Pollok, Robert

Robert (1778-1827), the author of The Course of Time. His father was a small farmer in the parish of Renfrewshire, Scotland. Young Robert was trained at the University of Glasgow for the ministry of the Presbyterian church. While yet a student he wrote tales of the Covenanters and a poem designed to cover the entire spiritual life and destiny of man. This was his celebrated Course of Time. He survived its publication but six months, dying at the early age of twenty-nine. The poem on which his reputation rests is written from the Presbyterian point of view, and in its time had a great vogue. That he understood hypocrisy well may be seen from the following quotations: