is remarkably warm in his attachments. One of his principal favourites is Sir John Anstruther, who now exercises the office of Supreme Judge in Bengal, with very high reputation. His Lordship early discerned the merit of this gentleman, and was peculiarly instrumental in affording it opportunities of exertion.

He has been twice married. First to Miss Dawson, of Yorkshire, by whom he had no issue. Secondly, to Miss Courtney, sister to Viscount Courtney by this marriage he has a son about seven years of age.

His Lordship is slender in person, with a very quick penetrating eye and countenance. His constitution, never strong, is much impaired by his indefatigable application to business during the whole of his life. He resides a great part of his time in the pleasant village of Hampstead-a place already distinguished for the residence of two other luminaries. of the law, the Master of the Rolls, and the Honourable Thomas Erskine.

MR. DUGALD STEWART.

DUGALD STEWART, the son of Matthew Stewart, professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh, was born in 1753. His father, esteemed one of the best mathematicians of an age, the early part of which was adorned by Simpson and Maclaurin, was so deeply engaged in professional studies as to leave him little time for personally directing the tuition of his son. Dugald was therefore sent to the high school of Edinburgh; a seminary of which the plan and institutions rendered proficiency probable,

but

but whose excellence has long been experimentally ascertained by the scholars whom it has formed. Thither, after the autumnal holidays of 1760, young Dugald, in the eighth year of his age, was sent to begin the rudiments of the Latin tongue. At the same time, and in the same stage of literary advancement, was sent thither Robert Thomson, who since has promoted classical erudition in his academy at Kensington, no less successfully than his schoolfellow has advanced metaphysical, moral, and political philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. Between these two an intimacy then commenced, which, encreasing with their years and reciprocal esteem, ripened into the strictest friendship. In their puerile exercises, being nearly equal, and being both among the foremost of a class of a hundred, their particular rivalry added to the effects of general emulation, and going through their course of six years with distinguished honour, they at their last examination were at the head of the school.

In October 1766, Mr. Stewart was entered at the University. Edinburgh College was then in very great repute for literature and science. The professors, by whom the characters of the students were chiefly formed, during the philosophy course, and previous to the commencement of studies, specially preparatory to either of the three learned professions, were Doctors Blair and Fergusson. The first of these gentlemen, as teacher of Belles Lettres, exhibited the rules of rhetoric and criticism; the second as instructor in moral philosophy, unfolded cognitive

1800-1801.

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and

and active man, traced him through social, civil, and political relations, and combining his powers and affections with the circumstances in which he was placed, deduced his duties, and shewed that their habitual performance led to individual and general happiness. There is no inseparable connection between a taste feelingly alive to each fine impulse, and an understanding that can readily discover abstrusc, comprehend manifold, and develope complicated truths. Excellent and practicable as Dr. Blair's precepts are, if received merely as he delivered them, and followed according to his inculcations, yet, by being imperfectly understood, they have very frequently produced superabundant attention to language and compositition, with inadequate consideration of materials. Hence superficial elegance distinguished many of their productions instead of solid argument, important knowledge, and profound wisdom. To balance clauses and to round periods requiring much less intellectual ability than to think deeply and reason forcibly, young men, who aspired at distinction without being able to attain it by learning or genius, sought it by a polished style; partially observing the letter of Dr. Blair's Lectures instead of the principles and spirit of his instructions, and the example which he himself exhibited, they addicted themselves almost exclusively to mere composition. "The style is excellent,

"The sense they humbly take upon content." Another set, endeavouring to make Fergusson their model, devoted themselves to philosophical en

quiry. Of these, young men whose understandings were too shallow for investigating and comprchending such subjects, either became disgusting pedants, parroting what they did not understand, or visionaries and dupes to every new hypothesis which to their undiscerning minds bore the appearance of ingenuity and depth. But they who had intellectual powers sufficient for fully comprehending the doctrines, precepts and example set before them, for profiting from the lessons delivered, became thinkers at once deep and clear, reasoners acute and comprehensive, ready discoverers of truth, and successful appliers of their discoveries to the purposes of science, of art, and of conduct. But if this higher, or what may be called philosophical class of students, pursued their objects too exclusively, without adding some of the graces of rhetoric, instructive and momentous as the truths might be which they promulgated, they, with many, would lose great part of their effect by dry and uninteresting modes of communication. Young Stewart very happily joined uncommon depth of understanding with refined delicacy of taste, and with exquisite sensibility of affection. In his literary efforts we are to expect not only the man of intellect and of learning, but of taste and of feeling. This was the composite character which marked this juvenile pupil of Blair and of Fegusson, in the academical exercises by which he informed, instructed and delighted contemporary youth; this is the composite character which stamps the investigator and unfolder of the HUMAN MIND, and distinguishes him, from other pro

found metaphysicians of the age. He was an enthusiastic admirer of beautiful, sublime, and pathetic poetry, in ancient and modern languages. Besides his thorough comprehension of the thoughts and conception of the feelings represented from a nice ear and a flexible voice, he made great progress in the light but agreeable and useful attainments of elocution. His principal intellectual pursuits were history, logic, metaphysics, and moral philosophy. To his father's study of mathematics he paid no more attention than was necessary to avoid the censure of negligence; he merely learned the elementary branches taught in the class, and nothing more.*

*

When

* The writer of this article has been indebted to a friend for the following observations on Mr. Stewart's Theory of Imagination:

Hobbes was the first writer who analysed the faculty of imagination. The track which he marked out has been occasionally followed by several others: but amongst those who have treated this subject, Mr. Stewart stands unrivalled in point of copiousness and elegance. It nevertheless appears to me, that some of the principles which he lays down are fundamentally erroneous.

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"The variety," says he, "of the materials out of which the "combinations of the poet or the painter are found, will depend "much on the tendency of external situation to store the mind "with a multiplicity of conceptions; and the beauty of these com"binations will depend entirely on the success with which the power of taste has been cultivated. What we call, therefore, "the power of imagination is not the gift of nature, but the result "of acquired habits, aided by favourable circumstances. It is not 66 original endowment of the mind, but an accomplishment formed "by experience and situation, and which, in its different grada“tions, fills up all the intervals betwixt the first efforts of untu"tored genius, and the sublime creations of Raphael or of Milton.

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