The Scottish Philosophy [208]
letter: " You dog, nobody can do it better; nobody I say, -- not Hume, not Adam Smith, not Burke, not Dugald Stewart; and the only exception I can think of is Lord Bacon. Yet, you dog, I hate you, for you want decision. 0 Jimmy! feel your own powers, assert your dignity, out upon vanity and cherish pride." In writing to Dugald Stewart about the state of philosophical opinion at this time (1802), he says: " One might give a just account of the state of learning at Paris, by saying that the mathematical and physical sciences were very actively and successfully cultivated, polite literature neglected, erudition extinct, and that moral and political speculation were discountenanced by the government and had ceased to interest the public." " Germany is metaphysically mad. France has made some poor efforts which have ended in little more than the substitution of the word ideology for metaphysics."
His next great effort was his defence of M. Peltier, an emigrant royalist, for a libel on Napoleon Bonaparte, at that time first consul of France. His oration is regarded by some as one of the most eminent displays of forensic eloquence which modern times have produced. But he has now to consider two very important points,-- one is how he is to execute what he intends to make his life-work, and the other is how is he to get a living suited to his tastes and habits. He has all along been cherishing ambitious literary projects, not always very clearly defined, but pointing towards a great work on moral philosophy and a history of England or certain eras of it. But these schemes could not very well be carried into execution by one who had to toil at the bar. And then he was fond of society, and had not sufficient moral restraint to curb expenditure. In these circumstances he was led to accept (1804) the office of Recorder of Bombay, which was handsomely offered by the tory government, and he became Sir James Mackintosh. He thought he would now be able to undertake and complete, as he expressed it, " my intended work on morals and politics, which I consider as the final cause of my existence." But his hopes were not realized. He had not sufficient decision to contend with the relaxing {351} influence of the climate. " Our climate may be endured: but I feel that, by its constant though silent operation, existence is rendered less joyous and even less comfortable. I see around me no extraordinary prevalence of disease, but I see no vigorous cheerful health." He longed for letters from England and wrote letters to his friends which are full of thought. Philosophy is my trade, though I have hitherto been but a poor workman, I observe you touch me with the spur once or twice about my book on morals; I felt it gall me, for I have not begun; and I shall not make any promises to you till I can say that it is well begun: but I tell you what has either really or apparently to myself retarded me; it was the restless desire of thoroughly mastering the German philosophy." "It is vain to despise them. Their opinions will, on account of their number and novelty, occupy more pages in the history of philosophy than those of us humble disciples of Locke and Hartley. Besides, their abilities are not really contemptible. It seems to me that I am bound not only to combat these new adversaries, but to explain the principle and ground of their hostility, which is in itself a most curious confutation in detail."
He discharges the duties of his office, and instituted the Literary Society at Bombay and had a plan for forming a comparative vocabulary of Indian languages, read a great number and variety of books, and often writes critiques upon them, some of them distinguished by great ability and worthy of being preserved in a more permanent form than in the memoir written by his son. In philosophy, he reads Reinhold, Tiedemann, and says: " I shall begin with Descartes" `Meditations' and `Objections,' Spinoza, Hobbes on `Human Nature,' Berkeley's `Principles' and `Dialogues,' Hume on `Human Nature,' then Kant." " The German philosophy, under
His next great effort was his defence of M. Peltier, an emigrant royalist, for a libel on Napoleon Bonaparte, at that time first consul of France. His oration is regarded by some as one of the most eminent displays of forensic eloquence which modern times have produced. But he has now to consider two very important points,-- one is how he is to execute what he intends to make his life-work, and the other is how is he to get a living suited to his tastes and habits. He has all along been cherishing ambitious literary projects, not always very clearly defined, but pointing towards a great work on moral philosophy and a history of England or certain eras of it. But these schemes could not very well be carried into execution by one who had to toil at the bar. And then he was fond of society, and had not sufficient moral restraint to curb expenditure. In these circumstances he was led to accept (1804) the office of Recorder of Bombay, which was handsomely offered by the tory government, and he became Sir James Mackintosh. He thought he would now be able to undertake and complete, as he expressed it, " my intended work on morals and politics, which I consider as the final cause of my existence." But his hopes were not realized. He had not sufficient decision to contend with the relaxing {351} influence of the climate. " Our climate may be endured: but I feel that, by its constant though silent operation, existence is rendered less joyous and even less comfortable. I see around me no extraordinary prevalence of disease, but I see no vigorous cheerful health." He longed for letters from England and wrote letters to his friends which are full of thought. Philosophy is my trade, though I have hitherto been but a poor workman, I observe you touch me with the spur once or twice about my book on morals; I felt it gall me, for I have not begun; and I shall not make any promises to you till I can say that it is well begun: but I tell you what has either really or apparently to myself retarded me; it was the restless desire of thoroughly mastering the
He discharges the duties of his office, and instituted the Literary Society at Bombay and had a plan for forming a comparative vocabulary of Indian languages, read a great number and variety of books, and often writes critiques upon them, some of them distinguished by great ability and worthy of being preserved in a more permanent form than in the memoir written by his son. In philosophy, he reads Reinhold, Tiedemann, and says: " I shall begin with Descartes" `Meditations' and `Objections,' Spinoza, Hobbes on `Human Nature,' Berkeley's `Principles' and `Dialogues,' Hume on `Human Nature,' then Kant." " The German philosophy, under