B/Y the close of the century, the fathers and elder sons of the family have passed away from the scene; and we may be profited by taking a glance at the work they have done.The Scottish metaphysicians have had an influence on their country, partly by their writings, but still more by the instruction which they imparted in the colleges to numerous pupils, afterwards filling important offices in various walks of life, and scattered all over the land.Icannot do better here than quote from the chapter in which M.Cousin closes his criticism of Reid."By his excellencies as well as his defects, Reid represents Scotland in philosophy." "It would be impossible to write a history of Scotland in the last half of the eighteenth century, without meeting everywhere in the numerous and remarkable productions of the Scotch genius of this epoch, the noble spirit which that genius has excited, and which, in its turn, has communicated to it a new force.In face of the authority {268} of Hume, and despite the attacks of Priestley, the philosophy of common sense spread itself rapidly, from Aberdeen to Glasgow, and from Glasgow to Edinburgh; it penetrates into the universities, among the clergy, into the bar, among men of letters and men of the world; and, without producing a movement so vast as that of the German philosophy, it exercised an influence of the same kind within narrower limits." We have the testimony of a succession of eminent men, to the effect that the chairs of mental philosophy, taken along with the essay writing which the professors holding these chairs demanded, exercised a greater influence than any others in the colleges and sent forth a body of youths capable of thinking, and of expressing their thoughts in a clear and orderly manner.
From an old date, a reverence for the Roman law; and, at a later date, the judicial training of many youths in Holland had given a logical form to the pleadings at the Scottish bar, and the decisions of the bench: and now the philosophy widened the comprehension of the Edinburgh lawyers, and gave to their law papers a philosophical order scarcely to be found in those of England or Ireland. The Scottish philosophy never attempted, as the German philosophy did (greatly to the injury of religion), to absorb theology into itself; but keeping to its own field, that of inductive psychology, it allowed the students to follow their own convictions, evangelical or rationalistic, but training all to a habit of skilful arrangement and exposition.It enabled and it led the theological professors to dwell on the relation between the truths of God's Word, and the fundamental principles of human nature; to lay a {269} deep and solid foundation for moral principle, to impart a moral tone to their teaching in divinity, and to expound, clearly and wisely, the arguments for the existence of God and the immortality of the soul.In the pulpit, it produced a thoughtful style of address, of which English and Irish hearers were wont to complain, as requiring from them too great a strain of thought.It fostered a habit of reasoning and discussion among educated men generally; and, through the ministers of religion and the parochial teachers, -- not a few of whom were college bred, -- it descended to the common people as a general intelligence and independence of spirit.
On literature the influence of the Scottish has not been so great as that of the German philosophy; but still it has been considerable, and altogether beneficent.All the professors paid great attention to style: they weeded out their Scotticisms with excessive care not a few of them were teachers of rhetoric; they exacted essays on the subjects lectured on, and sent forth a body of pupils capable of writing clearly and easily.Every one who has read their writings notices a style common to the whole Aberdeen school: it consists of simple sentences without strength or genuine idiom, but always limpid, calm, and graceful.It is worthy of being mentioned that, in the last quarter of the century, Edinburgh had a distinguished literary circle:
embracing the historian Robertson; the preacher Blair;Mackenzie, the author of " The Man of Feeling; " such scientific men as Hutton, Black, Playfair, the Monros (father and son), and Cullen with the Gregories -- , and among them the metaphysicians, Hume, Smith, Ferguson, Monboddo, and Dugald Stewart, held a prominent place.
