Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696–1782)

"In my passage to America, I read your excellent Work, the Elements of Criticism, in which I found great Entertainment, much to admire, and nothing to reprove. I only wish'd you had examin'd more fully the Subject of Music, and demonstrated that the Pleasure Artists feel in hearing much of that compos'd in modern Taste, is not the natural Pleasure arising from melody or Harmony of Sounds, but of the same kind with the Pleasure we feel on seeing the surprizing Feats of Tumblers and Rope show more Dancers, who execute difficult Things." - BF to Lord Kames, 2 June 1765. show less

... I am happy in reviewing the roll of associates in this principle which you present in your 2'd letter, some of which I had not before met with. To these might be added L'd Kaimes, one of the ablest of our advocates, who goes so far as to say, in his Principles of Natural religion, that a man owes no duty to which he is not urged by some impulsive feeling. This is correct if referred to the standard of general feeling in the given case, and not to the feeling of a single individual. show more Perhaps I may misquote him, it being fifty years since I read his book ... (TJ to Thomas Law, 13 June 1814)

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... your objection to L'd Kaimes that he is too metaphysical is just, and it is the chief objection to which his writings are liable. It is to be observed also that tho' he has given us what should be the system of equity, yet it is not the one actually established, at least not in all it's parts. The English Chancellors have gone on from one thing to another without any comprehensive or systematic view of the whole field of equity, and therefore they have sometimes run into inconsistencies show more & contradictions ... (TJ to Peter Carr, 22 June 1792)

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