Dr. Hugh Blair

Hugh Blair was an important part of the Scottish Enlightenment, though he was taken in by the Ossian poem fraud.  Born on April 7, 1718, Blair rose to prominence through study of moral philosophy and literature.  Blair helped Robert Burns get established, and more directly for Walter Scott fans, recognized something in Scott when he examined him at an early age.  It is interesting to note in the following brief biography written by J.W. Lake (published in "The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott") that Scott was not considered a good student, early in life.

Walter, from the tenderness of his constitution, and the circumstance of his lameness, occasioned by a fall from his nurse's arms at two years of age, was in a great measure brought up at home, under the immediate care and instruction of this I excellent parent, to whom he was much attached through life, and whose loss he sincerely lamented. Of his early pursuits little is known, except that he evinced a genius for drawing landscapes after nature.—At a proper age he was sent to the High School at Edinburgh, then directed by Dr Alexander Adam. In this school, young Scott passed through the different forms without exhibiting any of those extraordinary powers of genius, which are seldom remembered till the person to whom they are ascribed has become, by the maturity of his talents, an object of distinction. It is said, that he was considered in his boyhood rather heavy than otherwise, and that the late Dr Hugh Blair had discernment enough to predict his future eminence, when the master of the school lamented his dulness; but this only affords another instance of the fallacy of human opinion in pronouncing upon the real capacity of the youthful understanding. (1) Barrow, the greatest scholar of his age, was discarded as a blockhead by successive teachers; and his pupil, the illustrious Newton, was declared to be fit for nothing but to drive the team, till some friends succeeded in getting him transplanted to college.


(1) The prediction of Dr Blair, here alluded to, arose out of the following circumstances. Shortly after Dr Paterson succeeded to the grammar-school, Musselburgh, where Walter Scott was a short time a pupil, Blair, accompanied by some friends, paid him a visit; in the course of which he examined several of his pupils, and paid particular attention to young Scott. Dr Paterson thought it was the youth's stupidity that engaged the doctor's notice, and said, My predecessor tells me, that boy has the thickest skull in the school. "May be so, replied Dr Blair, but through that thick skull I can discern many bright rays of future genius.

Dr. John Moore

Physician and author John Moore, died on January 21, 1802.  His novel "Zeluco" influenced Lord Byron in his development of "Childe Harold".  In an article published in the periodical Eighteenth Century Fiction, author Gary Kelly draws a comparison between Moore's writing and Sir Walter Scott's, arguing that Moore properly should be considered a product of the Scottish Enlightenment.  According to Kelly, 'Moore's novels do contain Scottish characters and celebrate the poetry of Robert Bums (with whom Moore corresponded), and "national character" is one of the recurring themes, but there is not enough of the kind of stuff found in Maria Edgeworth's "Irish tales, Sir Walter Scott's, John Galt's, and James Hogg's Scottish novels to make Moore a "Scottish" novelist in the eyes of modem critics. Hart's book on The Scottish Novel, for example, does not mention Moore.  This is wrong. Moore's
novels in their form and subject matter are, as I have tried to argue, products and manifestations of the Scottish Enlightenment, a movement as Scottish as Scott's folk antiquarianism-indeed, Scott himself, in his folk antiquarianism (in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, the poems, and Waverley novels), was carrying out one of the lines of development of the Scottish Enlightenment. Moore's novels also reveal the same ambivalence about the relation of court, gentry, and professional classes found in Scott's far more popular exercises in the "invention of tradition" and the "imagined community" of the nation based in print culture.'

Patrick Murray, Lord Elibank

Summer is not fully past at this time of year, and on Septermber 12, 1773 Samuel Johnson and James Boswell are touring Scotland's Western Isles.  As recorded in Boswell's "The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D", on this day, the weather provided the travellers an opportunity to sail from Raasay to Skye.  On reaching an inn at Portree, they find letters waiting for them, sent from Edinburgh by Patrick Murray, Lord Elibank. 

Dear Boswell,



I flew to Edinburgh the moment I heard of Mr Johnson's arrival; but so defective was my intelligence, that I came too late. It is but justice to believe, that I could never forgive myself, nor deserve to be forgiven by others, if I was to foil in any mark of respect to that very great genius.--I hold him in the highest veneration: for that very reason I was resolved to take no share in the merit, perhaps guilt, of inticing him to honour this country with a visit.--I could not persuade myself there was any thing in Scotland worthy to have a Summer of Samuel Johnson bestowed on it; but since he has done us that compliment, for heaven's sake inform me of your motions. I will attend them most religiously; and though I should regret to let Mr Johnson go a mile out of his way on my account, old as I am, I shall be glad to go five hundred miles to enjoy a day of his company. Have the charity to send a council-post [Footnote: A term in Scotland for a special messenger, such as was formerly sent with dispatches by the lords of the council.] with intelligence; the post does not suit us in the country. At any rate write to me. I will attend you in the north, when I shall know where to find you.

I am,


My dear Boswell,
Your sincerely
Obedient humble servant,


ELIBANK.


August 21st, 1773.

The letter to Dr Johnson was in these words:



Dear Sir,


I was to have kissed your hands at Edinburgh, the moment I heard of you; but you were gone. I hope my friend Boswell will inform me of your motions. It will be cruel to deprive me an instant of the honour of attending you. As I value you more than any King in Christendom, I will perform that duty with infinitely greater alacrity than any courtier. I can contribute but little to your entertainment; but, my sincere esteem for you gives me some tide to the opportunity of expressing it.
I dare say you are by this time sensible that things are pretty much the same, as when Buchanan complained of being born solo et seculo inerudito. Let me hear of you, and be persuaded that none of your admirers is more sincerely devoted to you, than,


Dear Sir,
Your most obedient,
And most humble servant,


ELIBANK.


According to Boswell, Johnson said of Murray: " Lord Elibank has read a great deal. It is true, I can find in books all that he has read; but he has a great deal of what is in books, proved by the test of real life."

Patrick Murray, a figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, died at Ballencrieff Castle on August 3, 1778. Walter Scott did not know him.  Murray was contemporary with, and often associated with David Hume.  Among Murray's written works are: Essays on Paper Money, Banking, etc. (1755) Thoughts on Money, Circulation, and Paper Currency (1758), Inquiry into the Origin and Consequence of the Public Debts (1758/9), Queries Relating to the Proposed Plan for Altering Entails in Scotland (1765), Letter to Lord Hailes on his Remarks on the History of Scotland (1773) and Considerations on the Present State of the Peerage of Scotland (1774).

Sir Walter Scott did know other Elibanks. Patrick himself had no children, and the Elibank title passed to more than one Murray line.  Scott knew Peter Murray, and mentions him in his Journal:

February 26 (1826) ...Peter Murray, son of the clever Lord Elibank, called and sat half-an-hour—an old friend, and who, from the peculiarity and originality of his genius, is one of the most entertaining companions I have ever known. But I must finish Malachi.

Sources:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/men/murray_patrick.htm
http://www.jamesboswell.info/biography/patrick-murray-5th-lord-murray
Wikipedia

Adam Smith

The author of "The Wealth of Nations" (1776), and the man responsible for the economic concept of the invisible hand of the marketplace, was born on June 5, 1723.  Smith was born in Kirkaldy, Scotland.  A major figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, he became a friend of David Hume, among others.

Walter Scott includes a reference to Adam Smith in the introduction to "The Fortunes of Nigel", in which the fictional Captain Clutterbuck interviews the Author of Waverly:

"...Captain. You are determined to proceed then in your own system ? Are you aware that an unworthy motive may be assigned for this rapid succession of publication ? You will be supposed to work merely for the lucre of gain.


Author. Supposing that I did permit the great advantages which must be derived from success in literature to join with other motives in inducing me to come more frequently before the public, that emolument is the voluntary tax which the public pays for a certain species of literary amusement; it is extorted from no one, and paid, I presume, by those only who can afford it, and who receive gratification in proportion to the expense. If the capital sum which these volumes have put into circulation be a very large one, has it contributed to my indulgences only ? or can I not: say to hundreds, from honest Duncan the paper-manufacturer to the most snivelling of the printer's devils, "Didst thou not share ? Hadst thou not fifteen pence ?" I profess I think our Modern Athens much obliged to me for having established such an extensive manufacture; and when universal suffrage comes in fashion, I intend to stand for a seat in the House on the interest of all the unwashed artificers connected with literature.

Captain. This would be called the language of a calicomanufacturer.

Author. Cant again, my dear son : there is lime in this sack, too ; nothing but sophistication in this world ! I do say it, in spite of Adam Smith and his followers, that a successful author is a productive laborer, and that his works constitute as effectual a part of the public wealth as that which is created by any other manufacturer. If a new commodity, having an actually intrinsic and commercial value, be the result of the operation, why are the author's bales of books to be esteemed a less profitable part of the public stock than the goods of any other manufacturer ? I speak with reference to the diffusion of the wealth arising to the public, and the degree of industry which even such a trifling work as the present must stimulate and reward, before the volumes leave the publisher's shop. Without me it could not exist, and to this extent I am a benefactor to the country. As for my own emolument, it is won by my toil, and I account myself answerable to Heaven only for the mode in which I expend it. The candid may hope it is not all dedicated to selfish purposes; and, without much pretensions to merit in him who disburses it, apart may "wander, heaven-directed, to the poor."


Captain. Yet it is generally held base to write from the mere motives of gain.

Author. It would be base to do so exclusively, or even to make it a principal motive for literary exertion. Nay, I will venture to say that no work of imagination, proceeding from the mere consideration of a certain sum of copymoney, ever did, or ever will, succeed. So the lawyer who pleads, the soldier who fights, the physician who prescribes, the clergyman—if such there be—who preaches, without any zeal for his profession, or without any sense of its dignity, and merely on account of the fee, pay or stipend, degrade themselves to the rank of sordid mechanics. Accordingly, in the case of two of the learned faculties at least, their services are considered as unappreciable, and are acknowledged, not by any exact estimate of the services rendered, out by a honorarium, or voluntary acknowledgment. But let a client or patient make the experiment of omitting this little ceremony of the honorarium, which is cense to be a thing entirely out of consideration between them, and mark how the learned gentleman will look upon his case. Cant set apart it is the same thing with literary emolument. No man of sense, in any rank of life, is, or ought to be, above accepting a just recompense for his time, and a reasonable share of the capital which owes its very existence to his exertions. When Czar Peter wrought in the trenches, he took the pay of a common soldier; and nobles, statesmen and divines, the most distinguished of their time, have not scorned to square accounts with their bookseller..."

The Leading Light of the Scottish Enlightenment

David Hume has been described by some as the most important philosopher in the English language.  It is probable that most people today have never even heard of him.  Born April 26, 1711, as David Home (changed in 1734 so that the English could better understand how to pronounce his name), the "uncommonly wake-minded" Hume attended Edinburgh University by age 11. 

Hume has been labeled a British empiricist as a philosopher; i.e. (roughly that) knowledge derives from experience of the senses.  This school of thought was founded by John Locke.  Hume's major productions include "A Treatise of Human Nature" (1739-1740), the "Enquiries concerning Human Understanding" (1748) and "concerning the Principles of Morals" (1751).  Hume also contributed substantially to history and economics, publishing a 6 volume "History of England", and influencing the viewpoint of his friend Adam Smith.  More famous in his own day than in current times, Hume participated in political endeavors of the day, including accompanying his cousin, Lieutenant-General James St. Clair on a diplomatic mission to Vienna and Turin (1748).

Walter Scott would have been too young to meet Hume, who died in 1776; five years after Scott's birth.  Hume's influence on the Scottish Enlightenment and on the thinking of those like Walter Scott who lived during and after is inescapable.  From Scott's Journal:
April 3 (1828)   ...Come, I'll write down the whole stanza, which is all that was known to exist of David Hume's poetry, as it was written on a pane of glass in the inn:—



"Here chicks in eggs for breakfast sprawl,
Here godless boys God's glories squall,
Here Scotsmen's heads do guard the wall,
But Corby's walks atone for all."