
digniori. On the contrary, I fear I shall incur the censure of presumption in
placing the venerable name of Dr. Jonas Dryasdust at the head of a publication,
which the more grave antiquary will perhaps class with the idle novels and
romances of the day. I am anxious to vindicate myself from such a charge; for
although I might trust to your friendship for an apology in your eyes, yet I
would not willingly stand convicted in those of the public of so grave a crime,
as my fears lead me to anticipate my being charged with.
    I must therefore remind you, that when we first talked over together that
class of productions, in one of which the private and family affairs of your
learned northern friend, Mr. Oldbuck of Monkbarns, were so unjustifiably exposed
to the public, some discussion occurred between us concerning the cause of the
popularity these works have attained in this idle age, which, whatever other
merit they possess, must be admitted to be hastily written, and in violation of
every rule assigned to the epopeia. It seemed then to be your opinion, that the
charm lay entirely in the art with which the unknown author had availed himself,
like a second M'Pherson, of the antiquarian stores which lay scattered around
him, supplying his own indolence or poverty of invention, by the incidents which
had actually taken place in his country at no distant period, by introducing
real characters, and scarcely suppressing real names. It was not above sixty or
seventy years, you observed, since the whole north of Scotland was under a state
of government nearly as simple and as patriarchal as those of our good allies
the Mohawks and Iroquois. Admitting that the author cannot himself be supposed
to have witnessed those times, he must have lived, you observed, among persons
who had acted and suffered in them; and even within these thirty years, such an
infinite change has taken place in the manners of Scotland, that men look back
upon the habits of society proper to their immediate ancestors, as we do on
those of the reign of Queen Anne, or even the period of the Revolution. Having
thus materials of every kind lying strewed around him, there was little, you
observed, to embarrass the author, but the difficulty of choice. It was no
wonder, therefore, that having begun to work a mine so plentiful, he should have
derived from his works fully more credit and profit than the facility of his
labours merited.
    Admitting (as I could not deny) the general truth of these conclusions, I
cannot but think it strange that no attempt has been made to
