The Scottish Philosophy [222]
regards it as a contracted view to indentify moral freedom and freedom of will. He finds moral freedom not in mere volition, but in the great influential principle of comparative survey. He unfolds, not very clearly, a whole theory of human nature. The truth in his system seems to be, that more is involved in moral freedom than mere volition , that the whole soul, including the intellect, is involved in it; and that a preferential feeling, as he calls it, is an essential part of it, -- pointing to the fact that there may be preference or choice not amounting to full volition, but implying responsibility. He shows that the freedom he advocates may be compatible with divine foreknowledge.
LI. -- JAMES MILL.[93] T/HE\ author, as he writes this article, has before him a photograph of a house which stood at Upper North Water Bridge, on the south side of the North Esk River, which there divides Angus from Mearns, and flows into the German Ocean a few miles below. The house consists of two apartments "a but and a ben," with possibly a closet, and a lower addition at one end {371} for a workshop. Here, a hundred years ago, lived a shoemaker, named James Mill, with several men under him; he was also a crofter farming some acres of land. His wife was Isabel Fenton, said to have been a woman of superior manners and intelligence, the daughter of a farmer who was out in the forty-five" on the pretender's side. In this house on April 6, 1773, was born James Mill, destined to exercise such an influence on thought. He was one of a family of three, having a brother William, who died young; and a sister Marjory, who married William Greig, who succeeded to her father's trade and left descendants in the district. He seems to have been educated at the school of his native parish, Logie-Pert. His abilities were discovered by his minister, Rev. Dr. Peter, of Logie-Pert, and by Rev. James Foote,[94] of Fettercairn, some miles off, where was the family seat of Sir John Stuart, to whose notice Dr. Foote introduced him; and he was sent to the university of Edinburgh, his son says, " at the expense of a fund established by Lady Jane Stuart [the wife of Sir John Stuart], and some other ladies for educating young men for the ministry." In the university of Edinburgh, he pursued the usual course in arts and theology, and attended the lectures of Dugald Stewart. We have no account of his student's life or his preacher's life;[95] for he became a licentiate of the Church of Scotland. " or a few years he was a private tutor in various families in Scotland, among others that of the Marquis of Tweeddale." He expected, it is said, to receive a presentation to the parish church of Craig, which, however, was given to Dr. James Brewster, brother to (the afterwards) Sir David Brewster. People may speculate as to what sort of minister in faith and practice he would have become, had he been settled in that country parish of farmers and fishers.
We may believe that at no time had the ministry of the gospel any particular charm for him. In the year 1800, he went to London, where it is said that he preached in the Presbyterian churches. But he soon devoted himself to literature and authorship. {372} We do not know to which of the two strong parties in the church of Scotland he had attached himself, whether to the moderate or rationalistic, -- which Burns and most literary men favored,-or to the evangelical, to which Dr. Peter and Mr. James Foote belonged. It is not uncommon for Scotchmen, when they bury themselves in London, to lose their religious faith, which is so sustained by public opinion-as Mill would have said by association of ideas -- in their native land. With his usual reticence he has not furnished us with any account of the struggle which must have passed in his mind when he abandoned his belief, not only in the Bible, but in the very existence of God and providence. Such a record would have given us a deeper insight into the depths of human nature than all his refined metaphysical analyses.
LI. -- JAMES MILL.[93] T/HE\ author, as he writes this article, has before him a photograph of a house which stood at Upper North Water Bridge, on the south side of the North Esk River, which there divides Angus from Mearns, and flows into the German Ocean a few miles below. The house consists of two apartments "a but and a ben," with possibly a closet, and a lower addition at one end {371} for a workshop. Here, a hundred years ago, lived a shoemaker, named James Mill, with several men under him; he was also a crofter farming some acres of land. His wife was Isabel Fenton, said to have been a woman of superior manners and intelligence, the daughter of a farmer who was out in the forty-five" on the pretender's side. In this house on April 6, 1773, was born James Mill, destined to exercise such an influence on thought. He was one of a family of three, having a brother William, who died young; and a sister Marjory, who married William Greig, who succeeded to her father's trade and left descendants in the district. He seems to have been educated at the school of his native parish, Logie-Pert. His abilities were discovered by his minister, Rev. Dr. Peter, of Logie-Pert, and by Rev. James Foote,[94] of Fettercairn, some miles off, where was the family seat of Sir John Stuart, to whose notice Dr. Foote introduced him; and he was sent to the university of Edinburgh, his son says, " at the expense of a fund established by Lady Jane Stuart [the wife of Sir John Stuart], and some other ladies for educating young men for the ministry." In the university of Edinburgh, he pursued the usual course in arts and theology, and attended the lectures of Dugald Stewart. We have no account of his student's life or his preacher's life;[95] for he became a licentiate of the Church of Scotland. " or a few years he was a private tutor in various families in Scotland, among others that of the Marquis of Tweeddale." He expected, it is said, to receive a presentation to the parish church of Craig, which, however, was given to Dr. James Brewster, brother to (the afterwards) Sir David Brewster. People may speculate as to what sort of minister in faith and practice he would have become, had he been settled in that country parish of farmers and fishers.
We may believe that at no time had the ministry of the gospel any particular charm for him. In the year 1800, he went to London, where it is said that he preached in the Presbyterian churches. But he soon devoted himself to literature and authorship. {372} We do not know to which of the two strong parties in the church of Scotland he had attached himself, whether to the moderate or rationalistic, -- which Burns and most literary men favored,-or to the evangelical, to which Dr. Peter and Mr. James Foote belonged. It is not uncommon for Scotchmen, when they bury themselves in London, to lose their religious faith, which is so sustained by public opinion-as Mill would have said by association of ideas -- in their native land. With his usual reticence he has not furnished us with any account of the struggle which must have passed in his mind when he abandoned his belief, not only in the Bible, but in the very existence of God and providence. Such a record would have given us a deeper insight into the depths of human nature than all his refined metaphysical analyses.