ROBERTSON. 271 



the answer was, " Aye, sir, if you'll always give us such, 

 sermons, you may make it worth our while." " Ah," 

 answered he, "you would like it, as the boys say," 

 referring to a vulgar school taunt. I have again and 

 again asked my learned kinsman to show me the ser- 

 mon, which he admitted he possessed among his 

 father's papers, fairly written out. His answer was 

 that he wished to avoid giving it publicity, because, in 

 the violence of the times, the author of it would be 

 set down for a Jacobin, how innocent soever he was 

 at the day of its being preached. Those times have hap- 

 pily long since passed away. I cannot believe that any 

 one has ventured to destroy this remarkable produc- 

 tion, though hitherto it has not been found.* I return 

 to the course of his life. 



From 1752 to 1758 he had been diligently occu- 

 pied with the ' History of Scotland ;' in 1759 it ap- 

 peared. The success of this admirable work was as 

 immediate and as universal as it was deserved. The 

 whole edition, though of two quarto volumes, was ex- 

 hausted in less than a month. There was but one 

 voice in every part of the country, and among all 

 ranks and descriptions of men, both upon its pure and 

 beautiful composition, its interesting narrative, and 

 its anxious and conscientious accuracy. A murmur 

 was heard from the Jacobite party, who in Scotland 



* My kinsman, executor of Lord Robertson, has at length, after 

 many a fruitless search, succeeded in finding the sermon, and it 

 now lies before me, written in his own hand. I can see the places 

 where he added remarks made on the inspiration of the moment, 

 particularly the one above cited, of which I am the more certain 

 from the subsequent conversations of his sister, who heard it with me. 



