120 
PHILOSOPHY. 
the import of general terms; above all, whatever tends to 
embody in popular forms of expreffion the ideas and feel¬ 
ings of the wife and good, augments the natural powers of 
the human underfunding, and enables the fucceeding race 
to dart from a higher ground than was occupied by their 
fathers. The remark applies with peculiar force to the fludy 
of the Mind itfelf, a fludy where the chief fource of error 
is t lie imperfeClion of words; and where every improvement 
on this great infirument of thought may bejufly regarded in 
the light of a difcovery .” This elaborate work teems with 
fitnilar paffages, all (flowing how highly he eftimated the 
Philofophy of Mind. I had therefore formed great ex¬ 
pectations of Mr. Stewart’s defire to have thefe principles 
of Kant brought to the tribunal of the Edinburgh uni- 
verfity, of which he is a member, as they would form an 
admirable exercife for the young (Indent in philofophy. 
I did not, I confefs, expeCl much from himfelf with re¬ 
gard to a critical examination of them : for, as I have 
elfewhere dated, “ It would be difficult to explain how 
it could happen that fo well-informed a mind as Mr. 
Stewart’s fliould overlook the vaft and important difco- 
veries in the field of Metaphyfics, were it not well known, 
that the mind once exercifed for a confiderable length of 
time in a uniform train of thoughts, will not allow itfelf 
eafily to alter its bias.” I however flill clung to the pof- 
fibility of this elegant fcholar’s inviting the learned to an 
examination of Kant’s fyflem, when I fell upon paffages 
fimilar to this; (page 54. of the DifTertation before al¬ 
luded to.) “ It would be endlefs to particularize the 
original fuggeflions thrown out by Bacon on topics con¬ 
nected with the fcicnce of Mind. The few paffages of this 
fort already quoted are produced merely as a fpecimen of 
the reft, as I thought them likely to invite the curiofity of my 
readers to a careful examination of the rich mine from which 
they are extruded .” Whatever he found interefting, and 
likely to advance the fcience of Mind, he has been mod 
careful to point onat, in order to benefit and improve his 
favourite fcience. Had I not therefore good ground to 
hope that feme of the fundamental pofitions of Kant’s 
Philofophy might be fubjeCted to a fevere and impartial 
examination, in confequence of the recommendation of 
this member of the Scotch univerfity ? The effect of this 
philofophy among a people learned, laborious, and devoted 
to fpeculative fludies, has been without a parallel fince 
the revival of letters in Europe. So universal and com¬ 
plete has been its authority, that in the forty univerfities 
of Germany there is not a metaphyfical text-book in aca¬ 
demical ufe of a date prior to the publication of the 
“ Critic of Pure Reafon .” 
I know of no advantage that can be derived from Mr. 
Stewart’s DifTertation, which he denominates Hiforical 
and Critical, if it does not direct the attention of thofe 
who engage in the fludy of Metaphyfics, Ethics, &c. to 
the proper fources of information, fo as to enable them 
to perfect their own fyflems. Strongly imprefled with 
this idea, when I was occupied with the article Meta¬ 
physics for the Encyclopaedia Londinenfis, I availed 
myfelf of that opportunity to exprefs my fentiments on 
this fubjeCl to Mr. Stewart. “ What an opportunity now 
occurs for this eminent writer to immortalize himfelf! 
It is certainly a great glory to England, that Hume 
(truck the firfl fpark of that light which has blazed out 
with fo much brilliancy in Germany, from this new Phi¬ 
lofophy ! And, fliould Mr. Dugald Stewart fo far lend 
his high authority as merely to recommend its invefliga- 
tion with the view of afeertaining its merits, and not to 
induce the blind adoption of it; what benefit might not 
arife to mankind, and what additional glory to Britain ! 
For of this I ant pofitively certain, that Kant’s great 
work, the Critic of Pure Reason, needs only to be 
fludied in order to be completely underflood and finally 
adopted. And I can alfo affirm, with fincere truth, that 
no more (kill, application, or ability, is requifite to effeCt 
this purpofe, than is neceffary for an ordinary courfe of 
the mathematics. I mufl confefs that a ray of hope darts 
on my mind, at the perufal of the following paflage of the 
elaborate and arduous undertaking of this refined fcholar, 
the DifTertation before alluded to, page 128. ‘ And fo 
much for the French philofophy of the feventeenth cen¬ 
tury. The extracts lafl quoted forewarn us, that we are 
fad approaching to a new era in the hiftory of the Human 
Mind. The glow-worm ’gins to pale his ineffectual fire; 
and we J'cent the morning air of the coming day. This era 
I propofe to date from the publications of Locke and of 
Leibnitz; but the remarks which I have to offer on their 
writings, and on thofe of their mod diftinguifhed fuc- 
cefTors, I referve for the Second Part of this Difcourfe.’ 
Who can pretend to predict what influence this bright 
dar of the north of Britain may not died upon the phi¬ 
lofophy of Kant, the mod enlightened, diftinguifhed, and 
illuflrious, fuccefTor of Locke and Leibnitz; and the great 
luminary of the eighteenth century, vvhofe labours, like 
thofe of Copernicus, have rifen never again to fet !” 
Deeply imprefTed with thefe fentiments, and filled with 
the fanguine hope that Tome of my expectations might be 
realized, in the year 1821 I beheld the work which was to 
fulfil or to deftroy my hopes of an immediate promulga¬ 
tion of the fcience to the careful examination of which I 
had devoted great part of my life. The reader mayjudge 
then of the eagernefs with which I flew to the perufal of 
this long-looked-for DifTertation, and with what hade I 
turned from fe&ion to feClion, until my eye was arrefted 
at SeClion VII. bearing the following title, “ Kant and other 
Meiapliyficians of the new German fchool ;” there I was to 
find all my hopes realized or difappointed. This feCtion 
then I read with great attention. The fentiments pro¬ 
duced in my mind by the firft perufal were indeed not very 
flattering to my hopes that this finifhed fcholar had any¬ 
where recommended a critical examination of the works 
of my favourite author. I proceeded however to re-perufe 
not only that feClion, but the copious notes at the bottom 
of its pages, as well as thofe affixed to the end of the 
work, in the hope of finding that the favourite of my 
adoption might fomewhere have received the attention 
due to his merits. I confefs I did expeCl to find that an 
author who had devoted fo much time to the Anulyfis of 
the Mental Powers would have given proof of his fincerity 
in this undertaking by caufing Tome of the fundamental 
pofitions of the Critical Philofophy to be critically ex¬ 
amined through the medium of his influence in the Uni- 
verfity of Edinburgh, in order to determine whether it be 
entitled or rot to the high epithet of Critical-, more par¬ 
ticularly as he fpeaks (Part II. page 10.) of the liberal 
confitution of the univerfities in Scoiland as being peculiarly 
favourable to the diffujion of a free and ecledicJpirit of en¬ 
quiry. This remark perfuaded me that my application 
for an impartial inveftigation was made to the right 
quarter. It relieved me at the fame time from the im- 
preffion that the Scottifh univerfities might be liable, like 
mod others, to the complaint of Mr. Smith, (DifTertation, 
Part I. 'page 135.) “that the greater part of univerfities 
have not been very forward to adopt improvements after 
they were made ; and that feveral of thofe learned focieties 
have chofen to remain, for a long time, the fanCluaries in 
which exploded fyftems found fhelterand protection after 
they had been hunted out of every corner of the world.” 
Mr. Stewart certainly evinces great liberality of fenti- 
ment in purfuing the ftudy of the Mind, as is .evident 
from the following paflage in the firft part of his DifTer¬ 
tation, page 9, where he fays : “In ftudying the Theory 
of the Mind, it is neceffary to pufh our analyfis as far as 
the nature of the fubjeCt admits of; and, wherever the 
thing is poffible, to examine its conftituenl principlesJepa- 
rately and apart from each other-," and in page 16 he pro¬ 
ceeds thus : “ When an inveterate prejudice is deftroyed 
by extirpating the cafual afTociations on which it was 
grafted, how powerful is the new impulfe given to the 
intellectual faculties of man ! Yet how flow and filenc 
the procefs by which the efFeCl is accompliflied ! Were 
it not indeed for a certain clafs of learned authors, who, 
from 
