Chap. VIII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 305 



"daughters, and fohis eftatc goes to collaterals, or into another family; 

 or he fpends his eftate, which is bought by fome Nabob or over-grown 

 rich man. Thus the land of Scotland is daily going into fewer and 

 fewer hands ; and in one or other of the ways above mentioned, fo 

 many families of gentlemen have been extinguished within thefe lafl 

 60 years, that, as I ha^^e faid, if things go on in the fame way for the 

 next 60, there will be an end of almoft all th'? ol.l families of o-entry 

 in Scotland, and indeed of a great p^rt of th? whole gentry ; and his 

 M ijefty can exped: but very few ofncers, for his fleet and army, from 

 'this country. 



In antient times the race of nobility and gentry in Scotland mul- 

 •tipliw'd in much, thkt 'there was not bufmefs for 'hem at home; and 

 'therefore, they went abroad, not ab th«:y d . now to t!ie Eaft and 

 Wert Indies, to make mdney, but to other countries in Europe, ther^ 

 'to-be employed in military* iervice ; which, at that time, was the 

 only bufmels of our nobility and gentry. Accordingly, very many 

 of them w^ent to other'countries of Farope, to be employed in that 

 "WiJV, and particularly to France, v^^here there are, at prefent, (everal 

 'noble families of Scotch extradion. Gufi- vus Adoij hus. King of 

 Sweden, had a very cotifiderable number of Scotch officers and ibidicrs 

 in- his army, to the rfumber, af'I have heard, of 10 000 ; and, a,t this 

 day there are manv of fT.f heft families in ^weden, who were origi- 

 nally Scotch. \r ' I A-. Ifo, there' are fevrral families of gentlemen 

 of Scotch ext'a' i , o v )f who-v, of the name of FerguOon, was 

 lately in Scorlan^I viliting his relations there. 



The ncjxt r'-:fer of men I have mentioned in the country of Scot- 

 land, as di<"^ingui(hcd from the tr.wns, is th'e farmers ;— a moft ufe- 

 ful body of men, upon whom the population of the country, in a 

 great* meafure, depends, and the cul'ivation of it altogether. They 

 were, in my younger days, very numerous : For the farms were 



Vol. V. Q^q fmall. 



