Note 615 — Chapter V
Reading edition
‘Thus, during the whole seventeenth century, the English were gradually refining their language and their taste; in Scotland, the former was much debased, and the latter almost entirely lost.’ History of Scotland, book viii., in Robertson's Works, p. 260.
‘But the taste and science, the genius and the learning of the age, were absorbed in the gulph of religious controversy. At a time when the learning of Selden, and the genius of Milton, conspired to adorn England, the Scots were reduced to such writers as Baillie, Rutherford, Guthrie, and the two Gillespies.’ Laing's History of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 510. ‘From the Restoration down to the Union, the only author of eminence whom Scotland produced was Burnet.’ Ibid., vol. iv. p. 406.
‘The seventeenth century, fatal to the good taste of Italy, threw a total night over Scotland.’ … ‘Not one writer who does the least credit to the nation flourished during the century from 1615 to 1715, excepting Burnet, whose name would, indeed, honour the brightest period. In particular, no poet whose works merit preservation arose. By a singular fatality, the century which stands highest in English history and genius, is one of the darkest in those of Scotland.’ Ancient Scotish Poems, edited by John Pinkerton, vol. i. pp. iii. iv., London, 1786.