Biographical Sketch of the late Dugald Stewart^ Esq. 201 



been made to him, but he had no right to question the huma- 

 nity by which that application was dictated. The character 

 of Mr Dugald Stewart should have been a sufficient guarantee 

 that the personal comfort and happiness of Mitchell would be 

 the first objects of his solicitude. 



In the year 181 B, Mr Stewart published the second volume 

 of his Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. This 

 volume relates entwely io Reason^or the Under standing .^properly 

 so called., and, as the author himself observes, the subjects of 

 which it treats are of necessity peculiarly dry and abstruse ; 

 but he regarded them as so important, that he laboured the 

 whole of the materials which compose it with the greatest care 

 and diligence. In the fourth chapter he treats more particu- 

 larly of the method of inquiry poin<^ed out in the Novum Or- 

 gaiium of Bacon, and he has directed the attention of his 

 readers chiefly to such questions as are connected with the 

 theory of our intellectual faculties, and the primary sources of 

 experimental knowledge in the laws of the human frame. 

 , In the month of January 1822, Mr Stewart experienced a 

 stroke of palsy, which considerably impaired his powers of 

 speech, and unfitted him in a great degree for the enjoyment 

 of general society. Unable to take regular exercise, or to use 

 his right hand, he was reduced to a state of great depen- 

 dence on those round him. The faculties of his mind, how- 

 ever, were in no respect impaired by this severe attack, and 

 with the assistance of his only daughter, who acted as his 

 amanuensis, and who understood his imperfect articulation, he 

 was enabled to prepare his works for publication with an ar- 

 dour of mind and a freshness of intellect which formed a strik- 

 ing contrast with his bodily weakness 



Although the progress of his great work was interrupted 

 by his Dissertation on the progress of Metaphysical and Ethi- 

 cal Philosophy, which he composed for the Supplement to the 

 Encyclopaedia Britannica, yet he was able to complete the 

 third volume of his Philosophy of the Human Mind in 1827. 

 This volume contains a continuation of the second part, viz. 

 two chapters, one on Language, and the other on the Principles 

 or Law of Sympathetic Imitation; and also the third part, which 

 consists of two chapters, one on the Varieties of Intellectual 

 Character f and the other a Comparison between the Faculties 



