J 94 Biographical Sketch of the late Dugald Stewart ^ Esq. 



was early initiated into geometry and algebra; but the pecu- 

 liar bias of his mind was exhibited during his attendance on 

 the lectures of Dr Stevenson, then Professor of Logic, and of 

 the celebrated Dr Adam Ferguson, who filled with so much 

 talent the chair of Moral Philosophy. It was this circum- 

 stance, no doubt, that induced his father to send him at the 

 age of eighteen to the University of Glasgow, to attend the 

 lectures of Dr Reid, who was then sustaining, single-handed, 

 the honour of that seat of learning, which had in the course 

 of a few years been deprived of the services of Dr Robert 

 Simson, Dr Adam Smith, and Dr Black. In the session of 

 1771-1772, he attended a course of Dr Reid*s lectures, and 

 was thus enabled to prosecute, under his great master, that im- 

 portant science which he was destined to illustrate and extend. 

 The progress which he here made in his metaphysical studies 

 was proportioned to the ardour with which he devoted him- 

 self to the subject ; and, not content with listening merely to 

 the instructions of his master, or with the speculations of his 

 leisure hours, he composed during the session the admirable 

 Essay on Dreaming, which he afterwards published in the first 

 volume of his Philosophy of the Human Mind. 



The health of his father had been for some time declining, 

 and in the autumn of 1771 it had become so precarious, that 

 Mr Stewart was called upon to prepare for teaching the mathe- 

 matical classes during the ensuing session. This duty, which 

 devolved upon him at the age of nineteen, he discharged with 

 great credit to himself, and, notwithstanding the high reputa- 

 tion of his father, the great success of his son brought an ad- 

 ditional number of students to the class. 



In the year 1774, when he had reached his twenty-first year, 

 he was appointed assistant and successor to his father, — a situa- 

 tion which he continued to fill till the death of Dr Stewart 

 in 1785. 



In the year 1778, when Dr Adam Ferguson was appointed 

 secretary to the commissioners for quieting the disorders which 

 had broken out in America, Mr Stewart undertook to supply 

 his place during the session of that year ; and this unexpected 

 occupation was the more severe, as he had previously pledged 

 himself to deliver a course of lectures on astronomy, in addi- 



