APPENDIX. (23) 



terary men, it may perhaps be obferved, that it is on objedts of ^%''''\ °^j-f 

 this fort that thefe are frequently more occupied and excited 

 than on others which might at firfl fight appear better calcula- 

 ted to occupy and excite them. On objects of prefent and im- 

 mediate concern, the mind and the aiFedlions have certain li- 

 mits to which the adlual and known intereft neceflarily con- 

 fines them. The others have a fort of ideal range which no 

 fuch fixed and certain boundary refbrains. The intereft is crea- 

 ted, not found, and the fancy fofters and nourilhes the fubjed: 

 of its own creation, till, it engroffes the attention and excites 

 the pafhons to a degree that muft appear very extraordinary to 

 thofe who confider it in itg natural and unexaggerated colours^ 

 Difputes of literary as well as political enthufiafm, have there- 

 fore been generally the moft obftinate and warm of any ; and 

 this, which is quaintly termed the. Marian coAtroverfy, of all 

 fuch difputes the keenefl. Even Mr Hume, placid as he was 

 from nature, and accuftomed, from his earlieft literary life, to 

 contradicftion and attack, loft fomewhat of his ufual temper on 

 the occafion, and fubjoined an angry note to the latter editions 

 of his Hiflory, which I fhall not quote, becaufe, from my re- 

 fpedl for his miemory, I am rather inclined to wifh that it had 

 not been written. 



Without venturing any opinion on the queftion itfelf, it 

 may be fufEcient in this place to fay, that Mr Tytler acquired 

 high reputation by his difcufTion of it. The Enquiry was uni- 

 verfally read in Britain, and very well ti-anflated into French, 

 under the title of " Recherches Hifloriques et Critiques fur les 

 principales Preiives de I'Accufation intentee contre Marie 

 Reine d'Ecoffe." The interefl it excited among literary men, 

 may be judged of from the character of thofe by whom it was 

 reviewed on its publication, in the periodicabworks of the time. 

 Dr Douglas, now Bifhop of Salifbury, Dr Samuel Johnson, 

 Dr John Campbell, and Dr Smollet, all wrote reviews of 

 Mr Tytler's book, containing very particular accounts of its 



merits J, 



