![]() ![]() He seemed more or less at ease with a nexus of religion, rationalism, and the supernatural, even if he felt some need to justify his project in both Christian and Enlightenment terms. And yet, Kirk did not appear to see anything contradictory about his position. Writing about fairies against a backdrop of rising rationalism is one thing, but what really complicates the picture is the fact that Kirk was an Episcopalian minister, having succeeded his father at Aberfoyle in 1685, and having served a neighboring district for two decades before that. By the time Kirk began recording instances of supernatural activity in his native Aberfoyle, the rationalism of John Locke held sway in London intellectual circles and would soon make its way north, finding Scottish exemplars in the likes of Francis Hutcheson and David Hume. The upheavals of the English Civil War (1642–’51), which caused Kirk’s family to lose their home and possessions, gave way to the philosophical revolution of the early Enlightenment. ![]() ![]() The brief manuscript - which would not be published until 1815, when Walter Scott brought it out in an edition titled The Secret Commonwealth - was written at the end of a fraught century. IN 1691, Robert Kirk compiled a study of the fairies and other spirits that he believed populated his remote corner of Scotland. ![]()
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