John Leyden

“ The presbyterians interdicted the perusal of romances and love poems, with almost as great anxiety as the Catholics prohibited the use of the Scriptures. "Would thou intreat," says Hume to the Scotish youth; "Would thou intreat of prodigious miracles? Look the books of Genesis and Exode, or the works of our Saviour, of the prophets and apostles. Would thou have a subject of valiant deeds of arms? Read the books of Josua and the Judges, and of the kings of Israel and Judah. Would thou have store of wise sentences? Read the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Would thou have a subject of love? ”

“ The Catholic party had encouraged the representation of plays, masques, and every other species of amusement which could attract the populace, and draw their attention from religious innovation. The presbyterians dreaded this species of seduction, as producing religious indifference and preserving a relish for the pomp of Romish worship. Plays, and every species of poetry, except religious, were proscribed; popular songs were parodied, to inculcate religious doctrines; and of all the early Scotish poets of the 16th century, Lindsay was the only one who retained his popularity. ”

“ The general success of Hume, in the style of poetry which he adopted, will not render his example very attractive. He seems to have curbed his fancy assiduously, and to have forcibly confined his imagination to the common-place phraseology of Calvinism; a phraseology which, however proper for the simplicity of theology, is extremely unfit for the purposes of poetry. ”