Sketches of the History of Man, Book 3

Henry Home, Lord Kames, was by nature an advocate for reform and improvement and stood at the heart of the modernizing and liberalizing movement now known as the Scottish Enlightenment. The reaction to his Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion was a defining moment in the establishment of the predominance of moderation in the Church of Scotland. Divided into three books, Kames' Sketches of the History of Man draws together the concerns of many of his earlier works. The first book considers man in the private sphere and presents Kames' version of the four-stage theory of history: the progress, that is, from hunting, through 'the shepherd state' to agriculture, and thence to commerce. It contains, in addition, sketches on progress in the arts, taste, manners, and appetite for luxury goods. The second book takes as its subject man in the public sphere and explores the cimplications of his natural 'appetite for society'.