rtain modes of life, certain expressions,
eccentricity of conduct, coarseness of speech, books, and plays, which
were in vogue amongst us, even fifty or sixty years ago, which would not
be tolerated in society at the present time. We cannot illustrate this
in a more satisfactory manner than by reference to the acknowledgment of
a very interesting and charming old lady, who died so lately as 1823. In
1821, Mrs. Keith of Ravelstone, grandaunt of Sir Walter Scott, thus
writes in returning to him the work of a female novelist which she had
borrowed from him out of curiosity, and to remind her of "auld lang
syne:"--"Is it not a very odd thing that I, an old woman of eighty and
upwards, sitting alone, feel myself ashamed to read a book which, sixty
years ago, I have heard read aloud for the amusement of large circles,
consisting of the first and most creditable society in London?" There
can be no doubt that at the time referred to by Mrs. Keith, Tristram
Shandy[191], Tom Jones, Humphrey Clinker, etc., were on the drawing-room
tables of ladies whose grandchildren or great-grandchildren never saw
them, or would not acknowledge it if they _had_ seen them. But authors
not inferior to Sterne, Fielding, or Smollett, are now popular, who,
with Charles Dickens, can describe scenes of human life with as much
force and humour, and yet in whose pages nothing will be found which
need offend the taste of the most refined, or shock the feelings of the
most pure. This is a change where there is also great improvement. It
indicates not merely a better moral perception in authors themselves,
but it is itself a homage to the improved spirit of the age. We will
hope that, with an improved exterior, there is improvement in society
_within_. If the feelings shrink from what is coarse in expression, we
may hope that vice has, in some sort, lost attraction. At any rate, from
what we discern around us we hope favourably for the general improvement
of mankind, and of our own beloved country in particular. If Scotland,
in parting with her rich and racy dialect, her odd and eccentric
characters, is to lose something in quaint humour and good stories, we
will hope she may grow and strengthen in _better_ things--good as those
are which she loses. However this may be, I feel quite assured that the
examples which I have now given, of Scottish expressions, Scottish modes
and habits of life, and Scottish anecdotes, which belong in a great
measure to the past,