HUTCHINSON, JOHN. 



BUTTON, CHARLES. 



534 



things in imperfect, inasmuch as they are limited. It is however from 

 the finite that the mind rises to the idea of absolute truth, and so 

 forms to itself a belief that an absolute and perfect nature exists, 

 which in regard to duration and space is infinite and eternal. The 

 soul, as the thinking essence, is spiritual and incorporeal. Of its 

 nature we have, it is true, but little knowledge ; nevertheless its 

 specific difference from body is at once attested by the consciousness. 

 It is simple and active; body is composite and passive. From the 

 spiritual nature however of the soul Hutcheson does not derive its 

 immortality, but makes this to rest upon the goodness and wisdom 

 of God. 



In his moral philosophy Hutcheson adopted the views of Lord 

 Shaftesbury. Accordingly his first endeavour is to show that man 

 desires the happiness of others not less than his own, and that bene- 

 volence can no more be explained by selfishness than selfishness by 

 benevolence. In proof of this he examines successively the several 

 solutions of benevolence, and shows of all that they are contrary to 

 facts. He then concludes that man desires the good of his fellows in 

 consequence of having within him an original inclination which aspires 

 to secure the good of others as its final causa Benevolence therefore 

 is primary and irreducible. There are then two classes of human 

 affections; the one impels man to hU own happiness, the other to the 

 well-being of his fellows. But alongside of these two there exists a 

 third, incapable of being reduced to either of them ; the end it has 

 in view is moral good, of which the idea is primary, simple, and 

 irreducible. 



In order to establish this proposition, Hutcheson successfully 

 demonstrates that by moral good is understood neither that which 

 pleases ourselves by gratifying our benevolent affections, nor that 

 which is good to others, nor any conformity to the will of God, or to 

 order, or law, or truth, nor any other idea distinct from that which 

 the word itself expresses, and which is a* simple and primary and 

 incapable of being expressed by any other word as are taste and smell. 

 From this simplicity and originality of the notion Hutcheson infers 

 that the quality about which it is concerned can only be perceived by 

 a sense, and that this sense must be special, because the quality it 

 perceives is distinct from all others. In further confirmation of this 

 conclusion he observes that the perception of this quality, like all 

 other sensuous perceptions, is accompanied with pleasure, and that 

 moral good is an end and a motive, but that the understanding is 

 incapable of discovering any of the end* of human conduct, or of 

 exercising any influence on the will. 



Moral good then is perceived by a sense, and the perception of it or 

 its contrary is accompanied with an agreeable or disagreeable feeling. 

 Now this feeling being a consequent of the perception of the quality, 

 it is imposnible to resolve into it either moral good or the approbation 

 we award to moral virtue ; for this would be to resolve the cause into 

 the effect, and the principle into the consequence. This sense Hutche- 

 son denominates, after Shaftesbury, the moral sense. Now ag the 

 quality of which it is percipient exists only in certain mental dispo- 

 sitions and the acts to which these give rise, it is necessarily internal 

 According to Hutcheson there are several internal senses ; among 

 others the tense of beauty, whose office is to perceive the primary and 

 irreducible quality of beauty. This character of inwardness is all 

 that distinguish, s the inner from the outer senses. Although indeed 

 they are not of the same grow nature, they are nevertheless subject to 

 the tame laws and conditions. The moral sense therefore, as a sensuous 

 quality, is affected by its objects immediately, and according as the 

 sensations it experiences are agreeable or disagreeable, they are accom- 

 panied by desire or repugnance, that is, by approbation or disappro- 

 bation. 



The moral sense moreover is capable of regulating all the other 

 faculties of our nature. Whence it derives this authority Hutcheson 

 does not attempt to show, and is content with observing that we are 

 directly conscious of its rule. 



As to the question, what are the mental dispositions which this 

 sense approves as good and moral, he at once excludes all those whose 

 end lieg in the attainment of man's personal happiness. No action 

 the end of which is the profit of the agent can be accounted virtuous ; 

 it may be blameless, it cannot be moral. Nevertheless the neglect of 

 one'i own interests becomes culpable whenever the advancement of 

 them will enlarge the sphere and the means of beneficence. Benevo- 

 lent dispositions and acts alone are the objects of moral approbation. 

 Universal beneficence constitutes moral excellence, and the degrees of 

 morality coincide with those of benevolence. 



In thin system the part of reason is very subordinate. Excluded 

 from the privilege of determining the proper objects of human con- 

 duct and of acting directly on the will, it is a mere servant, whose task 

 u to discover and to digest the proper means for the attainment of 

 those ends which the moral sense proposes. As to the 'motive* to 

 virtuous determinations, Hutcheson is not more explicit than Shaftes- 

 bury, but as he makes the moral sense to be something more than a 

 simply perceptive faculty, and, like all other senses, to influence the 

 will, it would appear that he regarded it as the moral motive also. 



A a writer Hutcheson is remarkable for chasteness and simplicity 

 of rtyle, with great clearness of expression and happy fullness of 

 illustration. 



lil/rCHIN.SON, JOHN, author of a mystical and cabalistic inter- 



pretation of the Hebrew scriptures, was born in 1674, at Spennithorne 

 in Yorkshire. Having received an excellent private education he 

 became at the age of nineteen steward to Mr. Bathurst, iu which 

 capacity he afterwards served the Duke of Somerset, who bestowed 

 upon him many marks of confidence and esteem, and when master of 

 the horse appointed Mr. Hutchinson his riding purveyor. Availing 

 himself of the opportunities which his situation afforded him for culti- 

 vating his favourite pursuit of mineralogy and natural history, he 

 made a large and valuable collection of fossils, which, with his own 

 observations, he consigned to the care of Dr. Woodward to digest and 

 publish. This duty Woodward failed to discharge, but bequeathed 

 the task and the collection to the University of Cambridge. In 1724, 

 Hutchinson published the first part of a curious work entitled 'Moses's 

 Principia,' in which he attempted to refute the doctrine of gravitation 

 as taught in the ' Principia ' of Newton. In the second part of this 

 work, which appeared in 1727, he continued his attack upon the 

 Newtonian philosophy, and maintained, on the authority of scripture, 

 the existence of a plenum. From this time to his death, he published 

 yearly one or two volumes in further elucidation of his views, which 

 are written in a rambling and uncouth style, but evince a profound 

 and extensive knowledge of the Hebrew scriptures. He died on the 

 28th of August, 1737. 



According to Hntchinson, the Old Testament contains a complete 

 system of natural history, theology, and religion. The Hebrew 

 language was the medium of God's communication with man ; it is 

 therefore perfect, and consequently as a perfect language it must be 

 coextensive with all the objects of knowledge, and its several terms 

 are truly significant of the objects which they indicate, and not so 

 many arbitrary signs to represent them. Accordiogly Hutchinson, 

 after Origeu and others, laid great stress on the evidence of Hebrew 

 etymology, and asserted that the Scriptures are not to be understood 

 and interpreted in a literal, but in a typical sense, and according to 

 the radical import of the Hebrew expressions. By this plan of inter- 

 pretation, ho maintained that the Old Testament would be found not 

 only to testify fully to the nature and offices of Christ, but also to 

 contain a perfect system of natural philosophy. His editors give the 

 following compendium of the Hutchinsouian theory : " The Hebrew 

 scriptures nowhere ascribe motion to the body of the sun, nor fixed- 

 ness to the earth ; they describe the created system to be a plenum 

 without any vacuum, and reject the assistance of gravitation, attraction, 

 or any such occult qualities, for performing the stated operations of 

 nature, which are carried on by the mechanism of the heavens in 

 their threefold condition of fire, light, and spirit, or air, the material 

 agents set to work at the beginning: the heavens thus framed by 

 Almighty wisdom are an instituted emblem and visible, substitute of 

 Jehovah Aleim, the eternal three, the co-equal and co-adorable Trinity 

 in Unity : the uuity of substance in the heavens points out the unity 

 of essence, and the distinction of conditions the triune personality in 

 Deity, without confounding the persons, or dividing the substance. 

 And from their beiug made emblems they are called in Hebrew 

 Shemim, the names, representatives, or substitutes, expressing by 

 their names that they are emblems, aud by their conditions or offices 

 what it is they are emblems of." As aa instance of his etymological 

 interpretation, the word ' Berith,' which our translation renders Coven- 

 ant, Hutchinson construes to signify " he or that which purifies,' 1 aud 

 so the purifier or purification ' for,' not ' with,' man. From similar 

 etymologies he drew the conclusion " that all the rites and ceremonies 

 of the Jewish dispensation were so many delineations of Christ, iu 

 what he was to be, to do, and to suffer, and that the early Jews knew 

 them to be types of his actions and sufferings, and that by performing 

 them as such were in so far Christians both iu faith aud practice." 



A complete edition of the works of Hutchinson was published in 

 1748, entitled ' The Philosophical and Theological Works of the lato 

 truly learned John Hutchinson, Esq.,' 12 vols. 8vo. 



Hutcuinson's philological and exegetical views found numerous 

 followers, who without constituting a doctrinal sect came to be distin- 

 guished as ' Hutchiusonians.' In their number they reckoned several 

 distinguished divines iu England and Scotland, both of the Established 

 churcnes and of Dissenting communities. Among the most eminent 

 of these were Bishop Home and his biographer Mr. William Jones 

 Mr. Romaiue, and Mr. Julius Bates, to whom the Duke of Somerset 

 on the nomination of Mr. Hutchinson, presented the living of Suttou 

 in Sussex; Mr. Parkhurst, the lexicographer ; Dr. Hodges, provost of 

 Oriel ; and Dr. Wetherell, Master of University College, Oxford ; Mr. 

 Holloway, author of 'Letter and Spirit;' and Mr. Lee, author of 

 ' Sophron, or Nature's Characteristics of Truth." The principles of 

 Mr. Hutchinson are still entertained by many divines without their 

 professing to be followers of Mr. Hutchinson, but the number of 

 professing Hutchinsonians is now very small. 



HUTTON, CHARLES, was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyue on the 

 14th of August 1737. Ho was descended from a family in Westmor- 

 land which had the honour of beiug connected by marriage with that 

 of Sir Isaac Newton. His father, who was a superintendent of mines 

 gave his children such education as his circumstances would permit, 

 which did not extend beyond the ordinary branches, diaries, the 

 youngest of the sons, manifested at an early period an extraordinary 

 predilection for mathematical studies, and while yet at school he is 

 aaid to have made considerable progress with little or no aid from hig 



