The Scottish Philosophy [116]
philosophy of the human mind a branch of physiology. Still Reid has continued to exercise a greater influence than any other metaphysician on the thought of his country. It is true, that in some respects he resembles Socrates; but in others he differs from him quite as much as the Scotch mind differs from the Greek. Both have very much the same truth-loving spirit, the same homely sense, and contempt for pretension: but Socrates has vastly more subtlety and dialectic skill, and reaches the conclusion that truth cannot be found except in moral subjects; whereas Reid firmly maintains and resolutely proclaims that settled truth can be attained by observation, in the kingdoms both of mind and matter. Reid's style will not please those who are seeking for flashes of genius, of wit or eloquence. But it always clearly expresses his ideas; and some prefer his plain statements, his familiar idioms, commonly purely English, to the stateliness of Stewart, -- who cannot express a commonplace thought except in a rounded period, -- and the perpetual rhetoric of Brown.
Thomas Reid was born, April 26, 1710, at Strachan, which is situated about twenty miles from Aberdeen, on the banks of a lively mountain stream, which rises on the high Grampians, and flows down the hollows of their northern slope into the Dee. The place is rather tame, and must have been bleak enough in winter; but it is quite a spot in which a thoughtful student might profitably pass the long summer vacations which the Scotch colleges allow, and have enjoyable rambles among the heath-clad and rocky mountains above him, including Clochnaben with the conspicuous stone on the top. His father, the Rev. Lewis Reid, was minister of the place for fifty years, and stood by the whig and reformation cause at the great crisis of the Revolution of 1688, when the people of that region, still under strong landlord influence, might have been readily swayed to the one side or the other. He was descended from a succession of Presbyterian ministers in Banchory-Ternan on the Dee, who traced their descent from an old county family, and go as far back as the Reformation. His mother was Margaret Gregory of Kinnairdie in Banffshire, and be longed to the family of that name, which was so illustrious in Scotland during the whole of last century and the beginning {195} of this. On both sides of his house were persons who had risen to eminence in literature and science. On his father's side, Dugald Stewart mentions Thomas Reid, who, on finishing his education at home, went to the continent, and maintained public discussions in several universities, and afterwards collected his theses in a volume; who published some Latin poems to be found in the " Delitim Poetarum Scotorum; " who became Secretary in the Greek and Latin tongues to James I., and, along with Patrick Young, translated the works of that monarch into Latin. A brother of his, Alexander Reid, was physician to King Charles I., and published several books on medicine; and another brother, Adam, translated into English Buchanan's " History of Scotland." On the side of the Gregorys the subject of our memoir could claim as grand- uncle, James Gregory, the inventor of the reflecting telescope, and as uncles David Gregory, -- Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, and an intimate friend of Sir Isaac Newton's, -- and two others, professors of mathematics respectively at St. Andrews and Edinburgh. Such a kinsmanship must have given a powerful stimulus towards literature and science to a thoughtful youth like Thomas Reid.
The boy was two years at the parish school of Kincardine when the teacher foretold " that he would turn out to be a man of good and well-wearing parts." He was then sent to Aberdeen to prosecute his classical studies. He entered Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1722, when he was only twelve years of age. He was in the first Greek class taught by Dr. Thomas Blackwell, afterwards principal, who took such pains to revive the study of the Greek tongue in the north of Scotland; and the pupil seems to have caught somewhat
Thomas Reid was born, April 26, 1710, at Strachan, which is situated about twenty miles from Aberdeen, on the banks of a lively mountain stream, which rises on the high Grampians, and flows down the hollows of their northern slope into the Dee. The place is rather tame, and must have been bleak enough in winter; but it is quite a spot in which a thoughtful student might profitably pass the long summer vacations which the Scotch colleges allow, and have enjoyable rambles among the heath-clad and rocky mountains above him, including Clochnaben with the conspicuous stone on the top. His father, the Rev. Lewis Reid, was minister of the place for fifty years, and stood by the whig and reformation cause at the great crisis of the Revolution of 1688, when the people of that region, still under strong landlord influence, might have been readily swayed to the one side or the other. He was descended from a succession of Presbyterian ministers in Banchory-Ternan on the Dee, who traced their descent from an old county family, and go as far back as the Reformation. His mother was Margaret Gregory of Kinnairdie in Banffshire, and be longed to the family of that name, which was so illustrious in Scotland during the whole of last century and the beginning {195} of this. On both sides of his house were persons who had risen to eminence in literature and science. On his father's side, Dugald Stewart mentions Thomas Reid, who, on finishing his education at home, went to the continent, and maintained public discussions in several universities, and afterwards collected his theses in a volume; who published some Latin poems to be found in the " Delitim Poetarum Scotorum; " who became Secretary in the Greek and Latin tongues to James I., and, along with Patrick Young, translated the works of that monarch into Latin. A brother of his, Alexander Reid, was physician to King Charles I., and published several books on medicine; and another brother, Adam, translated into English Buchanan's " History of Scotland." On the side of the Gregorys the subject of our memoir could claim as grand- uncle, James Gregory, the inventor of the reflecting telescope, and as uncles David Gregory, -- Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, and an intimate friend of Sir Isaac Newton's, -- and two others, professors of mathematics respectively at St. Andrews and Edinburgh. Such a kinsmanship must have given a powerful stimulus towards literature and science to a thoughtful youth like Thomas Reid.
The boy was two years at the parish school of Kincardine when the teacher foretold " that he would turn out to be a man of good and well-wearing parts." He was then sent to Aberdeen to prosecute his classical studies. He entered Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1722, when he was only twelve years of age. He was in the first Greek class taught by Dr. Thomas Blackwell, afterwards principal, who took such pains to revive the study of the Greek tongue in the north of Scotland; and the pupil seems to have caught somewhat