance of his Followers He persuaded the People that some of their Deceased Neighbours were Nominated Saints in Heaven and Advocates for them here who surviv'd he told every one had his respective Advocate the Anniversary of every Saint was to be commemorated by every Person under whose Tutelage they were reputed to be And this was observed by Treating the Neighbours with a liberal Entertainment of Beef or Mutton Fowls c. the Impostor himself being always the chief Guest at the Feast where a Share of the Entertainment was punctually sent to his Wife and Children the Number of Sheep ordinarily consumed on these occasions was proportionable to the Ability of him that bestowed them He imposed likewise several Penances which they were obliged to submit to under the pain of being expelled from the Society of his Fraternity in Worship which he pretended to be founded upon no less Authority than that of St. John the Baptist's and threatned to inflict the saddest Judgments upon those as should prove Refractory and not obey his Injunctions The ordinary Penances he laid upon them were to make them stand in Cold Water without regard to the Season whether Frost or otherwise during his pleasure and if there were any more of them upon whom this Severity was to be Inflicted they were to pour Cold Water upon one another's Heads until they had satisfied his Tyrannical Humour This Diabolical Severity was Evidence enough that he was sent by him who is the Father of Lies and was a Murtherer from the beginning He commanded that every Family should Slay a Sheep upon the Threshold of their Doors but a Knife must not so much as touch it he would have them only make use of their Crooked Spades for their Instruments to Kill them with for which if duly considered there is nothing more improper the Edge with which he commanded the Sheep's Neck to be cut being almost Half an Inch thick Now this was to be done in the Evening and if either Young or Old had Tasted a bit of the Meat of it that Night the equivalent Number of Sheep were to