ABSTRACT
The universities were the recruiting grounds for members of the professional intellectual class. Promising youngsters of fourteen or fifteen years of age came there from all parts of Scotland and from all levels of society to receive training for professional careers. In contrast to the conventional bias of the English universities and to the politically controlled European schools, the Scottish students were left free to associate and discuss at their pleasure. The Scottish writers were cosmopolitan figures, with national and international reputations; but they were also provincials, with gruff manners and outlandish speech. The Scottish intellectuals remedied the defects of their youthful schooling with a lifetime of serious reading. the range of their writing was almost as wide as that of their reading. The Scottish writers of the eighteenth century were allies of the ruling group, not its servants.
