262 
SITiFs, the ordinary number ef the fiv- 
‘ dents at which may be accounted to ex- 
ceed two thoufand. There are, befides, 
-five or fix ACADEMIES, deftined to com- 
bine in, their plan of inftruétion, a few 
of the higher parts of what is commonly 
taught in the /cbools, with fome of the 
more popular and praétical branches of 
the learning and f[cience of the uaver- 
Jittes. At thefe academies, perhaps be- 
tween three and four hundred young 
men ufually attend for education. Weekly 
inftruétion in the truths of religion and 
morality is communicated from, perhaps, 
about twelve hundred pulpits, of the 
eftablifhed Prefbyterian Church, and of 
Diffenters of various denominations. 
Many of the children and youth are 
educated under the domeftic tuition of 
their mothers, and of private preceptors. 
For the acquifition of the mechanical 
arts, young perfons are obliged to engage 
in apprenticefhips, of which the dura- 
tion varies from three to feven years. 
The greater part of thefe provifions 
for the inftruction of the youth in liter- 
‘ature and fcience, in the duties and the 
arts of life, have fubfifted, as perma- 
nent national inftitutions, for, at leaft, 
more than a hundred and fifty years. 
In the courfe of the fifteenth and fix- 
teenth centuries, when many different 
caufes concurred to make the {cions of 
learning and civility fhoot up with an ex- 
traordinary energy of growth; and 
efpecially, when thofe who, without per- 
fonal labour, enjoyed the furplus pro- 
duce of the bounty of nature, and of the 
toils of induftry, confumed it at home, at 
the court of the Scottifh fovereign, in 
the caftles of the nobles, in the palaces 
and convents of the clergy ; various works 
of literature were then compofed, both 
in the vernacular idiom, and in the claffi- 
cal language of ancient Rome, which 
-diftingnifhes Scottifh genius as having 
_been in that period nor lefs polifhed 
and vigorous than was the genius of any 
ether nation of Europe. 
The Chronicle of Joun of Forpun, 
the moft antient authentic record of the 
Scottith Hittory, was a production of the 
fifteenthcentury. It is evidently a com- 
pilation formed from thofe regifters af 
the ecclefiattical and civil tranfaétions of 
the times, of which there was ulually one 
kept in every confiderable monaftery. 
It isa very entertaining medley of hif- 
torical narrative, legends, horhilies, and 
copies of written deeds of hiftorical im- 
portance. Wunton’s Chronicle is, in 
3 
State of Literature in Scotland. 
(Og. 
truth, but a jejune chronicle, of a far 
lefs value thaa Fordun’s. The hiftory 
of Scotland by Jounw Maroa, a pro- 
feffor of ethics and theology, is written 
im an impure and uncouth Latin fiyle, 
but is highly remarkable for the bold and 
acutely perfpicuous moral difcrimination 
with which its author judges of the me-~ 
rits or demerits of every tranfaétion he 
relates, and cenfures or approves the con- 
duét of nations, popes, and kings. In 
various inftances, the difference 1s won- 
derfully {mall, between the morality of 
Mator and that of Gopwin, BaR- 
BOUR, and Brinp Harry, the au- 
thor of the Metrical Hiftories of Rodert 
Bruce and Wilham Wallace, have dit- 
played the Scottifh language of the =ge 
in which they wrote, in. a perfeétion 
and regularity of analogy, which the. 
contemporary language of England did — 
not poftefs. In the Englifh language, 
the Saxon and the Norman-French were, 
about that time, ftruggling hard for the 
maftery : and a chaotic confufion of the 
whole mafs of fpeech, was neceffarily pro- 
duced by the ftrife. In Scotland, the 
words, the analogy, the genius of the 
Saxon predominated fo exceedingly over 
Whatever elfe was introduced to conta- 
minate or enrich it,-as to prevent the 
Scottifh tongue from becoming an 
equally unanalogical and incoherent jar- 
gon. Of the two rhymers, BARBOUR 
was the more faithful chronicler; BLIND 
Harry, the better poet. Dunbar, 
HENRISON, and many others, chiefly of 
the order of the clergy, afterwards dif- 
tinguifhed themfelves by various poetical 
compofitions of great elegance ; allegori- 
cal, paftoral, tales, ballads, and fatires. At 
leaft, one of the five JaMEsES, kings of | 
Scotland, wrote fome comic narrative 
poems of extraordinary merit, But the 
dramas, the fatires, the tales, and the 
hiftorice! poems of Sir Davin LIND? 
say ; the allegorical pieces, and the no- 
ble tranflation of Virgil, by GAWIN 
DouGLas, are monuments of poefy, 
fch as only the Italians, Portuguefe, 
and Spaniards, are known to have equal- 
led in the fame age, and in their re- 
fpective vernacular languages. The 
Acts of the Scottife Parliaments of this 
period, are exprefled with a clearnefs, 
precifion, fimplicity, and force of lan- 
guage, which have long fince ceafed ta 
fhine in the Britifh ftarute-book. Few 
of the European nations can, even at this 
day, boaft two general hiftories of the 
whole feries of their national ‘sie 
an 
