New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-11-18
AT AULD REEKlE
The Literary Tradition - A
Realm of Romance.
Edinburgh. November :.

Realm of Romance.
Edinburgh. November :.
Traditions and institutions are tena-
ciously preserved in the Scottish capital
Royal proclamations are read from the
gallery OF the restored cross with ancient
pageantry and stateliness, Highlanders
and pipers standing on guard below. and
herads, pursuivants and trumpeters ar
rayed in their bravery on the turrets.
The Assembly of the Established Church
Is opened by the Lord High Commits
sioner. with leveos in Hollywood Palace.
with state professions TO st. CHESS and
with a swarm Of heralds. purse bearers.
provosts, magistrates, kings of-arms and
pages i'm Victoria Hall, where the mod
orators in court dress exchange seats and
proc'amations are read with the an
nouncement of royal bounty for sermons
in Gaelic in the remote islands. For over
three centuries these ceremonials have
been repeated with little variation, and
there would be public outcries if any de-
opening lecture of the Philosophical In
stitution. 1t has been for over sixty
years the principal literary event of the
year in the Scottish Athens. and there Is
invariably a full muster of local digni-
taries and celebrities to greet the lecturer
and to represent the solidarity of human
culture.
The dignity OF the inaugural lecture re-
mains, although the importance of the
winter courses has declined and the
Philosophical Institution itself has been
mellowed by advancing years and does
not hesitate to entertain audiences with
music and drama. The time was when
Carpenter could be engaged for thirty
five lectures on natural history and when
Combe could hold forth for forty nights
on phrenology. Did not Ruskin appear
here for the first time on the lecture
platform after being "A recluse I'm Herne
Hill, and was not his course on archi-
lecture and painting the signal for thirty
years of similar activities in oxford.
London and elsewhere? without expert
ence on this platform where would have
been Hugh Miller's Testimony OF the
Rocks" or Dean Stanley's Lectures on
the Church of Scotland" or Freeman's
History Of the Saracens," or Masson's
British Novelists," or Dean Ramsay's
delightful "reminiscences" The courses
Of lectures are now less serious and
ri hi bn
OF familiar platform talks, and yet the
Inaugural retains its prestige and pre-
eminence as literary event worthy Of
& classic seat Of British learning The
American Ambassador has followed this
week long line OF statesmen, philos-
ophers, leaders of science and men of
letters in opening this famous lyceum.
and he has been listened to with old
time gravity and welcomed with enthusi-
astic plaudlts.
The Philosophical Society is one Of
many fourishing institutions indicating
that the revival Of letters during the
eighteenth century and the Victorian
period has been permanent It's own
| I.VD
volumes. with reading. writing, smok-
Ing. and billiard rooms attached to il:
but in the lower reaches of the old
town there is the most serviceable Sc
ries Of libraries in the kingdom. On the
ground floor of the Parliament House
is the Advocates library, with over
100000 volumes. ranking after the Brit
ish Museum and the Bodleian i'm range
and value; and close by is the Signet
collection, with another 100 900 volumes
In the University collections there are
over 2ODHO books, catalogued and ar
ranged in the most orderly way; and
not far away Is the Free Library. for
which householders are rated after Mr..
Carnegie has provided most commodi-
Gus structure. In its reference sections.
distributing agencies and cataIogujng
facilities IL is model institution. and
there are over 125,00O volumes on the
shelves. If books can make a modern
Athens. there must be over a million of
them In these public collections: and
while one or two OF the publishing
houses have gone TO London. Edinburgh
Is still great centre of literary activi
ties. with an enormous printing trade.
with characteristic reviews and maya
zines, with ''The Scotsman" gradually
rounding out its century. and with a
! larger circle OF booklovers and renders
| than can he found elsewhere in tbo
| provinces
| The stored city's most precious fra
dition is intellectual supremacy. The
ruinous Parthenon. on Cation Hill. sug-
gests it, and in gardens and on hill
sides monuments, temples crosses Stat
ues and sculptured tablets commemo-
rative of genius bear record of il. High
as the castle may be enthroned among
gray crags the ambitious Scotsman
knows in his heart that Parnassus II