Caspar Voght

Über den Ton der Gesellschaft in Edingburg: Aus dem Tagebuche eines Reisenden

Edited by August Hennings

There is no trading in Edinburgh, but the city's society gains from this in entertainment and  947 bon ton. This society consists of the Lords of the Session, that is, a large number of eminent, sometimes very learned lawyers, a great many doctors, the professors of the university, many landowners who spend the winter here, and some interesting young scholars among the 1200 students whom the excellent university attracts.

As the expression, “better society”, is very often abused, let me explain that by this I do not mean the society of the rich and noble, or of scholars; but of such people as have made use of their advantageous situation to make their conversation agreeable; who seek to impart or to receive skills or instruction, and who are either free from all unsociable passions, or have acquired the habit of commanding them to such a degree, that every one in their company may feel at ease and safe from any uncivil expression.

Some of us have pretensions claiming to receive more than general respect, and more attention than that which would be attracted by what we say or do, independently of our other merits. Their most spiteful trait is considering oneself offended at any supposed neglect, and taking revenge by  948 bitter comments, of which the French genteel society of the ancien régime used to have a whole arsenal in stock.

There is a less hostile but vexatious way of attracting attention, by deliberately trying to be witty or provocative. Only he who lacks these two pretensions belongs to good society, even if otherwise he were the greatest statesman, the foremost general, the best writer, the most erudite, most distinguished, or richest man.

It is only fair to declare, in a place where I have spent one of the most pleasant winters of my life, that I have found my ideal of good society nowhere more than here, have never seen a circle more instructed, more amiable, more truthful, and nowhere purer; that in six months I have heard no bitter comments, no one wisecracking, no one spoken ill of; that I have but rarely left a company without learning something, or becoming more fond of someone. Naming and describing them, to introduce them to you, dear friends, is a pleasure I do not want to deny myself.

Stewart, ¹ Stewart, the Bacon of metaphysics, who thinks like Newton, and speaks like Rousseau wrote  949, is one of the most eminent men in Great Britain, a famous, elegant classicist, a great mathematician, a good physicist, and a teacher of morals, such as I never heard any one. Such depth, such thoroughness, such language and such tone! He is one of the most consummate orators I have ever heard. How often were his very diverse listeners moved to tears of awe. How often did his eye, the most eloquent of all eyes, shine with a high sense of the grandeur of his subject, the dignity of our kind, and of his own worth! His excellent work Philosophy of the human Mind in comparison, seems to me a dead fragment — but once the English public will be worthy of hearing it, and all political fury will be lulled to sleep by peace, he will teach his political economy. — To hear this alone would merit a journey to Scotland.

There is Fraser Tytler ², a man who combines manifold talents with knowledge about the most general literature of all nations, and reads universal history in an extremely interesting manner.

Henry Mackenzie ³, is the amiable and extremely witty author of Man of Feeling, Julie de Roubigny, und The Man of the World.  950 Dr. Black, ⁴ who will not grace this earth for much longer, is a handsome old man. — The genius of the great explorer, only softened by age, is still evident in his fine, expressive features. His talk is of an extremely elegant simplicity. (To him we owe the fixed air and the latent warmth in our new chemistry.) No one knows better how to separate a difficult, complex subject from everything irrelevant and to present it clearly. Dr. Smith said of him, “if his brain was laid open, there would be found less trash in it than in any other man's.” There is something very amiable in the way he confesses his errors; how he directs his attention to everything said to him by whoever it may be. He likes to speak, but is easily exhausted. He stops with a smile, and resumes in the same manner once he has recovered. There is something that affects me very powerfully, seeing such proof of the full strength of the soul besides the frailty of the body. I feel that I, too, will live, when the mysterious connection with these organs which are not I, is dissolved — from which sleep unties me every night — and whose partial destruction I can for long witness, until one day consciousness binds me to other objects  951 worthy of a greater perfection. Black will only too soon awake for us into that situation, when he stands still here, with a smile.

Dr. Black is calmness itself: it is in his features, in his language, even in his indefatigable activity. There is a kindness and clearness in his expression in which you cannot fail to recognise the writer, whose sermons are as popular as his taste is refined.

Clarity and mathematical determination characterise Greenfield's ⁵ lecture, who reads physics for Dr. Robinson who is very ill. But the man himself is an amiable mixture of gentleness and energy; of the purest piety and the keenest sense of wit and humour. I have never seen a man pray with more dignity (he is a preacher) and laugh with more cordiality.

Dr. Munro ⁶ is a man of very sound judgement, and a much esteemed physician. As a teacher I have never liked him; and he is the only local scholar I have heard speak about his own inventions too importantly, and anxiously about the endeavours of others to steal them from him, even  952 only in lectures. However, one cannot be more engaging and entertaining in company than he is. Dr. Coventry, ⁷ who has been lecturing on Agriculture this winter, is a man of extraordinary sagacity, who is not only a happy and practical agriculturist, but is incredibly erudite in all the ancient and modern writings on agriculture, and combines this with a very sound criticism and a knowledge of chemistry and botany. He is also a very skilful physician. I consider myself very fortunate to have heard his cursus on agriculture, and even more fortunate in the acquaintance of this witty man, who is incredibly anxious to be useful with his knowledge. He is the doctor of all the poor, and spends all the time that someone else would use to make a lot of money, giving free consultations on agriculture.

Mr. Playfair ⁸ is one of the best mathematicians in England, author of the very fine treatise in the Transactions of the Edinburgh Society on the Astronomy of the Bramines. He is a man whose constant, steady, calm cheerfulness I have often admired and often wished for. He is rather short-sighted, and it seems as if his soul were therefore accustomed not to care  953 for what lies outside his circle of vision, (a circumstance which I believe to have noticed in several short-sighted people) while always ready to grasp clearly what comes within this circle of vision, and to perceive more in it than another. He has a pleasant voice, often saying something very witty, which is all the more effective because he never laughs.

Dr. Gregory ⁹ is the son of a great doctor and himself one of the most unprejudiced doctors and critics. He is an extremely quick man, grasps things incredibly quickly, and often expresses himself very aptly and warmly. He is one of the most active men in all philantropies, a strict lover of truth and even here remarkable for his unbending sincerity.

It is an easy transition from him to Dr. Wm. Forbes. ¹⁰ A bank owner, he is one of the richest men in Scotland, a major landowner, the most charitable man in Edinburgh, and the father of his estate dwellers (one may no longer say subjects here, thank God!). There is no poor person he does not support, no public enterprise to which he does not donate his money, no charitable institution to which he does not devote his time and strength. No one speaks of him without warmth. He himself does not speak of what  954 he does at all, or with a modesty that proves the man worthy of having done good. He has also enjoyed a classical education and acquired great knowledge.

Dr. Alexander Mackenzie ¹¹ and Colonel Dirom ¹² are two men of bright judgement, and very entertaining due to their vast knowledge of India, where both spent many years in the service of the Company. The latter has written a very interesting history of the campaigns against Tippo Saib. What imparts a particular charm to the society in Edinburgh is the great number of Scotsmen who have lived for a long time in the East and West Indies, and come back here: the many officers who have served on land or sea, and have all received an academic education in their youth.

One of the most remarkable men, whom I have seen more often here than in London, is Dr. John Sinclair ¹³ who has written a History of the British Revenue and founded a Society for the Improvement of Scottish Wool, by which sheep breeding has really been considerably improved. He has also started the immense undertaking of collecting exact statistical descriptions of all the parishes in Scotland, which, except for 50, are now complete, and amount to about 20 large tomes.  955 WBut what will keep his name alive to a grateful posterity is the fact that he founded the Board of Agriculture, and through doing so, has now compiled an accurate survey of all the counties in England and Scotland, with respect to agriculture, husbandry, grocery prices, the happiness of the inhabitants, their defects, and the means of remedying them. In each county one or two well-known competent agricultural experts, who at the same time are often very learned or rich and distinguished men (for the way agriculture is now carried on in Engeland and Scotland is not well understood in our country), have been appointed. These have, after careful enquiries and conversations with the country people, compiled reports that have been printed with a very wide margin on writing paper and sent to more than 500 men of insight in the country, who have written their remarks in the margin. I have read all these accounts, and as for me, I subscribe with all my soul to the statement of one of the first and most learned agriculturists in Great Britain: that he has found more instruction here than in all the works on agriculture since Virgil and Columella, down to Lord Dondonald's ¹⁴ published eight days ago. This was to be expected in an art  956 whose secrets have hitherto been scattered only here and there in the routine of practical agriculturists, and imperfectly communicated by tradition. This being an art which, on account of its intrinsic importance, has always exerted the powers of all individuals, used only local knowledge and, over time, has copied the tricks of nature. An art that always been adversely affected by the application of theories which seek to interfere with its practical exercise, and in which our indolence and vanity have done much harm due our eagerness to generalise, and will continue to do so, until these and similar experiences are taken as its foundation.

A great step will be taken when these collected remarks are united in a general report, which is already in preparation, and subject to similar scrutiny.

It is not to be expected with any degree of fairness that all the above works should have turned out to be perfect, but in their present state, their outcome is the greatest that history has to offer in this respect. May this example have an effect on more countries! May all who govern, or who have influence over governors, feel how ignorant we are everywhere of our own wealth, of our deficiencies, of the means  957 to remedy them; may they learn that the proportion in which this art is practised is the measure of a state's powers: that the prosperity of agriculture is the sure measure of the happiness of all the other classes, and the only guarantee for the continuance of constitutions; and learn that ‘omnium [autem] rerum, ex quibus aliquid adquiritur, nihil sit [est] Agri cultura melius, nihil uberius, nihil dulcius, nihil homine libero dignius.’ (Cicero De officiis 1, 151)

Prompted by the current high prices of food, the same man has brought it about, through his restless endeavours, that this spring in each parish potatoes are being grown in neglected patches to feed a million people. This has mostly done with the preachers' help.

It is hard to believe that a man who has already done so much and caused so much more to be done, is not much over 30 years old, and is commander of two regiments of Fencibles raised recently [1794]. ¹⁵ He is one of the most handsome men, and one of the most active I know - he has married a daughter of Lord MacDonald, one of the most beautiful women in Scotland, and a set of most lovely children. I know of no more beautiful family.

Mr. Creech, ¹⁶ author of the Fugitive Pieces, a very interesting Sketch of Edinburgh and contributor to the Mirror, a weekly paper published some years ago, the foremost bookseller in Scotland, and owner of the best works that have been published here during the last twenty years, has been a very interesting acquaintance, for his extensive connections, and because he is a living biographical encyclopaedia. It would be a pity if he were to die without recording the wealth of literary anecdotes he acquired by his long acquaintance with all the scholars of this country.

His friend Dr. Rotherham is a student of Scheel ¹⁷ and Bergmann ¹⁸: the very skilful assistant of Dr. Black, who occasionally reads for him (we once heard a very good lecture from him on inflammable bodies) and also a very good botanist and mathematician.

Dr. Rutherford ¹⁹, now reads botany, but his proper fields of study are physiology and chemistry, in which latter he has made a name for himself by inventing azote and discovering some properties of oxygen, although this of course has not been made public. He is another model of the calm, firm lover of truth and posesses the  959 same modesty you get accustomed to here, like to an everyday virtue, and whose value you only properly appreciate when you consider how conspicuous it would be in any other place.

I would not finish without stopping to mention these remarkable characters. I owe much to the kind reception of the Lord Provost, Dr. James Stirling ²⁰, Lord Eskgrove, ²¹ Lord Ancram ²², Mr. Lindsay, the worthy Dr. Johnston, ²³ founder of the Institute for the Blind, Mr. Scougall ²⁴ etc. and to my contact with the very learned Mr. Gibbes of Oxford, Mr. Bancroft from London, the learned Quaker Young, the skilful economist Mr. Ure, and the good Dr. Duncan, President of the Medical Society. I must not forget either Sr. James Hall, after a very neglected education, in later years felt an attraction for the sciences, and in a very short time became a great mathematician, a skilful chemist, and a good mineralogist. He wrote a very interesting treatise on Gothic architecture, on which he will soon talk at the Edinburgh Society. ²⁵ He reminded me vividly of Cicero's beautiful passage on the value the culture of science can add to any situation  960 in our lives. Two years ago, he dislocated his foot while dancing, and since then he has had to walk on crutches, which he will for the rest of his life. As he is not yet 30 years old and was a passionate farmer and hunter: what would he be now if his mind did not know a pleasure independent of that which he owed to physical exercise, and the better health which is connected with it.

Of two men I must say something more, on account of the rare oddity of one, and the rare amiability of the other. Lord Monboddo, one of the judges, was early known as an elegant classicist and a very good metaphysician (his book on language is proof of this) he soon showed his love of odd beliefs, which has given a certain slant to all his actions. His great fondness for the ancients, and his metaphysics, led him to the idea that the human race was sinking daily, had formerly been giants and were now becoming pygmies ? that they had had much keener senses and more limbs than at present, and so on. He had supported this with a wealth of scholarship and carefully selected all the old travelogues. Theories make people gullible and he believed everything he found in the old lierature  961 and what the more recent ones told him, such as that men in their perfection had had tails like apes, of which nothing now remained but the Os coccygis — and that apes are small and degenerated human races. He carefully records all families where the children are smaller than the parents, and is in despair when he sees a man who has grown tall, and cannot learn that his father was taller. — He asked Mr. Chevalier, in all seriousness, who talked about the tomb of Achilles, whether he did not believe that Achilles must have been 23 feet high. In spite of this, he is full of wit, humour and eloquence. I have seen him in his 86th year and have still found him extremely lively in conversation, full of Attic urbanity. He lives like the ancients, bathing himself daily in cold water, has himself rubbed with oil, and makes great fun of the apparent cleanliness of the moderns, who wash their faces and hands to make people believe they are clean, and put on every day a clean Shirt over a dunghill — ihe eats honey in the morning, has his lunch at 9 o'clock in the evening, because that was the hour when Horace used to eat, etc. He sleeps with open windows in this cold winter, and on the 15th of March, when the thermometer was at 30 degrees Fahrenheit  962 he rode to London, covering 400 miles in twelve days.

Lord F., son of Lord D., is a man who will always remain unforgettable to me. He has studied chemistry, physics and agriculture together with me. I have seen him daily for six months, spending many days with him, and never left him without having learnt from him. I have never found sounder ideas on a greater variety of subjects, never sounder judgement linked to so much knowledge ? he has a definite opinion on everything, united with so much urbanity in the discussion. He knows in fine detail the real constitution of England, which relates to that described in Blackstone and Lolme, as the soul relates to the body, being composed of infinitely finer relations, and is truly a difficult study. He speaks with much eloquence, but with the eloquence of conversation, which relates to that of a public speaker as the style of a letter relates to that of a treatise. There is a degree of progress in any science which ends just where the progress begins, for which a scholar who wishes to teach that science, or to make it his profession, must strive. He who has known how to reach this point in a number of sciences  963 he who makes the doctrine of happiness his profession; he who knows how to appreciate the influence of all this knowledge on the happiness of men — to guide them towards it, and who knows how to promote this influence on the men whom he can influence; — such a man has, it seems to me, attained what all men who are called by their position to influence a large circle must endeavour to attain.

Few men I know have come nearer to this ideal than Lord F. He often speaks with warmth; but he never crosses the line where truth borders on exaggeration, and his talk has a characteristic which distinguishes English conversation from any other, and chiefly from French ? that its strength lies only in argument, neither in form, nor expression, nor in a witty turn of phrase. He thinks when he speaks, and does not speak when there is nothing to make him want to engage in a topic. He is so sure that in the liveliest discussion not a glance, a smile, or a word will escape him that could indicate a lack of respect for the opinion of another, however much he may be opposed, that he may abandon himself entirely to the subject. It is an advantage of the English that they are educated having a greater sense of equality among all  964 people, who, thinking for themselves, become accustomed to leave the opinions of each to their own value, and are content to state their arguments. I know many friends here who hold different opinions on important matters without this having the slightest influence on them. Let us never forget that every subject has innumerable relations, of which each man has only a part in his view; almost always a somewhat different one; that the circle of vision of our inner sense narrows and widens, and our sight becomes keener or duller, that this sense itself is different in almost all of us, and is subject to innumerable daily modifications. There is only one point where we meet, and we are safest if we always start from there; i.e. from our emotions and our moral feeling: these in turn often work as a compass for our will; that is why people so often act better than they think and speak. They would lead us straight to the highest perfection if we listened to and followed their quiet voice, and if we took the path of experience and observation to educate and refine it, the only one on which we can hope to find a useful truth by applying the principle within us to objects  965 outside ourselves.

‘The true study of Mankind is Man.’ ("The proper study of mankind is man", Alexander Pope, "An Essay on Man".)
I have only to add that all these people are good classicists, and that it has very often seemed to me that they owe the great standard of moral character and a certain chastity of taste to the memory of these studies, though I will not speak of the superiority which the intimate knowledge of two nations as remarkable as the Greeks and Romans lends them in conversation. It has struck me vividly whether, among the many things to be said against the study of the ancient languages, the best reasons do not relate more to the manner in which the study is pursued than to the subject itself.For those who have not lived in England, I must add that there are only two societies in Edinburgh, the cultivated and the uncultivated; that these two mingle only rarely and occasionally; but that a person's rank has no influence at all on this division, and wealth has no other influence than to make it easier for its owner to gather people of merit around himself  966 Also, here, as everywhere else, the endeavour and talent to make one's house pleasant for such people is greaty credited to them, and that finally one cannot wish for greater equality in such companies.

I have never seen an example of the insolent condescension here a man of high rank visiting a man of merit will display in the full confidence of being received with great hospitality. These parties differ from ours particularly in that they are smaller and arranged less often.

A man will hardly invite his friends to dine more than once a week, and I have never found more than twelve people together. There is very little time spent card-playing, at most an hour. I have never turned it down, and yet I have not touched the cards as much as four times this winter; often music is played, or there is a dance for an hour to piano music only. The Scots dance with passion and their dances are very good. During the winter there are two public balls, and there are private balls every day. The beautiful English women are more beautiful than the Scottish women; these do not have the exact same elegant shape of the face, nor the Greek flair in their whole being. Their cheekbones  967 are too prominent, and their limbs are less gracious, but to compensate for this, in proportion the number of pretty, well-grown, fresh-faced women is infinitely greater. I have nowhere seen so many pretty women together; they walk a great deal and in every weather, and I have never gone out without meeting beautiful women. Their ballrooms are the largest in the island after those in Bath, and often hold 600 people. I have seen these beauties in their full splendour in two assemblies, which are peculiar to this city only, and which therefore merit a description.

The Scots are the most enthusiastic dancers I know and have a great love for their Scotch Steps. Instruction in them seems to have always been regarded as an important matter, and there are no better women dancers than the Scottish ones. It is the custom that a good dancing master gives lessons to a group of people at the same time in a dedicated room. The dancing master Strange has brought this kind of teaching to great perfection. The large ballroom is his schoolroom; he only goes to the boarding schools, where there is always a large crowd of young girls together. This has earned him 60 to 70000 Reichstaler.  968 I have seen Miss Robinson dance a solo that would have done her credit at the Paris theatre. She had an elder sister who no longer danced in public. The opera directors offered the family 2,000 £ st. a year, but she refused, although the whole family lives on a position the father has Register office hand which earns him not even 400 £ st. These children dance in the centre of the large hall, which is surrounded by amphitheatres of benches, where I have seen 300 elegantly dressed, for the most part beautiful women.

Mr. Corry an equally famous singing and piano teacher, arranged this kind of  969 public academies, where I heard a Miss Hunter and the elder Miss Robinson play the piano with great perfection, and many sing quite well.

At first, I had considerable reservations about this virtuoso education, and about the habit of being so publicly presented; it was difficult for me to understand how these young girls could become such good housewives and, on the whole, be so instructed. I also still believe that singing great arias at an early age is detrimental to the true talent for music, especially when applied for the amusement of small circles, and also, that some girls who have a lot of talent for the art of dancing take the matter too seriously. I have found, however, that the greater harm I feared for their character is greatly diminished by the custom being so commonplace, by the very large number of children who appear at the same time, among whom very few striking talents are noted, by the long-standing habit of beginning early and devoting most of their time to dancing just at the time that physical development is the main object of education, and that by all these the feeling of vanity is greatly reduced, too. I have seen these children dance and play as freely and joyfully as if they had been alone.  970 Nowhere do people have a stricter idea of female virtue; there may be dull marriages here, as everywhere else, but I have not heard of any bad ones; and I still have some doubts whether this quiet enjoyment of a man's comfortable days, which to the spectator seems monotonous and phlegmatic, does not have great appeal to him who requires nothing further for his happiness than his feelings. It must not be forgotten that true gladness does not laugh, and that the need for amusement presupposes emptiness, the need for constant conversation a want of thought, and the need of a stimulus to be cheerful a habitual want of cheerful spirits. It is an old remark that the most oppressed nations are those among whom laughter is most often heard.

That the marriages are good is the more strange, because most Scotsmen acquire their fortunes abroad, come back late, and therefore the age of most spouses is very unequal. Certain virtues, of course, become easier below the 56th degree than below the 40th; ²⁶ but much is to be ascribed to the general opinion which hitherto has prevented Lady ... from being admitted into society, because, after separating from her first husband, she married another. A second marriage is very rare among the female sex. 971

Edinburgh is not cheap, yet some families live quite well on 300 to 400 £ st. and a few consume 1000 £ St. This difference is not always appreciated enough. What makes London so much dearer are frequent social visits, expensive public amusements, a great quantity of elegant equipages for the same family, often changing dress fashions of the ladies, more frequent parties, balls, etc., the luxury in furniture and ornaments, among others, of natural flowers, and the water-colour painting of the floor, which often costs several hundred pounds; but chiefly the great quantity of expensive servants. One in London costs as much as four here. This must be the case in a place where a man who is industrious in the arts and trades can earn from two to four guineas a week, where the laws make no distinction between the servants and their masters, and where the customs contribute still more to this equality. Every good man must wish that the higher cost for the number of staff hired for this unproductive occupation may become so general and soon so great that the morally corrupting luxury will be limited to the necessary number. I shall never forget that an Englishman in Naples calculated that his butler (valet de chambre)  972 (Kammerdiener) cost him more than two volanti, three lackeys and one coach driver of an Italian prince.

It is natural that charitable giving is in line with that for other necessaries, and that these expenses are far lower here than in London. I am not speaking of a man who knows the better use of his money, yet spends his funds to a degree that would seem wasteful to the uninitiated, but of what almost everybody considers suitable to give for the sake of public opinion. This is, of course, much less the case here, and I was sorry to see that few Edinburgh people noticed how silly it was (to put it mildly) to be mentioned in bragging advertisements of donations made in every newspaper by donors who had distributed a few guineas, often only one guinea, or a cart of coal among the poor on their estates, or in the city.

The University contributes much to the prosperity of the town, and has had too much influence on the enlightenment of the other classes to not deserve particular attention. The number of its students, which in 1763 was 500, has for several years been between 1200 and 1300, besides the Grammar School which 500 boys attend.

Surgery, practice and theory of medicine, for which Monro, ²⁷ Bell, ²⁸ Gregory, ²⁹ and clinical lectures, as well as chemistry, metaphysics and morals, are, from what I have heard, and as much as I am able to judge, taught here better than anywhere else. I am sure that chemistry and agriculture are nowhere else taught so well.

The funds of the university are very small. The salaries are between 50 and 100 £ st. The apparatus is very poor and the library consists, apart from the books which have to be deposited here from the Stationers Hall, when the authors receive their privilege for 14 years, of gifts of the students at inscription. However, the valuable works are usually printed without privilege, because reprinting is out of the question.

Although the state does not do much for the local scholars, literary work is hardly paid better anywhere.

All colleges pay 3 guineas for 6 months, and all popular colleges have an audience of 300 to 400, which amounts to 5000 to 6000 Reichstaler for 150 lectures.

Between 1750 and 1760 Hume ³⁰ Hume sold his first two volumes of English History for  974 200 £ st., Robertson two volumes of his History of Scotland at 600 £ st.; in 1783 Hume received 5000 £ st. for the rest of his History, and Robertson 1500 £ st. for his second work. Dr. Blair earned several thousand £ st. for his Sermons besides 200 £ st. pension for the rest of his life.

I have never liked to see an author frowned upon for regarding the sale of his writings as a financial gain. I know of none more honourable, none where ownership should be more undisputed. The privilege of 14 years seems to me a reasonable middle course between a monopoly, which impedes the spread of enlightenment, and an indulgence towards the reprinters, which makes the most arduous, charitable effort the least rewarded labour. ³¹ Here, a man can devote ten years of his life to a work and will be paid for it. I therefore believe that I am not diminishing the esteem for Scottish scholars when I note that here, as everywhere else, products are supplied in accordance with market demand, and that I attribute to this circumstance the large number of masterpieces that Scotland has produced over the last 30 years. It is easier for Hume to earn 5,000 £ st. here  975 than it is for a hack to earn 5 £ st. for a pamphlet. Here, masterpieces are demanded, paid for and consequently delivered. Neither court, nor minister or mistress decide their value, but an audience which is more independent in its judgement than any other.

In Germany, waste paper is demanded and paid for, and therefore waste paper is supplied. That is why our masterpieces are paid for at barely three times the price of a miserable translation of a miserable novel, and why our writers often have to accept pensions, or seek them out. Hence we have countless mediocre writings; hence journals are deemed to constitute a library; hence the pseudo-knowledge of the miserable self-conceited studying these journals; and hence the death of all true love of science.

If one could prevent booksellers from paying each other with paper, which really makes no more sense than exchanging countless, unweighed bags of money for each other, and if everyone sold what they will have to do in the end, only for hair money, and could our often browsing audience be persuaded to read only to increase their knowledge; and would the young man  976 at university be keener to study science itself than its literature; could people be persuaded to speak only of what they know, then our literature would certainly have a bright future. What the Germans have achieved and continue to achieve despite all these obstacles is a testimony to what they would achieve if nothing stood in the way of their progress.

Scotland certainly owes some of its favourable circumstances to Hume Hume, Smith ³² and Stewart ³³ three of the greatest geniuses of the latter half of our century.

As a historian, Hume certainly has his distinct merits: as a metaphysician, I readily forgive him his scepticism, with which he crushed the crust that obscured the only kind of truth within our reach, namely scholastic and other respected prejudices.

Smith has perhaps done more for the happiness of individuals and nations than any other writer. When, in the enlightened parts of Europe, the narrow, self-serving principles that regarded the progress of foreign industry as a national loss have disappeared, when  977 the abominable system of premiums and prohibitions has fewer defenders among rulers every day, when the influence of industry and the good condition of the greatest of all manufactures, agriculture, is better understood as the happiness and strength of the state, and when it will be recognised that the constant use of all forces is at the same time the most advantageous use of all forces for the state in the long run, then it is thanks to him.

Stewart will only become known in the following century: he has provided only fragments in his Philosophy of the human Mind a work which would have made much more of an impression in England if metaphysics were not so unpopular with the English. They still have to study Aristotle to excess in schools, and the progress of the few who emancipate themselves, would still be hampered by their belief in Locke's, infallibility, just as in physics by the same belief in Newton.

In addition to these men, over the past 30 years they have had Robertson whose history is in everyone's hands; Lord Kames, the well-known metaphysician, who is also the author of the Gentlemen Farmer a book written by a philosopher for the farmer, and by  978 far the best of its kind in England. His Elements of Criticism are well known. Sr. David Dalrymple wrote annals. Sr. John Dalrymple penned memoirs about Great Britain in King William's time. Orme rote about industry, a classic work. Dr. Watson wrote the history of Philip II. Home wrote Douglas, one of the finest tragedies in English drama. Cambell wrote a philosophical work on rhetoric, which his work on miracles, although very astute, did not suggest. Tytler the Elder wrote a vindication of Queen Mary, a name very dear to the Tories, of whom he was one; his son ³⁴ wrote an essay on translations. (He is about to become Chief Justice, and the publication of his lectures on general history will be one of the most popular and elegant books of its kind.)

Reid's commendable attempts to return metaphysics to empirical science; ³⁵ Ferguson's interessante Compilation über Moralphilosophie ³⁶; Beattie's Minstrel, an excellent poem that has made people forget the metaphysician; both Gregorys, ³⁷ Cullen, Monro, Bell ³⁸, are people of great merit in medicine and chemistry;; Black, the father of Chemistry, Dr. Blair, is the classical rhetorician  979 and excellent preacher; Henry Mackenzie, Macpherson, who deserves all our gratitude and shuns the general veneration that Ossian would impose on him; Brydone and Moore, are very interesting travel writers, among whom the recently deceased Bruce must also be counted, even though his eccentricity often detracted from his reliability; Smellie, who wrote a popular book about natural history, Gilly, the author of a History of Greece; ³⁹ Adams ⁴⁰ the erudite editor of Roman antiquities; Sinclair, whose statistical achievements I have long discussed. This rich harvest is by no means exhaustive of all the good Scottish writers of the last 30 years, but it includes all those on whom I have ventured to pass judgement.

The local Royal Society was founded in 1783 and has published three volumes of its Transactions, which contain many excellent treatises. A fourth volume will be published this year, containing containing a second interesting treatise by Playfair, entitled Remarks on the astronomy of the Brahmins and Dugald Stewart's Life of D. Robertson.

@article{T790001-002,
  author 	 = {Caspar Voght},
  title 	 = {Über den Ton der Gesellschaft in Edingburg: Aus dem Tagebuche eines Reisenden.},
  journal 	 = {Der Genius der Zeit},
  editor 	 = {August Hennings},
  address 	 = {Altona},
  publisher 	 = {J. F. Hammerich},
  date 	 = {1796},
  volume 	 = {8},
  pages 	 = {946–979}
}
 T790001-002.bib