Henry Home, Lord Kames and the Scottish Enlightenment

The purpose of the present study is to present the life and work and thought of a remarkable pioneering figure on the Scottish scene over the middle half, broadly, of the eighteenth century, in their dynamic relations with that most extraordinary intellectual awakening and scientific, edu­ cational, literary and religious development of his time generally known as the "Scottish Enlightenment. " That movement in thought and culture was indeed in more ways than one a unique phenomenon in the history of western culture, comparable, in its own manner and measure, as we shall attempt to point out later, with such history-making movements or epochs as the Age of Pericles in Greece, the Augustan Age in Rome, the Renaissance movement in Italy and Western Europe generally, the up-surge both in science and in letters in England in the seventeenth century, and the contemporary movement in France associated with the Encyclopedists. This Scottish Enlightenment, often also spoken of as the "Awakening of Scotland," was of course more than a movement merely on the intel­ lectual and cultural level. It had also political bearings and was rather directly conditioned by events and changes in the political arena, begin­ ning with the Union with England in 1707; and even more directly was it accompanied and conditioned by social and economic changes which were in a short span of time to transform the face of this far-northern country almost beyond recognition.

I Chiefly Biographical and Historical.- I. Family Background and Early Years.- II. The Years of his Advocateship.- III. Lord Kames as Lord of Session and Lord of Justiciary.- IV. The High-Court Judge and the World of Letters: Historical and Biographical.- V. At Home and among Friends: Domestic Relations and Sociability.- VI. "I Fly to my Farm": A Gentleman Farmer in Overalls.- VII. "For the Good of my Country": A Study in Public Spirit and Public Service.- VIII. Political Activities and Concern with Public Affairs.- IX. Personal Credo and Life Values.- X. Summary Characterization of Kames the Man.- II Chiefly Theoretical: Lines of Kames's Thinking and His Contributions to the World of Ideas.- XI. Common-Sense Philosopher and Observer of the Ways of Men.- XII. Through the Eyes of Clio: The Historical Approach.- XIII. Kames's Philosophy of Law; or, his General View of Jurisprudence.- XIV. Literary Criticism and the Question of Style in Writing.- XV. Education and the Status of Women, and some Anthropological Miscellanies.- XVI. Political and Economic Theory.- XVII. The High-Court Judge and Common-Sense Philosopher Looks at Religion.- XVIII. Summary and Evaluation Dynamic Relations between the Man and the Movement of Life and Thought and Culture.- Appendices.- 1. Selections from Kames's Letters.- 2. Selections from Prefaces, Dedications, etc..- 3. Proposal for the Reform of Entails.- 4. A Universal Prayer.- 5. Epitaph by a Friend.- 6. Home-Drummond Family Postscript.- Bibliography of Kames's Publications.- Princepal Sources on Karnes' Life and Background.- General Bibliography.