ied 
556 MEMOIR OF 
a task to the execution of which, few men could bring adequate 
knowledge or capacity ; and, even if it could have been execu- 
ted, there were still fewer readers who could preserve any con- 
tinuity of interest in a progress so eccentric, or be able to 
make perpetual transitions from the subtleties of metaphysics 
to the details of husbandry, or from the refinements of philo- 
sophical criticism, to the technical questions of Scotch law. 
The emblem of Lord Kames’s genius was not that of the Gan- 
ges or the Indus, which roll forward their condensed streams, 
and fill the eye of the spectator with their simple and increa- 
sing’ majesty ; but that of the Rhine or the Nile, which divide 
the volume of their waters into innumerable branches, and, 
while they fertilize a wider surface, yet perplex the eye, that 
labours to number and pursue them. What fidelity and affec- 
tion could do, upon a subject so difficult, Lord WoopnovusELEE, 
I apprehend, has done. He has given the portrait of Lord 
Kanes, with all his various and characteristic features ;—he 
has surrounded him with his contemporaries, and sketched out, 
in many pleasing and interesting details, the literary history 
of the age in which he lived ;—and his work, like those of Pia- 
‘ro and of Xrnornon, will descend to posterity with an interest 
which no other can now possess, that of being executed from 
the living subject, and of blending the veneration of the dis- 
ciple with the fidelity of the historian. 
In the year 1811, Lord WoopuovsELEE was appointed to 
the Justiciary Bench, on the elevation of the Lord Justice- 
Clerk Horr to the President’s chair. 
Although Lord Woonuovserner was now advancing in age, 
and his strength declining, yet the publication of the Memoirs 
of Lord Kames did nat put a period to his literary activity. 
It was now too late, indeed, for him to resume any of the lite- 
rary projects which he had once hoped to accomplish : but he 
returned 
