in Scotland, and was to find wide acceptance in France, and, though not to the same extent, even in Germany. All the intellectual products of any age necessarily partake of the same spirit and throw mutual light on each other. There is thus a kinship between Moderatism and the Scottish philosophy which is apparent on the surface. It was one who began his career as a Moderate minister, Dr. Thomas Reid, who was the father of that philosophy, and whose writings embody its teaching. He was himself an 'intruded' minister; and it is on record that on his first appearance in his parish of New Machar he was ducked in a horse-pond, and that when he preached his first sermon he had to be defended by a drawn sword. The scope and tendency of his philosophy were essentially identical with that of the religious party with which he was associated. The aim of Moderatism was to commend religion by presenting it in such a guise that it would neither offend by its mysteries nor repel by its standard of conduct. Similarly the aim of the Scottish philosophy was to reconcile speculation with religion by an appeal to what it claimed to be the final test of universal experience. It was the boast of both to appeal to the common sense of mankind, and we have a singularly interesting testimony that, in the case of the philosophy, the boast was made good. In a characteristic and remarkable passage Goethe has summed up what gave the teaching of Reid its value in the eyes of thinking men.

'The reason,' he says, 'why foreigners-Britons, Americans, Frenchmen, and Italians-can gain no profit from our new (German) philosophy is simply that it does not directly lay hold on life. They can see no practical advantage to be derived from it; and so it is that men turn more or less to the teaching of the Scottish School as it is expounded by Reid and Dugald Stewart. This teaching is intelligible to the ordinary understanding, and this it is that wins it favour. It seeks to reconcile sensationalism and spiritualism, to effect the union of the ideal and the real, and thus to create a more satisfactory foundation for human thought and action. The fact that it undertakes this work and promises to accomplish it, obtains for it disciples and votaries.'

From what has been said, the truth of a statement by the late Professor Masson must abundantly have appeared: the latter half of the eighteenth century, he said, was the period of Scotland's most energetic, peculiar, and most various life.' It is certainly

the period when, by the testimony of foreign observers, she made her largest contribution to the world alike in the sphere of speculative and practical ideas. Let me briefly summarise what that contribution was in the domains of science, of philosophy, and literature.

In science there are the names that have already been mentioned, those of Cullen, Hunter, Leslie, Black, Hutton; and another illustrious name has to be added, that of James Watt. In their various departments, be it noted, all these men were pioneers: Cullen and Hunter in pathology, Black and Leslie in chemistry, Hutton in geology, and Watt in engineering. And in connection with science an interesting fact deserves to be noted when the Newtonian system was still rejected in Oxford and Cambridge, it was taught by David Gregory in the University of Edinburgh an interesting testimony to the openness of mind which was indeed the characteristic of the best Scottish intellects of the time. In speculative thought we have seen that Scotland was the purveyor to Europe. The current of metaphysical philosophy received a new direction from the speculations of Hume, and the specifically Scottish philosophy reigned for more than half a century in the schools of Europe. In the new science of political economy Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations still remains the central work. In the domain of history proper, Hume and Robertson each produced composite wholes such as had not previously appeared in any modern literature, Hume's being perhaps the acutest intellect ever applied to the events of history, while Robertson's practical sagacity and width of survey have rarely been surpassed. In the literature of imagination there were at least two Scottish writers whose work had a potent influence on the literature of other countries. The literary historians of France and Germany both assign a direct and powerful influence to the author of the Seasons on the poetry of their respective countries. Thomson's work belongs to the first half of the century, but of far more resounding fame and quickening effect was the Ossian of James Macpherson, which appeared in 1762-3. Macpherson now stands in a somewhat dubious light; nevertheless, it is an indisputable fact that his Ossian struck a note which vibrated throughout Europe, and did more than any other intellectual product to draw the general gaze to the country which gave it birth. The works that have been named were all epoch-making in their respective subjects; but, as Voltaire's ironical words imply, there was a crowd of books written, which,

though they did not attain to this distinction, yet exercised a wide influence in their day. What especially strikes us is the number of Scottish books of the period that were translated into the continental languages. The works of Lord Kames, the Sermons of Hugh Blair, Beattie's Essay on Truth, to mention only a few, all made the tour of Europe, significant evidence of the amount of truth that lay behind Voltaire's sarcasm. In view of her achievements in so many fields, therefore, it can hardly be gainsaid that the latter half of the eighteenth century was for Scotland the period of her most energetic, peculiar, and most various life.

P. HUME BROWN.

THE

An Elegy and a Ballad

'HE following elegy on Colonel Gardner is printed from a broadside in my possession which is copiously decorated with death's-heads, cross-bones, and the like. It bears no printer's name, but from its appearance and style seems to be contemporary.

The ballad on Lord Lovat's execution is derived from a copy in Douce's collection in the Bodleian Library.

C. H. FIRTH.

AN ELEGY

On the Memory of the Honourable Colonel James Gardner, who was cruelly murdered by the Antichristian Mob near Tranent, Sept. 21,

1745.

Who can but ly in sable Weed,

As fill'd with Grief and Wo,

That knows our worthy Gardner's dead,

And past from us below.

As Gardner cuts the tender Plant
Even with his pruning Knife,

So Death spares not the greatest Saint,
But him bereaves of Life.

For here below too mean a Place
Was for his lofty Soul,

While here he staid an Heir of Grace,
Does now in Glory roul.

Although the Messenger named Death
Came in a bloody Way,

And him bereft of common Breath,
While on the Field he lay.

From Rome a Limb of Antichrist,

Join'd with a Hellish Band

Of Highland Thieves, came here in haste,
God's Laws for to withstand.

To introduce the Man of Sin

It sure was their intent,
'Gainst God their Battle did begin
Hard by the Town Tranent.

Our Men in Armour did appear,
As being fill'd with Hope
Of Victory, and free of Fear,
Till sold by Traitor Cope.

When Soldiers fand, that to their Hand,
For Slaughter they're design'd,
And sold unto the Hellish Band,
To kill as they inclin'd.

Dragoons they fled with greatest Speed,
Him left to stand alone,
And in his Time of greatest Need
With him sure was not one.

These cruel, base and bloody Men
Did on his Body seise;

His Life did not suffice alone,
Could not their Lust appease.

His Body's laid in Blood and Gore,
A Sacrifice to be,

For Bloody Monsters to devour

And on the Prey to flee.

This dear Saint's Blood sure cries aloud,
And will bring Vengeance down
On Steuart's Cause, and on their Laws,
And them with Vengeance Crown.

What's done unto this Saint Of God,
God reckons done to Him:
They'll surely find it heavy Load,
For He'll requite their Sin.

O Charles! cursed cruel Wretch,
Remind what thou hast done;
Unless that I from Hell do fetch,
A Match for thee is none.

O bloody Beast! bewail the Death
Of him that thou hast slain;

Thou'rt threatned with a Weight of Wrath,
That's hast'ning on amain.

For Person, Parts, or Piety,
Sure few can now compare;