MONBODDO, James Burnett, Lord (1714-1799), author of works on the Origin and Progress of Language (published in 1773), and Ancient Metaphysics (1779), was one of the most marked characters in Scottish literary circles in the 18th century. He was born in 1714 at Monboddo in Kincardineshire, studied at Aberdeen and Groningen, and quickly took a leading position at the Edinburgh bar, being made one of the Lords of Session in 1767. Many of his eccentricities, both of conduct and opinion, appear less eccentric to the present generation than they did to his contemporaries; though he seems to have heightened the impression of them by his humorous sallies in their defence. He may have had other reasons than the practice of the ancients for dining late and performing his journeys on horseback instead of in a carriage. His views about the origin of society and language and the faculties by which man is distinguished from the brutes afforded endless matter for jest to the wags of his day; but readers of this generation are more likely to be surprised by the scientific character of his method and the acuteness of his conclusions than amused by his eccentricity. These conclusions have many curious points of contact with Darwinism and Neo-Kantism. His idea of studying man as one of the animals, and of collecting facts about savage tribes to throw light on the problems of civilization, bring him into contact with the one, and his intimate knowledge of Greek philosophy with the other. In both respects Monboddo was far in advance of his neighbours. His happy turn of Virgil’s line—...