¹ Dugald Stewart, Account of the Life and Writings of William Robertson (1801), in Biographical Memoirs, vol. 10 of The Collected Works of Dugald Stewart, ed. William Hamilton (Edinburgh, 1858), 101–241, 105, 200.

² Gleig, George, Some Account of the Life and Writings of William Robertson (1812), in William Robertson, The Historical Works of William Robertson, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1813), ix–lxxii, lix–lxGoogle Scholar; Bower, Alexander, The History of the University of Edinburgh, 3 vols. (Edinburgh, 1817–30), 3: 28–9Google Scholar; [Frost, John,] “The Life of Dr. Wm. Robertson,” in Robertson, William, The History of the Discovery and Settlement of America (New York, 1837), iii–xxxii, iiiGoogle Scholar.

³ Wood, Paul, “Dugald Stewart and the Invention of ‘the Scottish Enlightenment,’” in Wood, , ed., The Scottish Enlightenment: Essays in Reinterpretation (Rochester, NY, 2000), 1–35, 9Google Scholar.

⁴ For Stewart's dismissals see ibid., 8–9. For rejections of this treatment see Wood, Paul, introduction to Wood, ed., Thomas Reid on the Animate Creation: Papers Relating to the Life Sciences (Edinburgh, 1995), 1–78Google Scholar; Schabas, Margaret, The Natural Origins of Economics (Chicago, 2005), 79–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁵ My use of the term “scientific theism” follows the most inclusive definition given in Hurlbutt, R. H. III, “David Hume and Scientific Theism,” Journal of the History of Ideas 17 (1956), 486–97, 487Google Scholar. This was a “kind of theology” in the eighteenth century that employed “the new science, both as a method and as a body of factual and theoretical knowledge, in support of the Christian Religion.”

⁶ Grant, Alexander, The Story of the University of Edinburgh during Its First Three Hundred Years, 2 vols. (London, 1884), 1: 271–4Google Scholar; Ramsay, John, Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Allardyce, Alexander, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1888), 1: 195–6Google Scholar; Davie, G. E., “Berkeley's Impact on Scottish Philosophers,” Philosophy 40 (1965), 222–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jones, Peter, “The Scottish Professoriate and the Polite Academy, 1720–46,” in Hont, Istvan and Ignatieff, Michael, eds., Wealth and Virtue: The Shaping of Political Economy in the Scottish Enlightenment (Cambridge, 1983), 89–117CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stewart, M. A., “Berkeley and the Rankenian Club,” Hermathena 139 (1985), 25–45Google Scholar. “Gul. Robertson” was recorded as a member of John Kerr's humanity class on 21 February 1735. This suggests that Robertson enrolled for the academic year 1734–5. Matriculation and Laureation Accounts, Edinburgh University Archives, IN1/ADS/LIB/2/Da.1.35.

⁷ Henderson, Robert, “A Short Account of the University of Edinburgh, the Present Professors in It, and the Several Parts of Learning Taught by Them,” Scots Magazine, 3 (Aug. 1741), 371–4, 373Google Scholar; Grant, Story of the University, 1: 273–4. Dugald Stewart suggests that Robertson attended Pringle's class, and many subsequent commentators declare this outright; Jeffrey Smitten concludes that Robertson “probably” studied with Pringle. Dugald Stewart, Life and Writings, 105; Stewart, Alexander, “The Life of Dr. William Robertson,” in Robertson, William, The Works of William Robertson, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1818), i–lxxxix, vGoogle Scholar; Bower, History of the University, 3: 28; Seccombe, Thomas, “Robertson, William,” in Lee, Sidney, ed., Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 48 (London, 1896), 425–30, 425Google Scholar; Smitten, Jeffrey, “Robertson, William (1721–1793),” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004)Google Scholar.

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¹¹ See generally Emerson, Roger L., “Science and the Origins and Concerns of the Scottish Enlightenment,” History of Science 26 (1988), 333–66CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Emerson, , “Science and Moral Philosophy in the Scottish Enlightenment,” in Stewart, M. A., ed., Studies in the Philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment (Oxford, 1991), 11–36Google Scholar.

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¹³ Dugald Stewart, Life and Writings, 105. Mathematics was a nonmatriculating class, so there is no official record of Robertson's attendance. In addition to the testimony of Henry Brougham and Dugald Stewart, however, see Bower, History of the University, 3: 28–9; Seccombe, “Robertson,” 425.

¹⁴ Henderson, “Short Account,” 372; Murdoch, Patrick, “An Account of the Life and Writings of the Author,” in Maclaurin, Colin, An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries (London, 1748), i–xx, vGoogle Scholar.

¹⁵ Henderson, “Short Account,” 371–2; Bower, History of the University, 2: 246; Grant, Story of the University, 1: 272. John Boswell, who attended Stewart's class in 1727, reported studying the same works by Gregory (Elements of Catoptrics and Dioptrics) and Keill (Introduction to Natural Philosophy and Introduction to the True Astronomy). Pitman, Joy, “The Journal of John Boswell: Part 1,” Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 20 (1990), 67–77, 68–70Google Scholar.

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²³ “The Rev. Mr. William Robertson, Minister at Gladsmuir” appears on the list of subscribers prefixed to the work.

²⁴ Eighteen shillings was the advertised non-subscription price for a bound copy of the quarto edition Robertson purchased. See e.g. the Whitehall Evening Post. Or, London Intelligencer 594 (28–30 Nov. 1749). For biographical details see Smitten, “Robertson, William.” On subscription publishing in the Scottish Enlightenment see Sher, Richard B., The Enlightenment and the Book: Scottish Authors and Their Publishers in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and America (Chicago, 2006), 224–35Google Scholar.

²⁵ Maclaurin, Account, 3; Murdoch, “Life and Writings,” xx.

²⁶ Maclaurin, Account, 4.

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³⁰ Russell, Riddle, esp. 15–19, 31–4.

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³³ Ibid., 19–27. Politics also played a role in the failure of Hume's application. Emerson, Roger L., “The ‘Affair’ at Edinburgh and the ‘Project’ at Glasgow: The Politics of Hume's Attempts to Become a Professor,” in Stewart, M. A. and Wright, John P., eds., Hume and Hume's Connexions (Edinburgh, 1994), 1–22Google Scholar; Stewart, M. A., The Kirk and the Infidel (Lancaster, 1995)Google Scholar.

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⁴⁰ Maclaurin, Account, 388.

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⁴⁴ Hume to Stewart, Feb. 1754, in Greig, ed., Letters of David Hume, 1: 187.

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⁴⁶ Ibid., 49; Anderson, Estimate, 389–91.

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⁴⁹ [Smollett, Tobias,] review of Daniel MacQueen, Letters on Mr. Hume's History of Great Britain (Edinburgh, 1756)Google Scholar, Critical Review 1 (Apr., 1756), 248–53, 248. This would become volume five of Hume's six-volume History of England (1754–62).

⁵⁰ [Bonar,] Analysis, 2; Nicholas Phillipson, Hume (New York, 1989), 15–16, 40–42.

⁵¹ [James Mackintosh,] preface to [Mackintosh, ed.,] The Edinburgh Review for the Year 1755 (London, 1818), v–xvi, xiv; Mackenzie, Henry, An Account of the Life and Writings of John Home (Edinburgh, 1822), 25Google Scholar.

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⁵⁶ Bower, History of the University, 3: 71.

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⁵⁸ Smitten, introduction, xxii; see Mossner, Hume, 340; Smitten, “Shaping of Moderation,” 282–3; Kontler, László, “Time and Progress—Time as Progress: An Enlightened Sermon by William Robertson,” in Miller, Tyrus, ed., Given World and Time: Temporalities in Context (Budapest, 2008), 195–219Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ [Jardine, John,] review of Robertson, Situation, Edinburgh Review 1 (1755)Google Scholar, in [Mackintosh, ed.,] Edinburgh Review, 37.

⁶⁰ Robertson, Situation, 7.

⁶¹ As one account has it, “Edinburgh was alive with the contest” over the fates of Hume and Kames; for “it is not difficult to imagine the interest which the inhabitants of a dull provincial city would take in a dispute in which her most eminent men were engaged.” Eugene Lawrence, The Lives of the British Historians, 2 vols. (New York, 1855), 2: 100. For a particularly outspoken attack on Hume and Kames as “free-thinkers,” “infidels,” and even “our modern infidels”—published the following year, but indicative of their long-standing reputations—see [Walker, Thomas,] Infidelity a Proper Object of Censure (Glasgow, 1756), 6Google Scholar and passim.

⁶² The arguments were, first, that the belatedness of Christ's appearance cast doubt on the truth of his message; and, second, that the good deeds of ancient heathens revealed virtue to have a secular foundation. Robertson, Situation, 6–7, 17.

⁶³ Ibid., 4.

⁶⁴ Ibid., 13, 18, 19, 22, 30, 43; Robertson, The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V, 3 vols. (London, 1769), esp. 2: 78–9.

⁶⁵ See Kubrin, David, “Newton and the Cyclical Cosmos: Providence and the Mechanical Philosophy,” Journal of the History of Ideas 28 (1967), 325–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cohen, I. Bernard, “Isaac Newton's Principia, the Scriptures, and the Divine Providence,” in Morgenbesser, Sidneyet al., eds., Philosophy, Science and Method: Essays In Honor of Ernest Nagel (New York, 1969), 523–48Google Scholar; Hoskin, M. A., “Newton, Providence, and the Universe of Stars,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 8 (1977), 77–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Force, James E., “Providence and Newton's Pantokrator: Natural Law, Miracles, and Newtonian Science,” in Force, James E. and Hutton, Sarah, eds., Newton and Newtonianism (Dordrecht, 2004), 65–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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⁶⁸ Adams, Hume's Essay, 21; Plenderleath, David, Religion a Treasure to Men, and the Strength and Glory of a Nation (Edinburgh, 1754), 17 nGoogle Scholar.

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⁷⁰ Robertson, Situation, 7. In The Principles of Moral and Christian Philosophy, George Turnbull set out “to account for MORAL, as the great Newton has taught us to explain NATURAL Appearances, (that is by reducing them to good general laws).” George Cheyne proposed similarly, in An Essay on Regimen, “to draw up and collect . . . general Laws of the Divine Agency in the natural, moral, and intellectual World.” Cheyne, George, An Essay on Regimen (London, 1740), 18Google Scholar; Turnbull, George, The Principles of Moral and Christian Philosophy, 2 vols. (London, 1740), 1: iGoogle Scholar.

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⁷⁴ Robertson, Situation, 8, 10, 13, 14–15. For Robertson's Arminian understanding of free will see Smitten, “Shaping of Moderation.”

⁷⁵ Sher, Church and University, 31–2; Yeager, Jonathan M., Enlightened Evangelicalism: The Life and Thought of John Erskine (Oxford, 2011), 32–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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⁷⁸ Butler, Analogy, 188, 190, see 128–9, 185–93; cf. Penelhum, Butler, 178–81.

⁷⁹ Robertson, Situation, 3–4.

⁸⁰ See esp. Kontler, “Time and Progress.”

⁸¹ Hume, David, “Of National Characters,” in Essays, Moral and Political, 3rd edn (Edinburgh, 1748), 267–88Google Scholar. Ross, Ian, “Quaffing the ‘Mixture of Wormwood and Aloes’: A Consideration of Lord Kames's Historical Law-Tracts,” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 8 (1967), 499–518Google Scholar; Sebastiani, Silvia, The Scottish Enlightenment: Race, Gender, and the Limits of Progress, trans. Carden, Jeremy (Houndmills, 2013), esp. 23–43, 76–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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⁸⁶ Ibid.

⁸⁷ Cheyne, Essay, 156, 160–62, 171–3, 258; Turnbull, Moral and Christian Philosophy, 1: 35–8, 1: 223–92 passim, 2: 62–4, 2: 274–7, 2: 299–304; Maclaurin, Account, 3, 91; see also Turnbull, A Treatise on Ancient Painting (London, 1740), 39.

⁸⁸ Butler, Analogy, 133, 192.

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⁹⁰ Robertson played a substantial role in expounding Huttonian geology, revising the unpublished preface (c.1785–7) and probably the “Abstract” (1785) to the Theory of the Earth, as well as laying out its structure and that of John Playfair's Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802). Apart from providing stylistic and organizational help, Robertson was called on to deflect religious criticism, which he tried to do in the revised preface by downplaying conflicts with scripture and adopting what he called a “more Theological” tone. Realizing that it would probably still do more harm than good, Robertson advised Hutton to omit the preface altogether (which he did). But Robertson's subsequent assistance with Playfair's defense and explanation of Hutton in the Illustrations—a project he may have conceived—shows that he had not given up the aim of reconciling scientific and theological accounts. Dean, Dennis R., James Hutton and the History of Geology (Ithaca, NY, 1992), 22–4, 103, 108Google Scholar, 275–6; Smitten, introduction, xlvii–xlix, xlviii.

⁹¹ William Robertson, cited in Dean, Hutton, 22–3.

⁹² William Robertson, “Speech on Roman Catholic Relief” (1779), in Miscellaneous Works, 143–60, 150.

⁹³ Butler, Analogy, 179.

⁹⁴ Robertson, Situation, 7–8.

⁹⁵ Crane, R. S., “Anglican Apologetics and the Idea of Progress, 1699–1745” (1934), in Crane, , The Idea of the Humanities and Other Essays Critical and Historical, vol. 1 (Chicago, 1967), 214–87Google Scholar; Mossner, Butler, 136–40; Richard Brinkley, “A Liberal Churchman: Edmund Law (1703–1787),” Enlightenment and Dissent 6 (1987), 3–18; Chadwick, Owen, From Bossuet to Newman, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 1987), 74–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Spadafora, David, The Idea of Progress in Eighteenth-Century Britain (New Haven, 1990), 85–104Google Scholar.

⁹⁶ Law, Edmund, Considerations on the State of the World with Regard to the Theory of Religion (Cambridge, 1745), 53, 164, 229, 233 nGoogle Scholar.

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⁹⁸ Ibid., 187; see Crane, “Anglican Apologetics,” 272; Phillipson, Nicholas, “Providence and Progress: An Introduction to the Historical Thought of William Robertson,” in Brown, Stewart J., ed., William Robertson and the Expansion of Empire (Cambridge, 1997), 70–73Google Scholar.

⁹⁹ Gleig, Some Account, xxii–xxiii, xxiv; see similarly Alexander Stewart, “Robertson,” xiii.

¹⁰⁰ Law, for his part, cited Robertson's sermon with approval in later editions of the Considerations. Law, Considerations, 5th edn (Cambridge, 1765), 115 n. *; 6th edn (Cambridge, 1774), 118 n. *.

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¹⁰⁵ Robertson, Charles V, 2: 78–9, 2: 120.

¹⁰⁶ Robertson, Situation, 43.

¹⁰⁷ See Gleig, Some Account, xlviii.

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¹¹⁰ Robertson, Situation, 4; Robertson, Charles V, 2: 78. For this claim see esp. Daston, Lorraine and Park, Katharine, Wonders and the Order of Nature (New York, 1998), 329–68, esp. 350–51Google Scholar.

¹¹¹ Robertson, Charles V, 1: 51, 2: 78; see similarly Robertson, Situation, 3–6.