OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THE HONOURABLE HENRY HOME OF KAMES, PSE OF THE SENATORS OF THE COLLEGE OF JUSTICE, AND ONE OF THE CONTAINING SKETCHES OF THE - PROGRESS OF LITERATURE AND GENERAL IMPROVEMENT THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FY THE HONOURABLE ALEX. FRASER TYTLER OF WOODHOUSELEE, ONE OF THE SENATORS OF THE COLLEGE OF JUSTICE, AND ONE OF THE C'est pécher contre le Public que de taire la vertu des Hommes illustres: SECOND EDITION, IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES, IN THE STRAND, LONDON. 1814. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. As the history of the eminent Person, whose life is the subject of the following Work, is intimately connected with every species of improvement, whether of an intellectual or a political nature, that took place in Scotland during his age, the task incumbent on his biographer, will at once appear to be much more comprehensive in its plan, and various in its objects, than that which ordinarily belongs to this species of writing. To fulfil his duty in its amplest form and measure, the author ought not only to delineate the life of an individual Lawyer, Philosopher, Political Economist, and Critic; but to exhibit the moral and political character of the Times in which he lived, and to detail the progress of the Literature, Arts, Manners, and General Improvement of SCOTLAND, during the greater part of the eighteenth century. Aware of the magnitude and difficulty of the task thus conceived in its utmost extent, the present writer declined engaging in it, for a long period of time, while there appeared any probability of its falling into abler hands :-And when at length, after a fruitless expectation of more than twenty years, he took it upon himself, he was very far from entertaining such confidence in his own abilities, as to deem them at all equal to its complete accomplishment. What he proposed to execute, therefore, and what he has executed, he wishes to be regarded in no other light than as a very imperfect sketch of an interesting picture; which |