360 
that he wrote ever with purpofes more 
liberal and benevolent, than were thofe 
which aétuated David's genius. His 
ftyle is contaminated with the impurities 
of thofe Jaw-papers which his profeffional 
duties obliged him to perufe; and the 
general texture of his compofition has 
fometimes not a little of ¢hezr carelefs 
loofeneis. 
Another refpeétable name is yet to be 
added to this lit of Homes, illuftrious 
in philofophy and literature: Dr. 
Francis Home, by experiments upon 
the application of chemiftry to the arts 
of bleaching and agriculiure, taught his 
countrymen to refpeét the refinements of 
abftrufe phyfical fcience, for the fake 
of thofe fervices which it was capable of 
performing, even to the groffeft and moft 
familiar of the arts. 
At Aberdeen and Glafgow, the {chools 
of Blackwell and Huichefon foon began to 
diftinguith themfelves by a variety of 
excellent produ€tions . Gerard wrote.a 
fine eflay on Genius ; Campbell, Reid, and 
Beaitie, eagerly advanced into the lifts, 
to combat the philofophical fcepticifm, 
and the theological infidelity of Hume. 
Burke, although an Irifhman, yet a Scot- 
tith ftudent, iffued from thofe academic 
recefles, in which he had liftened to the 
Socratic difcourfes of Hutchefon, to ex- 
plain to the world the pranciples of Beauty 
and Sublinuty, with a double portion of 
his mafter’s fpirit; to fhine in the 
fenate, by the difplay of eloquence often 
almoft as powerful, and commonly as- 
fruitlefs, as thofe eminent orations-in 
which Cicero arraigned Anthony, or de- 
fended Milo; to dazzle yet difguit man- 
kind, by a continual miftake of theory 
for icicnce, of prejudices for the cool de- 
cifions of well-informed judgment; to 
bemire, and almoft ftifle, in the foul fink 
of political intrigue, a mind that might 
have kindled up to brighter radiance the 
fan of human knowledge; or might 
have demonftrated, by anew and more 
illuftrious inftance, how furely, in com- 
parifon with the empire of genius, all 
other power and fplendour are deftined to 
fade away. 
AbAM SMITH, the pupil of the fame 
febool, exhibited in his Theory of Moral 
Sentiments, a owing eloquence, rich and 
claffical as thet of Burke’s only philofo- 
phical treatife ; a fyftem widely remote 
from {cientific truth ; a fical endeavour 
to adhere rigoroufly to the azalylical me- 
thod of inveftigation and arrangement, in 
preference to the fynthetic, by which his 
whole doéirine has been rendered need- 
Progrefs of Literature'in Scotland. 
_[Nov. 
lefsly obfcure; but many ineftimable 
-beauties in the illuftrations and the epi- 
fodical deduétions which fill up the fub- 
ordinate parts of the work. It was not 
till at the end of many years afterwards, 
that the. fame illnftous philofopher ex- 
plained, in his’ great work ‘on the 
WEALTH of NaTIONS, what it is that 
truly conftitutes the wealth of men in 
fociety,—what are the fprings and ener- 
gies, by the unceafing aétivity of which 
this wealth is produced,—by what means 
the ftrencth of thefe energies may be 
ftill invigorated, and their elafticity im- 
proved,—what cares may beft accumu- 
latey and yet beneficently diffufe, this 
wealth, for the general advantage of 
mankind 2” 
Even in this work, Smith was rather 
the intelligent and perfpicuous inter- 
preter of Sir Fames Stewart Denbam, and 
of the French a@conomiffes, than himfelf 
a great difcoverer in philofophy. He 
has erred more in laying his founda-- 
tions, than in rearing the fuperftruéture. 
After critical juftice fhall have detracted 
from Smith’s praife, as a philofopher and 
a fine writer, whatever deduétions may 
be truly neceffary, it muft ftill probably be 
allowed, that his two different works, on 
the origin of our Moral Sentimenis, and, 
on the Wealth of Nations, are, in {cience 
and in conrpofition, among the moft per- 
feét which have been, in any age, pro~ 
duced. 
Millar, another confpicuous ornantent 
of the univerfity of Glafgow, has long 
diftinguithed him(elf by ailying, in his 
le&tures, the ftudy of jurifprudence to 
philofophy, to polite literature, to hiftory, 
Ina manner fill more remarkable, than 
that in which the fame thing was done 
by the illuftrious Vizaizs of Holland. — 
The works of the fame eminent profeffor, 
upon the Dij/iinétion of Ranks, and the 
Englifb.Confiitution, are two productions 
of uncommon excellence, in the philofo- 
phy of jurifprudence, and in political 
hiftory.. The eloquent effay of Fergu/ox 
of Edinburgh, and thofe of Dunbar of 
Aberdeen, upon kindred fubjeéts, ftill 
continue ‘to be read, with much of that 
approbation and applaufe which they ob- 
tained at their fir appearance. | 
SMOLLET, in hiftory real and fiéti- 
tious, in criticifm, in political contro- 
verfy, in epiftolary narrative, in poefy, 
one of the mof diftinguifhed names in — 
Britith literature, is to be proudly — 
ranked among the great Scotfmen of this — 
period. Campbell, a writer, unwearied, 
of univerfal knowledge, flowing, perfpi- 
. eueus, 
