The second volume of Literature and Literati assembles for the first time Henry Mackenzie's early poetry, miscellaneous literary papers, literary criticism, anecdotal reminiscences, diary entries of a journey to Paris in 1784, political assessments, observations on language, education, writers and their work (including his own writings), aphorisms, egotisms, as well as succinct comments on the state of society. Together with his letters, Mackenzie's notebooks and numerous loose-leaf collections of sundry remarks on various subjects communicate Scottish Enlightenment thought and discourse. A critical mind and representing very much the intellectual climate of the Scottish Enlightenment in its European context, Mackenzie assumes the role of a chronicler of his time and is equally revealing both of his own idiosyncrasies and of the general attitudes of his day.
