Perspective

The author is a Scottsman of the 18th century. He is among the more educated people of his time and well respected in his field. The author is highly self-aware, which is exceptionally helpful. He manages to include a sense of self-awareness regarding his own limited perspective within the body of his writing. At the same time, it is clear that his writing is objective and worldly even granted these obvious limitations.

Another characteristic of the author's historical and cultural position is shown by what was going on in the world at the time. The author writes repeatedly of the unification of the multiple nations of the British Isles. Readers today will react to this differently depending upon their own view.

The author does not write explicitly upon the subject of women's rights. Mainly, he shows that rights for various classes of men was quite a challenge. If...