The Occult Laboratory. Magic, Science and Second Sight in Late 17th-Century Scotland. A New Edition of Robert Kirk's The Secret Commonwealth and Other Texts - Book Review

Edited by Michael Hunter. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2001. 247 pp. B/W illus. 50.00 [pounds sterling] (hbk). ISBN 0-85115-801-3

The importance of Robert Kirk's manuscript for a deeper understanding of late seventeenth-century Scottish beliefs about fairies and second sight is hard to exaggerate. There is simply no other source with such fulsome detail about the Guid Neighbours, although writings on the second sight are far more plentiful. Michael Hunter has provided a new edition of this Episcopalian minister's intriguing volume The Secret Commonwealth, originally written in 1691 although not published until 1815. The text went through further reprintings in 1893 (edited and introduced by Andrew Lang), in 1933 (introduction by R. B. Cunningham Graham), and, for The Folklore Society, in 1976 (edited and introduced by Stewart Sanderson). A modernised, and somewhat New Age, edition was produced by R. J. Stewart in 1990. Michael Hunter's re-edited and updated version is thus a welcome addition to the ever-expanding Robert Kirk bibliography. Alongside Kirk's dissertation, the editor has placed a number of varied contributions to the second sight debate. Some familiar texts, such as James Fraser's Deuteroscopia (1707) and Samuel Pepys's collected letters, are to be found adjacent to the hitherto unpublished notes on an interview with George MacKenzie, Lord Tarbat, by Robert Boyle (1678). The tract entitled "A Collection of Highland Rites and Customs," which is of unclear authorship, is presented here in its original state, before Edward Lluyd's annotations were added. Lluyd's and Robert Wodrow's questionnaires to their respective informants are also included, and have been restored to their original format. The letters of James Garden, written to John Aubrey, are of interest not only regarding second sight, but also as a useful repository of Scottish folklore ranging from death rituals, folk medicines, and fairy beliefs, to long discussions on Neolithic standing stones and burial chambers.

Hunter has carefully selected a very interesting array of texts and has placed them within the framework of late seventeenth-century learned society. It is his contention that many of the English literati and men of science came to regard the Highlands of Scotland "almost like a kind of laboratory, strange yet accessible, where data about abnormal phenomena could be collected and theories tested." He further argues that the Scottish response to this awakening English curiosity was to take "an interest in phenomena that had previously been taken for granted," and to begin collecting and recording evidence concerning second sight, mainly to satisfy the new English appetite. The impetus behind the seeming sudden interest in the paranormal world of the Gaels is to be found, claims Hunter, in the notes of Robert Boyle regarding his interview with Lord Tarbat, for this is "the earliest extant item evidencing a sustained interest in second sight on the part of an English or Scottish intellectual."

This is an excellent and long-awaited book. It is beautifully presented with a scholarly introduction and handy notes on each of the included texts. My only bone of contention is with the author's London-centric vision of the times from which these writings come. He describes Kirk as "an educated man domiciled in a remote, Highland parish." To regard Aberfoyle as "remote" is frankly absurd, even in the seventeenth century. Also, his omission of Martin Martin's extensive work on the second sight of the Western Isles is a pity, although, in fairness, he explains that this was a decision based on the availability of Martin's work elsewhere. Hunter does discuss Martin to some degree in the Introduction by way of compensation, although Martin's raison d'etre for compiling his study is explained as a clear reflection of the "pattern of Scottish reaction to curiosity emanating from England." While Martin and Kirk undoubtedly were cultivated by members of the Royal Society, they were just as deeply inspired by concerns about contemporary sadduceeism. Such issues notwithstanding, this book is to be strongly recommended to anyone with an interest in the tremendous surge of enquiry and scholarly debate this period fostered, not just regarding second sight, but the paranormal world in general.

Lizanne Henderson, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

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