Philosophy of the Human Mind. 1 3 



same, raid announced it in his " First Truths" as 

 the only ground that could be taken in order to 

 combat successfully Des Cartes, Malebranche, 

 and Locke. It must be owned, indeed, that Bufh 

 fier does not always speak of this faculty or power 

 in man in precisely the same terms with Dr. 

 Reid and his followers, nor can their different ac- 

 counts of the subject be in every case fully re- 

 conciled; yet there is doubtless such a similarity 

 between the ideas of the learned Jesuit and those 

 of the celebrated British Divine, that the merit of 

 ity can hardly be yielded to the latter. To 



originali 



Dr. Reid, however, and some contemporary phi- 

 losophers, the honour undoubtedly belongs, of 

 having more fully explained the grand principle 

 upon which their system turns; of having ex- 

 tended its application; and of having deduced its 

 consequences in a more explicit and systematic 

 manner/ 



Since the publication of Dr. Reid's philosophy, 

 it has been espoused and defended by several dis- 



g See First Truths, &c. translated from the French of Pere Buffier 

 by an anonymous hand, 8vo. London, 1780. The translator of this work, 

 in a long prefatory discourse, endeavours to fasten the charges of Plagia- 

 rism, Concealment, and Ingratitude on Drs. Reid, Beattie, and Oswald, 

 with a degree of zeal, acrimony, and contemptuous sneer, by no means 

 honourable to himself. He represents them as indebted to Buffier for the 

 substance of all they have written. Whoever this violent assailant is, he 

 certainly does them injustice. To exculpate those gentlemen wholly from 

 the charge of Plagiarism would not, perhaps, be easy ; but to push the charge 

 so far as he does, and especially to treat their general character and merits 

 as he permits himself to do, cannot fail to disgust every candid reader. 

 After all that he has advanced concerning Pere Buffier, the impartial 

 inquirer will find such a degree of originality in the works of the celebrated 

 Scottish metaphysicians, especially those of Dr. Reid, as ought to secure to 

 them a high and lasting reputation. 



The late Dr. Wituerspoon, President of the College of New- Jersey, 

 whose vigour and originality of mind are generally known, once informed 

 ^ friend, that the first publication in Great-Britain in which Reid's lead- 

 ing doctrine was suggested, and in a degree developed, was an Essay written 

 hy himself, and published in a Scottish magazine, some years before Dr. 

 Reid wrote on the subject. Those who are acquainted with the talents of 

 the illustrious President, and who know how remote his disposition was 

 from that vanity and arrogance which prompt men to make false preten- 

 sions, will probably, without hesitation, accredit bis claim. 



