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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"That's an honest man, Alec," said Cupples. "He is," returned Alec. "But he never will do as other people do." "Perhaps that's the source of his honesty - that he walks by an inward light," said Cupples thoughtfully." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXIV)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"Nor had he found it so hard to conquer his fearful habit [of drink] as even he had expected; for with every week passed in bitter abstinence, some new well would break from the rich soil of his intellect..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"…what a fine thing illness is for bringing people to their right minds." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXIII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"Ye're no to mak' the serpent yer cooncellor, man. But ance ye ken yer duty, ye may weel tak example by him hoo to carry 't oot. Did ye ever see an edder lyin' ower a stane as gin he was naething but a stick himsel', bidin' 's time? That's me, i' the Scriptur' sense. I'm only bidin' till I see hoo..

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"Hoot! Willie," said his father, "what's come ower ye? Ye luik as gin some lass had said na to ye." "Some lasses' no's better nor ither lasses' ay, father." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

"Ane by ane they gang awa'. The gatherer gathers great an' sma'. Ane by ane maks ane an' a'. Aye whan ane is ta'en frae ane, Ane on earth is left alane, Twa in heaven are knit again. Whan God's hairst is in or lang, Golden-heidit, ripe, and thrang, Syne begins a better sang." George MacDonald

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

"He went on… with wandering thoughts that in their wildest vagaries were yet tending homeward; and which when least sound, were yet busy with the wisest of mortal business—repentance…" George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

"He was going to "the land o' the Leal" (loyal), the true-hearted, to wait for his wife, whose rheumatism was no chariot of fire for swiftness, whatever it might be for pain, to bear her to the "high countries." ..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

"…there was a curious admixture of outward lawlessness with the perfect inward obedience of the girl…" George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXI)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"…With one or other of these [books] she would wander along the banks of the clear brown Glamour, now watching it as it subdued its rocks or lay asleep in its shadowy pools, now reading a page or two, or now seating herself on the grass, & letting the dove of peace fold its wings upon her bosom..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

" 'Let bygones be bygones, if you please, Mr Cupples,' said Mrs Forbes pleasantly. " 'Deed no, mem. What's the use o' byganes but to learn frae them hoo to meet the bycomes?' " George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXI)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

"…she knew that the goal of all life is the face of God. Perhaps she had to learn a yet higher lesson: that our one free home is the Heart, the eternal lovely Will of God, than that which should fail, it were better that we and all the worlds should go out in blackness..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

"Any day, from morning till evening in summer, she might be descried—a streak of white in the blue water—lying as still as the shadow of a cloud, or shooting along like a dolphin; disappearing, and coming up again far off, just where one did not expect her." (George MacDonald)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

"I hae been to the hills." "And what got ye there?" … "Weel, I got the blue lift." "And what was that to ye?" ...

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

"…she had seen the face of God, and that face was Love - love like the human, only deeper, deeper-tenderer, lovelier, stronger. She could not recall what she had seen, or how she had known it..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

"…I sat doon in a summer-seat that I cam' upo', and smokit my pipe and luikit at the stars and the cluds. And I tried to sing a sang, but naething but psalms wad come, for the nicht's sae awfu' solemn, whan ye win richt intil the mids o' 't! ..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Some of the plentiful humour in MacDonald's "The Light Princess." buymeacoffee.com/gmd.reflecti...

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Playing At Ball — Pearl Seeker

Post by Pearl Seeker

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

"At length, one lovely morning, when the green corn lay soaking in the yellow sunlight, and the sky rose above the earth deep and pure and tender like the thought of God about it, Alec became suddenly aware that life was good, and the world beautiful." George MacDonald

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

"…every day he climbed to the top of one or other of the hills which inclosed the valley, and was rewarded with fresh vigour and renewed joy. He had not learned to read Wordsworth; yet not a wind blew through a broom-bush, but it blew a joy from it into his heart..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

"…it was the harder for Mr Cupples, in his loneliness, to do battle with his deep-rooted desires. He would never drink as he had done, but might he not have just one tumbler? - That one tumbler he did not take. And - rich reward! ...

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The partial sentence in the front matter of George MacDonald's "Dealings With the Fairies," could be seen and experienced as part of the preparation of the reader for the entrance into fairyland: "Where more is meant than meets the ear" ... buymeacoffee.com/gmd.reflecti...

buymeacoffee.com

Behind and Beyond the Words — Pearl Seeker

Post by Pearl Seeker

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Music obviously meant a great deal to MacDonald, & it could move him deeply, even to tears. But perhaps his innate musicality & sensitivity was too fine for him to be able to express himself in the language of ordinary music, as much as the spirit of music was able to impress itself upon him…

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

"…having never been taught to provide for her own mental sustenance, and so nourish a necessary independence, she had been too ready to squander the wealth of a rich and lovely nature upon an unworthy person…" George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXVIII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

"It's ower late for ye to gang hame yer lane, dawtie," said the old man. "I'm nae that fleyt," answered Annie. "Weel, gin ye walk wi' Him, the mirk'll be licht aboot ye," said he, taking off his Highland bonnet, and looking up with a silent recognition of the care of Him...

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

"And now the dark roots of thought and feeling blossomed into the fair flower of resolution." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXVI)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

"…He had, as was his custom in trouble, betaken himself straightway to "the throne of grace," and "wrestled in prayer" with God…" George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXIII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

"… [he] would soon have had very little to learn if things had not taken a turn. A great hand is sometimes laid even on the fly-wheel of life's engine." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

"There are facts in human life which human artists cannot touch. The great Artist can weave them into the grand whole of his Picture, but to the human eye they look too ugly and too painful. Even the man who can do the deeds dares not represent them." George MacDonald

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

"Alec had a very even temper. But a headache and a sore conscience together were enough to upset it. To be out of temper with oneself is to be out of temper with the universe." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXI)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

"In a moment more they were in a gentle twilight of green, flashed with streaks of gold. A forest of delicate young larches crowded them in, their rich brown cones hanging like the knops that looped up their dark garments fringed with paler green...

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

"I think any kind of emotion lightens labour. And I think the labour lightened his pain; and I know he was not so absorbed in his unhappiness…" George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXIX)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

"A man canna do weel withoot some woman or ither to tell him the trowth." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXVIII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

"Thomas remained kneeling, with his arms stretched out as stiff as the poles of a scaffold, and the joints of his clasped fingers buried in the roots of the grass. The stone piers of the wooden bridge fell into the water with a rush, but he never heard it..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Alec!" shouted Thomas, in a voice that might have been heard across the roar of the Glamour, "Will ye lat the women droon?" "Thomas," answered Alec, meekly, trembling from head to foot, "gin I gang to the boddom, I gang to hell." ...

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

"…many a night…would Alec again unmoor the boat, and drop down the water alone, letting the banks go dreaming past him—not always sure that he was not dreaming himself, and would not suddenly awake and find himself in his bed, and not afloat between heaven and earth..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

"Hope, supplied by his own heart, was the sunlight in which he revived. He had one advantage over some lovers—that he was no metaphysician. He did not torture himself with vain attempts to hold his brain as a mirror to his heart, that he might read his heart there..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

" 'Isna the warl' fu' o' bonnie things cheap?' Thomas went on. 'The sun's fine and het the day. And syne whan he's mair nor we can bide, there's lots o' shaidows lyin' aboot upo' the face o' the warl'; though they say there's some countries whaur they're scarce..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

The Miss Witherspin sisters in "Weighed and Wanting" are painted vividly by MacDonald as representatives of something that also crops up now and again elsewhere in his writings. Namely, together with associated characteristics, they are the epitome of self-pity...

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

"She trusted him and believed in him as much as she had ever done. In the end, those who trust most will find they are nearest the truth. But Annie had no philosophy, either worldly or divine. She had only common sense, gentleness, and faithfulness." George MacDonald

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

"...if she could only have left pitying herself and let God love her she would have got on well enough..." George MacDonald (From "Weighed and Wanting," CHAPTER VII, AMY AMBER) gmdreflections.substack.com/p/george-mac...

gmdreflections.substack.com

George MacDonald - "Weighed and Wanting," CHAPTER VII, Amy Amber

"Some gentle crisis must have arrived in the history of Hester, for in these days her heart was more sensitive and more sympathetic than ever before..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

"The window was open, and through the encircling ivy, as through a filter of shadows, the air came fresh and cool. Beyond the shadow of the house lay the sunshine, a warm sea of brooding glory, of still power..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

"It is not by driving away our brother that we can be alone with God… The love of the brethren opens the door into God's chamber, which is within ours." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER XLV)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

"Without the upholding sense of duty, no man can be sure of his own behaviour, simply because he cannot be sure of his own nerves." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER XLIII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

"Gin ye'll tak my advice, ye'll tak a dose o' mathematics direckly. It's a fine alterative as weel as antidote…" George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER XLIII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

"Thousands that are capable of great sacrifices are yet not capable of the little ones which are all that are required of them. God seems to take pleasure in working by degrees; the progress of the truth is as the permeation of leaven, or the growth of a seed..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

"…intent upon a certain course of investigation… The truth was unfolding itself gently and willingly." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER XLI)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

"…many enthusiasms are follies only because they are not greater enthusiasms…" George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER XL)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

"Have you been to the country, Mr Cupples?" asked Alec, as he took a chair. "The country! Na, I haena been i' the country. I'm a toon-snail. The country's for calves and geese. It's ower green for me. I like the gray stanes—weel biggit, to haud oot the cauld..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

"Mr Cupples was a baffled poet trying to be a humourist—baffled—not by the booksellers or the public—for such baffling one need not have a profound sympathy—but baffled by his own weakness, his incapacity for assimilating sorrow..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

"…She saw too that there was a light on the face, a light which came neither from the sun in the sky, nor the sunbeam on the wall, towards which it was unconsciously turned. I think it must have been the heavenly bow itself, shining upon all human clouds…" George MacDonald

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