SCOTLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 27 



yet the average youth at an early age quitted his 

 grammar-school by force of necessity for the plow 

 or the loom. Nevertheless, it was due to these 

 grammar-schools that the widespread ignorance 

 which was common among the poorer classes of al- 

 most every other nation was not to be noted in Scot- 

 land. As has been strongly expressed by an emi- 

 nent Scotchman* of our own day there is no peas- 

 antry in Scotland, and the all-pervading influence 

 of the grammar-schools is in great part the reason 

 for this fact. 



The schools of the eighteenth century, it must 

 be remarked, were very different from what they 

 are to-day. Remarkable indeed for existing in 

 such numbers at all, they were still only good as 

 compared with the schools of other countries 

 at the same period, and not as compared with 

 modern institutions, and moreover they undoubt- 

 edly differed greatly among themselves. Then, 

 too, when we remember the intermittent manner 

 in which many of the pupils attended, we can 

 realize how limited after all were the educational 

 advantages even in Scotland, of the sons of the 

 class which in other countries would have formed 

 the peasantry. All this must be held in memory 

 lest we underestimate the difficulties which had 

 to be overcome by the less well-to-do Scotchmen 

 of this era, so many of whom did gain an excellent 

 education in spite of every hindrance. 



The condition of Scotland in material matters was 

 worse than its moral state, and far in arrears of its 

 educational attainments. Since there were no en- 



*Dr. Hugh Black. 



