THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN ENGLAND. 



273 



to diffuse modern scientific knowledge. The great pub- 

 lishing firms of Edinburgh have also for more than a 

 century done much through Cyclopaedias, Eeviews, and 

 Magazines to spread general information of all kinds ; * 

 whilst Hume, Adam Smith, and the subsequent Scotch 

 school of metaphysicians have exerted their influence 

 during the whole of this century, not only in Great 

 Britain, but over the whole of Europe. 2 In the more 

 circumscribed domain of scientific thought a powerful 

 influence has again been exerted from Scotland as a 

 centre, and through the larger instrumentality of the 

 University of Cambridge, on the study of mathematical 

 and experimental physics, and what we may term the 

 spirit and method of these sciences. This influence be- 



1 The most popular Cyclopaedia, 

 that of Chambers, had its origin in 

 Edinburgh in 1860. It was founded 

 on the tenth edition of Brockhaus's 

 ' Conversations-Lexicon.' The more 

 important ' Encyclopaedia Britan- 

 nica ' was published there also in 

 1771, 3 vols. ; 2nd ed., 1777. The 

 ' Edinburgh Review ' was estab- 

 lished in 1802 by Jeffrey, Scott, 

 Homer, Brougham, and Sydney 

 Smith ; it was the first successful 

 " Quarterly," carried 011 independ- 

 ently of the booksellers, after 

 several unsuccessful attempts had 

 been made in a similar direction by 

 Adam Smith and Hugh Blair in 

 1755, and after Gilbert Stuart and 

 William Smellie had issued from 

 1773 to 1775 the ' Edinburgh Mag- 

 azine and Review.' No such peri- 

 odical ever attained to the circula- 

 tion of the ' Edinburgh Review,' of 

 which at one time 20,000 copies 

 were sold. The first high -class 

 monthly Magazine was also printed 

 in Edinburgh by Blackwood in 

 1817, with Scott, Lockhart, Hogg, 



VOL. I. 



Maginn, Syme, and John Wilson as 

 contributors. ' Tait's Edinburgh 

 Magazine* was the first shilling 

 magazine. The brothers William 

 and Robert Chambers, in 1832, 

 started the Journal named after 

 them. They also brought out many 

 popular works of sterling merit, 

 mostly written by Robert Cham- 

 bers, than whom none did more to 

 introduce a knowledge of nature 

 into popular reading, and to give a 

 healthy tone and moral influence 

 to the cheap literature which has 

 become such an important factor 

 in modern culture. 



2 Whilst Locke exercised the 

 greatest influence on French phil- 

 osophy, Kant starts more directly 

 from Hume. The literature of the 

 Restoration in France again at- 

 taches itself to the Scotch meta- 

 physicians, notably Reid. It is 

 interesting that both Kant and 

 the greatest representative of the 

 French "Ideology," De Tracy, were 

 of Scotch descent. 



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