The Scottish Philosophy [302]
century: it occurs on the tombstones in a number of churchyards. In a map of a piece of ground at the north end of Brechin, there is mention of its belonging successively to George Cant and Alex. ander Cant. There was a James Cant, weaver in Brechin, admitted to the guild in 1779. I have seen a deed in which George Scott sells, in 1799, to John Cant, tanner in Brechin, a piece of property on the east side of High Street. It had been bought in I 796 by the two, in a contract of copartnery for carrying on the business of manufacturing and selling of leather. As leather and saddlery are connected, I have at times favored the idea that Kant, the saddler, may have been descended from the same Cants as John Cant, the tanner, who it is understood came from Montrose to Brechin. It is proper to state that I have been assisted in these researches by D. 1). Black, Esq., town clerk, Brechin. [81]"The Collected Works of Dugald Stewart, edited by Sir William Hamilton, Bart., with a Memoir of Dugald Stewart, by John Veitch." [82]It is an interesting circumstance that, perhaps, the fairest estimate which we have of Bacon and the inductive system is by a German, Kuno Fischer, in We " Francis Bacon of Verulam " (translated by Oxenford). He errs, however, after the usual German mode of theorizing, in connecting Bacon with such men as Hobbes and Hume, the former of whom never professed to follow the Baconian method, and the latter of whom formed a very low estimate of Bacon, and has been most effectively met by Reid and Stewart, who professedly and really adopted the inductive system. This has been shown by Remusat, in his pleasantively written and judicious work, " Bacon: Sa Vie, son Temps, sa Philosophic where there is a just estimate of Bacon's general philosophy, and some good remarks on the metaphysical points involved in induction. [83]The intellectual side has been brought out to view by Henry Rogers, Professor Bowen of Harvard, and Professor Webb of Dublin. [84]"Account of the Life and Writings of Thomas Brown, M.D." (1825), by David Welsh. Shorter Memoir by same prefixed to Brown's " Lectures." [85]"Life of Francis Jeffrey," by Lord Cockburn. [86]I am afraid we cannot claim Sydney Smith (born 1771, died 1845) as one of the Scotch metaphysicians as he was not a Scotchman: he merely resided for a time in Edinburgh. But his "Lectures on Moral Philosophy," delivered in London, 1804-6, and published in a volume (1850), is drawn from the Scottish philosophy, especially from Stewart, and is a remarkably clear, lively, and judicious work. [87]Thus of Wordsworth's "Excursion" Jeffrey says: "This will never do." "It is longer, weaker, and tamer than any of Mr. Wordsworth's other productions." Of Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister " he says: "To us it certainly appears, after the most deliberate consideration, to be eminently absurd, puerile, incongruous, vulgar, and affected; and, though redeemed by considerable powers of invention and some traits of vivacity, to be so far from perfection as to be almost from beginning to end one flagrant offence against every principle of taste and every rule of composition." How different the estimate formed by Thomas Car lyle of the second period of the Edinburgh Review ! The late Lord Ashburton shortly after the decease of his lady, who was a great admirer of Carlyle, did the author of this work the honor of applying to him to explain what Carlyle could mean by an advice which he gave. "I inquired of him," said his Lordship, "what I could do to form my character, and make myself what I ought to be. `Read "Wilheim Meister,"' said he. So I read I Wilhelm Meister' and went back to my counsellor, saying that I had read the book and admired it, but could not discover any thing in it fitted to accomplish the end I have in view. `Read "Wilhelm Meister,"' said the great man, `a second time.' Now I have read it a second time without getting what I wish. I now come to you to see if you can tell me what Carlyle can mean." .I told him he must go to the oracle himself to find out what he meant: but I added that I believed that