ABSTRACT
The Scots derive mainly from the oldest and most primitive of the Celtic peoples. Racially and traditionally, they still rank, like the Yugo-Slavs, among the primitive peoples of a civilized Europe. In the judicial records of Renfrewshire the old language, picturesquely concrete and naively sententious, lingered on into the eighteenth century, the reason being that such records were a kind of semi-verbatim reporting, giving a fairly good idea of the actual speech of the people. Reid's works attracted attention abroad, and his philosophy was developed by Dugald Stewart and by Sir William Hamilton, who attempted to harmonize it with Kantian doctrine. Lord Karnes's critical essays attracted the notice of Voltaire, who, laying a prompt finger upon the central weakness of the Scots intellect, and echoing in politer terms a vivid adjuration of Cromwell to the Scots clergy, remarked that M.
