Scottish Text Society publications > Old series > Historie of Scotland > Volume 1, 1888

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THE HISTORIE OF SCOTLAND.
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mervel or reprehend mair scharplie than perchance the
cause requires, that we propone nocht al things, quhilkes
we haue collected out of the monuwentis of our elderis,
hot thay things only no4 alienat frome the truthe of the
historic, and appeires to haue a sure ground for thame.
Nathir sulde ony vthir confideng in his awne opinione,
start vpe, gif I conceil nocht thay monumentis of our
elderis, as al in ane firme consent thay left thame vnto
vs, of the begining of our natioune maist auncient
surelie, and of vthir secrete thingis, vndir als gret
obscuritie. ffor gif we walde think of euerie beginning
of euerie natione sen the warlde was maid, twa things
almaist ouer al sal we find, in the beginning athir sa
* terrible that we cowtemne thame, or sa feinjet that we
skorne thame. Quhat the Romane and Greke historio-
graphours declares in the descriptione of the first vp-
ryseng of thair Republik and cowmoune welth is to al
patent, the rest f I pas ouer, of quhilkes mony now vndir
ane mule and lumpe of clay ly togither.
Quhairfor because the purpose of our method of
proceiding permittis nocht that we be lang in pluking
out or repeiting the opiniounis of vthiris men, quhilkes
we haue collectet of the vpryseng of our natioune,
maneris, and behauiour, and deidis done amang thame,
of mony things we sal taist a X few as we may, perchance
nocht far by, bot mid way.
* L. “Horrida”—rough, uncultivated.
+ L. “ut ceteras gentes, quarum multte eodem luto haerent, jam
prseteream ”—to pass over other nations of whom many stick in the
same mud, i. e., make the same extravagant statements.
J L. “Paucula ex multis utcunque delibabimus”—we shall taste,
at all events, a few out of many.
vncertane
the begin¬
ning of
euerie na¬
tione.