[75]Not a few of the Edinburgh lawyers wrote philosophical treatises. Thus, "Essays, Moral and Divine," by Sir William Anstruther, of Ailstruther, one of the Senators of the College of justice, 1701. He treats of atheism. providence, learing and religion, trifling studies, stage-plays and romances, incarlation, Jesus Christ, and redemption of mankind. He opposes Locke with some ability, and shows that the idea of a Perfect Being is ****** and innate, imprinted on our minds by God in our creation. Then in Sir George Mackenzie's (the bloody Mackenzie) "Works," two vols. folio, 1716, we have an essay on happiness. He shows that nothing without us, not even philosophy, can make us happy, that religion alone can do so. He treats of atheism, of moral gallantry, of the moral history of frugality. He begins with an address to fanatics. He would act the religious stoic, and holds that solitude is to be preferred to public employment. We have also, "Some Thoughts concerning Religion, Natural and Revealed, with Reflections on the Sources of Incredulity with regard to Religion," by Rt. Hon.
Duncan Forbes, of Culloden, 1750
[76]Having, in my boyish days, often "kissed the cup to pass it by," among those who had drunk and been drunk with Burns, I am prepared to believe this: but I have to add, that though the sense and humor were strong and shrewd they were often coarse and sensual. Burns was reared in an age in which the uncompromising religion of the covenant was giving way, in the south-west of Scotland, to the milder religion or irreligion of the moderate type. He owed much to the sincere devoutness of his father; but, in spite of all that the literary admirers of Burns may say to the contrary, I am not sure that it was for the benefit of the son that the father, brought up in the more latitudinarian cast coast of Scotland, attached himself to the New-Light party, as the youth was thereby thrown among those who had no depth of piety, and who rather rejoiced in the ebullitions against religion which he uttered in moments of passion, which he never meant to publish, and over which he lamented in his declining life. Burns ever held firmly by the great truths of natural religion, and had a profound reverence for the Bible, to which he turned fondly in his latter days: he seems often, always in times of impulse, to have prayed, and would rise from his prayers to write to Clarinda: "I have just been before the throne of my God, Clarinda; according to my association of ideas [observe the Scotch metaphysics], my sentiments of love and friendship, I next devote myself to you." He declared, in the presence of the elegant Dr.
Blair, that his favorite preacher in Edinburgh was the evangelical Dr. Walker. Burns lived in the age in which, contemporaneous with the declining p;ety, the two great vices of Scotland, intemperance and illicit intercourse of young nen and women, descended to the common people. The evangelical ministers had not the courage to check in the bud the rising intemperance, and, in the second age of moderatism, many of the moderate clergy became the victims of it. The dwellings of the Scottish peasantry were wretched; and court. ship among the young people was concealed as if it were a crime, and driven out of the house into places of darkness, the summons to which is indicated in the line, " Whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad." The consequence was, coarse tastes among the small farmers' and cotters' daughters and servant girls, which neither the evangelicals nor the moral philosophers or clergy bred by them sought to refine. Cromek, speaking of Burns's visit to Edinburgh, says: " But a refined and accomplished woman was a thing almost new to him, and of which he had formed but a very inadequate idea." The evil was not lessened, but rather fomented, by the coarse mode of public ecclesiastical discipline which greatly chafed Burns when applied to him. Iam convinced that the conduct and poetry of Burns helped greatly to foster the national vices. I speak what I know, as my boyish days were spent in the land of Burns, and I met wilh old men who knew Burns and the state of society in which he lived.
[77]I've sent you here, by johnie Simson, Twa sage philosophers to glimpse on:
Smith wi' his sympathetic feeling, And Reid to common sense appealing.
Philosophers have fought and wrangled, And mickle Greek and latin mangled, Till, wi' their logic-jargon tired And in the depth of science mired, To common sense they now appeal, That wives and wabsters see and feel. It is curious to find Bums referring to the philosophy of Spinoza.
[78]In Stewart's class he wrote an essay on the "Manners and Customs of the Northern Nations," and the professor said, "the author of this paper shows much knowledge of his subject, and a great taste for such researches." Scott became, before the close of the session, a frequent visitor in Mr. Stewart's family, and an affectionate intercourse was maintained between them through their after lives.
(Lockhart's " Life of Scott ")
[79]In "Dissertatio Philosophica Inauguralis de Analogia et Philosophia Prima," Feb. 23, 1739, Professor Cleghorn says:
