184 Philosophy of the Human Alind. [Chap. XII. 



Since the publication of Dr. Raid's philosophy, 

 it has been espoused and defended by several di- 

 stinguished metaphysicians, especially in Great 

 Britain. Among the most able of these is Dr. 

 Dugald Stewart, professor of moral philosophy in 

 the university of Edinburgh. It was before re- 

 marked, that Dr. Eeid, after demolishing the doc- 

 trines of his predecessors, and laying the founda- 

 tion of a new system, forbore to undertake the erec- 

 tion of an improved superstructure on this basis. 

 Professor Stewart, though far from having, in his 

 own estimation, completed such a superstructure, 

 is yet considered as having done something towards 

 it, and as having rendered substantial service to 

 the philosophy of mind. He has carried some of 

 his doctrines to a greater length than they were 

 carried by his great predecessor, and in some im- 

 portant particulars he dissents from that able pneu- 

 matologist *. 



The principles of Dr. Reid have also been adopt- 

 ed, and perspicuously displayed by Dr. Beattie, in 



The late Dr. Witherspoon, president of the college of New Jer- 

 sey, whose vigour and originality of mind are generally known, 

 once informed a friend that tlie first publication in Great Britain 

 in which Reid's leading doctrine was suggested, and in a degree 

 developed, was an Essay written by himself, and published in a 

 Scottish magazine, some years before Dr. Reid wrote on the sub- 

 ject. Those who are acquainted with the talents of the illustri- 

 ous president, and who know how remote his disposition was from 

 that vanity and arrogance which prompt men to make false pre- 

 tensions, will probably, without hesitation, accredit his claim. 



* It is not easy, in this place, to point out the particulars in 

 which Dr. Stewart differs from Dr. Reid. The reader will re- 

 ceive satisfactory information on this subject by looking into those 

 chapters in Stewart's Elements of the Philosoplnj of the Mhid, "which 

 treat of Conception, Abstraction, and Association. 



