Biographical Memoir of Sir John Leslie. 13 



cide upon a comparison of claims, and that Mr Leslie must 

 ti-iumpli. In this state of things, and in an evil hour for 

 themselves, the City Clergy were induced to raise an objection 

 to his eligibility, on the serious ground of his having, in one 

 of the notes appended to his woi'k on Heat, approved of a doc- 

 trine directly leading to atheism. We are sorry to be obliged 

 to notice this discreditable proceeding ; but it forms too me- 

 morable an occurrence in Mr Leslie's life to allow us to pass it 

 without some animadversion. In the note alluded to, the au- 

 thor, though no Metaphysician, and in general rather a con- 

 temner of metaphysical science, was, naturally enough, led to 

 illustrate what he had said in the text, with reference to the 

 unphilosophical opinion that impulse is necessary to the pro- 

 duction of motion, by some remarks on Causation. He prefaces 

 these remarks by observing, that Mr Hume was the first who 

 treated this subject " in a truly philosophical manner ;" and 

 that " the unsophisticated notions of mankind are in perfect 

 unison with the deductions of logic, and imply nothing more 

 at bottom, in the relation of cause and effect, than a constant 

 and invariable sequence."* Founding upon these observations, 

 the Ministers of Edinburgh charged him with having " laid a 

 foundation for rejecting all the argument that is derived from 

 the works of God to prove either his Being or Attributes.""!- 

 This heavy charge was preferred in a formal Protest, tender- 

 ed by them to the Patrons of the University; in which they 

 alleged that, in the election of Professors, the former were, by 

 the Charter of erection, bound to act with the advice of the 

 Ministers. That advice was, in the present instance, given 

 with sufficient emphasis ; but the Patrons, much to their ho- 

 nour, treated it as it deserved ; and Mr Leslie, to the great 

 joy of all liberal minds, was, in March 1805, elected to the 

 Mathematical Chair. The efforts of the disappointed junto 

 did not, however, cease with this rebuff ; nor did they desist 

 from their ill-starred opposition, till a decision of the General 

 Assembly of the National Church, pronounced on the 23d ot 



* Inquiry into the Nature of Heat, p. 135, and Note 10, p. 522. 

 + See Professor Stewart's Short Statement of Facts relative to the Election of a 

 Mathematical Professor in the University of Edinbiirr/fi, p. 44. 



