October 28, 1726

 

"Sir David Dalrymple, 3rd Baronet, Lord Hailes" is the way the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography directs us to put the name of David Dalrymple. His dates are October 28, 1726 to November 29, 1792) and he was a Scottish judge, and writer. 

His histories are said to have been the first to try and convey a sense of a previous period, in its vibrant differentness. He also disliked Gibbon's idea that Christianity caused the fall of the Roman Empire. He disliked Hume's atheism but still let Hume borrow books from his library. Dalrymple's concern for the poor is poignant, even now, to read about, such a rare quality is it. Dalrymple "in 1790 published a play, The Little Freeholder, in which he holds up to criticism a landowner who wants to demolish a cottage in order to improve the view from his great house."

And the fact this appealing historical personage also edited a volume of Scottish poetry, gives us a sense of why we call his era, the Scottish Enlightenment. Ancient Scottish Poems (1770) is the book I refer to, and it includes the poems of George Bannatyne, William Dunbar, Robert Henryson. Here is a line from Henryson, a 15th century poet.

O wantoun man ! [quick] usis for to feid 
Thy wurne, and makis it a God to be, 
Luke to thyself, I warne the weill, on deid; 
The cat cum mis, and to the mouss hewis
....
I think the above is translated this way:
O wanton man. You are quick to feed your worn [self] and make it a god. Look to yourself , I warn you -- on your death bed the cat comes close and hurries to the mouse.

Cat would mean death and mouse, the soul, if I am correct. 

Here is a Scottish dictionary, for someone who might want to check my translation.