318 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
smartness of a literary institute, it would lose both in intrinsic 
interest and importance, and in public estimation. Still I think 
there is room for some good work to be done in relation to Scottish 
literature, being cognate to the grave and solid character which is 
and has always belonged to the transactions of the Society ; and it 
had occurred to me, in searching for a suitable theme for my address 
from this chair, that some interest might be created by tracing in 
detail the rise and progress of English composition in Scotland. It 
is a subject which has never been thoroughly investigated or ex- 
hausted. We know more of Scottish literature in the sixteenth 
century than we do of that of the seventeenth. The period I should 
wish particularly to have illustrated is that long, and, as regards our 
own literature, rather dreary and barren chasm between the union of 
the crowns in 1603 and the union of the kingdoms in 1707. I should 
like to trace, if it could be done, the gradual steps by which our 
Scottish writers ascended from the strong, nervous, but Scottish 
vernacular of the 15th century, until, in the persons of Hume, 
Robertson, and Adam Smith — the founders of this Society — or 
among them, they became masters and models of the art, and gave 
laws, and canons of criticism, to the authors south of the Tweed. 
I have always looked on this result as a very remarkable instance of 
the tenacity and adaptability of the Scottish character. There can 
be no doubt that as regarded the arts and sciences, the more refined 
pursuits of the intellect, and the inducements to cultivate the gentler 
tenderness of knowledge, the union of the crowns in the first 
instance, and the union of the kingdoms ultimately, were a deep 
and severe blow. They withdrew money and patronage from 
Scottish enterprise in the markets of intellect as well as in those of 
commerce ; and I incline to think that this cause, more than the 
troubles of the times, explains the lack of Scottish literature in the 
first half of the seventeenth century. The union of the kingdoms was 
a second and sudden discouragement to Scottish literature. Left 
without either court or parliament, and forced to conform to English 
models, authorship in Scotland became a very dreary affair. Scottish 
language, accent, phrases, and speech were the subject of perpetual 
derision to their southern neighbours, and the old Scottish pride of 
her authors could ill brook, while they could not withstand, the 
current of contemptuous criticism which assailed them. David 
