Allan Ramsay. [A biography.] - National Library of Scotland

ALLAN RAMSAY 51
Easy Club, he wrote an Elegy on the death of Dr.
Pitcairn in 17 13, but the poem contained so many
political references and satirical quips that he omitted
it from the collected edition of his works in 1721.
Pitcairn was a sort of Scottish Voltaire, a man far in
advance of his time, who paid in popular suspicion and
reprobation for his liberality and tolerance. What
Robert Chambers remarks of him is well within the facts
of the case. ' His sentiments and opinions on various
subjects accord with the most enlightened views of the
present day, and present a very striking and remarkable
contrast to the ignorance and prejudice with which he
was surrounded. Fanatics and bigots he detested, and
by fanatics and bigots, as a matter of course, he was
abused and calumniated. He was accused of being an
atheist, a deist, a mocker and reviler of religion, . . . and
one who was twice drunk every day.^ Ramsay, in his Elegy,
rebutted those grossly malevolent falsehoods, not only
clearing the memory of his patron from such foul dis-
honour, but with bitingly sarcastic humour he turned
the tables on the calumniators, by showing, over their
action in connection with the Union, who in reality were
the traitors.
To the instigation of the Easy Club we also owe the
piece on The Qualifications of a Gentleman, published
in 1 7 15, subsequent to a debate in the Society on the
subject. Ramsay versified the arguments used by the
various speakers, executing the task in a manner at once
so graceful and witty that the Club formally declared
him to be 'a gentleman by merit.' Only a periphrastic
method of signifying their approbation of his work was
this, and did not imply any reflection upon his birth, as