Discourse … Character of Man of Genius, Hepburn 1715 . This book is titled "A Discourse Concerning The Character Of A Man of Genius. By Mr. Hepburn, With A Poem On the Young-Company of Archers, By Mr. Boyd", printed in Edinburgh by J. W. for William Dickie, at Sir Richard Steele's Head, in the Parliament-Close, MDCCXV [1715], it is probably a first edition, and it is signed on the title page "A H Hepburn". (We may have misread the first initials and it might be signed by Robert Hepburn himself, but at the least, we believe it was signed by someone in his family, if not by the author himself.) Robert Hepburn (1690 - 1716) was a Scottish writer from Bearford who was born about 1690 or 1691 and studied civil law in Holland in hopes of becoming a lawyer back in Scotland. He returned home in 1711 and attempted to imitate the fugitive literature which the Tatler magazine had introduced in England; he sent in thirty weekly numbers, according to one article, and weeklies were supposed to be extremely rare - the writer of the article never got to see the weeklies to confirm the number. Hepburn evidently had an ardent temperament and a sarcastic tone to him, and his writings were "fitted to give much offence", according to the article, and he was prone to satire. The author of the article believed the Discourse from 1715 was written by Hepburn, and it was divided into sections which contained moral precepts or aphorisms; aside from that, we don't know much more about Hepburn or Boyd, who wrote the other piece - "A Poem Upon The Company Of Young Archers". The book is 3/4 bound, with "Char. Of Man Of Genius &c. Edinb. 1715" stamped in gilt on the spine, marbled covers, blank endpapers with "A.H. Hepburn From Bliss Collection" inscribed on the front flyleaf, three blank leaves followed by the title page, which is inscribed "A H Hepburn" and "E of Palmer" above that on the title page, then a four-page dedication to the Right Honourable, Charles, Earl of Lauderdale, the Discourse itself, which is 14 pages long, and the poem about the young company of archers runs to page 18. The Royal Company of Archers was the Queen's Body-Guard for Scotland. It started in 1676 and had a long and honorable history. One article said even as an amusement, archery was neglected for many years in the first half of the eighteenth century, and the only societies which practiced shooting with a bow were the Royal Company of Archers in Scotland. The book is listed in the Catalogue of Printed Books in the Library of the British Museum, Volume 23, page 137, and we found only one copy listed in Special Collections around the world, according to WorldCat, and that was at the British Library at St. Pancras in London. All the other copies were ebooks or on microfilm, and there were no other listings before 1715, so we believe this copy is a first edition, and the book is indeed rare. The book measures 8 1/4 x 6 3/8 in. wide, with a tight binding, light rubbing at the edges the spine and at the tips, light shadows in the corners of the first blank endpapers, light nicks and light soiling on the title page, light offset on the dedication pages, light soiling on the edges of some of the text, brown spots at the bottom of pages 8 through 11, page 8 has a small tear in the bottom margin, pages 15 through 18 have brown spots at the bottom, and with all that, the book has held up remarkably well for over the last three hundred years. The book is very intact, and a great example of early Scottish literature of the fugitive kind. See https://electricscotland.com/history for information about Significant Scots and Robert Hepburn. #4 #1665