1870 Rare Book - The STARLING - A Scotch Story by Norman MacLeod.
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(Description)
Author: Norman MacLeod, D.D.
Title: The Starling.
Publisher: New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, no date (1870).
Language: Text in English.
Size: 7.5 " X 5 ".
Pages: 392 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good original gilt decorated full-cloth binding (hinges fine, overall slightly scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing - as shown).
The book: Scarce in this binding variant. Beautiful Edition of The Starling by Norman MacLeod.
The story of the Starling was suggested to Dr. Macleod by the following note which he received from the former editor of the Reformers’ Gazette in Glasgow :—
"Suffer me to give you the following story which I heard in Perth upwards of forty years ago. A very rigid clergyman of that city had a very decent shoemaker for an elder, who had an extreme liking for birds of all kinds, not a few of which he kept in cages, and they cheered him in his daily work. He taught one of them in particular (a starling) to whistle some of our finest old Scottish tunes. It happened on a fine Sunday morning the starling was in fine feather, and as the minister was passing by he heard the starling singing with great glee in the cage outside his door, Ower the water to Charlie! The worthy minister was so shocked at this on the Sabbath morning that on Monday he insisted the shoemaker would either wring the bird’s neck, or demit the office of elder. This was a cruel alternative, but the decent shoemaker clung to his favourite bird and prospered. If he had murdered the innocent, would the Sabbath have been sanctified to him ?—Yours faithfully, PETER MACKENZIE."
From this brief narrative the tale was written. In his journal the author recorded:
"I am writing the Starling for Good Words, to illustrate the one-sidedness and consequent untruth of hard, logical principle when in conflict with genuine moral feeling, true faith versus apparent truth of reasoning."
The author: Reverend Norman Macleod (3 June 1812 – 16 June 1872) was a Scottish clergyman and author. He was born in Campeltown; both his father and his grandfather bore the same name. After study at Glasgow and Edinburgh, he became a minister in 1838. At the Disruption of 1843, leading to formation of the Free Church, he remained with the Church of Scotland. In 1851 he was called to the Barony Church in Glasgow, remaining there for the rest of his career, and undertaking writing and magazine edtorship. In 1869 he was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He died in Glasgow.