Science and the Origins and Concerns of the Scottish Enlightenment

Smout T. C. , A history of the Scottish people, 1560–1830, 2nd edn (London, 1970); Mitchison Rosalind , Lordship to patronage: Scotland 1603–1745 (London, 1983); Lenman Bruce , Integration, enlightenment and industrialization: Scotland 1746–1832 (London, 1981); the best bibliography of works on Scotland in this period is contained in Sher Richard , Church and university in the Scottish Enlightenment: The moderate literati of Edinburgh (Princeton, 1985), 327–76.

Ferguson William , Scotland 1689 to the present (Edinburgh and London, 1968), 198–233; idem, Scotland's relations with England: A survey to 1707 (Edinburgh, 1977), 242–3.

Trevor-Roper H. R. Dacre Lord , “The Scottish Enlightenment”, Studies on Voltaire and the eighteenth century, lviii (1967), 1635–58; idem, “The Scottish Enlightenment”, Blackwood's magazine, cccxxii (1977), 371–88.

Robertson John , The Scottish Enlightenment and the militia issue (Edinburgh, 1985), 17.

Camic Charles , Experience and enlightenment (Chicago, 1983).

Robertson , op. cit. (ref. 4), 17.

Phillipson has set out his views in numerous essays of which the following seem most important: “Towards a definition of the Scottish Enlightenment”, in City and society in the 18th century , ed. by Fritz P. and Williams D. (Toronto, 1973), 125–47; “Culture and society in the 18th century province: The case of Edinburgh and the Scottish Enlightenment”, in The university in society , ed. by Stone L. (2 vols, Princeton, 1974), ii, 407–48; “The Scottish Enlightenment”, in The enlightenment in national context , ed. by Porter R. and Teich M. (Cambridge, 1981), 19–40; “Adam Smith as civic moralist”, in Wealth and virtue: The shaping of political economy in the Scottish Enlightenment , ed. by Hont I. and Ignatieff M. (Cambridge, 1983), 179–202.

The extent of this migration has been recently established: Shaw J. Stuart , The management of Scottish society 1707–1764 (Edinburgh, 1983), 1–36. It is still important to remember as Shaw does (p. 41) that “Ultimate dominion over Scotland lay, as before the Union, with those who had the most ‘property’, those with the greatest economic weight, those in England, in London, in the south. This dominion was not absolute, but it was ever present…” and exercised through patronage throughout the century. Phillipson underplays that fact when he sees the literati giving cultural leadership to men like the 3rd Duke of Argyll or the 4th Marquis of Tweeddale.

Phillipson , op. cit. (ref. 7, 1974), 447.

Chitnis Anand , The Scottish Enlightenment: A social history (London, 1976); idem, “The eighteenth-century Scottish intellectual inquiry: Context and continuities versus civic virtue”, in Aberdeen and the enlightenment , ed. by Carter J. J. and Pittock J. H. (Aberdeen, 1987), 77–92, p. 86.

ibid., 90.

Skinner and Campbell consciously sought to show continuities in Scottish history; the essays which they published are openly or implicitly critical of the accounts of the Scottish Enlightenment given by Lord Dacre, Phillipson and some essayists included in Wealth and virtue. Ouston's essay is included in New perspectives on the politics and culture of early modern Scotland , ed. by Dwyer J. Mason R. A. Murdoch A. (Edinburgh, n.d. [1980]), 133–55. Ouston emphasizes perhaps too much the split between the intellectual concerns of the virtuosi and the literati. “On one side was ‘curious’ learning, the collection of scientific and antiquarian information which particularly interested Sibbald. On the other was the knowledge of Latin and vernacular literary and philosophical works expected of a ‘Literatus’. … by the 1670s the ideal of the Virtuoso was spreading from the aristocracy to the professional classes who served them, and who were less interested in a feudal origin for public eminence. The professions now took an independent initiative in the advancement of learning for the first time. It was this initiative, linked to the political and cultural traditions of the Stuart court, that looked to the Duke of York for patronage” (p. 137). Men like Sir Robert Sibbald or Sir Geoge Mackenzie united both interests. By 1700 Sibbald had switched his patrons but not his aims.

These will be collected in a projected work on Scottish philosophy of mind and physiological theory c.1700 to 1800.

Barfoot Michael , “Hume and the culture of science in the early eighteenth century”, forthcoming in Oxford studies in the history of philosophy, ed. by Stewart M. A. (Oxford, 1990).

For example, Moore J. and Silverthorne M. , “Gershom Carmichael and the natural jurisprudence tradition in eighteenth-century Scotland”, in Hont and Ignatieff (ref. 7), 73–88; Simonsuuri Kirsti , “Blackwell and the myth of Orpheus”, in Carter and Pittock (ref. 10), 199–206; Guerrini Anita , “The Tory Newtonians: Gregory, Pitcairne, and their circle”, Journal of British studies, xxv (1986), 288–311.

A hotbed of genius: The Scottish Enlightenment, ed. by Daiches D.P. and Jones J. (Edinburgh, 1986), 5.

Sher , op. cit. (ref. 1), 5.

Smout , op. cit. (ref. 1), 500; Lenman , op. cit. (ref. 1), 25, 106, 120; Robertson J. , “The Scottish Enlightenment and the civic tradition”, in Hont and Iganatieff (ref. 7), 137–78, pp. 152, 177.

Phillipson , op. cit. (ref. 7, 1981), 22, 32.

Chitnis , op. cit. (ref. 10, 1976), 4; (ref. 10, 1987), 84.

Ouston , op. cit. (ref. 12), 152.

Sher , op. cit. (ref. 1), 6–10, p. 8.

ibid., 11–12.

ibid., 14.

ibid., 8.

Cassirer Ernst , Philosophy of the enlightenment [1932], trans. by Koelln Fritz C. A. and Pettegrove James P. (Princeton, 1979), pp. vi–x. Sir Isaiah Berlin's views have been presented in a number of essays including “Herder and the enlightenment”, in Vico and Herder (New York, 1976), 143–216, 206–13.

Emerson R. L. , “Natural philosophy and the problem of the Scottish Enlightenment”, Studies on Voltaire and the eighteenth century, ccxlii (1986), 243–91.

Wade I. O. has commented on the concurrent and related transition in France from philosopher to philosophe: “The philosophy of the Enlightenment, which grew out of this seventeenth-century scientific, encyclopedic orientation, [itself a result of an “effort to overthrow Aristotle” partly through “a more precise definition of phenomena and more accurate measurements”, p. 4] aspired to be formal and scientific; but it also strove to broaden the field of philosophy to include all human thought and action and to humanize rather than systematize that thought. Emphasis was gradually shifted from the metaphysics to physics, from abstract principles of ethics to social activity …. There was tacit agreement among both systematic, formal thinkers and free-thinkers that knowledge could enhance the powers of man and thus produce a greater happiness.” The structure and form of the French Enlightenment (2 vols, Princeton, 1977), i, 10–11.

Emerson R. L. , “Sir Robert Sibbald, Kt, the Royal Society of Scotland and the origins of the Scottish Enlightenment”, Annals of science, xlv (1988), 41–72. There is no account of the Scottish virtuosi but Piggot's Stuart “The ancestors of Jonathan Oldbuck”, in Ruins in a landscape: Essays in antiquarianism (Edinburgh, 1976), 133–59 is useful as is Brown's I. G. The hobby-horsical antiquary: A Scottish character 1640–1830 (Edinburgh, 1980). Groups with which Sir Robert Sibbald and others were in contact have been studied in well-known works by Shapiro B. Hunter M. Levine J. M. Hoppen K. T. and Gunther R. T.

Emerson , op. cit. (ref. 29), 72.

It may well be the case that the rebellion in 1715 was more harmful to Scottish culture than the Union. Societies disappear in Edinburgh between 1712 and 1716–17. In Aberdeen university life was stopped for months and unsettled after 1717 for some years. The hiatus in some intellectual activities to which Phillipson has pointed was real enough but his political explanation of that fact may not be well founded.

Pitcairne lacks a modern biography but see: Guarrini , op. cit. (ref. 15), passim and scattered references in The correspondence of Sir Isaac Newton , ed. by Turnbull W. H. (Cambridge, 1959–1977), iii, 8, 179, 212, 333; The Baglivi correspondence… , ed. by Schullian Dorothy M. (Ithaca and London, 1974), 40–44; The mathematical papers of Sir Isaac Newton , ed. by Whiteside D. T. (Cambridge, 1974–81), vii, pp. xvi, 5; viii, 16.

Cassedy James , “Medicine and the rise of statistics”, in Medicine in seventeenth century England, ed. by Debus Allen G. (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1974), 309.

Sibbald's philosophical views may have been more sophisticated than we think. He was greatly perplexed by sceptical doubts. He certainly read corpuscularian philosophers and seems to have admired Boyle whom he sought out in London. Sir Robert clearly thought physicians needed a knowledge of mathematics in order to understand the body as a “machine”. The memoirs of Sir Robert Sibbald , ed. by Hett F. P. (London, 1932), 7, 9, 54; Cunningham A. , “Sir Robert Sibbald and medical education, Edinburgh, 1706”, Clio medica, xiii (1978), 135–61, pp. 140–1; Sibbald Manuscripts, National Library of Scotland, [NLS] MS.5.2.8/244–6.

Papers of David Gregory, Edinburgh University Library [EUL] MS. Dc.1.61.f.393; Dc.1.62.f.167; Turnbull (ref. 32), iii, 212.

Anderson R. G. W. , The Playfair collection and the teaching of chemistry at the University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1978), 3.

That Drummond possessed such a patent is established by the list of names printed and published by Professor Robert Steuart in The physiological library begun by Mr. Steuart … 1724 (Edinburgh, 1725). I am indebted to Dr Michael Barfoot for this reference. That Pitcairne helped Drummond to secure it is shown by correspondence between the Doctor and Lord Mar; Mar and Kellie MSS., Scottish Record Office [SRO] GD124/15/755/3–4.

Monro Alexander , “Anatomy”, 6 vols, EUL, MS. Dc.3.35. The writer of these student notes is not known; neither is their date. See also ref. 71.

Guarrini , op. cit. (ref. 15), 303–5.

David Gregory Papers, EUL MS. DK. 1.2.2 fol B. 24. These and other Regents are discussed in Christine King Shepherd, “Philosophy and science in the Arts curriculum of the Scottish universities in the seventeenth century” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Edinburgh University, 1975); Turnbull , op. cit. (ref. 32), iii, 333.

Sibbald Robert Sir , Memoria Balfouriana (Edinburgh, 1699), 82–83.

Dalzel Andrew , History of the University of Edinburgh, ed. by Innes Cosmo (2 vols, Edinburgh, 1862), i, 258.

Pitcairne to Mar 16 May 1706, 21 May 1707, Mar and Kellie MSS., SRO GD124/15/401/1, GD124/15/573.

Sibbald MSS., EUL La III.353, “A Letter from James Walkinshaw …”; Turnbull , op. cit. (ref. 32), vi, 444 n. 5; Hiscock W. G. , David Gregory, Isaac Newton and their circle (Oxford, 1937), 17; Mar and Kellie MSS., SRO, GD124/15/966/2; King's College Minutes, 11 July 1720, Aberdeen University Library (AUL). More information on Bower can be found in Emerson R. L. , “The politics of culture: The Aberdeen universities in the 18th century”, in Aberdeen University quincentennial studies (forthcoming).

Mar to Lord Seafield, 17 July 1707; Mar to Pitcairne, 4 November 1708, SRO, GD124/15/635/4; /755/3–5.

Hiscock , op. cit. (ref. 44), 21, 23.

Gairdner John , Historical sketch of the Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh and London, 1860), 17–19.

Dick (d. 1751) became the first specialist Professor of Natural Philosophy in 1727 when the chairs were permanently assigned and ceased to rotate among the regents. More information on Glasgow's instrument collection is contained in Emerson (ref. 27), 255–7.

Steuart was very friendly with Robert Wodrow, Librarian at Glasgow University (1697–1701) and later the Minister of Eastwood. Both men had virtuoso interests in civil and natural history. Steuart was also an experimenter who exhibited some panache in lecturing and great accuracy in measurements undertaken to state the equivalents of English and Scottish units. He was later involved in work to find the exact volume of the Stirling Jug, a task which was of use to historians but one which also remained of interest to John Robinson as late as c.1800. What is known of Steuart may be gleaned from: Barfoot (ref. 14); Wodrow Robert , Analecta or materials for a history of remarkable providences (Edinburgh: The Maitland Club, 1842–43), i–iv; Early letters of Robert Wodrow 1698–1709, ed. by Sharp L. W. , Scottish History Society, 3rd series, xxiv (1937); The correspondence of the reverend Robert Wodrow , ed. by M'Crie Thomas (3 vols, Edinburgh: Woodrow Society, 1842, 1843, 1843), passim; “Professor [John] Robinson's Commonplace Book”, St Andrews University Library (SUL), MS. Q171.R8, “W”; Emerson R. L. , “The Philosophical Society of Edinburgh 1748–1768”, The British journal for the history of science, xiv (1981), 133–76, pp. 160–1.

Sibbald's ties to Glasgow men seem to have run to the Sinclairs and to Wodrow. The latter belonged to a family clique headed by Principal Stirling to which Robert Simson, Robert Dick and several other faculty members belonged by 1715. Sibbald's political friends also tended to be those in the Patriot and Squadrone political factions led by the Dukes of Montrose and Roxburghe. Pitcairne's influence has been earlier noted. His patrons were Jacobites as were some of his protégés.

William Knight MSS., AUL, MS. M111, pp/1175–91 (instrument inventories and purchases 1670–1762).

St Andrews University Minutes, 23 October 1714, SUL.

Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, Selected political writings and speeches, ed. by Daiches David (Edinburgh, 1979), 111.

The Earl Marischal had been included on Sibbald's list of founders for the proposed Royal Society of Scotland.

St Andrews University Minutes, 6 April 1715, 5 December 1721; 7 and 30 December 1720, 4 December 1721, St Andrews University Archives (SUA).

William Carstares to John Stirling, 21 January 1714. Letters of John Stirling, Glasgow University Library (GUL), Murray MSS. 650.

Doyle W. P. , James Crawford m.d. (1682–1731), pamphlet in the Scottish men of science series sponsored by the late Professor Eric Forbes (Edinburgh: History of Medicine and Science Unit, Edinburgh University, 1981). Dr Pitcairne had recommended Crawford for his Aberdeen M.D. conferred in 1708 by Marischal College.

Underwood E. A. , Boerhaave's men at Leyden and after (Edinburgh, 1977), 113–16.

Fletcher H. R. and Brown W. H. , The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 1670–1970 (Edinburgh, 1970).

The papers of Charles and George Preston, holograph originals and copies, have been gathered in the Library of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. A selection from these was printed by Cowan John MacQueen , “The history of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh — The Prestons”, Notes, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, xix (1935), 63–134.

Gregory Papers, op. cit. (ref. 40), DK.1.2.1; DK.1.2.2.; Hiscock, op. cit. (ref. 44), 31, 34.

Hiscock , ibid., 3–4.

John Anderson, Professor of Natural Philosophy at Glasgow University, found it useful at some undetermined date (probably c.1760) to make a “Copy of a small tattered book lent me by the Reverend Mr. Peter Woodrow Minister at Turbowtown, which he says is a catalogue of the curiosities collected by his father prior to 1704”. Anderson MSS., Strathclyde University, MS. 11.

David Skene's correspondence with John Ellis, John Hope and John Walker makes clear their use of these sources. David Skene MSS., AUL, MS. 38 f.158–9. Walker's use of the works of the naturalists of 1700 is also clear from his “Extracts and notes on natural history” (EUL, MS. Dc. 2.37) and from his published memoir of Sir Andrew Balfour, contained in his Essays on natural history and rural economy (London, 1808), 357–61. It is also interesting to notice that they sharply criticized the works of other contemporaries of Sibbald such as Dr David Abercrombie: “Dr. Hopes lectures on botany”, AUL, MS. 564. p. 13.

Sir John Clerk probably belonged to at least one of Sibbald's clubs and clearly knew some of the materials about geology and mining from which Sibbald had made notes. In 1740 Clerk read to the Philosophical Society A dissertation on coal. This was at some time used by John Walker who was the first to teach geology in Scotland. Another line connecting early efforts to understand Scottish mining and geology runs through Sir John Clerk to his sons George Clerk-Maxwell and John Clerk. Both were active in mining ventures and were close to James Hutton and other geologists of the time. Clerk of Penicuik Papers, SRO, GD18/5051; Aberdeen University Library (AUL), MS. 34.10; EUL, Walker MSS., Dc.2.38, Dc.2.39.1–2; Lectures on geology by John Walker, ed. by Scott Harrold W. (Chicago and London, 1966), p. xlvi.

Scott , op. cit. (ref. 65), p. xlvi; Walker Papers EUL, MSS. Dc.2.38, Dc.2.39. 1–2.

In 1714 St Andrews University encouraged Patrick Blair's activities. Minutes, 23 January 1714, SUL; Agnew L. R. C. , “Patrick Blair”, Dictionary of scientific biography, ii, 188–9.

The efforts of John Hope and others to create a flora scotica is noticed in Morton A. G. , John Hope (Edinburgh, 1986). There are numerous references to this project in the David Skene Correspondence, AUL MS. 38. Among the letters are several suggesting that it might be poorly and prematurely done by Dr John Hill, a London protégé of Lord Bute. In the end it was done by John Lightfoot with Hope's assistance in Flora Scotica (2 vols, London, 1777).

Hales Stephen , Vegetable staticks (London, 1727) (also as Statical essays, i (London, 1731)). Particularly good examples of Hope's pursuit of these questions are to be found in Hope, op. cit. (ref. 64). This set of students notes from 1774 with additions made in 1781 also mentions the work of early Scottish botanists and of Hales and Tournefort. Some of Walker's anatomical and physiological work is described in his “Adversaria”, GUL, Murray MS. 327.

Sibbald's publications on whales are noted by Simpson A. D. C. , “Sir Robert Sibbald – the founder of the College” in Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh Tercentenary Congress (Edinburgh, 1981), 59–91, pp. 75–78. This topic was clearly of interest to the Philosophical Society and still engaged the attention of improvers toward the end of the eighteenth century.

Macfarlane's geographical collections , ed. by Mitchell Arthur Sir , Scottish History Society, li, lii (1906–7). Proposals to describe the kingdom were made at various times during the eighteenth century. See: George Ridpath to William Carstares, 16 August 1708, EUL, DK.1.1²; Emery F. V. , “A geographic description of Scotland prior to the statistical accounts”, Scottish studies, iii (1959), 1–16; Cant R. G. , “David Steuart Erskine 11th Earl of Buchan”, in The Scottish antiquarian tradition , ed. by Bell A. S. (Edinburgh, 1981), 12, 17–18; Mitchison R. , Agricultural Sir John (London, 1962), 120–36. Numerous contributions to this effort came from Sibbald's correspondents: John Adair, James Wallace, George Crawford, Andrew Sympson, William Dunlop, and others listed in Nicholson's William Scottish historical library (London, 1702), a work for which Sir Robert supplied much information. An account of the surveying activities of the Philosophical Society and its members is contained in Emerson, op. cit. (ref. 49), 178. Walter MacFarlane was a member of that Society and his geographical collections published by the Scottish History Society suggest that he too had an intention of doing a topographical work.

The impact of science on Scottish religious and moral thinkers is more fully treated in two forthcoming essays, Emerson R. L. , “Science and moral philosophy in the Scottish Enlightenment”, Oxford studies in the history of philosophy , ed. by Stewart M. A. (Oxford, 1990) and in “The religious, the secular and the worldly, Scotland 1680–1800”, in Religion and the development of political thought: Thomas Hobbes to J. S. Mill, ed. by Crimmins J. E. (London, 1989).

Michael Hunter, in a forthcoming study.

Moore J. and Silverthorne M. , op. cit. (ref. 15), 77–81.

These changes and more about them can be found in Marshall Gordon , Presbyteries and profits: Calvinism and the development of capitalism in Scotland, 1560–1707 (Oxford, 1980).

Their work has never been properly assessed but see: Donaldson G. , “Stair's Scotland: The intellectual inheritance”, Juridical review, n.s., xxvi (1981), 140–2; Duncan D. , Thomas Ruddiman: A study in Scottish scholarship of the early eighteenth century (Edinburgh, 1965), 41–47; Ross I. S. and Scobie S. A. C. , “Patriotic publishing as a response to the Union”, in The Union of 1707: Its impact on Scotland (Glasgow, 1974), 94–119.

For a longer list of these works see Walker D. M. , The Scottish jurists (Edinburgh, 1985), 158–72, 220–81, 379–85.

Sharpe L. W. , “Charles Mackie, the first Professor of History at Edinburgh University”, Scottish historical review, xli (1962), 23–45. Among plans made for Edinburgh University in the late 1680s was one for a professorship of history which would have insured that the skills and knowledge of the antiquaries would have been passed on. Horn D. B. , “The University of Edinburgh and the teaching of history”, University of Edinburgh journal, xvii (1953–54), 161–76, pp. 161–2. Among Mackie's students who wrote or taught history were: Robert Cuming, Sir David Dalrymple, Sir John Dalrymple, Adam Ferguson, John Home(?), David Hume, William Robertson, William Rouet, John Stevenson, Sir James Steuart, George Turnbull and George Wallace. Many other notable and enlightened Scots took this popular course. Charles Mackie, “Alphabetical list of those who attended the Prelections on history… 1719 to… 1746”, EUL, MS. Dc.5.24.2.

Duncan , op. cit. (ref. 76), 127–34.

Cant , op. cit. (ref. 71), 17–23.

Emerson R. L. , “Conjectural history and Scottish philosophers”, in Canadian historical papers/Communications historiques, ed. by Johnson Dana and Ouellette Louise (Ottawa: Canadian Historical Association, 1984), 63–90.

Sir James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount Stair, while he did not belong to their circle shared their outlook which he expressed in his Institutions of the law of Scotland (1681). As Neil McCormick has noted, we find there “a mere outline, not the full-blown ‘four stages theory’ of societal evolution…. But… a perfectly clear awareness of the time-bound and developmental character of positive law” and one clearly related to property. “The rational discipline of law”, Juridical review, n.s., xxvi (1981), 146–60. p. 157.

That this remained the view of some Scots can be seen both in John Hill's “An essay upon the principles of historical composition”, Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, i (1784), 76–98, 181–209; and, in the fact that by the mid-century Scottish colleges began to make courses in natural history the preparation for doing natural philosophy. St Andrews University began teaching natural and civil history c.1747 while at Marischal College natural history was added to the curriculum after 1753–54 when the College Museum was created. King's College regents were also teaching natural history by the mid-1750s. The natural history chair at Edinburgh dates from 1767. Only Glasgow lacked such a chair. There the Professor of Natural Philosophy, who taught more than his colleagues elsewhere, gave instruction in natural history topics some of which were also treated by the lecturers in chemistry and botany. Emerson R. L. , “The Scottish universities in the 18th century”, Studies on Voltaire and the eighteenth century, clxvii (1977), 453–74; Plan of education in The Marischal College and University of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1755); Wood Paul B. , “Thomas Reid, natural philosopher: A study of science and philosophy in the Scottish Enlightenment” (unpublished D.Phil. dissertation, University of Leeds, 1984), 58–63; Cant R. G. , The University of St. Andrews: A short history , 2nd edn (Edinburgh, 1970), 91. Misleading accounts of Scottish education which down-play the importance of science are well typified by Peter Jones's “The polite academy and the Presbyterians 1720–1770”, in Dwyer Mason and Murdoch , op. cit. (ref. 18), 156–78. Jones is clearly incorrect in saying that “the basic shape of the four-year Arts curriculum remained unchanged” (p. 157) and wholly slights developments in the sciences which were often justified by arguments about their usefulness to polite gentlemen. To crowd those into a paragraph about Marischal College (p. 168) and another on Colin MacLaurin (p. 175) is to mis-read the record of eighteenth century education in Scottish universities.

To be the Newton of the moral world was an aspiration found in Turnbull, Hutcheson, Karnes, Hume, Reid and doubtless others. See Norton D. F. , David Hume: Commonsense, moralist, sceptical metaphysician (Princeton, 1982), 65, 154–7, 199–205; Laudan L. L. , “Thomas Reid and the Newtonian turn of British methodological thought”, in The methodological heritage of Newton , ed. by Butts R. E. and Davis J. W. (Toronto and Oxford, 1970), 103–31.

After the reform of the curriculum at Marischal College in 1754 students following the degree course ended up taking more mathematics and science than anything else. Many elsewhere who did not seek degrees would have pursued a similar course. For this information I am indebted to Dr Paul Wood whose forthcoming paper entitled “Science and the Aberdeen Enlightenment” supports this view.

Norton D. F. , “George Turnbull and the furniture of the mind”, Journal of the history of ideas, xxxv (1975), 703; see also Turnbull George , A treatise on ancient painting, ed. by Bevilacqua Vincent M. (Munich, 1971), pp. xvi–xxi.

Scots magazine, iii (1741), 373.

These men all belonged to one or more of the following societies which dealt with questions of natural philosophy: The Rankenian Club, The Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, The Glasgow Literary Society, and The Aberdeen “Wise Club” or Philosophical Society.

The word polite in the eighteenth century usually denoted a complex of ideas which included graceful or tasteful expression; the ability to please, entertain and divert; the capacity to promote sociability and evident utility. Scientific work which resulted in the presentation of clear, well-written essays to gatherings of men intent upon bettering the conditions in which they lived was as polite an occupation as was the writing of verse or the composition of political essays or literary history. For an interesting comment on the meaning of politeness see: Conrad Stephen A. , “Polite foundation: Citizenship and common sense in James Wilson's republican theory”, The Supreme Court review, 1985, 359–87.

See for example Phillipson , op. cit. (ref. 7, 1981) where the “Science of Man” is extensively discussed but no attention is paid to natural philosophy or medicine in this version of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Cable John A. , “Early Scottish science: The vocational provision”, Annals of science, xxx (1973), 179–99, p. 182.

This is best discussed by Pocock J. G. A. , “Cambridge paradigms and Scotch philosophers”, in Hont and Ignatieff (eds), op. cit. (ref. 7), 235–52.

Forbes Duncan , “Natural law and the Scottish Enlightenment”, in The origins and nature of the Scottish enlightenment, ed. by Campbell R. H. and Skinner Andrew (Edinburgh, 1982), 186–204, p. 192.

Haakonssen Knud , “What might properly be called natural jurisprudence?”, Campbell and Skinner , ibid., 205–25, p. 215.

MacCormick , op. cit. (ref. 82), 146–60.

MacCormick , ibid ., 150–2. Elsewhere MacCormick writes in an article devoted to showing the persistence of seventeenth century ideas in the jurisprudence of the Enlightenment: “…one should not give undue attention to any narrowly defined period of ‘Enlightenment’, envisaged as a post union phenomenon centering somewhere in the second half of the eighteenth century…. The roots of ‘enlightenment’ stretch back into the seventeenth century and beyond. Moreover, so far as concerns legal writing in the grand style, the golden age of Scots law extends, with Bell G. J. , well into the nineteenth century”. “Law and enlightenment” in Campbell and Skinner , op. cit. (ref. 93), 150–66, p. 151.

Fletcher , op. cit. (ref. 53). Fletcher's work is discussed by: Pocock J. G. A. , The Machiavellian moment: Florentine political thought and the Atlantic republican tradition. (Princeton, 1975); Robbins Caroline , The eighteenth-century commonwealthman (Cambridge, 1961), 177–84; and Daiches , op. cit. (ref. 53), pp. vii–xliii.

Pocock , op. cit. (ref. 97), 428.

Radbill S. X. , “Andrew Plummer”, Dictionary of scientific biography , xi, 48; Underwood , op. cit. (ref. 58). George Young was also teaching extra-murally in Edinburgh after c.1730. I owe this information to the courtesy of Dr Michael Barfoot.

This is not to say that Scottish education was only practical. It was formally in the degree course a general rather than a specialized education, one meant to be revelant to numerous careers but more practical, in fact, than George Davie sometimes suggests in The democratic intellect: Scotland and her universities in the nineteenth century (Edinburgh, 1961; 2nd edn, Edinburgh, 1964); Eagles Christina M. , “David Gregory and Newtonian science”, The British journal for the history of science, x (1977), 216–25, p. 223.

Emerson R. L. , “The Philosophical Society of Edinburgh 1737–1747”, The British journal for the history of science, xii (1979), 154–91, pp. 167–71.

James Gray (edited by Guthrie Douglas ), History of the Royal Medical Society 1737–1937 (Edinburgh, 1952).

Duncan's Andrew Medical and philosophical commentaries was said to be edited by a club. It was not an organ of the Philosophical Society although it printed papers read before it; Emerson R. L. , “The Philosophical Society of Edinburgh 1768–1783”, The British Journal for the history of science, xviii (1985), 255–303, p. 281; Buchan Lord to Nicholas John , 8 June 1783, in Illustrations of the literary history of the eighteenth century (London, 1817–58), vi (1831), 503–4.

Duncan , op. cit. (ref. 76), 125, 146–7. That Jacobites and Whigs could not co-operate shows how divisive the 1715 rebellion had been.

Stewart M. A. , “Berkeley and the Rankenian Club”, Hermathena, cxxxix (1985), 25–45.

There were two Aberdeen clubs of importance: The Aberdeen Philosophical Society and the Gordon's Mill Farming Club. The best accounts of the former are by Wood, op. cit. (ref. 83), 86–95, and Humphries W. R. , “The first Aberdeen Philosophical Society”, Transactions of the Aberdeen Philosophical Society, v (1938), 203–38. Some of the records of the Farming club survive at Aberdeen University Library (MSS. K49; 564; 2206/40) and suggest that it lasted beyond the period described by Smith J. H. in The Gordon's Mill Farming Club 1758–1764 , Aberdeen University Studies, no. 145 (Edinburgh and London, 1962). The Glasgow Literary Society still lacks a proper history. It was concerned not only with criticism but with scientific topics such as Thomas Reid's discourse on muscular motion, Thomas Charles Hope's essay announcing the discovery of strontian, and medical papers by Glasgow physicians.

Sibbald MSS., NLS, Advs. MS. 33.5.16 f29.

For the fullest discussion of European scientific bodies see McClellan J. E. , Science reorganized: Scientific societies in the eighteenth century (New York, 1985).

Emerson R. L. , “The social composition of enlightened Scotland: The Select Society of Edinburgh, 1754–1764”, Studies on Voltaire and the eighteenth century, cxiv (1973), 291–329, pp. 299–300.

Sibbald MSS., NLS, Adv.MSS. 33.5.19/490–1.

There are recent accounts of these agencies although the Board of Trustees still awaits its volume: Durie A. J. , The Scottish linen industry in the eighteenth century (Edinburgh, 1979); Smith A. M. , Jacobite estates of the forty-five (Edinburgh, 1982); Murdoch A. , The people above: Politics and administration in mid-eighteenth-century Scotland (Edinburgh, 1980); Shaw J. Stuart , The management of Scottish society 1707–1764 (Edinburgh, 1983); Checkland S. G. , Scottish banking: A history, 1695–1973 (Glasgow and London, 1975).

Since Archibald Campbell, 1st Earl of Ilay and 3rd Duke of Argyll, was the chief manager of government patronage for about thirty years ending in 1761, it is important that he was a learned amateur. The best account of his scientific interests is contained in Edmund and Berkeley Dorothy Smith , Dr. John Mitchell: The man who made the map of North America (Chapel Hill, 1974).

Emerson R. L. , “Lord Bute and the Scottish universities”, in Lord Bute: Essays in reinterpretation, ed. by Schweizer K. W. (Leicester, 1988), 147–80.