STEWART. 



407 



political writer, was born at Edinburgh, Oct, 10, 

 1713. His father was solicitor general of Scotland. 

 After having been admitted to the bar, he travelled 

 on the continent live years, and formed an inti- 

 macy with the Pretender, whom he aided in his 

 attempt in 1745. On the failure of that attempt, 

 Stewart retired to France, and in 1755, to Flanders. 

 Kere he published a Vindication of Newton's Chron- 

 ology, a Treatise on German Coins, and a Disser- 

 tation on the Doctrine and Principles of Money. 

 He returned to Scotland in 1763, where he was 

 allowed to remain unmolested, and concluded his 

 Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy 

 a work of much research and acuteness, though the 

 style and method are imperfect. He obtained a 

 full pardon in 1771, and afterwards published vari- 

 ous works of a philosophical and politico-economi- 

 cal character. His complete works were published 

 in 1805 (in 6 vols., 8vo.). He died in 1780. 



STEWART, DUGALD, a celebrated metaphysi- 

 cal writer, was born in the college of Edinburgh, on 

 the 22nd of November, 1753, his father being pro- 

 fessor of mathematics in that university. At the 

 age of seven, he was sent to the High School, 

 where, having completed the customary course of 

 education at that seminary, he was entered as a 

 student at the college of Edinburgh. In 1771, he 

 removed to the university of Glasgow, in order to 

 attend the lectures of Dr Reid, who was then in 

 the zenith of his reputation. The progress which 

 he here made in metaphysical studies was great, and 

 it was here that he composed during the session, 

 his admirable Essay on Dreaming, which was after- 

 wards published in the first volume of the " Philo- 

 sophy of the Human mind." The declining state 

 of his father's health compelled him, in the autumn 

 of the following year, before he had reached the 

 age of nineteen, to undertake the task of teaching 

 the mathematical classes in the Edinburgh univer- 

 sity. As soon as he had completed his twenty-first 

 year, he was appointed assistant and successor to 

 his father, and in this capacity he continued to con- 

 duct the mathematical studies in the university till 

 his father's death, in the year 1785, when he was 

 nominated to the vacant chair. Although this con- 

 tinued, however, to be his ostensible situation in 

 the university, his avocations were more varied. 

 In the year 1778, during which Dr Adam Ferguson 

 accompanied the commissioners to America, he 

 undertook to supply his place in the moral philosophy 

 class ; a labour, which, although he came to it un- 

 prepared, he performed with the most distinguished 

 success. 



In the summer of 1783, he visited the continent 

 for the first time, having accompanied the late mar- 

 quis of Lothian to Paris ; on his return from whence, 

 in the autumn of the same year, he married Helen 

 Bannatyne, daughter of Neil Bannatyne, Esq., a 

 merchant in Glasgow, by whom he had one son. 

 In the year 1785, during which Dr Matthew 

 Stewart's death occurred, the health of Dr Fergu- 

 son rendered it expedient for him to discontinue 

 his official labours in the university, and he accord- 

 ingly effected an exchange of offices with Mr 

 Stewart, who was transferred to the class of moral 

 philosophy, while Dr Ferguson retired on the salary 

 of mathematical professor. In the year 1787, Mr 

 Stewart was deprived of his wife by death ; and, 

 the following summer, he again visited the conti- 

 nent, in company with the late Mr Ramsay of 

 Barnton. 



In 1790, after being three years a widower, he 



married Helen D'Arcy Cranstoun, a daughter of tfie 

 honourable Mr George Cranstoun, a union to which 

 he owed much of the subsequent happiness of his 

 life. In the year 1792, he first appeared before the 

 public as an author, at which time the first volume 

 of the Philosophy of the Human Mind was given 

 to the world. In 1793, he read before the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh, his account of the Life and 

 writings of Dr Adam Smith. In the course of this 

 year also, he published the Outlines of Moral Phi- 

 losophy ; a work which he used as a text book, and 

 which contained brief notices, for the use of his 

 students, of the subjects which formed the matter 

 of his academical prelections. In March, 1796, he 

 read before the Royal Society his account of the 

 Life and Writings of Dr Robertson, and in 1802, 

 that of the Life and Writings of Dr Reid. By 

 these publications alone, which were subsequently 

 combined in one volume, quarto, he continued to 

 be known as an author till the appearance of his 

 volume of Philosophical Essays in 1810. 



In the period which intervened between the pub- 

 lication of his first volume of the Philosophy of the 

 Human Mind, and the appearance of his Philoso- 

 phical Essays, he produced and prepared the matter 

 of all his other writings, with the exception of his 

 Dissertation on the Progress of Metaphysical and 

 Ethical philosophy, prefixed to the Supplement of 

 the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Independent of the 

 prosecution of those metaphysical inquiries, which 

 constitute the substance of his second and third 

 volumes of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, to 

 this epoch of his life are to be referred the specu- 

 lations in which he engaged with respect to the 

 science of political economy, the principles of which 

 he first embodied in a course of lectures, which, in 

 the year 1800, he added as a second course to the 

 lectures which formed the immediate subject of the 

 instruction previously delivered in the university 

 from the moral philosophy chair. So general and 

 extensive was his acquaintance with almost every 

 department of literature, and so readily did he ar- 

 range his ideas on any subject, with a view to their 

 communication to others, that his colleagues fre- 

 quently, in the event of illness or absence, availed 

 themselves of his assistance in the instruction of 

 their classes. In addition to his own academical 

 duties, he repeatedly supplied the place of Dr John 

 Robison, professor of natural philosophy. He taught 

 for several months during one winter the Greek 

 classes for the late Mr Dalzell : he more than one 

 season taught the mathematical classes for Mr Play- 

 fair: he delivered some lectures on logic during an 

 illness of Dr Finlayson : and, if we mistake not, he 

 one winter lectured for some time on belles lettres 

 for the successor of Dr Blair. 



In the year 1806, he accompanied his friend the 

 earl of Lauderdale on his mission to Paris ; and he 

 had thus an opportunity of renewing many of the 

 literary intimacies which he had formed in France 

 before the commencement of the revolution. On 

 the accession of the Whig administration in 1806 

 a sinecure office, that of gazette-writer for Scotland, 

 was erected for the express purpose of rewarding 

 Mr Stewart, who enjoyed with it a salary of 600 

 ti-year for the remainder of his life. Shortly after, 

 he relinquished the active duties of his chair in the 

 university, and removed to Kinneil House, a seat 

 belonging to the duke of Hamilton, on the banks 

 of the Frith of Forth, about twenty miles from 

 Edinburgh, where he spent the remainder of his 

 days in philosophical retirement. From this place 



