of Aberdeen in 1882; and was appointed Burnett Lecturer in the University in 1888. Between 1888 and 1891 he delivered three courses of lectures on "The Primitive Religion of the Shemitic Peoples viewed in their relation to other ancient Religions and to the spiritual religion of the Old Testament and Christianity." For several years he had been suffering from ill-health, yet was always courageous and hopeful, and continued to work assiduously. He died at Cambridge on the 31st of March, 1894. His principal writings consist of a series of important articles contributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica on Biblical subjects, embracing "Angel," "Bible," "Canticles," "Chronicles," "Haggai," "Hebrew Language and Literature," and other articles. These created much alarm, and led to proceedings in the Free Church courts, mentioned before, but they are all excellent specimens of historical criticism and interpretation. In 1881 his work entitled The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, Twelve Lectures on Biblical Criticism, appeared; the lectures were delivered to large audiences in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In his preface to the work he says--"It is of the first importance that the reader should realise that Biblical criticism is not the invention of modern scholars but the legitimate interpretation of historical facts. . . The great value of historical criticism is that it makes the Bible more real to us. In all true religion the new rests upon the old. No one, then, to whom Christianity is a reality, can safely acquiesce in an unreal conception of the Old Testament history; and, in an age when all are interested in historical research, no apologetic can prevent thoughtful minds from drifting from faith if the historical study of the Old Testament is condemned by the Church and left in the hands of unbelievers." This work shows evidence of wide and careful re search, accurate knowledge, and rare discrimination. His work on Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia was published in 1885, and it is marked by his characteristic faculty of handling historical subjects. The first series of his Burnett Lectures on the Religion of the Semites was published in 1889, and is a very remarkable work. His historical method was thorough, embracing a search for everything relating to the subject. His keen insight, and faculty of digesting and explicating the customs and characteristics of early religions, were marvellous. His mind was vigorous and intently active, and his acquired knowledge vast and varied. The result of his supreme efforts for freedom of Biblical criticism has been remarkable. There are a considerable number of periodical publications devoted to religious literature which are pretty widely circulated in Scotland. Fiction of a religious turn and character has also been freely produced and circulated during the present generation. In short, religious literature, both in its higher and lower departments, has undergone a marked change and improvement within the present century. In the higher department of religious thought, and the historical criticism and exposition of the Scriptures, there has been a revolution in Scotland; the freedom of inquiry and the latitude of statement of doctrine and opinion which now prevails would not have been permitted or tolerated half a century ago. SECTION II. Miscellaneous Literature of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Dr. John Arbuthnot 22 was a native of a place of the same name in Kincardineshire. He was educated at the University of Aberdeen; and having studied medicine, he went to London, where he attained some reputation as an author and a wit. He became an associate of Pope, Swift, Gay, and Prior, and was connected with some of the humorous and comic efforts of the time; they were all Jacobites, and deeply interested in the success of that party. He wrote an Examination of Dr. Woodward's Account of the Deluge, and an Essay on the Usefulness of Mathematical Learning. The satirical Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works, and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus, which was published in Pope's works, it is believed, was chiefly written by Arbuthnot. The design of this work was to ridicule all the false tastes in learning, and is a book of rare merit. In 1709, Arbuthnot was appointed physician-in-ordinary to the Queen. In 1712, his History of John Bull appeared-a monument of wit and humour. Its main design was to throw ridicule upon the Duke of Marlborough, and render the nation discontented with the French war. The allegory in this performance is admirably sus tained, and the satirical allusions stinging and happy. The following is from John Bull-that is, the English; Nic Frog is the Dutch, and Hocus the Duke of Marlborough: : 22 Born in 1667; died in 1735. "For the better understanding the following history, the reader ought to know that Bull, in the main, was an honest, plain-dealing fellow, choleric, bold, and of a very incons ant temper; he dreaded not old Lewis either at backsword, single falchion, or cudgel-play; but then he was very apt to quarrel with his best friends, especially if they pretended to govern him; if you flattered him, you might lead him like a child. John's temper depended very much upon the air; his spirits rose and fell with the weather-glass. John was quick, and understood his business very well; but no man was more careless in looking into his accounts, or more cheated by partners, apprentices, and servants. This was occasioned by his being a boon companion, loving his bottle and his diversion; for to say truth, no man kept a better house than John, nor spent his money more generously. By plain and fair dealing, John had acquired some plums, and might have kept them, had it not been for his unhappy law-suit. "Nic Frog was a cunning, sly rogue, quite the reverse of John in many particulars: covetous, frugal; minded domestic affairs; would pinch his belly to save his pockets; never lost a farthing by careless servants or bad debtors. He did not care much for any sort of diversions, except tricks of high German artists, and legerdemain; no man exceeded Nic in these; yet it must be owned that Nic was a fair dealer, and in that way acquired immense riches. : "Hocus was an old cunning attorney; and though this was the first considerable suit that ever he was engaged in, he showed himself superior in address to most of his profession; he kept always good clerks he loved money, was smooth tongued, gave good words, and seldom lost his temper; he was not worse than an infidel, for he provided plentifully for his family; but he loved himself better than them all: the neighbours reported that he was henpecked, which was impossible by such a mild-spirited woman as his wife was. "Law is a bottomless pit; it is a cormorant, a harpy that devours everything. John Bull was flattered by the lawyers that his suit would not last above a year or two at most; that before that time he would be in quiet possession of his business; yet ten long years did Hocus steer his course through all the meanders of the law, and all the courts. No skill, no address was wanting; and, to say truth, John did not starve his cause; there wanted not yellow-boys to fee counsel, hire witnesses, and bribe juries. Lord Strutt was generally cast, never had one verdict in his favour; and John was promised that the next, and next, would be the final determination. But, alas! that final determination and happy conclusion was like an enchanted island-the nearer John came to it, the further it went from him." He issued several other satirical pieces, one called the Art of Political Lying, and his Treatise concerning the Altercation or Scolding of the Ancients. His serious works consist of dissertations on ancient coins, weights, and measures, and some books on medical subjects. He was a cultured and accomplished man, and a real genius and wit in his way. Henry Home, Lord Kames, 23 was a native of the county of Berwick; he was descended from an ancient family. Educated at home under a private tutor, and having chosen the profession of law, he was called to the Scottish bar in 1734. For a number of years he directed his attention to his profession, and to the composition of treatises connected with it. In 1752 he was raised to the bench, and assumed the title of Lord Kames. He became one of the distinguished members of the literary circles of Edinburgh, and a warm and generous patron of literature, and of every public movement calculated to promote the prosperity and civilisation of the nation. He was a man of great energy and ability, and perhaps no man ever more earnestly desired and endeavoured to advance the prosperity and happiness of his countrymen than this Scottish judge of the eighteenth century.24 His writings are:-1. Essays upon several Subjects in Law, published in 1733; 2. The Decisions of the Court of Session from its institution to the present time, abridged and digested in the form of a Dictionary, in two volumes, 1741; 3. Essays on British Antiquities (on legal and constitutional subjects), 1747; 4. Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion, 1751; 5. The Statute Law of Scotland abridged, with 23 Born in 1696, and died in 1782. A very full and appreciative Account of the Life and Writings of Lord Kames was written by Alex. F. Tytler of Woodhouselee, and published in 1807 in two large volumes. 24 Dr. Reid, who knew Kames well, says :-"It is difficult to say whether that worthy man was more eminent in active life or in speculation. Very rare, surely, have been the instances where the talents for both were united in so eminent a degree. . . His private virtues and public spirit, his assiduity through a long and laborious life in many honourable public offices with which he was entrusted, and his zeal to encourage and promote everything that tended to the improvement of his country, in laws, literature, commerce, manufactures, and agriculture, are best known to his friends and contemporaries.” Historical Notes, 1757; 6. Historical Law Tracts, 1759; 7. Principles of Equity, 1760; 8. Introduction to the Art of Thinking, 1761; 9. Elements of Criticism, in three volumes, 1762; 10. Sketches of the History of Man, in two volumes, 1774; 11. The Gentleman Farmer, being an attempt to improve agriculture by subjecting it to the test of rational principles. The mere enunciation of Lord Kames' works evinces his energy and industry. The most distinctive and important of his works are the Elements of Criticism, and the Sketches of the History of Man. Considered as an attempt to investigate the principles of the fine arts, as results of the operations of the human mind, his Elements of Criticism has merits, although it has also many defects. The subject is one of considerable difficulty, and he was among the first to attempt its exposition in modern times. His Sketches of Man contains some curious facts, important hints, and acute reflections on society. Although style was the object of his attention, yet he never attained this; his sentences are usually cast in the same mould, with little variety in their arrangement and form; are generally too short, and when long, are often involved and faulty in construction. James Burnet, Lord Monboddo,25 was born at Monboddo in Kincardineshire. He was educated at King's College, Aberdeen, and studied the civil law at Groningen. He became an advocate, and attained a good practice in the Court of Session. He was raised to the bench in 1767. Lord Monboddo was a man of honour and moral rectitude, but of much eccentricity of character and singularity of opinions, which appeared both in his habits and in the views. enounced in his writings. He was an ardent admirer of Greek literature, and a warm worshipper of Homer. As carriages were not used among the ancients, he never deigned to enter one himself, but performed all his journeys to London and other places on horseback, for he deemed it a degradation of the real dignity of man to be dragged at the tail of a horse instead of mounted upon his back. His chief works are:-Essay on the Origin and Progress of Language, published in 1771-76, in six volumes; and Ancient Metaphysics, which appeared in 1779, in six volumes. In the first-named work, this sage gravely maintained that men were originally monkeys, and that in this condition they continued for ages, without speech, reason, or 25 Born in 1714, died in 1799. |