Excerpt from Scottish Literature: Character Influence These ten connected Essays deal with two sub jeats, the character or habit of Scottish Literature (chapters I.-V.) and the influence which that literature has exerted on others (chapters VI. The book is not offered as a history, though in places, where details are handled in support of the argument, it may assume the manner of narrative. It claims to be mainly critical, and it carries with it the author's confession that he knows how diffi cult it is to set forth a corporate literary character or to indicate the direction of a literary influence; as it is to win assent to a general judgement, when the survey is so wide, when the proofs are not at all points complete, and when there are prepossessions, not always literary, which decline to be adjusted. Yet the venture seemed worth making, partly because of these risks, but chiefly because the way was untrodden. The author consoles himself that, if his interpretation prove inadequate, he may have served some purpose in reconstituting the evidence. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.