The Scottish Philosophy [164]
with him through life. He entered Edinburgh College in the session 1765-66; that is, in his thirteenth year. I remember that Bacon, David Hume, Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, and many other original-minded men, entered college about the same age; and I am strengthened in the conviction that, in order to {276} the production of fresh and independent thought, it is of ad vantage to have the drilling in the ordinary elements all over at a comparatively early age, and then allow the mind, already well stocked with general knowledge, to turn its undivided energies to its favorite and evidently predestinated field; and that the modern English plan of continuing the routine discipline in classics or mathematics till the age of twenty-two, while well fitted to produce good technical scholars, is not so well calculated to raise up great reformers in method and execution. What the Scottish colleges have to deplore is not so much the juvenility of the entrants-though this has been carried to excess -- as the total want of a provision for bringing to a point, for carrying on, for consolidating and condensing the scattered education which has been so well begun in the several classes. But to return to the college youth, we find him attending, among other classes, that of logic under Stevenson, for two sessions; that of moral philosophy under Adam Ferguson -- , that of natural philosophy under Russell: and from all of these he received a stimulus and a bent which swayed him at the crisis of his being, and abode with him during the whole of his life.
After finishing his course in Edinburgh, he went to Glasgow in 1771, partly by the advice of Ferguson, that he might be under Dr. Thomas Reid, and partly with the view of being sent to Oxford on the Snell foundation, which has been of use to many students of Glasgow, but has in some respects been rather injurious to the college; as it has led many to ascribe to it the mere reflected glory of being a training- school to higher institutions, whereas Glasgow should assert of itself that it is prepared to give as high an education as can be had in any university in the world. The youth seems at this time to have had thoughts of entering the Church of England; and if he had gone south, he would no doubt, in that event, have discharged the duties of the episcopal office with great propriety and dignity. But a destiny better suited to his peculiar character and gifts was awaiting him. In the autumn of 1772 -- that is, when he was at the age of nineteen -- he became substitute for his father in the chair of mathematics in Edinburgh. It is precisely such an office as this, a tutorship or assistant professorship, that the Scottish colleges should provide for their {277} more promising students; an office not to be reserved for sons or personal friends of professors, but to be thrown open to public competition. This is the one thing needful to the Scottish universities, to enable them to complete the education which they commence so well, and to raise a body of learned youths, ready to compete with the tutors and fellows of Oxford and Cambridge. In 1775, Mr. Stewart was elected assistant and successor to his father; in 1778, on Professor Adam Ferguson going to America as secretary to a commission, he, upon a week's notice, lectured for him on morals; and, in 1785, Ferguson having resigned, Stewart was appointed to the office for which he was so specially fitted, -- to the chair of moral philosophy in the university of Edinburgh.
We pause in the narrative, in order to look at the circumstances which combined to influence the youth, to determine his career, and to fit him for the good work which he performed. First we have a mind, not certainly of bright original genius, or of great intellectual force, but with a blending of harmonious qualities, a capacity for inward reflection, and a disposition toward it, a fine taste, and consummate judgment. From his youth he breathed the air of a college. He was early introduced to Roman literature, and made it his model. Stevenson used Wynne's " Abridgment
After finishing his course in Edinburgh, he went to Glasgow in 1771, partly by the advice of Ferguson, that he might be under Dr. Thomas Reid, and partly with the view of being sent to Oxford on the Snell foundation, which has been of use to many students of Glasgow, but has in some respects been rather injurious to the college; as it has led many to ascribe to it the mere reflected glory of being a training- school to higher institutions, whereas Glasgow should assert of itself that it is prepared to give as high an education as can be had in any university in the world. The youth seems at this time to have had thoughts of entering the Church of England; and if he had gone south, he would no doubt, in that event, have discharged the duties of the episcopal office with great propriety and dignity. But a destiny better suited to his peculiar character and gifts was awaiting him. In the autumn of 1772 -- that is, when he was at the age of nineteen -- he became substitute for his father in the chair of mathematics in Edinburgh. It is precisely such an office as this, a tutorship or assistant professorship, that the Scottish colleges should provide for their {277} more promising students; an office not to be reserved for sons or personal friends of professors, but to be thrown open to public competition. This is the one thing needful to the Scottish universities, to enable them to complete the education which they commence so well, and to raise a body of learned youths, ready to compete with the tutors and fellows of Oxford and Cambridge. In 1775, Mr. Stewart was elected assistant and successor to his father; in 1778, on Professor Adam Ferguson going to America as secretary to a commission, he, upon a week's notice, lectured for him on morals; and, in 1785, Ferguson having resigned, Stewart was appointed to the office for which he was so specially fitted, -- to the chair of moral philosophy in the university of Edinburgh.
We pause in the narrative, in order to look at the circumstances which combined to influence the youth, to determine his career, and to fit him for the good work which he performed. First we have a mind, not certainly of bright original genius, or of great intellectual force, but with a blending of harmonious qualities, a capacity for inward reflection, and a disposition toward it, a fine taste, and consummate judgment. From his youth he breathed the air of a college. He was early introduced to Roman literature, and made it his model. Stevenson used Wynne's " Abridgment