The Scottish Philosophy [299]
Alexander. [51]Stanhope Smith's " Lectures on Moral and Political Philosophy." Stanhope Smith was the author of an "Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure of the Human Species." He holds by the unity of the race, and accounts for the diversities by natural causes. It was first published, 1787, and ran through several editions. [52]I may mention, as belonging to the same age, "An Essay on Virtue and Harmony, wherein a Reconciliation of the Various Accounts of Moral Obligation is attempted," by William Jameson, M.A. minister of Rerick, 1749. He shows that man is endowed with various senses, but especially with a moral sense; and, "as several parts or strains uf music and different musical instruments do compose a concert, so the various sorts of beauty, order, proportion, and harmony in the vegetable kingdom, in the animal, and in the intellectual system, constitute one universal harmony or concert: in that grand concert, every man is bound to perform his part in a proper key, as it were, or in just consonance with the whole which can only be done by the order and harmony of his affections, and the beauty and regularity of his actions." The scepticism of Hume cast aside these inquiries into senses and tastes, and led to the profounder philosophy of Reid. [53]"Account of the Life and Writings of Thomas Reid," by Dugald Stewart; "The Works of Thomas Reid," by Sir William Hamilton; MS. letters in possession of the late Alexander Thomson of Banchory (used by Hamilton); Papers of Dr. Reid in possession of Francis Edmond of Aberdeen. [54]One version is, that Tillotson had preached from Clarke, and that, in conse. quence, one of Clarke's sermons had been published among Tillotson's sermons, and that Reid had taken the sermon from Clirke, while the lady had read it in Tillotson. I have not found any confirmation of this. [55]In possession of Francis Edmond. [56]MS. notes furnished me by Thomson of Banchory. [57]MS. letters possessed by Thomson of Banchory. [58]MS. papers of Dr. Reid, in possession of Francis Edmond, Esq. [59]Life of Dr. McKinlay of Kilmarnock, prefixed to a volume of his " Sermons." [60]MS. papers in possession of Francis Edmond. [61]"An Examination of Dr. Reid's 'Inquiry into the Human Mind, on the Principles of Common Sense,' Dr. Beattie's `Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth,' and Dr. Oswald's `Appeal to Common Sense in Behalf of Religion,"' by Joseph Priestley, 1774. Reid's work appears to him "an ingenious piece of sophistry." He wonders that none of the Scottish writers (except Beattie) refer to Hartley. " Something was done in this field by Descartes, very much by Mr. Locke, but most of all by Dr. Hartley, who has thrown more useful light on the theory of the mind than Newton did upon the theory of the natural world." " The evidence that any two properties are necessarily united is the constant observation of their union." Propositions and reasoning " are in fact nothing more than cases of association of ideas." "There are many opinions which we know to be acquired, and even founded on prejudice and mistake, which, however, the fullest correction that they are void of all real foundation cannot erase from the mind; the groundless belief and expectation founded upon it being so closely connected with the idea of certain circumstances, that no mental power of which we are possessed can separate them: "and he gives, as an example, our fear of ghosts. We see the commencement of the feud which culminated in John Stuart Mill's "Examination of Hamilton's Philosophy." But Priestley, like Mill, is obliged, unconsciously and surreptitiously, to call in first truths. " No man ever denied that there are self-evident truths, and that these must be assumed as the foundation of all our reasoning." " I never met with any person who did not acknowledge this." It is curious to find him saying that they "recommend particular positions as axioms, not as being founded on the perception of the agreement or disagreement of any ideas, which is the great doctrine of Mr. Locke, and which makes truth depend