The Scottish Philosophy [207]
pointed towards metaphysical inquiries." To the " Royal Physical Society," he read a paper on the instincts and dispositions of animals, and showed that animals had memory, imagination, and reason in different degrees; declining to enter on the difficult question: "To what circumstance are we to attribute the intellectual superiority of man over other animals?" He took his medical degree with credit, but it does not appear that he ever had the taste for the patient observation of physiological facts which would have made him eminent in the profession. It is quite clear that, while a hard student, he mingled freely in the excesses for which the Edinburgh lawyers and students were noted at that period. It is proper to add that, when in Edinburgh, he attended the lectures of Dugald Stewart, with whom he carried on an occasional correspondence through life.
He was now seized with the disposition attributed to his countrymen of going south when they have to seek a settlement for life, and he went to London in the spring of 1788. There he meant to follow the medical profession, but he was easily turned aside from it. He became deeply interested in the politics of the time, which took their direction from the revolt of the American colonies, and from the fermentation preceding the revolutionary outburst in France. He listened eagerly to the {349} orations of Burke and Sheridan; and became a speaker him self in one of the numerous political societies of the period. He was led by his social dispositions to mingle in the society that was open to him. "His company was sought after, and few were the occupations which induced him willingly to decline a pleasant invitation." Feeling a difficulty in sustaining him self, he sold his little highland estate, and bravely entered into the state of matrimony. He now betook himself to the study of the law, and, had he kept to it steadily, would undoubtedly have risen to great eminence in certain departments of it requiring thought and lofty eloquence. But an opportunity now presented itself to call forth his special gifts, and enable him at once to rise to distinction.
About this time there was a wide difference of opinion in England in regard to the tendency and influence of the French Revolution. Young minds of a liberal tendency were strongly impressed with the need of political reformation in France. But, as the revolution advanced, not a few who at first favored it became alarmed at the infidelity and the cruel excesses. Burke, in particular, denounced the whole movement in language of extraordinary power and eloquence in his " Reflections." But multitudes were not disposed to abandon the hope which they cherished. Many were the replies to Burke, but they were all feeble compared with that now issued, in April, 1791, -- the " Vindiciae Gallicae," by Mackintosh. The work has not the magnificent glow of Burke; but it is philosophical and eloquent, and had a rapid and wide circulation. At a later date, when some Frenchmen at Paris complimented him on the " Vindiciae Gallicae," he replied: " Messieurs, vous m'avez si bien refute."
In 1795 he was called to the bar, and gradually acquired a considerable practice. But his native tendency was still toward speculation, and in 1799 he delivered a course of thirty-nine "Lectures on the Law of Nature and Nations." This work does not exhaust the grand topic of which it treats; but it was a most important contribution to the science of natural and international law, and furnished ample evidence of the eminently philosophical mind of the author. " The foundation of moral government and its tests he examined at great length and with much acuteness; he entered into a question which, many years after, received from him almost as much elucidation as can be {350} hoped, - - the relation of conscience and utility as the guides of moral conduct; he showed the vanity of every system that would sacrifice the particular affections to general benevolence; the origin and use of rules and of habits to the moral being." Parr wrote him a characteristic
He was now seized with the disposition attributed to his countrymen of going south when they have to seek a settlement for life, and he went to London in the spring of 1788. There he meant to follow the medical profession, but he was easily turned aside from it. He became deeply interested in the politics of the time, which took their direction from the revolt of the American colonies, and from the fermentation preceding the revolutionary outburst in France. He listened eagerly to the {349} orations of Burke and Sheridan; and became a speaker him self in one of the numerous political societies of the period. He was led by his social dispositions to mingle in the society that was open to him. "His company was sought after, and few were the occupations which induced him willingly to decline a pleasant invitation." Feeling a difficulty in sustaining him self, he sold his little highland estate, and bravely entered into the state of matrimony. He now betook himself to the study of the law, and, had he kept to it steadily, would undoubtedly have risen to great eminence in certain departments of it requiring thought and lofty eloquence. But an opportunity now presented itself to call forth his special gifts, and enable him at once to rise to distinction.
About this time there was a wide difference of opinion in England in regard to the tendency and influence of the French Revolution. Young minds of a liberal tendency were strongly impressed with the need of political reformation in France. But, as the revolution advanced, not a few who at first favored it became alarmed at the infidelity and the cruel excesses. Burke, in particular, denounced the whole movement in language of extraordinary power and eloquence in his " Reflections." But multitudes were not disposed to abandon the hope which they cherished. Many were the replies to Burke, but they were all feeble compared with that now issued, in April, 1791, -- the " Vindiciae Gallicae," by Mackintosh. The work has not the magnificent glow of Burke; but it is philosophical and eloquent, and had a rapid and wide circulation. At a later date, when some Frenchmen at Paris complimented him on the " Vindiciae Gallicae," he replied: " Messieurs, vous m'avez si bien refute."
In 1795 he was called to the bar, and gradually acquired a considerable practice. But his native tendency was still toward speculation, and in 1799 he delivered a course of thirty-nine "Lectures on the Law of Nature and Nations." This work does not exhaust the grand topic of which it treats; but it was a most important contribution to the science of natural and international law, and furnished ample evidence of the eminently philosophical mind of the author. " The foundation of moral government and its tests he examined at great length and with much acuteness; he entered into a question which, many years after, received from him almost as much elucidation as can be {350} hoped, - - the relation of conscience and utility as the guides of moral conduct; he showed the vanity of every system that would sacrifice the particular affections to general benevolence; the origin and use of rules and of habits to the moral being." Parr wrote him a characteristic