,,thomas ,,reid          ,,famous       
,,scots ,,series    ,the following      
,volumes are now ready3--               
,,thomas ,,carlyle4 ,by ,,hector ,c4    
,,macpherson4      ,,allan ,,ramsay4 ,by
 ,,oliphant ,,smeaton4      ,,hugh      
,,miller4 ,by ,w4 ,,keith ,,leask4      
,,john ,,knox4 ,by ,a4 ,,taylor ,,innes4
      ,,robert ,,burns4 ,by ,,gabriel   
,,setoun4      ,,the ,,balladists4 ,by  
,,john ,,geddie4      ,,richard         
,,cameron4 ,by ,professor ,,herkless4   
,,sir ,,james ,y4 ,,simpson4 ,by ,,eve  
,,blantyre ,,simpson4      ,,thomas     
,,chalmers4 ,by ,professor ,w4 ,,garden 
,,blaikie4      ,,james ,,boswell4 ,by  
,w4 ,,keith ,,leask4      ,,tobias      
,,smollett4 ,by ,,oliphant ,,smeaton4   
,,fletcher ,,of ,,saltoun4 ,by ,g4 ,w4  
,t4 ,,omond4      ,,the ,,blackwood     
,,group4 ,by ,sir ,,george ,,douglas4   
,,norman ,,macleod4 ,by ,,john          
,,wellwood4      ,,sir ,,walter ,,scott4
 ,by ,professor ,,saintsbury4           
,,kirkcaldy ,,of ,,grange4 ,by ,,louis  

,a4 ,,barb4      ,,robert ,,fergusson4  
,by ,a4 ,b4 ,,grosart4      ,,james     
,,thomson4 ,by ,,william ,,bayne4       
,,mungo ,,park4 ,by ,t4 ,,banks         
,,maclachlan4      ,,david ,,hume4 ,by  
,professor ,,calderwood4      ,,thomas  
,,reid4 ,by ,professor ,,campbell       
,,fraser4          ,illustration3       
,,thomas      ,,reid        ,,by        
,a3,,campbell      ,,fraser 33          
,,famous      ,,scots3      ,,series    
,,published ,,by      ,,oliphant        
,,anderson       ,,ferrier  ,,edinbvrgh 
,,and ,,london            ,the designs  
and ornaments of this volume are by ,mr4
 ,joseph ,brown1 and the  printing from 
the press of ,messrs4 ,t4 and ,a4       
,constable1 ,edinburgh4                 
,,preface      ,this little book is an  
attempt to present ,reid in a fresh     
light1 and in  his relations to         
present-day thought4 ,it deals with the 
,scottish chapter  in that enduring     
alternation between agnostic despair and
 endeavour  after perfect insight which 

seems to be a law of the philosophic    
progress of mankind4 ,thomas ,reid1     
home-bred and self-contained1 is the    
national representative1 in the         
eighteenth century1 of the via media    
between these extremes4 ,in the         
concluding chapter ,i have looked at the
  philosophical appeal to inspired data 
of ,common ,sense1 in the wider light   
of the theistic philosophy of the       
universe1 and not merely as part of an  
inductive science of the human mind4    
,this connects the theistic postulate   
of spiritual reason1 as the foundation  
of human experience1 with ,reid's       
appeal to the ultimate but often dormant
 necessities of human nature1 a  subject
 treated more fully in my ,philosophy of
 ,theism 7#ahif74    ,for valuable      
unpublished material--more indeed than  
,i could avail  myself of within narrow 
limits--,i am indebted to ,miss ,hilda  
,paterson1  the guardian of manuscript  
remains and other relics of her         
ancestor1  preserved at ,birkwood1 in   

,reid's native country of the ,dee4 ,i  
also owe  much to ,mr4 ,r4 ,s4 ,rait1   
now of ,new ,college1 ,oxford1 the      
historian of the  ,universities of      
,aberdeen1 whose research has done much 
to illustrate  his alma mater in the    
,north4 ,and ,i am indebted to ,dr4     
,davidson1 the  ,professor of ,logic1   
and to ,mr4 ,anderson1 the ,librarian1  
of the ,university  of ,aberdeen1 for   
documents to which the space at my      
disposal forbids more  than an          
occasional reference4    ,those who     
desire to study further the chapter in  
the history of ,european  philosophy in 
which ,reid's name is prominent1 may be 
referred to  ,cousin's critical         
appreciation in his ,philosophie        
cossaise 7#aheg71  and to ,professor    
,andrew ,seth's ,balfour ,lectures on   
#8,scottish ,philosophy'  7#ahhe71 in   
which the ,scottish and ,german answers 
to ,hume are compared4  ,the industry of
 the late ,dr4 ,m',cosh has collected1  
in his ,scottish  ,philosophy 7#ahge71  

interesting particulars regarding our   
national  philosophers from ,hutcheson  
to ,hamilton4                           
,a4 ,c4 ,f4    ,,university ,,of        
,,edinburgh1 #bast ,february #ahih4     
,,contents                              
,,page                                  
,,chapter ,i      ,,boyhood ,,and       
,,ancestry3 ,,strachan ,,and ,,the      
,,valley ,,of ,,the ,,dee1 #agaj-agbb   
#i                                      
,,chapter ,,ii      ,,at ,,marischal    
,,college1 #agbb-agcg                   
#ah                                     
,,chapter ,,iii      ,,new ,,machar     
,,and ,,david ,,hume1 #agcg-agea        
#cj                                     
,,chapter ,,iv      ,,old ,,aberdeen3 ,a
 ,,regent ,,in ,,king',s ,,college1     
#agea-agfd                   #dc        
,,chapter ,v      ,,universal           
,,scepticism ,,versus ,,inspired        
,,common ,,sense3 ,,an #8,,inquiry      
,,into ,,the ,,human ,,mind ,,on ,,the  
,,principles ,,of ,,common ,,sense1'    

#agfd        #ef                        
,,chapter ,,vi      ,,glasgow ,,college3
 ,,the ,,professor ,,of ,,moral         
,,philosophy1 #agfd-aghj         #gb    
,,chapter ,,vii      ,,in               
,,philosophical ,,retirement3           
,,authorship ,,in ,,old ,,age1          
#aghj-agie        #ajc                  
,,chapter ,,viii      ,,inspired        
,,common ,,sense ,,and ,,causation3     
,,active ,,or ,,moral ,,power ,,in ,,man
    #aah                                
,,chapter ,,ix      ,,the ,,end1 #agif  
#abf                                    
,,chapter ,x      ,,retrospective ,,and 
,,critical                              
#acc                                    
,,chapter ,,xi      ,,reid ,,in ,,the   
,,nineteenth ,,century3 ,,development   
,,of ,,the ,,common ,,sense             
,,philosophy3 ,,reid ,,in ,,france3     
,,reid ,,and ,,hamilton3 ,,reid ,,and   
,,scoto-,,hegelian ,,idealism3 ,,ethical
 ,,or ,,theistic ,,final ,,faith        
#add          ,,thomas ,,reid           

,,chapter ,i    ,,boyhood ,,and         
,,ancestry3 ,,strachan ,,and ,,the      
,,valley ,,of ,,the ,,dee    #agaj-agbb 
,thomas ,reid makes his first appearance
 as a boy in the manse of ,strachan  in 
,kincardineshire1 where he entered this 
world of sense on the #bfth of  ,april  
#agaj4 ,his father1 the ,rev4 ,lewis    
,reid1 was minister of the parish  for  
fifty-eight years1 from #agjd until his 
death in #agfb4 ,the mother1  ,margaret 
,gregory1 was the eldest daughter1 by   
his second marriage1 of  ,david         
,gregory1 laird of ,kinairdy in         
,banffshire4 ,an elder son1 ,david1     
born in #agje1 and two daughters1       
,isobel and ,jane1 with ,thomas1 formed 
the family at the manse when ,thomas was
 a boy4 ,david was twice married1  and  
died about #aghj1 without issue2 the    
elder daughter1 ,isobel1 died           
unmarried1 in her stepmother's house at 
,aberdeen1 in #aggj2 and the  younger1  
,jane1 after a msalliance1 died without 
issue after the middle  of the century4 

,their mother1 ,margaret ,gregory1 died 
in #agcb1 when the  manse was still the 
home of ,thomas4 ,in #agce1 ,mr4 ,lewis 
,reid married his  second wife1 ,janet1 
daughter of ,fraser of ,phopachy in the 
county of  ,inverness4 ,two sons and    
five daughters were the issue of the    
second  marriage4 ,the eldest son died  
when a student at ,marischal ,college1  
in  #ageh1 and the younger1 who studied 
medicine1 died in ,london about ten     
years later4 ,of the daughters1 one died
 in infancy1 and two others1  ,elizabeth
 and ,mary1 died unmarried--the former  
in ,edinburgh in #aggb1  and the latter 
in ,aberdeen in #agga4 ,of the other    
two1 ,margaret became  in #agfc the wife
 of the ,rev4 ,alexander ,leslie1       
minister of ,fordoun in                 
,kincardineshire1 and ,grace married the
 ,rev4 ,john ,rose1 minister of ,udny   
in ,aberdeenshire4 ,mrs4 ,rose died in  
#agic1 and ,mrs4 ,leslie in #ahbi1 the  
last survivor of the ,reid family circle
 at ,strachan4#a    ,it is recorded of  

the father of this large family that he 
was respected  for piety1 prudence1 and 
benevolence1 inheriting from his        
ancestors  simplicity of manners1 and   
literary tastes which1 without          
attracting the  notice of the world1    
engaged his leisure and dignified his   
rural life4 ,of  the two wives1 the     
second survived her stepson1 the        
philosopher4    ,the remote parish of   
,strachan is formed by the romantic     
valley  through which the ,feugh finds  
its way from the ,grampians to the ,dee 
at ,banchory-,ternan--a breezy upland   
region1 redolent of heather and         
bog-myrtle1 apt in its solitude to      
educate reflective individuality in  one
 so disposed4 ,in those days the road to
 the south over the ,cairn o'  ,mount   
passed through ,glen ,dye1 under the    
shadow of ,clochnaben1 a road  two      
centuries ago frequented by robbers1 and
 invested with a halo of  romance by    
tales of marvellous adventures4 ,but    
,glen ,dye has an interest  of another  

kind4 ,centuries ago it was the home and
 property of the family  of ,cant1 from 
whom ,andrew ,cant1 the noted           
,covenanting preacher1 was  descended1#b
 and with whom the more widely          
celebrated ,immanuel ,kant1  chief      
factor in the philosophical thought of  
modern ,europe1 claimed  connection4    
,strachan is thus associated in         
imagination with two of  the most       
illustrious thinkers of the eighteenth  
century4 ,thomas ,reid  is in this way  
connected locally with his famous       
,german philosophical  contemporary1 as 
well as by parallels in their lives     
which appear in the  sequel1 and by     
spiritual analogies in their philosophy4
 ,they are moreover  united by their    
common antagonism to the scepticism of  
,david ,hume1 who  also through them is 
associated with the moorland valley of  
the ,feugh1  making it suggest to fancy 
three memorable intellectual figures4   
,in  ,scotland ,david ,hume and ,thomas 
,reid are the two greatest names of     

their  century in philosophy4           
,imagination is our only guide when we  
try to picture the boyhood of  ,thomas  
,reid in the homely surroundings at     
,strachan4 ,the one recorded fact  about
 him is1 that in his tenth year the home
 education of the manse  was followed by
 two years spent in the neighbouring    
parish school of  ,kincardine ,o',neil4 
,thus far no signal signs of future     
eminence appeared4  ,he was1 it seems1  
an unprecocious youth1 remarked for     
modesty and patient  industry4 ,the     
insight of the schoolmaster is said to  
have found in him  the rudiments of a   
man of #8good and well-wearing parts4'  
,i wish that some  further record could 
be found of this sagacious prophet of   
his pupil's  steady mental              
concentration1 and ,i have not          
discovered why the boy was  placed in   
the ,kincardine school4 ,this dim       
picture is our only one in the  first   
twelve years of his life4    ,the lack  
of personal incident in those years is  

in a manner compensated  by the interest
 of an illustrious ancestry--,reids and 
,gregories4 ,he  inherited mind through 
his father1 but much more through his   
mother1  with whom he shared the unique 
celebrity of a family which in          
successive  generations shed lustre on  
the valley of the ,dee--a memorable     
example of  inherited intellect4        
99       99       99       99       99  
,in the end of the fourteenth century   
certain lands of ,pitfodels1  between   
the bridge of ,dee at ,aberdeen and the 
,den of ,cults1 became the  property of 
,william ,reid1 a kinsman of the former 
owner1 ,alexander  ,moray1 #8lord of    
,culboyne4' ,the lands remained in the  
,reid family  until the beginning of the
 sixteenth century1 when ,marion1       
heiress  of ,alexander1 the last ,reid  
of ,pitfodels1 married ,thomas1 the     
eldest  son of ,gilbert ,menzies1 a     
burgess of ,aberdeen1 whose family was  
known  thereafter for three centuries as
 ,menzies of ,pitfodels4 ,james ,reid1  

the first minister of ,banchory-,ternan 
after the ,reformation1 was1 it  seems1 
grandson of a younger brother of this   
,alexander of ,pitfodels2  and ,lewis   
,reid1 the minister of ,strachan1 was in
 direct descent from  the minister of   
,banchory4 ,it is told of ,james ,reid  
that he was #8a man  of notable         
head-piece for witte1 and the most of   
his children were men  of extraordinary 
qualifications4' ,his eldest son1       
,robert1 noted for  good sense1         
succeeded him at ,banchory4 ,the second 
son1 ,thomas1 was one  of the numerous  
,scots famed for learning1 who migrated 
to the ,continent  in the end of the    
fifteenth century and after4 ,he was    
educated partly  at ,marischal ,college1
 ,aberdeen1 where he was made regent    
about #afjb4  ,he was afterwards in     
residence at ,oxford and abroad3 he     
defended a  thesis #8,de objecto        
,metaphysic' at ,rostock in #afaj4      
,after his return  to ,britain he became
 ,greek and ,latin ,secretary to ,king  

,james1 some of  whose works he         
translated into ,latin4 ,verses of his  
may be found in the  #8,deliti ,poetarum
 ,scotorum4' ,alexander1 the next       
brother1 was physician  to ,charles ,i41
 and author of works in physiology well 
considered at  that time4 ,john1 a      
brother of the minister of ,banchory1   
translated  into #8the ,scottishe tunge'
 ,buchanan's ,history of ,scotland1 and 
this  unpublished version is in the     
,college of ,glasgow4 ,a second ,robert1
  grandson of the eldest of these four  
sons1 became minister of ,banchory  at  
the ,restoration2 he was a member of the
 first ,episcopal ,synod at  ,aberdeen  
in the restored ,establishment 7the     
,covenanting ,alexander ,cant  was his  
immediate predecessor72 he died in      
#afhb4 ,thomas1 the second son1         
#8wadsetter of ,eslie in ,banchorie1'   
was father of the ,rev4 ,lewis ,reid of 
,strachan1 by his wife1 ,jane1 a niece  
of ,sir ,thomas ,burnett of ,leys2 and  
thus young ,thomas ,reid at ,strachan   

was related to the family from which    
the historian ,bishop ,burnet was       
descended4 ,these ,reids of ,banchory   
rest  in the old burial-ground there1   
#8not farre from the banke of the river 
,dee1 expecting the general             
resurrection1 and the glorious appearing
 of  ,jesus ,christ there ,redemier4'   
,but the ,gregory connection of ,thomas 
,reid through his mother is1 as ,i  have
 said1 more significant than the ,reid  
succession4 ,during the ,civil  ,wars of
 the seventeenth century1 the minister  
of the rural parish of  ,drumoak1 on the
 north side of the ,dee1 between        
,banchory and ,pitfodels1  was the ,rev4
 ,john ,gregory1 son of an ,aberdeen    
merchant1 whose father was  a ,m',gregor
 from ,glenlyon4 ,the ,gregories of     
,deeside were thus descendants  of the  
clan ,gregor of ,glenlyon and           
,glenstrae1 a circumstance referred  to 
by ,sir ,walter ,scott in the           
,introduction to ,rob ,roy4 ,the        
minister  of ,drumoak married a lady    

named ,anderson1 one of a family reputed
 for  mathematical ability in successive
 generations4 ,she inherited the genius 
of her family1 and transmitted it to her
 sons4 ,her husband at ,drumoak  seems  
to have steered his cause skilfully in  
that troubled time1 for he  bought the  
good estate of ,kinairdy1 part of the   
heritage of the lordly  house of        
,creighton ,viscount ,frendraught4      
,alexander1 the eldest son of the  ,rev4
 ,john ,gregory of ,kinairdy1 was killed
 by one of the ,creightons in a  fray in
 #affc1 and the homicide was the        
occasion of a cause clbre4  ,david1 the 
second son1 succeeded his murdered      
brother in the lands of  ,kinairdy1 and 
shared in the mathematical inheritance  
of the ,gregories4  ,for some reason he 
sold ,kinairdy and became an energetic  
merchant1  spending part of his life in 
,holland4 ,this ,david of ,kinairdy was 
twice  married1 and father of           
twenty-nine children1 which perhaps     
explains the  sale4 ,the wife of the    

,rev4 ,lewis ,reid of ,strachan was a   
daughter of  the second marriage4 ,three
 of her brothers were eminent           
,professors of  ,mathematics in ,british
 ,universities--namely1 ,david1 first at
 ,edinburgh1  and then at ,oxford1 the  
friend of ,newton2 ,james1 the successor
 of ,david  in ,edinburgh2 and ,charles1
 who professed mathematics at ,st4      
,andrews4  ,david's son was ,professor  
of ,history at ,oxford from #agbd till  
#agfg1 and  ,dean of ,christ ,church2   
and his cousin ,david succeeded to the  
chair of  ,mathematics at ,st4 ,andrews4
 ,two other ,professors were sons of two
 of  #8,kinairdy's' daughters--namely1  
our ,thomas ,reid1 and ,alexander       
,innes1  who professed ,philosophy in   
,marischal ,college4 ,these all traced  
their  birth to the minister of ,drumoak
 and his mathematical wife--through     
their son ,david4 ,but ,james1 the third
 son of the ,drumoak manse1 was not     
less illustrious in himself and in his  
descendants4 ,he was ,professor  of     

,mathematics1 first at ,st4 ,andrews and
 then at ,edinburgh1 inventor  of the   
reflecting telescope1 also ,newton's    
friend and correspondent1  who          
introduced the science of ,newton into  
the ,universities of ,scotland4  ,it is 
of him that ,whiston writes from        
,cambridge3--#8,he had already  caused  
several of his students to keep acts    
upon several branches of  the ,newtonian
 philosophy2 while we at ,cambridge1    
poor wretches1 were  ignominiously      
studying the fictitious hypotheses of   
the ,cartesian4'  ,his son ,james became
 in #agbe ,professor of ,medicine in    
,king's ,college1  ,aberdeen1 a         
considerable local figure4 ,he had two  
sons3 ,james1 who  succeeded his father1
 and ,john1 a regent of philosophy in   
his father's  college1 afterwards       
,professor of ,medicine in ,edinburgh1  
and remembered  as the author of ,a     
,comparative ,view of ,man and the      
,animal ,world1 and  ,a ,father's       
,legacy1 books full of good sense4 ,dr4 

,john ,gregory's son1  ,james1 was      
,professor of ,medicine in ,edinburgh   
from #aggf till #ahba1 a  physician and 
a metaphysician--in the sequel1 the     
intimate friend and  correspondent of   
,thomas ,reid1 and the patron of ,thomas
 ,brown4 ,of his  family1 one son held  
the ,chair of ,chemistry in ,king's     
,college1 and  afterwards in ,edinburgh 
till his death in #aheh2 another1       
,donald1 was an  eminent archologist1   
author of the ,history of the ,western  
,highlands  and ,islands2 a third died  
in high mathematical repute at          
,cambridge1  returning to the original  
bent of this extraordinary family1 in   
which  the disposition to mathematics   
had latterly been overborne by medicine 
and moral philosophy4 ,even this long   
list of names omits scientific          
celebrities who were descended from the 
minister of ,drumoak and his wife1      
,margaret ,anderson1 more remotely still
 from the wild clan ,gregor of          
,glenlyon and ,glenorchy4    ,but the   

life of romantic adventure did not      
descend to young ,thomas  ,reid at      
,strachan4 ,a disposition to look at the
 world on its moral and  religious side1
 perhaps inherited from the ,reids1 with
 a strong bent  to mathematics and the  
scientific side of things1 inherited    
from the  ,gregories1 along with his own
 patient1 concentrated reflection1 was  
the  inheritance of the boy #8of good   
and well-wearing parts' who left the    
,kincardine school in #agbb4 ,the long  
life that followed presents none  of the
 outward incidents that readily touch   
the popular fancy2 but to  those awake  
to the higher problems of human life it 
touches thought  and imagination in     
another fashion4 ,it has been said that 
a human life  should resemble a         
well-ordered poem3 the exordium should  
be simple and  should promise little4   
,this condition is fulfilled in the life
 of ,thomas  ,reid1 which1 to the end1  
was modestly spent in learned           
retirement1  indifferent to vulgar fame4

 ,its chief interest lies in the        
spectacle  of penetrating sagacity1     
independent and sincere1 steadily       
devoted to  the invisible world of      
thought and belief1 in quest of the     
ultimate  foundations and guarantees of 
human knowledge4 ,it should attract     
those  who1 in an age of sceptical      
criticism1 seek to assure themselves of 
the final trustworthiness of the        
experience into which1 at birth1 they   
were admitted as strangers1 ignorant of 
what the whole means1 like the  agnostic
 in ,pascal4 ,who has sent me into this 
life1 ,i know not2 what  the world      
around me is1 ,i know not2 nor what ,i  
am myself4 ,i find myself  chained to   
one little planet1 but without          
understanding why ,i am here  rather    
than there2 and why this period of time 
was given me to live in  rather than any
 other in the unbeginning and endless   
duration4 ,life with  its memories and  
forecasts looks like a blind venture4   
,the sum of my  knowledge seems to be   

that ,i must die2 but what ,i am most   
ignorant of  is the meaning of death4   
,one is drawn to ,reid by an interest in
 final  questions like these1 which the 
agnostic spirit is now forcing upon  us4
 ,it was the sceptical disintegration of
 human knowledge and belief  that was   
going on in his own time that led ,reid1
 with the patience and  persistency     
revealed in his boyhood1 to devote a    
long life to testing  in his own sincere
 fashion man's intellectual and moral   
footing in that  world of sense which1  
all strange to it1 he entered in the    
valley of the  ,feugh4                  
,,chapter ,,ii    ,,at ,,marischal      
,,college    #agbb-agcg      ,at the age
 of twelve ,reid emerges out of the     
obscurity in which his  boyhood lies    
concealed from us4 ,in one of his       
letters to his cousin1  ,dr4 ,james     
,gregory1 written in his old age1 he    
mentions #8,april #agbb'  as the date of
 his first visit to ,aberdeen1 then a   
town of some eight  thousand            

inhabitants1 and twenty miles distant   
from the moorland valley  in which he   
was born4 ,he tells how he was taken to 
see his grandmother1  who was living in 
,aberdeen1 the second wife and widow of 
,david ,gregory  of ,kinairdy4 #8,i     
found her1' he says1 #8old and          
bedridden1 but ,i never  saw a more     
ladylike woman4 ,i was now and then     
called into her room1  when she sat upon
 her bed1 or entertained me with        
sweetmeats and grave  advices4 ,her     
daughters that assisted her often1 as   
well as one who lived  with her1 treated
 her as if she had been of a superior   
rank2 and indeed  her appearance and    
manner commanded respect4 ,she and all  
her children  were zealous              
,presbyterians3 the first wife's        
children were ,tories and               
,episcopalians4' ,this picture of the   
boy in ,aberdeen we owe to his  movement
 from the country school in the valley  
of the ,dee to the higher  sphere of the
 ,aberdeen ,grammar ,school1 which he   

seems to have entered  in that ,april1  
encouraged perhaps by the prognostic of 
the ,kincardine  schoolmaster4 ,the     
,grammar ,school ,register tells that in
 #8,october #agbb'  ,thomas ,reid left  
it to enter ,marischal ,college1 where  
his name appears  in the list of those  
matriculated that autumn4 ,it was an    
early age for  ,university life         
according to later ideas1 but not at    
variance with the  custom of ,scotland  
in those days4 ,burnet1 afterwards      
,bishop of ,salisbury1  another eminent 
,aberdonian1 entered ,marischal ,college
 when he was only  nine1 and graduated  
when he was thirteen2 and ,burnet's     
contemporary1  ,reid's granduncle1      
,james ,gregory1 graduated when he was  
not older than  ,burnet4    ,the uncouth
 and dilapidated structure in which the 
,university of the  ,earls ,marischal   
was housed when young ,reid was spending
 his undergraduate  years in it1 bore no
 resemblance to the stately ,college on 
the same site  which now adorns the     

prosperous city of ,bon ,accord4 ,the   
process of decay  was so rapid1 and the 
case was so urgent1 that a few years    
later the  regents suspended their      
official claim to a part of the scanty  
funds of  the ,college1 and also asked  
help from the community1 #8to preserve  
from  ruin an university from whence so 
many accomplished men have gone forth   
as ornaments of their country in every  
age since its foundation4' ,the         
troubles of #agae had further reduced   
its resources4 ,its ,chancellor1 the    
tenth ,earl ,marischal1 concerned in the
 rising of ,mar1 then forfeited  his    
title and the official connection of his
 family with the academical  foundation 
of his ancestor4 ,the ,principal and    
most of the authorities had  been       
removed or suspended by a commission of 
visitation in #agag4 ,during  the two   
years which followed the adventure of   
,mar the doors of ,marischal  ,college  
were closed1 so that1 when public       
instruction was resumed in  #agag1 a new

 race of teachers was in possession1    
and1 as it happened1 an  era of         
intellectual activity was inaugurated4  
,notwithstanding the humble             
accommodation which it offered1 and the 
social revolution through which it had  
lately passed1 ,marischal ,college      
could then boast of at least three      
eminent teachers1 imbued with the       
spirit of the #8new philosophy1' and of 
the reviving literary taste in          
,scotland4 ,the ,professor of           
,mathematics was ,colin ,m',laurin1     
brother of the  eloquent ,presbyterian  
preacher1 himself among the foremost of 
,british  mathematicians1 a friend and  
correspondent of the aged ,newton1 who1 
along with ,reid's inherited            
disposition1 attracted the young student
 to  the study in which the teacher was 
a master4 ,and about the time when      
,reid entered ,college1 ,thomas         
,blackwell1 a critic of ,homer1 and     
author of  ,memoirs of the ,court of    
,augustus1 prominent among his          

countrymen who  were anxious to write   
good ,english1 became ,professor of     
,greek1 and for a  generation encouraged
 classical taste and love of literature 
in the north  of ,scotland4 ,but the    
teacher who chiefly influenced ,reid's  
undergraduate  life was ,george         
,turnbull1 a copious author1 though his 
books are little  remembered now4 ,he   
was ,reid's guide for three years2 for  
the ,college was  then under a system of
 #8regents' which intrusted the student 
to the same  teacher in all the three   
years given to #8philosophy'--natural as
 well as  moral4    ,reid was fortunate 
in entering ,marischal ,college when it 
was inspired by  ,m',laurin1 ,blackwell1
 and ,turnbull1 each a leader in the    
scientific and  literary awakening of   
the time4 ,the ,aberdeen of #agbe was no
 longer the  ,aberdeen of the ministers 
of whom ,gordon in his ,scots ,affairs  
tells  that they shrieked1 #8downe with 
learning and up with ,christ4' ,their   
religion was in alliance with culture   

and progressive intelligence1           
anticipating in the ,north the          
intellectual enlargement associated in  
the  ,west with the ,university of      
,glasgow under ,hutcheson1 ,leechman1   
and ,adam  ,smith4    ,george ,turnbull 
is little known now1 but he is too      
important a factor in  the making of    
,thomas ,reid to be lightly passed over4
 ,he was an ,edinburgh  graduate1 born  
in #afih1 and like ,reid a son of the   
manse4 ,he became a  regent of          
philosophy in ,marischal ,college at the
 age of twenty-three4 ,the  ,college    
record informs us that on the #adth of  
,april #agbf he presented  for          
graduation a band of thirty-nine        
students3 the name of ,thomas ,reid     
appears last in the list4 ,turnbull's   
lectures when he was regent were  in    
#agdj embodied in his ,principles of    
,moral ,philosophy4 ,his leading        
arguments are illustrated and vindicated
 by quotations from ,berkeley's  ,theory
 of ,vision and ,principles of ,human   

,knowledge1 also by the  ,inquiry of    
,francis ,hutcheson and the ,sermons of 
,bishop ,butler4 ,the  influence of     
,berkeley is evident4    ,the mottoes on
 the title-page of ,turnbull's book     
express his method  of inquiry4 ,one of 
them is the precept of ,pope--#8,account
 for moral as  for natural things'2 the 
other expresses in the words of ,newton 
the  consequence which may be expected  
to follow--#8,if ,natural ,philosophy1  
in  all its parts1 by pursuing this     
method1 shall at length be perfected1   
the  bounds of ,moral ,philosophy will  
also be enlarged4' ,turnbull was among  
the first in ,scotland to substitute1 in
 mental philosophy1 tentative  study of 
the facts of human nature for logical   
deduction from abstract  dogmas4 #8,if a
 fact be actually found1 either in the  
outer world of  sensible things1 or in  
the inner and invisible world of mind1  
there is  no room for reasoning against 
it4 ,every reasoning1 however subtle1 if
  it be repugnant in its conclusion to  

the actual fact of the case1 must  be   
sophistical4' ,turnbull is fond of      
repeating that facts presented to  the  
senses are not the only1 nor yet the    
most important1 facts which the         
universe contains4 ,the invisible facts 
which take the form of beliefs  and     
feelings and volitions are the deepest  
facts of all3 spirit and not  matter at 
last regulates life4 ,then he refers to 
what he calls #8common  sense' as the   
final arbiter in all questions4         
#8,common sense is sufficient  to teach 
those who think of the matter with      
seriousness and attention all  the      
duties of common life2 all our          
obligations to ,god and our fellow-men2 
all that is morally fit and binding4'   
,in a word1 spiritual facts of mind  are
 not to be crushed out of existence by  
tangible and visible facts of  matter4  
,that mind in the form of will is the   
only known active power is  another     
prominent lesson in ,turnbull's         
teaching4 #8,it is will alone that      

manifests power or productive energy4   
,to speak of any other active power  in 
the universe is to speak without        
meaning2 because experience1 the  source
 of all the materials of our knowledge1 
does not lead us to any  other          
conception of power4' ,turnbull's       
conception of the material world  is    
very like ,berkeley's4 ,matter is the   
established or natural order in  which  
sense ideas present themselves4         
#8,properly speaking1 what we call      
matter and space are only sensible      
ideas1 produced in us1 according to an  
established or natural order1 by some   
external cause2 for when we speak  of   
material things1 we can only mean       
certain sensible perceptions that  arise
 in our minds1 according to a fixed     
order1 but which are experienced  to be 
absolutely inert or passive1 having in  
themselves no productive  force4' ,it   
was in this philosophy that ,turnbull's 
most famous pupil was  educated at      
,marischal ,college4    ,turnbull's     

official connection with the ,college   
lasted only six years4  ,after          
inaugurating moral philosophy in the    
modern spirit in ,scotland1 he  resigned
 in the spring of #agbg1 and1 after some
 residence abroad1 lived  in ,london1   
producing books in excess of the demand 
for them4 ,he ended by  taking orders in
 the ,irish branch of the ,anglican     
,church1 finding the  communion of      
,jeremy ,taylor and ,berkeley more      
suited to his temper than  the fervid   
,presbyterianism to which he was        
accustomed in his youth4 ,in  search of 
health1 he died at the ,hague in #agdi4 
,i have enlarged on ,turnbull1 because  
by him ,reid was first attracted  to the
 study of the human mind4 ,but          
,blackwell1 the ,professor of ,greek1   
must not be forgotten4 ,blackwell1 as   
well as ,turnbull1 was connected  with  
,berkeley4 ,it was when ,reid was at    
,marischal ,college that ,berkeley  was 
engaged in the most romantic missionary 
enterprise of that age1 for  spreading  

,christian civilisation in ,america by a
 ,college in the ,bermudas4  ,curiously1
 ,blackwell was one of those whom he    
asked to join the little  party of      
missionaries who embarked with him at   
,gravesend in ,september  #agbh1 after  
he had surrendered high preferment in   
,ireland in order  to devote his life to
 a more cosmopolitan philanthropy4 ,the 
,aberdeen  regent was not prepared for  
the sacrifice4 ,he refers thus to       
,berkeley's  adventure3--        #8,in  
this respect ,i would with pleasure do  
justice to the      memory of a very    
great though singular sort of man1 known
 as      a philosopher1 and intended    
founder of a ,university in the         
,bermudas or ,summer ,islands4 ,an      
inclination to carry me out      with   
him on that expedition1 as one of the   
young professors      on his new        
foundation1 having brought us often     
together1 ,i      scarce remember to    
have conversed with him on that art1    
liberal      or mechanic1 of which he   

knew not more than the ordinary         
practitioners4 ,with the widest views1  
he descended to the most      minute    
detail1 and begrudged neither pains nor 
expense for      the means of           
information4 ,i enter not into his      
peculiarities1      either religious or 
personal1 but admire the extensive      
genius      of the man1 and think it a  
loss to the ,western world that      his
 noble and exalted plan of an ,american 
,university was not      carried into   
execution4'--,memoirs of the ,court of  
,augustus4    ,the fact that ,berkeley  
was so much in evidence at ,marischal   
,college in  those days1 through        
,turnbull and ,blackwell1 is significant
 of much in the  life of ,reid4    ,if  
,reid recorded his thoughts when he was 
a student at ,marischal ,college1  the  
record has been lost4 ,a commonplace    
book like ,berkeley's1 when  ,berkeley  
was an undergraduate in ,dublin1 would  
have cast welcome light on  this part of
 his mental history4 ,the only extant   

revelation of his inner  life in these  
years is contained in a letter written  
half a century after  to his kinsman    
,william ,gregory at ,oxford4 ,it       
relates to the period when  his year was
 divided between town and country--the  
winters at ,aberdeen and  the long      
summer days at the manse of ,strachan3--
        #8,about the age of fourteen ,i 
was1' he says1 #8almost every      night
 unhappy in my sleep from frightful     
dreams3 sometimes      hanging over a   
dreadful precipice1 and just ready to   
drop down2      sometimes pursued for my
 life and stopped by a wall1 or by a    
sudden loss of strength2 sometimes ready
 to be devoured by a      wild beast4   
,how long ,i was plagued with such      
dreams ,i do not      recollect4 ,i     
believe it was for a year or two at     
least2 and ,i      think they had left  
me before ,i was fifteen4 ,in those days
 ,i      was much given to what ,mr4    
,addison in one of his 8,spectators0    
calls castle-building2 and in my evening

 solitary walk 7which      was generally
 all the exercise ,i took71 my thoughts 
would hurry      me into some active    
scene1 where ,i generally acquitted     
myself      much to my own satisfaction1
 and in those scenes of imagination     
,i performed many a gallant exploit4 ,at
 the same time1 in my      dreams ,i    
found myself the most arrant coward4    
,not only my      courage but my        
strength failed me in every danger2 and 
,i often      rose from my bed in the   
morning in such a panic that it took    
some time to get the better of it4 ,i   
wished much to get free of      these   
uneasy dreams1 which not only made me   
unhappy in sleep1      but left a       
disagreeable impression on my mind for  
some part of      the following day4 ,i 
thought it was worth trying whether it  
was possible to recollect while ,i was  
dreaming that it was      all a dream1  
and that ,i was in no danger4           
,accordingly1 ,i often      went to     
sleep with my mind as strongly impressed

 as ,i could      with this             
thought--that ,i never in my lifetime   
had been in any      real danger1 and   
that every fright ,i had was a dream4   
,after      many fruitless endeavours to
 recollect this when the danger         
appeared1 ,i effected it at last1 and   
have often1 when ,i was      sliding    
down a precipice into the abyss1        
recollected that it      was all a      
dream1 and boldly jumped down4 ,the     
effect of this      commonly was that ,i
 immediately awoke2 but ,i awoke calm   
and      intrepid1 which ,i thought a   
great acquisition4 ,after this my       
dreams were never very uneasy2 and in a 
short time ,i dreamed      not at all4  
,during all this time ,i was in perfect 
health2 but      whether my ceasing to  
dream was the effect of the recollection
      above mentioned1 or of any change 
in the habit of my body1      which is  
usual about that period of life1 ,i     
cannot tell4 ,i      think it may more  
probably be imputed to the last4        

,however1 the      fact was that for at 
least forty years after ,i dreamt none1 
to the best of my remembrance2 and      
finding from the testimony      of      
others that this is somewhat uncommon1  
,i have often as ,i      awoke          
endeavoured to recollect1 without being 
able to recollect      anything that    
passed in my sleep4 ,the only distinct  
dream ,i      ever had since ,i was     
about sixteen1 as far as ,i remember1   
was      about two years ago 7#aggg74 ,i
 had got my head blistered for a        
fall4 ,a plaster which was put upon it  
after the blister pained      me        
excessively for a whole night4 ,in the  
morning ,i slept a      little1 and     
dreamed very distinctly that ,i had     
fallen into the      hands of a party of
 ,indians and was scalped4 ,i am apt to 
think      that1 as there is a state of 
sleep and a state wherein we are        
awake1 so there is an intermediate state
 which partakes of the      other two4  
,i have slept on horseback1 but so as to

 preserve my      balance2 and if the   
horse stumbled1 ,i could make the       
exertion      necessary to save me from 
a fall1 as if ,i was awake4'    ,in all 
this one detects the disposition to     
sober introspection1 which  ripened as  
life advanced4           99       99    
99       99       99    ,during the ten 
years that followed the graduation in   
,april #agbf we have  only faint traces 
of ,reid4 ,in the following winter he   
began to study  theology1 and in #agca  
he had completed the course required by 
the ,church1  under the direction of    
,professor ,james ,chalmers1 father of  
the founder of  the ,aberdeen ,journal4 
,this is another parallel between ,reid 
and ,kant3  both1 it seems1 were        
theologically trained4    ,reid's name  
first appears in the books of the       
,presbytery of ,kincardine  ,o',neil    
when he was in his nineteenth year4     
,extracts from the minutes with  which  
,i have been favoured record his        
progress with a quaint simplicity  not  

without interest1 as part of the history
 of a philosopher3--        #8,on the   
#agth of ,july1 #agbh1 ,james ,lumsden1 
,john ,beaton1 ,thomas      ,reid1 and  
,david ,ross1 students in divinity1     
residing within the      bounds of the  
presbytery1 being now present1 the      
presbytery      thought fit to appoint  
each of them to be in readiness to      
deliver a homily against the next       
meeting1 and accordingly      appointed 
,mr4 ,reid to deliver a homily on ,john 
i4 #bi4--ah      ,september #agbh4 ,this
 day ,mr4 ,thomas ,reid delivered his   
homily1      with which the presbytery  
being satisfied1 the moderator          
encouraged him to go on with his        
studies4--#hth ,june #agca4 ,the        
presbytery considering that ,mr4 ,thomas
 ,reid had been allowed by      the     
,synod to enter upon tryal1 and he1     
being upon the place1      did undergo  
questioning tryal1 wherein he was       
approved1 and      the presbytery       
appointed him to be in readyness to     

deliver a      lecture on ,ps4 ii41 and 
an exegesis on that common head4 ,num   
detur peccatum originale                
inherens4--#bbnd ,september #agca4 ,this
      day ,mr4 ,thomas ,reid underwent a
 questioning tryal and was              
approved4 ,and the presbytery taking    
into consideration that he1      having 
passed his course in ,arts at the       
,college1 and thereafter      having    
studied ,divinity for the space of #c   
years1 as also      having resided for  
the whole of this time within the bounds
      of this presbytery2 and they      
looking upon him as a person fit      to
 be entered upon tryals1 and also having
 had sufficient      testimonials from  
the professors of divinity with whom he 
studied as to his proficiency in his    
studys and good behaviour1      he was  
admitted to the usual tryals appointed  
by the ,acts of      the ,general       
,assembly of this ,church1 and having   
passed through      all the parts       
thereof1 he was licensed by the said    

presbytery      to preach the ,gospel of
 ,christ1 and exercise his gifts as a   
probationer for the holy ministry4'     
,on the #bnd of ,august #agcb1 #8the    
,presbytery chose ,mr4 ,thomas ,reid to 
be  their ,clerk4' ,on the #eth of      
,october in the same year1 #8the        
,presbytery  appointed ,mr4 ,thomas     
,reid to supply at ,lumphanan the second
 ,sabbath after  ,mr4 ,gordon's         
removal4' ,on the #hth of ,november1    
#8,mr4 ,thomas ,reid was  continued     
,clerk till the next meeting of the     
provincial ,synod1' in ,april  #agcc4   
,in ,july #agcc ,reid re-appears1 this  
time not engaged in ecclesiastical      
ministration1 but as the librarian of   
,marischal ,college4 ,it was an office  
with which he had a family connection4  
#8,the most outstanding name in  the    
history of ,marischal ,college          
,library1' says ,mr4 ,rait1 #8is that of
  ,thomas ,reid1 ,latin secretary to    
,james vi41 son of ,james ,reid1        
minister of  ,banchory-,ternan4 ,in     

#afbd he left to ,marischal ,college his
 own library1  #fjjj merks to be        
invested in land1 and a sum of money to 
provide a salary  for a librarian4' ,the
 secretary's brother1 ,alexander1 also  
bequeathed  books of philosophy and     
divinity4 ,and ,david ,gregory of       
,kinairdy was for  some time librarian4 
,it was an acceptable retreat for       
research1 and a  mark of esteem from the
 ,college4 ,mr4 ,rose1 ,reid's          
brother-in-law1 says  that he then      
studied ,newton's ,principia and        
,locke's ,essay4#d ,again  a parallel   
between ,reid and ,kant4 ,some time     
after ,kant had taken his  degree he was
 made librarian in the ,schloss         
,library1 with a yearly  stipend of     
about #aj4 ,this was nominally in excess
 of ,reid's modest  honorarium of #i at 
,aberdeen1 a pittance which was for a   
time suspended  by threatened           
litigation4 ,he was in active service as
 librarian till  #agcf1 and for two     
years more in possession1 #8on leave of 

absence1 with a  substitute4'    ,the   
need for a #8substitute' in #agcf can be
 explained4 ,in that year1 for  the     
first time1 ,reid is found outside      
,scotland4 ,he is making a tour  in     
,england1 with ,stewart1 the friend of  
his undergraduate years1 and  now       
,professor of ,mathematics in ,marischal
 ,college4 ,the record of their         
movements in the ,south is scanty4      
,reid's uncle1 ,dr4 ,george ,reid1 then 
a  physician in ,london1 provided a home
 for them in the metropolis2 and as     
,david ,gregory1 ,reid's cousin1 was    
,professor of ,history at ,oxford1 they 
found another home on the ,isis1 with an
 easy introduction to the colleges  and 
social life of the great ,english       
,university4 ,the ,gregory connection   
also opened the way to interesting      
things and persons at ,cambridge as     
well as at ,oxford and ,london4 ,reid1  
it seems1 saw ,bentley at ,cambridge1   
#8who delighted him with his learning   
and amused him with his vanity'3  here1 

too1 he enjoyed the conversation of the 
blind mathematician  ,saunderson1 whose 
experience he afterwards turned to good 
account in  his inquiries regarding the 
sense of seeing4 ,one would like to have
 had  ,reid's first impressions of      
,england1 its metropolis1 its social and
  church life1 and its ancient colleges4
 ,it does not appear that the scenes    
through which he moved awakened in him  
much historic sentiment2 that1  like his
 contemporary ,berkeley1 ,oxford would  
be the ideal home of his old  age2 or   
that he was greatly moved by its        
academic splendour1 associated  with    
what is noblest in ,english history1 and
 by the soft repose of the  surrounding 
rural scenes4 ,in one of his letters to 
,dr4 ,james ,gregory1  he speaks of the 
first time he was in #8,dean ,gregory's 
house at ,oxford1'  when the ,dean told 
#8the story of the watch very well to a 
large company  of ,oxonians'2 so we may 
infer that other visits followed in     
later life4  ,and the ,oxford of his    

first visit was the degenerate ,oxford  
described  by ,adam ,smith and ,gibbon1 
who were in residence a few years after4
 ,reid  is seldom again found out of    
,scotland4 ,there is no sign that he    
ever  visited ,ireland or the ,continent
 in his retired1 sedate1 and methodical 
life4 ,in this1 too1 he was like ,kant1 
who in all his eighty years is said     
never to have travelled more than forty 
miles from his native ,knigsberg4  ,the 
stay-at-home disposition common to both 
is not unlike the character  reflected  
in their books4          ,,chapter ,,iii
    ,,new ,,machar ,,and ,,david ,,hume 
#agcg-agea      ,soon after ,reid's     
return to ,marischal ,college from his  
,english tour1  the young librarian was 
presented1 by the professors of ,king's 
,college1  to the pastoral charge of    
,new ,machar1 a parish some ten miles to
 the  north-west of ,aberdeen4 ,the fact
 that his kinsman1 ,james ,gregory1 was 
professor in ,king's may perhaps explain
 this unwonted exercise of  patronage in

 favour of a graduate of the rival      
,college4    ,the presentation1 at any  
rate1 raised a storm of opposition among
 the  parishioners4 ,it was the occasion
 of one of those conflicts of ,church   
parties to which the law of patronage   
gave rise in ,scotland in those  days4  
,the incidents of ,reid's introduction  
to ecclesiastical office  form a        
characteristic picture4 ,rural prejudice
 was due in this case to  various       
circumstances4 ,it was partly influenced
 by a sermon1 preached  in the church of
 ,new ,machar1 on ,february #aj1 #agcg1 
at the moderation of  the call1 by the  
,rev4 ,john ,bisset1 one of the         
ministers of ,aberdeen4 ,mr4  ,bisset   
had himself been minister of the parish 
ten years before4 ,he was  now a noted  
preacher in the ,north1 and one with    
whom express concurrence  of the        
congregation in an ecclesiastical       
settlement was a high article  of       
doctrine4#e ,in his sermon he denounced 
aristocratic interference1  insinuated  

undue outside influence and personal    
favour1 claimed a right  to a vote in   
the election of his minister for every  
,christian1 the poor  man as much as the
 rich1 and concluded with an appeal to  
his audience to  quit themselves like   
men1 and to trust in ,god4 ,the recent  
history of the  parish strengthened this
 appeal4 ,the last presentation to ,new 
,machar was  inauspicious4 ,in #agbi a  
#8riding committee' had introduced ,mr4 
,bisset's  successor4 ,soon after1 the  
new minister was accused of #8powdering 
his wig  on the ,sabbath4' ,absolved by 
the ,church courts1 he was in #agcf     
deposed  for a graver offence4 ,it was a
 time of ecclesiastical anarchy in ,new 
,machar4 ,the record of the parish is   
blank between the minute which tells  of
 the departure of ,mr4 ,bisset in #agbh1
 and that which registers #8the         
ordination of ,mr4 ,thomas ,reid' in    
,may #agcg4    ,reid was the innocent   
victim of the sermon and the scandal    
when he came  to be ordained on ,may    

#ab1 #agcg4 ,he had been violently      
attacked and  maltreated by persons in  
disguise1 who1 according to tradition1  
ducked  him in a horse-pond4 ,it is also
 told that when he officiated for the   
first time in the parish church1 he was 
guarded in the pulpit by a drawn  sword4
    ,for fifteen years ,new ,machar     
manse was ,reid's home4 ,popular        
prejudice was  overcome by his mild1    
beneficent activity4 ,those who had been
 carried  into outrage by hasty judgment
 at the beginning1 followed him on his  
departure with blessings and tears4     
#8,we fought against ,mr4 ,reid when  he
 came1' they are reported as saying1    
#8and we would have fought for  him when
 he went away4' ,his marriage1 in       
,august #agdj1 to his cousin            
,elizabeth1 a daughter of his ,london   
uncle1 ,dr4 ,george ,reid1 promoted     
this change4 ,the gracious manner and   
constant goodness of this companion  of 
his life for more than fifty years was  
long remembered in the  ,aberdeenshire  

parish4 ,six daughters and three sons   
were the issue of the  marriage4 ,five  
daughters were born at ,new ,machar1 and
 one died there4  ,reid's family bible  
at ,birkwood contains the following     
interesting record  in his              
handwriting3--        #8,mr4 ,thomas    
,reid was born at ,strachan1 ,april #bf1
 #agaj2 married      to ,elizabeth      
,reid1 ,august #ab1 #agdj4 ,the said    
,elizabeth was      born ,august #c1    
#agbd4 ,their children3--7#a7 ,jean1    
born ,july #ba1      #agda1 died        
,february #bg1 #aggb1 buried in ,college
 ,churchyard1      ,glasgow2 7#b7       
,margaret1 born ,october #bj1 #agdb1    
died #aggb1      buried as above2 7#c7  
,martha1 born ,august #bb1 #agdd1       
married ,dr4      ,patrick ,carmichael2 
7#d7 ,elizabeth1 born ,february #ba1    
#agdf1 died      of smallpox in ,august 
#agdf1 buried in the ,churchyard of ,new
      ,machar2 7#e7 ,anna1 born ,july   
#aj1 #agea1 died of chin-cough ,may     
#ba1 #agec1 buried in the ,isle of ,old 

,machar2 7#f7 ,george1 born             
,february #aa1 #agee1 died at ,st4      
,john's1 ,newfoundland1 ,february       
#aghj2 7#g7 ,lewis1 born ,december #ac1 
#agef1 died of teething ,july      #ai1 
#ageh1 buried in the ,isle of ,old      
,machar2 7#h7 ,david1 born              
,february #bf1 #agfb1 died at ,edinburgh
 ,august #cj1 #aghb2 7#i7               
,elizabeth1 born ,may #h1 #agff1 died   
,june #a1 #agfg1 of smallpox by         
inoculation1 buried in the ,college     
,churchyard1 ,glasgow4'    ,the story of
 the fifteen years at ,new ,machar1 as  
we have it1 is almost  empty of         
incidents1 a dim picture4 ,the scene    
does not warmly touch the  imagination4 
,undulating hills of moderate size1     
chill and tame2 land  monotonously      
fertile1 with scanty timber2 yet        
pleasant prospects in the  distance of  
the valley of the ,don1 with ,benachie  
and remoter ,grampians in  the          
background2 a population mostly         
agricultural2 two or three country      

mansions2 the highroad from ,aberdeen to
 ,banff traversing the parish4 ,new     
,machar was wanting1 on the whole1 in   
the breezy highland charm of the  early 
home at ,strachan4 ,the social life was 
simple but intellectually  stagnant4    
,among the infrequent visitors at the   
manse ,i find incidental  mention in    
,reid's letters of one4 ,he tells that  
he made the acquaintance  of the        
well-known ,jacobite1 ,mr4 ,hepburn of  
,keith1 #8by his lodging a night  in my 
house at ,new ,machar1' when he was in  
the ,prince's army1 on his  way to      
,culloden2 perhaps when he was in ,lord 
,george ,murray's division1  which      
retreated through ,aberdeenshire in     
,february #agdf1 or in one of  the      
detachments which were in motion around 
,new ,machar in the preceding           
,december4    ,the ,thomas ,reid who is 
revealed to us in his books does not    
promise  pulpit eloquence likely to     
interest this rustic population4 ,like  
,bishop  ,butler when he was in his     

remote rectory at ,stanhope a few years 
before1 he was pondering the chief      
intellectual work of his life in  exile 
from intellectual society4 ,none of     
,reid's sermons are found among  his    
manuscripts4 ,indeed1 it appears that   
his characteristic modesty  and         
diffidence1 combined1 it is said1 with  
some neglect of literary  culture in his
 early education1 induced him at first  
to read to his  rustic audience the     
sermons of eminent ,anglican preachers1 
instead of  compositions of his         
own--thus adopting a practice afterwards
 recommended  by ,paley1 by which1 with 
fit selection1 many audiences might     
benefit  in this age of social pressure4
 #8,as to preaching1' says ,paley1 #8if 
your situation requires a sermon every  
,sunday1 make one and find  five4'      
,tillotson and the ,nonconformist ,evans
 are mentioned as ,reid's  favourites1  
and something is said about ,samuel     
,clarke4 ,the luminous good  sense of   
,tillotson1 and the reverential temper  

of ,evans1 and the lucid  reasoning of  
,clarke1 would naturally attract ,reid4 
,but emotion as well  as moral ideal was
 not wanting in his religious life4 ,it 
is said that  in a ,communion ,service  
tears fell from his eyes when he        
enlarged on the  divine beauty of the   
character of ,jesus4 ,the following     
expression of  religious feeling during 
an illness of his young wife appears    
among his  manuscripts1 dated ,march    
#cj1 #agdf3--        #8,o ,god1 ,i      
desire humbly to supplicate ,thy ,divine
 ,majesty in      behalf of my          
distressed wife1 who is by ,thy hand    
brought very      low1 and in imminent  
danger of death1 if ,thou1 who alone    
doest      wonders1 do not in mercy     
interpose ,thy almighty arm1 and bring  
her back from the gate of death4 ,i     
deserve justly1 ,o ,lord1      that     
,thou shouldst deprive me of the        
greatest comfort of my      life1       
because ,i have not been so thankful to 
,thee as ,i ought      for giving me    

such a kind and affectionate wife4 ,i   
have forgot      ,thy goodness in       
bringing us happily together by an      
unforeseen      and undesigned train of 
events1 and blessing us with so much    
love and harmony of affection1 and so   
many of the comforts and                
conveniences of life4 ,i have not been  
so careful as ,i ought      to have been
 to stir her up to piety and ,christian 
virtues4      ,i have not taken that    
pains with my children and servants     
and relatives as ,i ought4 ,alas6 ,i    
have been too negligent of      my      
pastoral duty and my private devotions1 
too much given to      the pleasures and
 satisfactions of this world1 and too   
little      influenced by the promises  
and the hope of a future state4 ,i      
have employed my studies1 reading1 and  
conversation rather to      please      
myself than to edify myself and others4 
,i have sinned      greatly in          
neglecting many opportunities of making 
private      applications to my flock   

and family in the affairs of their      
souls1 and in using too slight          
preparation for my public               
exercises4 ,i have thrown away too much 
of my time in sloth and      sleep1 and 
have not done so much for the relief of 
the poor and      destitute as ,i might 
have done4 ,the means that ,providence  
has      afforded me of correcting my   
evil inclinations ,i have abused to     
pamper and feed them in various         
instances4 ,for these and many          
other sins which have escaped my memory 
,thou mightst justly      inflict so    
great a chastisement on me1 as to make  
my children      motherless and deprive 
me of my dear wife4 ,o ,lord1 accept of 
my humble and penitent confession of    
these my offences1 which      ,i desire 
to acknowledge with shame and sorrow1   
and am resolved      by ,thy grace to   
amend4 ,if ,thou art pleased to hearken 
to the      voice of my supplications1  
and grant my request on behalf of my    
dear wife in restoring her to health1 ,i

 do promise and covenant      through   
grace to turn from these backslidings1  
to express my      thankfulness by a    
vigorous discharge of my duty as a      
,christian1      a minister1 and master 
of a family1 and by an alms of ten      
pounds sterling to the poor in meat and 
money4 ,lord1 pardon      if there is   
anything in this presumptuous1 or       
unbecoming a      humble penitent       
sinner2 and1 ,lord1 accept of what is   
sincerely      designed as a new bond   
upon my soul to my duty1 through ,jesus 
,christ1 my ,lord and ,saviour4'        
,this fervid expression of devotion     
reveals an intensity of purpose which   
worked beneath the outwardly placid and 
discreet life4 ,mrs4 ,reid survived     
this critical illness for nearly half a 
century4    ,much of ,reid's time at    
,new ,machar1 according to his          
brother-in-law  ,mr4 ,rose1 was spent in
 meditative thought1 with an attention  
to the  activities of his own mind of   
which few men are capable4 ,traditions  

of  solitary walks immersed in study    
were long in circulation4 ,he found  his
 chief recreation1 we are told1 in the  
manse garden or in botanical            
observations4 ,his society attracted his
 neighbours4 ,with ,sir ,archibald      
,grant of ,monymusk he maintained a     
lifelong intimacy4 ,he never forgot ,new
  ,machar1 and long after1 in times of  
distress1 anonymous gifts were traced   
to his thoughtful but modest            
beneficence4    ,three years before     
,reid left ,new ,machar1 when he was in 
his thirty-eighth  year1 he made his    
first appearance in print1 in a short   
paper contributed  to the ,royal        
,society1 which appeared in their       
,transactions in ,october  #agdh4 ,it is
 called #8,an ,essay on ,quantity4' ,it 
was occasioned by a book  published more
 than twenty years before1 the ,inquiry 
into the ,original  of our ,ideas of    
,beauty and ,virtue1 by ,francis        
,hutcheson1 afterwards the  celebrated  
,professor of ,moral ,philosophy in     

,glasgow4 ,in this tract simple  and    
compound ratios are applied1 in forms of
 mathematical reasoning1  to solve      
problems of moral philosophy4 ,it       
illustrates in some degree  the bent of 
,reid's thoughts at this time1 and his  
inherited interest in  mathematical     
reasonings4 ,but it also shows bent of  
thought in another  direction1 and      
recognition of other scientific methods 
than mathematical  demonstration1 which 
had been favoured as of universal       
application by  philosophers like       
,descartes and ,spinoza4 ,reid argued1  
in the spirit of  his master ,turnbull1 
that genuine ethical inquiry is         
concerned with a  class of facts which  
are under a higher category1 and refuse 
to submit to  geometrical measurement4  
,it is a curious circumstance in the    
evolution of philosophy in ,scotland    
that ,reid's first publication should   
thus be adverse criticism of            
,hutcheson1 the father of ,modern       
,philosophy in ,scotland4 ,it is also   

curious that this juvenile performance  
presents another of the parallels       
between ,reid and ,kant4 ,for it        
happened that in the preceding year     
,kant  had made his first appearance1 on
 a question concerned with mathematics1 
and1 like ,reid's1 in an argument       
against conclusions maintained by       
,leibnitz4    ,but this mathematical    
brochure imperfectly represents the     
#8intense  study' at ,new ,machar4 ,for 
an event happened soon after ,reid's    
settlement  there which determined the  
direction of his thoughts for the       
remainder of  his life4 ,in ,january    
#agci1 a book made an almost unnoticed  
appearance in  ,london1 which in the end
 became the chief factor in shaping the 
course of  ,european thought4 ,its      
author was ,david ,hume1 then a young   
man1 unknown  to fame1 not thirty years 
of age1 the younger son of a            
,berwickshire  laird4 ,hume was younger 
than ,reid by one year3 both were born  
on the  #bfth of ,april4 ,his name is   

popularly connected with the ,history of
  ,england2 but this ,treatise of ,human
 ,nature1 which somehow found its  way  
into the manse of ,new ,machar1         
represents his most significant work4   
,it has contributed perhaps as much as  
any single book to the subsequent       
progress of philosophy in ,europe4 ,hume
 indeed penetrates into regions  which  
the ordinary reader fails to connect    
with everyday interests of  life1 or    
with the hopes and fears of human       
beings4 ,accordingly1 as he  tells1 the 
,treatise #8fell dead-born from the     
press1 without attaining  such          
distinction as even to excite a murmur  
among the zealots4' ,in a  letter to his
 friend ,henry ,home1 afterwards ,lord  
,kames1 written soon  after this        
explosive mixture had been applied1 its 
author announces that  the issue was    
#8but indifferent1 if ,i may judge by   
the sale of the book1  and if ,i may    
believe my bookseller4 ,i am now out of 
humour with myself2  but doubt not in a 

little time to be out of humour with the
 world1 like  other unsuccessful        
authors4 ,after all1 ,i am sensible of  
my folly in  entertaining any           
discontent1 much more despair1 on this  
account1 since  ,i could not expect any 
better from such abstract reasoning4'   
,this book1  which professes to explain 
#8human nature' as a fact in the        
universe1  conducts to a final paralysis
 of human intelligence in universal     
doubt4    ,this threatened paralysis    
awoke ,reid into his characteristic     
intellectual  life4 ,he was among the   
first in ,europe to see the far-reaching
 meaning of  ,hume's account of man's   
condition4 ,he found in it the          
deep-lying seeds  of modern agnosticism4
 ,its rashness was confessed by its     
author4 #8,i  acknowledge a very great  
mistake in conduct in publishing my     
,treatise  of ,human ,nature1 a book    
which pretended to innovate in all the  
sublimest  parts of philosophy1 and     
which ,i composed before ,i was         

five-and-twenty4  ,but what success the 
same doctrines better illustrated and   
expressed  may meet with adhuc sub      
judice lis est4 ,i wish ,i had always   
confined  myself to the more easy parts 
of erudition4' ,accordingly1 about ten  
years after1 ,hume presented his        
#8sceptical doubts' in a milder form1   
and  accompanied by a #8sceptical       
solution' of them1 in an ,inquiry       
,concerning  ,human ,understanding2 but 
it was ,hume in the original ,treatise1 
not as  recast in the ,inquiry1 that    
moved ,reid4 ,kant1 like ,reid1 was     
awakened  from what he calls his        
#8dogmatic slumber' by ,david ,hume2 but
 it was  the ,inquiry1 not the          
,treatise1 of which last he appears     
ignorant1  that roused ,kant4 ,reid     
grappled with the more open and         
all-pervading  uncertainties of the     
earlier work4    ,let us look into the  
book which appalled the young minister  
of ,new ,machar  by the spectre of a    
meaningless universe and illusory human 

nature4  ,its author seemed to be       
indulging in #8a peculiar strain of     
humour when  he set out in his          
introduction by promising with a grave  
face no less  than a complete system of 
the sciences upon a foundation entirely 
new1  namely1 human nature1 while the   
intention of the whole work is to show  
that there is neither human nature nor  
science in the world4 ,he surely        
believed1 against his principles1 that  
he should be read1 and that he  should  
retain his personal identity till he    
reaped the reputation justly  due to his
 metaphysical acumen4' ,reid found him  
taking for granted as his  fundamental  
maxim1 that nothing can be admitted as  
true which cannot be  logically deduced 
from impressions of sense4 ,hume found  
the impressions  of sense to be         
transitory1 and distinguished in their  
succession by  degrees of               
intensity1--sensations when in their    
highest intensity1  memories when in an 
abated degree1 and mere fancies when the

 intensity  is at a minimum4 ,his maxim 
forbade recognition of more reality in  
the  universe than a momentary reality  
of isolated perceptions1 in their       
different degrees of intensity1 but     
without any reasonable retrospective    
memory1 or any reasonable expectation   
with its hopes or fears4 ,what  we call 
#8existence' was resolved into an       
unintelligible chaos of felt            
impressions--a purposeless procession1  
in which the percipient loses his  very 
selfhood and all besides4 ,the ,past1   
the ,distant1 the ,future1 are  all     
illusions4 #8,things' and #8persons' are
 only unconnected transitory  feelings1 
without any permanent person to feel    
them4 ,the word #8identity'  is         
meaningless4 ,a person cannot be more   
than a momentary idea4 #8,i never  catch
 self except in the form of a passing   
feeling4' ,present feeling  alone       
exists4    ,it is impossible without    
contradiction to express a philosophy   
which  destroys intelligible expression2

 virtually dismissing as absurdities    
all personal pronouns1 all substantive  
nouns1 and all verbs2 leaving  abstract 
adjectives as the only parts of         
speech2--and1 as such adjectives  are   
really unintelligible1 leaving us the   
speechless and motionless  victims of   
philosophical suicide4 ,when ,i start   
with the preliminary maxim  of ,hume1 ,i
 literally lose #8myself' at last in a  
radically untrustworthy  universe1 or ,i
 find myself suspended over a bottomless
 abyss4 ,here are  the last words of    
this intellectual suicide at the end of 
his destructive  analysis3--        #8,i
 am affrighted and confounded with the  
forlorn solitude in      which ,i am    
placed by my philosophy4 ,when we trace 
up the human      understanding to its  
first principles1 we find it to lead us 
into such sentiments as seem to turn    
into ridicule all our      past pains   
and industry1 and to discourage us from 
all future      inquiries4 ,nothing is  
more curiously inquired after by the    

mind of man than the causes of          
phenomena2 nor are we content      with 
knowing the immediate causes1 but push  
on our inquiries      till we arrive at 
the original and ultimate principle4    
,this      is our aim in all our studies
 and reflections4 ,and now we      must 
be disappointed when we learn that this 
tie lies merely      in ourselves1 and  
is nothing but that determination which 
is      acquired by custom4 ,such a     
discovery not only cuts off all         
hope of ever attaining satisfaction1 but
 even prevents our      very wishes2    
since it appears that when we desire to 
know the      ultimate and operating    
principle or something which resides    
in the external object1 we only         
contradict ourselves1 or talk           
without a meaning4444 ,the intense view 
of these manifold      contradictions   
and imperfections in human reason has so
 wrought      upon me and heated my     
brain1 that ,i am ready to reject all   
belief and reasoning1 and can look at no

 opinion even as more      probable or  
likely than another4 ,all who believe   
anything1 on      any subject1 with     
certainty1 must be fools4'    ,this is  
the issue of the ,treatise of ,human    
,nature when the logical  understanding 
is finally resolved into transitory and 
isolated feelings1  without permitted   
final postulates of reason1 in the form 
of faith or in  any other form1 to      
connect and interpret them4    ,it was  
this issue that ,reid took seriously4   
,he set himself1 at first for  his own  
satisfaction only1 to consider the      
ground he had for trusting  experience1 
when ,hume reported that experience     
dissolved into sensational  atoms4      
,accordingly he spent much of his time  
at ,new ,machar in reflecting  first of 
all on his perceptions through the      
senses4 ,he began with these1  because  
it seemed that even as the foundations  
of abstract mathematics  lie in the     
mathematical axioms and definitions1 so 
the foundations of  all concrete        

reasoning are to be found in the        
rational constitution of  perception    
through the five senses4 #8,in the tree 
of human knowledge1  perception is the  
root1 common understanding is the trunk1
 and the  sciences are the branches4'   
,here is his own account of his state of
 mind  when he was engaged in these ,new
 ,machar wrestlings3--        #8,if my  
mind is indeed what the ,treatise of    
,human ,nature makes      it1 ,i find   
that ,i have been only in an enchanted  
castle1 when      ,i seemed to be living
 in a well-ordered universe4 ,i have    
been      imposed upon by spectres and  
apparitions4 ,i blush inwardly      to  
think how ,i have been deluded4 ,i am   
ashamed of my frame1      and can hardly
 forbear expostulating with my destiny4 
,i see      myself1 and the whole frame 
of ,nature1 shrink into fleeting        
ideas1 which1 like ,epicurus's atoms1   
dance about in emptiness4               
,descartes no sooner began to dig in    
this mine than scepticism      was ready

 to break in upon him4 ,he did what he  
could to keep      it out4 ,malebranche 
and ,locke1 who dug deeper1 found the   
difficulty of keeping out the enemy     
still to increase2 but they             
laboured honestly in the design4 ,then  
,berkeley1 who carried on      the work1
 despairing of securing all1 bethought  
himself of an      expedient4 ,by giving
 up the material world1 which he thought
      might be spared without loss1 and 
even with advantage1 he hoped      by an
 impregnable position to secure the     
world of spirits4      ,but1 alas6 the  
,treatise of ,human ,nature wantonly    
sapped the      foundation of this      
partition1 and drowned all in one       
universal      deluge4'    ,nearly forty
 years after he left ,new ,machar1 ,reid
 says#f that in early  life he          
#8believed the whole of ,berkeley's     
system'--till ,hume opened his  eyes to 
#8consequences' that follow from the    
philosophy of ,descartes  and his       
successors1 #8which gave me more        

uneasiness than the want of a  material 
world4 ,so it came into my mind more    
than forty years ago' to  question its  
foundation4 ,hume accordingly made ,reid
 revise critically the  philosophy in   
which he had been educated by ,george   
,turnbull4 ,the issue  appeared after he
 left ,new ,machar4    ,reid was now to 
be placed in a condition more favourable
 to intense and  persistent thought4 ,on
 ,november #bb1 #agea1 he was admitted  
to ,king's  ,college1 ,aberdeen1 as one 
of its regent masters1 in succession to 
,mr4  ,alexander ,rait4 ,the patronage  
was vested in the ,college1 and the     
minute  which records his election      
suggests the reputation which the rural 
pastor  had now secured among the       
cultured few1 notwithstanding his modest
 and  retired life4    ,it was not      
without reluctance that ,reid left ,new 
,machar4 ,ramsay of  ,ochtertyre1 who   
knew him well1 tells that when the      
deputation from ,king's  ,college came  
to invite him to become a regent1 #8he  

at first declined1  explaining that he  
desired to live in retirement till he   
should complete  some literary projects 
which engaged him4 ,mrs4 ,reid1 however1
 having  discovered the errand of the   
visitors1 urged her husband to accept   
the  offer1 being less fond of          
retirement1 and having no objection to a
  better income and better society4     
,when her learned guests repeated their 
proposal after dinner1 she seconded them
 with such cogent arguments that  ,mr4  
,reid was beat out of all his           
objections4'--,scotland and ,scotsmen4  
,,chapter ,,iv    ,,old ,,aberdeen3 ,a  
,,regent ,,in ,,king',s ,,college       
#agea-agfd      ,reid's movement from   
,new ,machar to the academic home opened
 for him in  ,old ,aberdeen placed him  
and his young family amidst surroundings
 that  touch imagination by their       
natural beauty and historic             
associations4  ,for centuries the       
,college1 founded by ,bishop            
,elphinstone1 and at first  presided    

over by ,hector ,boece1 with its chapel 
and crowned tower1 in the               
old university town1      ,between the  
,don and the ,dee1      ,looking over   
the grey sand dunes1      ,looking out  
on the cold ,north ,sea1    has shed    
intellectual light over the ,north of   
,scotland1 especially among  the ,celts 
in the ,highlands4 ,at ,king's ,college 
one sees a miniature ,oxford  almost    
under the shadow of the ,grampians4     
,perhaps ,reid's temperament was  too   
prosaic to contemplate his new          
surroundings with the sentiment which   
the city at the mouth of the ,don       
afterwards called forth in ,thackeray1  
who1 in #8a delightful tour in the      
north1 was charmed with ,inverness1 and 
fell in love with ,old ,aberdeen--an    
elderly decayed mouldering old beauty   
who lives quietly on the seashore1 near 
her grand new granite sister of  a      
city4' ,the affectionate recollection   
with which ,sir ,james ,mackintosh      
recalled his student days at ,king's    

,college1 and the companionship  there  
of ,robert ,hall1 is another testimony  
to its charms4 ,the arena in  which     
these two1 called by their              
fellow-students #8,plato and            
,herodotus1'  encountered one another   
most frequently was in morals and       
metaphysics4  #8,after having sharpened 
their weapons by reading1 they often    
repaired to  the spacious sands upon the
 seashore1 and still more to the        
picturesque  scenery on the banks of the
 ,don above the old town and the ,brig  
of  ,balgownie1 to discuss with         
eagerness the problems of existence4    
,there was  scarcely an important       
position in ,berkeley's ,minute         
,philosopher1 in  ,butler's ,analogy1 or
 in ,edwards on the ,will1 over which   
they did not  debate with the utmost    
intensity4' ,from these discussions in  
the environs  of the #8old university   
town1' ,mackintosh was wont to say that 
he #8learned  more than from all the    
books he ever read4'    ,it was in the  

canonist's manse1 pleasantly placed     
nearly in front of the  ,college1       
immediately north of the ,snow ,church1 
at the entrance to ,powis  ,house1 that 
,reid found himself in the winter of    
#agea4g ,it was rented  by him from the 
,university4 ,the quaint manse1 nestled 
among trees1 with  its low thatched     
roof1#h has disappeared1 and with it    
other picturesque  old houses1 which    
added charm to the neighbourhood when   
,reid taught in  ,king's ,college nearly
 a hundred and fifty years ago4 ,the    
crown tower  of the ,college chapel rose
 almost in front of the manse1 the rival
 of  ,st4 ,giles's at ,edinburgh and of 
,st4 ,nicholas's at ,newcastle1 unique  
in  ,scottish academical architecture4  
,eastwards in the quadrangle was the    
,hall in which the students dined1 a    
memorial of ,bishop ,elphinstone1 and   
the dormitories of the students1 which  
were of later date4 ,general ,monk's    
tower stood in the eastern corner2      
behind the ,hall was the kitchen1 and   

near it the ,college well1 whence the   
links stretched to the shore1 #8the     
grey sand dunes' in those days unbroken 
by tame streets and modern villas4      
99       99       99       99       99  
,the professorial system of divided     
work1 which assigns special  departments
 of learning to supposed experts1 had   
not superseded in ,king's  ,college the 
method of regency which prevailed in the
 early history of all  the universities 
of ,scotland4 ,the regent was intrusted 
with the education  of his pupils from  
the first matriculation to graduation2  
or when ,latin1  ,greek1 and pure       
mathematics were each provided for      
professorially1  regents in philosophy  
each taught in successive sessions the  
various  branches of natural and        
physical science1 and of moral and      
metaphysical  philosophy4 ,this system  
was followed in all the ,scottish       
universities  until last century4 ,it   
was modified by the ,commission of      
#afij1 which  ordained that1 besides a  

separate professor of ,latin1 one of the
 four  regents should profess ,greek    
only1 and take charge of undergraduates 
in  their first year4 ,by about the     
middle of the century #8regenting' was  
wholly abolished in four of the five    
,universities--in ,edinburgh in #agjh1  
in ,glasgow in #agbg1 in ,st4 ,andrews  
in #agdg1 and in ,marischal ,college    
and ,university in #agec4 ,but in       
,king's ,college the various branches of
  ,philosophy1 natural and moral1 were  
still regented when ,reid began to      
teach4 ,he was thus required to teach   
mathematics and the sciences of  matter1
 as well as psychology and moral        
philosophy4 ,he thus gave lectures  on  
the philosophy of mind only every third 
year4 ,one of the other two  years was  
given to natural history and the easier 
parts of physical  science2 the second  
to mathematics and natural philosophy4  
,during #agea-eb1 which was his first   
session1 ,reid as regent taught  natural
 philosophy to undergraduates of the    

third year2 in the following  winter the
 same students1 in their fourth year1   
were still in his  charge4 ,his full    
sequence1 accordingly1 did not commence 
till #agec-ed1  when for the first time 
he took the second class1 consisting of 
those  beginning philosophical studies4 
,so his successive three years courses  
ran thus3--#agec-ef1 #agef-ei1 #agei-fb4
 ,in the last year of each course1  as  
#8promoter1' he presented his           
undergraduates to receive the ,master's 
degree1 and also delivered a graduation 
thesis4 ,his theses 7still extant  in   
manuscript at ,birkwood7 were in ,latin2
 they deal chiefly with the  methods and
 human conditions of philosophical      
inquiry4    ,two-thirds of ,reid's      
lectures at ,king's ,college were in    
this way  concerned with natural history
 and applied mathematics3 only one-third
  was given to the central object of his
 intellectual interest at ,new  ,machar4
 ,i have examined a manuscript volume of
 notes of the lectures in  #8,natural   

,philosophy' which he gave in #ageg-eh4 
,they comprehend1 after an  introductory
 exposition of the province and methods 
of physics1 the laws  of motion1        
astronomy1 optics1 electricity1 and     
hydrostatics4 ,the notes  show that     
,reid was well abreast of the physical  
science of his time4    ,at the time of 
,reid's appointment as a regent of      
philosophy in ,king's  ,college1 the    
alternative of regency or professoriate 
was discussed in  the ,university4 ,he  
entered readily into this and other     
questions of  ,university reform1 and   
prevailed on his colleagues to make some
 important  changes4 ,largely through   
his influence the teaching session was  
extended  from five to seven months2 the
 ,humanity or ,latin class was better   
organised2 the bursary endowments were  
redistributed for competition2  and in  
the order of undergraduate study1 the   
sciences concerned with the  outward    
world were made to precede psychology   
and ethics1 which were  reserved for the

 last year1 as more consistent with the 
development  of the human mind in its   
natural ascent from external observation
 to  reflection4 ,an account of the     
changes was published in #aged4    ,it  
is curious that it was through ,reid's  
influence that the regency  system was  
retained in ,king's ,college1 in        
preference to the professorial1  which1 
in order to secure division of labour   
among the teachers1  under the growth of
 knowledge1 had been already adopted in 
the other  ,universities4 ,his hand may 
be traced in the following statement of 
reasons for this conservative           
policy3--#8,every professor of          
philosophy  in this ,university is also 
tutor to those who study under him2 and 
it  seems to be generally agreed that it
 must be detrimental to a student to    
change his every session4 ,and though it
 be allowed that a professor who  has   
only one branch of philosophy for his   
province may have more leisure  to make 
improvements in it for the benefit of   

the learned world1 yet it  does not seem
 extravagant to suppose that a regent   
professor ought  to be sufficiently     
qualified to teach all that his pupils  
can learn in  philosophy natural and    
moral in the course of three sessions4' 
,half  a century later the higher       
academical ideal implied in a           
professoriate  prevailed1 according to  
which the professor is responsible for  
promoting  his branch of human          
knowledge1 as well as for the           
instruction of youth--in  educating     
influence more powerful1 when he incites
 to study by the  vitality which        
original research is apt to communicate 
to his lectures4  ,the development of a 
university1 it has been remarked1 is    
prompt and  easy when each department of
 its cyclopdia is separately taught by  
an able professor2 whereas a university 
which abandons instruction to           
regent-tutors must be content not only  
to teach little1 and that little  ill1  
but to continue to teach what is        

elsewhere obsolete and exploded4    ,in 
a letter of ,reid's in #agee1 an account
 is given of the reformed1 if  somewhat 
officious1 academical discipline which  
then prevailed3--        #8,the students
 here1' he says1 #8have lately been     
compelled to      live within the       
,college4 ,we need but look out at our  
windows to      see when they rise and  
when they go to bed4 ,they are seen nine
      or ten times throughout the day   
statedly1 by one or other of      the   
,masters--at public prayers1            
school-hours1 meals1 in their           
rooms1 besides occasional visits which  
we can make with little      trouble to 
ourselves4 ,they are shut up within     
walls at nine      at night4 ,this      
discipline hath indeed taken some pains 
and      resolution1 as well as some    
expense1 to establish it4 ,the board    
of the first table is #ej marks per     
quarter1 i4e4 #eds4 #b;d41      and the 
second #dj4 ,the rent of a room is from 
#g shillings to #bj      shillings in   

the session4 ,there is no furniture in  
their rooms      but a bedstead1 tables1
 chimney-grate1 and fender2 the rest    
they must buy for themselves4 ,all other
 perquisites from #ab to      #ag       
shillings4'    ,this discipline was more
 or less in vogue during the remainder  
of last  century4 ,nearly twenty years  
after the date of ,reid's letter1 when  
,johnson and ,boswell visited ,aberdeen1
 ,johnson says that #8in ,king's        
,college there is kept a public table1  
but the scholars in the ,marischal      
,college are boarded in the town4'      
#8,the abandonment of this custom1'     
,mr4 ,rait tells us1 #8seems to have    
been a gradual process1 and to have     
taken place during the first quarter of 
the nineteenth century4 ,the  restraint 
of collegiate residence had become      
exceedingly irksome4' ,with  the        
increasing age of entrants1 schoolboy   
discipline might seem less  expedient4  
,instruction in the art of dancing was1 
it seems1 provided by the  ,university  

under the reformed regulations1 to add  
manly grace to the rude  bodily vigour  
of the ,scottish undergraduate4 ,reid in
 advocating this may  have remembered   
,locke's advice in his ,thoughts on     
,education3 #8,dancing  being that which
 gives graceful motions all the life1   
and above all  things manliness and a   
becoming confidence1 ,i think it cannot 
be learned  too early4 ,but you must be 
sure to have a good master1 that knows  
and can  teach what is graceful and     
becoming1 and that gives a freedom and  
ease to  all the motions of the body4   
,one that teaches not this is worse than
 none  at all4' ,how long this          
civilising art was cultivated in ,reid's
 ,college ,i  have not discovered4      
,in ,aberdeen ,reid found himself in the
 society of persons of more than        
provincial eminence1 destined1 indeed1  
to leave their mark on the thought  and 
literature of ,scotland4 ,the ,chair of 
,medicine in his ,college was  occupied 
by his cousin1 ,dr4 ,john ,gregory1 a   

successful observer of  external nature 
and man4 ,in ,marischal ,college1       
,thomas ,blackwell1 the  ,professor of  
,greek when ,reid was an undergraduate1 
was now ,principal2  soon followed by   
,george ,campbell1 who became the       
philosophical theologian  of the ,church
 of ,scotland1 by his criticism of      
,hume's reasoning about  miracles1 and a
 master in literary1 biblical1 and      
ecclesiastical  criticism1--in his      
,philosophy of ,rhetoric1 his           
,translation of the  ,gospels1 and his  
,history of the development of the      
,christian ,church4  ,campbell was nine 
years younger than ,reid1 like him an   
alumnus of  ,marischal ,college2 he had 
been minister of ,banchory-,ternan for  
nine  years before he was called to     
,aberdeen4 ,he rivalled ,reid himself in
  analytic power and calm1 candid1      
luminous reasoning4 ,alexander ,gerard1 
like ,reid1 a ,university reformer1 and 
author of essays on #8,taste' and on    
#8,genius1' was ,professor of           

,philosophy in ,marischal ,college1 and 
then of  ,divinity there1 and afterwards
 at ,king's4 ,there was ,william        
,duncan1 too1  whose ,logic was for a   
time in vogue in ,scottish              
,universities--a regent  in ,marischal  
,college when ,reid began to teach      
philosophy at ,king's2 and  ,reid's     
lifelong friend ,stewart was still in   
the ,chair of ,mathematics4  ,perhaps   
the most widely known ,aberdonian when  
he lived was ,james ,beattie1  poet more
 than philosopher1 ,professor of ,logic 
and ,moral ,philosophy  in ,marischal   
,college1 whose essay on #8,truth' gave 
him a name in the  intellectual world1  
while the grace and pathos of the       
#8,minstrel' and the  #8,hermit'        
appealed to a wider class1 and secured a
 popular reputation4  ,aberdeen and its 
neighbourhood were then the home also of
 accomplished  physicians and           
naturalists and scholars--,skenes and   
,ogilvies1 ,dunbars and  ,gordons4      
,as ,i have said1 ,reid's first years at

 ,king's ,college were much given  to   
academical reform4 ,his later years     
there were distinguished by his         
connection with a ,society for          
philosophical inquiry1 then quickened in
  ,scotland by the fashionable          
scepticism of ,david ,hume4 ,reid and   
,gregory  originated this #8,aberdeen   
,philosophical ,society1' or #8,wise    
,club1' as it  was called4 ,it was the  
parent of some of the most remarkable   
books in  ,scottish philosophical       
literature in the latter part of last   
century4  ,the first meeting was on     
,january #ab1 #ageh1 and the last was in
 ,february  #aggc4 ,the original members
 were ,dr4 ,john ,gregory1 ,dr4 ,david  
,skene1  ,professor ,john ,stewart1 ,mr4
 ,robert ,trail1 the ,rev4 ,george      
,campbell1 and  ,mr4 ,thomas ,reid2 to  
whom in the same year were added the    
,rev4 ,alexander  ,gerard1 the ,rev4    
,john ,farquhar1 ,mr4 ,charles ,gordon1 
and ,mr4 ,john ,kerr4  ,james ,beattie  
joined them in #agfj1 ,dr4 ,george      

,skene and ,mr4 ,william  ,ogilvie in   
#agfc1 ,mr4 ,james ,dunbar in #agfe1 and
 ,mr4 ,william ,trail in #agff4  ,reid  
was secretary of the ,society1 and the  
minutes for many years are  in his      
handwriting4 ,it met once a fortnight on
 the second and fourth  ,wednesdays of  
each month4 #8,the members1' ,sir ,w4   
,forbes tells us in his  ,life of       
,beattie1 #8met at five o'clock in the  
evening--for in those days  at ,aberdeen
 it was the custom to dine early--when  
one of the members1  as president1 took 
the chair1 and left it at half an hour  
after eight1  when they partook of a    
slight and inexpensive collation1 and at
 ten  o'clock they separated4' ,at these
 meetings it appears that part of the   
evening's entertainment was the reading 
of a short essay1 composed by  one of   
the members in his turn4 ,besides these 
discourses1 a literary or  philosophical
 question was proposed each night1 for  
discussion at the  next meeting4 ,and it
 was the duty of the proposer of the    

question to open  the discussion2 by    
him1 also1 the opinions of the members  
who took a part  in it were digested    
into an abstract1 which was engrossed in
 the album  of the ,society4 ,i am told 
that the ,lion ,inn1 on the ,spital     
,hill near  ,reid's manse1 and sometimes
 the ,lemon ,tree ,inn1 in the new town1
 were  the usual places of meeting4 ,the
 common attendance was five or six4 ,one
  of the rules enjoined moderation and  
forbade toasts4    ,the meetings were   
given partly to essays by the members1  
and partly to  oral discussions of      
proposed questions4 #8,philosophy1'     
according to the  rules1 #8comprehends  
every principle of science which may be 
deduced by  just or lawful induction    
from the phenomena either of the human  
mind or  of the material world4'        
,perhaps no society of the kind in this 
country  has fulfilled its end so well4 
,the #8,rankenian ,club' and the        
#8,select  ,society' in ,edinburgh      
lasted longer1 or enrolled more members1

 but  neither of them was the parent of 
so much good literature4 ,the           
#8,inquiry'  of ,reid1 ,beattie's essay 
on #8,truth1' ,gerard on #8,taste' and  
on #8,genius1'  and ,campbell's books on
 #8,miracles' and on #8,rhetoric' appear
 in fragments  or in germ in the minutes
 of the #8,wise ,club' of ,aberdeen4    
,its vitality  was sustained and        
stimulated by the sceptical speculations
 of ,hume1 which  were much in touch    
with educated opinion in the third      
quarter of last  century1 when spiritual
 philosophy was languid in ,britain and 
throughout  the world4 ,the tone of     
those engaged in the philosophical      
vindication of  belief appears in one of
 ,reid's letters1 who writes thus to    
,david ,hume in  #agfc3--        #8,your
 friendly adversaries1 ,drs4 ,campbell  
and ,gerard1 as well      as ,dr4       
,gregory1 return their compliments to   
you respectfully4      ,a little        
,philosophical ,society here1 of which  
all three are      members1 is much     

indebted to you for its entertainment4  
,your      company1 although we are all 
good ,christians1 would be more         
acceptable than that of ,athanasius2 and
 since we cannot have      you upon the 
bench1 you are brought oftener than any 
other man      to the bar2 accused and  
defended with great zeal1 but without   
bitterness4 ,if you write no more in    
morals1 politics1 and      metaphysics1 
,i am afraid we shall be at a loss for  
subjects4'    ,it is interesting to find
 in the records of the ,society the     
subjects of  the dissertations          
contributed by ,reid during the six     
years in which he  was its mainspring1#i
 as well as the questions which he      
proposed for  debate4 ,they signally    
illustrate the course of his thoughts in
 these  years4 ,on ,may #bd1 #ageh1     
#8,mr4 ,reid intimat that he designed as
 the subject  of his discourse some     
,observations on the ,philosophy of the 
,mind1 and  particularly on the         
,perceptions we have by ,sight4' ,on    

,june #ag1 #ageh1 he  read a paper #8,on
 the ,difficulty of a just ,philosophy  
of the ,human ,mind2  ,general          
,prejudices against ,d----d 7sic7       
,hume's ,system of the ,mind2 and  some 
,observations on the ,perceptions we    
have by ,sight4' ,on ,march #ad1  #agei1
 he presented an #8,analysis of the     
,sensations of ,smell and ,taste4'  ,on 
#bfth ,february #agfj #8,mr4 ,reid      
intimat that in his discourse he was  to
 continue his ,analysis of the ,senses'2
 and accordingly1 on the #bjth  of      
,august in the same year1 he gave notice
 of his intention of #8taking  ,dr4     
,gregory's place and reading a paper on 
the ,sense of ,touch4' ,in ,july  #agfa 
he appears with a paper on the          
#8,transit of ,venus' in that year2  and
 on the #bfth ,january #agfb he gives a 
#8,valedictory ,address1' as first      
annual president of the ,society 7the   
members having previously taken the     
chair by rotation7--on #8,euclid's      
,definitions and ,axioms1' in which he  

returns to the favourite studies of his 
youth4 ,in #agfa he had resumed  his    
investigation of the ,senses1 for in    
,september he is credited with  another 
paper on the #8,sense of ,seeing4' ,his 
last contribution1 in ,october  #agfb1  
was on #8,perception1' which summed up  
his characteristic work in the          
,society4 ,and after reading this paper1
 #8,mr4 ,reid declined to give it for   
insertion in the ,records1 in regard    
that he proposed soon to send it to  the
 press1 along with some other discourses
 which he had read before the           
,society4' ,a minute on #bhth ,october  
#agfd announces that1 #8as ,dr4 ,reid   
has  left this country1 no discourse is 
to be expected from him4'    ,the       
following ,questions for debate were    
proposed by ,reid during the  six years 
of his membership3--#ageh1 #acth and    
#bfth ,july1 #8,are the ,objects  of the
 ,human ,mind properly divided into     
,impressions and ,ideas2 and must  every
 ,idea be a copy of a preceding         

,impression8' ,this closely touches the 
fundamental assumption of the sceptical 
philosophy4 ,those which follow  suggest
 a disposition to ethical and social    
discussion4 #abth ,june #agei1          
#8,whether ,mankind with regard to      
,morals always was and is the same8'    
#ast  ,april #agfj1 #8,whether it is    
proper to educate ,children without     
instilling  ,principles into them of any
 kind whatever8' 7,beattie's celebrated 
experiment in the education of his son  
may be connected with this47 #aeth      
,april #agfa1 #8,whether ,moral         
,character consists in ,affections in   
which the  ,will is not concerned1 or in
 fixed1 habitual1 and constant          
,purposes8' #hth  ,january #agfb1       
#8,whether by the encouragement of      
proper ,laws the ,number  of ,births in 
,great ,britain might be nearly doubled1
 or at least greatly  increased8' ,here 
we have a sort of inverted              
,malthusianism suggested4 #bbnd         
,november #agfc1 #8,whether every       

,action deserving ,moral ,approbation   
must be  done from a persuasion of its  
being morally good8'    ,beattie1 in one
 of his letters to ,sir ,w4 ,forbes1    
thus refers to the  ,society and to his 
own philosophical relation to ,reid3--  
#8,i have of late been much engaged in  
metaphysics2 at least1      ,i have been
 labouring with all my might to overturn
 that      visionary science4 ,i am a   
member of a club in this town who       
style themselves the ,philosophical     
,society4 ,i hope you will not          
think the worse of this ,society when ,i
 tell you1 that to it      the world is 
indebted for a ,comparative ,view of the
 ,faculties      of ,man1 and an        
,inquiry into ,human ,nature on the     
,principles      of ,common ,sense4 ,i  
have shown that all genuine reasoning   
does      ultimately terminate in       
principles which it is impossible to    
disbelieve1 and as impossible to prove2 
that1 therefore1 the      ultimate      
standard of truth to us is ,common      

,sense1 or that      instinctive        
conviction into which all true reasoning
 does      resolve itself2 that         
therefore what contradicts ,common      
,sense is      in itself absurd1 however
 subtle the arguments which support     
it4 ,my principles in the main are not  
essentially different      from ,dr4    
,reid's2 but they seem to offer a more  
compendious      method of destroying   
scepticism4 ,i intend to show 7and have 
already in part shown7 that all         
sophistical reasoning is      marked by 
certain characters which distinguish it 
from true      investigation2 and thus  
,i flatter myself ,i shall be able to   
discover a method of detecting          
sophistry1 even when one is not         
able to give a logical confutation of   
its arguments4'    ,beattie argued more 
in the temper of a partisan than ,reid1 
who criticised  ,hume in the spirit of a
 free and candid inquirer after truth4  
,on the #ahth of ,january #agfb the     
honorary ,doctorate of ,divinity was    

conferred on ,reid by ,marischal        
,college4    ,his fame was now more than
 local4 ,in ,december #agfc he accepted 
the  invitation of the ,university of   
,glasgow to fill the ,chair of ,moral   
,philosophy which ,adam ,smith had      
resigned4 ,before he entered on this new
  career he had given to the world an   
,inquiry into the ,human ,mind on  the  
,principles of ,common ,sense4 ,this    
classic work embodies the result  of    
twenty years of steady reflection at    
,new ,machar and ,aberdeen1 in  quest of
 the actual foundation of human         
knowledge4 ,before we follow  him to    
,glasgow1 we must examine this issue of 
his intellectual life in                
,aberdeenshire--due to the challenge of 
modern agnosticism in the person of     
,david ,hume4          ,,chapter ,v     
,,universal ,,scepticism ,,versus       
,,inspired ,,common ,,sense3 ,,an       
#8,,inquiry ,,into ,,the  ,,human ,,mind
 ,,on ,,the ,,principles ,,of ,,common  
,,sense'    #agfd      ,as early as     

,october #agfb1 as we have seen1 ,reid  
had given signs of an  intention to     
offer the world some results of his     
meditations regarding  the foundations  
of belief4 ,accordingly1 in the end of  
the following  year1 he produced his    
first book1 ,an ,inquiry into the ,human
 ,mind  on the ,principles of ,common   
,sense4 ,its motto expresses its leading
  argument--#8,the inspiration of the   
,almighty giveth them understanding4'   
,for it was to the inspirations1 or     
revelations1 of what he called the      
#8common sense' or #8common judgment1'  
regarded as the root of any human       
understanding of man and his            
environment1 that he made his final     
appeal  against the all-embracing doubt 
of ,hume4 ,this was the rock on which he
  took his stand in the universal       
deluge4    ,reid was now in his         
fifty-fourth year4 ,hitherto his modesty
 had concealed  his strength from all   
but a few friends4 ,his book was        
concerned with  questions that were not 

likely to withdraw him rapidly from     
#8the  obscurity of a learned           
retirement4' ,the ,inquiry1 with its    
appeal to  the final reason latent in   
human nature1 is not to be interpreted  
as an  appeal to popular opinion against
 theories of philosophers4 ,in fact1 its
  implied argument is not obvious to    
popular intelligence1 although it is    
profoundly connected with all the chief 
interests of human life4 ,great  books  
of this sort attract only the few who   
think4 ,his brother-in-law1  ,mr4 ,rose1
 mentions that #8,alexander ,millar1 the
 ,london bookseller1 being  in ,aberdeen
 at this time1 and in company with ,dr4 
,reid1 protested against  books in      
metaphysics as bad bargains for         
publishers2 by which he said he  had    
himself lost money1 but never gained    
any4 ,notwithstanding1 ,dr4 ,reid1      
having his ,inquiry ready for           
publication1 sold it to ,mr4 ,millar for
  #ej4 ,when his friends bantered him   
upon the small sum he had received  for 

so valuable a performance1 he jocosely  
replied1 8,i think it is well           
sold40'#aj    ,another parallel here    
occurs between ,reid and ,kant4 ,the    
,kritik of ,pure  ,reason1 ,kant's first
 great work1 appeared in #agha1 when he 
was in his  fifty-seventh year4 ,so1    
too1 with ,locke1 who inaugurated the   
era of  modern thought in which ,reid   
and ,kant are chief figures4 ,his       
,essay1  like ,reid's ,inquiry1 was the 
first fruit of twenty years of          
reflective  thought1 and it too made its
 appearance when its author was in his  
fifty-seventh year4 ,it is curious to   
contrast the balanced caution and       
moderation of these long pondered       
treatises with the more paradoxical     
productions of others1 whose            
intellectual ardour and impatience      
speedily  committed them to             
all-comprehensive systems4 ,descartes1  
at forty1 with  his provisional doubt   
and reconstruction on a slender         
foundation2  ,spinoza1 younger still1   

with his rational evolution of the      
universe from  a single substance2      
,berkeley with his analysis of the      
material world  into significant ideas1 
delivered at the age of twenty-five with
 the  impetuous enthusiasm of ,irish    
juvenile genius2 and ,david ,hume with  
his  universal disintegration of human  
knowledge and belief1 planned before  he
 was one-and-twenty1 composed before he 
was twenty-five1 and eagerly  given to  
the world in his twenty-eighth year4    
,reid1 with his #8good  and well-wearing
 parts1' characteristically represents  
the restrained  authorship of those who 
treat our short life on this planet as  
short  enough for well-weighed answers  
to the final questions about life and   
the  universe4    ,as ,reid's ,inquiry  
was really an appeal to human nature in 
arrest of  ,hume's intellectual suicide1
 he desired1 before presenting it to the
  world1 to submit the argument         
privately to the ,edinburgh sceptic4    
,this  was done through their common    

friend ,dr4 ,blair4 ,after ,hume had    
read  portions of the manuscript1 he    
wrote this courteous letter to ,reid on 
,feb4 #be1 #agfc3--        #8,by ,dr4   
,blair's means ,i have been favoured    
with the perusal of      your           
performance1 which ,i have read with    
great pleasure and      attention4 ,it  
is certainly very rare that a piece so  
deeply      philosophical is wrote with 
so much spirit1 and affords so      much
 entertainment to the reader1 though ,i 
must still regret      the disadvantages
 under which ,i read it1 as ,i never had
 the      whole performance at once     
before me1 and could not be able      to
 compare one part with another4 ,to this
 reason chiefly ,i      ascribe some    
obscurities which1 in spite of your     
short analysis      and abstract1 seem  
to hang over your system2 for ,i must do
      you the justice to own that when  
,i enter into your ideas1 no      man   
appears to express himself with greater 
perspicuity than      you do1 a talent  

which above all others is requisite in  
that      species of literature which   
you have cultivated4 ,there are         
some objections which ,i would willingly
 propose to the chapter      8,of       
,sight10 did ,i not suspect that they   
arise from my not      sufficiently     
understanding it4 ,i shall therefore    
forbear till      the whole can lie     
before me1 and shall not at present     
propose      any further difficulties to
 your reasonings4 ,i shall only say     
that if you have been able to clear up  
these abstruse and      important       
subjects1 instead of being mortified1 ,i
 shall be so      vain as to pretend to 
a share of the praise2 and shall think  
that my errors1 by having at least some 
coherence1 have led you      to make a  
more strict review of my principles1    
which were the      common ones1 and to 
perceive their futility4'    ,in his    
reply to this letter ,reid recognises   
the debt which philosophy  owes to the  
sceptical criticism of ,hume4 ,he writes

 thus to ,hume3--                       
#8,,king',s ,,college1 #ahth ,march     
#agfc4        #8,,sir1--,on ,monday last
 ,mr4 ,john ,farquhar brought me your   
letter      of ,february #beth1 enclosed
 in one from ,dr4 ,blair4 ,i thought    
myself very happy in having the means of
 obtaining1 at second      hand1 through
 the friendship of ,dr4 ,blair1 your    
opinion of      my performance2 and you 
have been pleased to communicate it     
directly in so polite and friendly a    
manner as merits great                  
acknowledgments on my part4        #8,in
 attempting to throw some light on these
 abstruse subjects1      ,i wish to     
preserve the due mean between confidence
 and despair4      ,but whether ,i have 
any success in this attempt or not1 ,i  
shall      always avow myself your      
disciple in metaphysics4 ,i have learned
      more from your writings in this   
kind than from all others put           
together4 ,your system appears to me not
 only coherent in all      its parts1   

but likewise justly deduced from        
principles commonly      received among 
philosophers1--principles which ,i never
 thought      of calling in question1   
until the conclusions you draw from     
them in the ,treatise of ,human ,nature 
made me suspect them4      ,if these    
principles are solid your system must   
stand2 and      whether they are or not 
can better be judged after you have     
brought to light the whole system that  
grows out of them1      than when the   
greater part of it was wrapped up in    
clouds and      darkness4 ,i agree with 
you therefore1 that if this system shall
      ever be demolished1 you have a    
just claim to a great share      of the 
praise1 both because you have made it a 
distinct and      determinate mark to be
 aimed at1 and have furnished proper    
artillery for the purpose4 ,when you    
have seen the whole of my               
performance1 ,i shall take it as a very 
great favour to have      your opinion  
upon it1 from which ,i make no doubt of 

receiving      light1 whether ,i receive
 conviction or no4'    ,hume's          
philosophy being the suicide of         
intelligence1 can hardly be  spoken of  
as a #8system4' ,it is not constructive1
 but wholly destructive1  and therefore 
a negation of system1 philosophic or    
other1 in a finally  speechless and     
motionless agnostic doubt4    ,hume's   
letter to ,reid was his only rejoinder  
to the ,inquiry4 ,in #agfc  he had      
ceased to produce philosophical books4  
,his recognition of the  #8deeply       
philosophical' nature of ,reid's        
argument is a testimony to the  worth of
 the work on which ,reid's literary     
reputation chiefly rests4  ,the #8share 
of the praise' which ,hume claims1 ,reid
 was ready to concede4  #8,i hope1' he  
says in the ,dedication of the ,inquiry1
 #8,i hope that the  author of this     
sceptical system wrote it in the belief 
that it would be  useful to mankind4    
,and perhaps it may prove so at last4   
,for ,i conceive  the sceptical writers 

to be a set of men whose business it is 
to pick  holes in the fabric of         
knowledge wherever it is weak and       
faulty2 and  when those places are      
properly repaired1 the whole building   
becomes more  firm and solid than it was
 formerly'4 ,and1 in fact1 the          
intellectual  progress of mankind has   
been sustained by an alternation of     
sceptical and  conservative             
philosophies4    ,after prolonged       
cogitation1 the #8weak and faulty' place
 in the #8fabric'  of modern philosophy 
seemed to ,reid to lie in an unproved   
assumption with  which modern           
philosophers set out in their           
speculations4 ,for they took  for       
granted that only the sensations and    
ideas within each mind could be         
perceived3 yet we naturally #8believe   
that we are seeing and handling the     
very outward things themselves' that    
make what is called the material  world4
 ,if the philosophers are right1 we have
 no immediate revelation of  the        

qualities of outward things1 and no     
evidence of their existence1  except the
 succession of changing sensations and  
ideas of sensations  which alone are    
presented to us4 ,i can never directly  
encounter an  external object4 ,what ,i 
suppose to be outward is all in my mind4
 ,with  a world thus imprisoned within  
me1 is there any legitimate way through 
which ,i can assure myself of realities 
outside my mind1 including other  living
 persons who have their own sensations  
and ideas as much as ,i have  mine1 but 
numerically different from my private   
stock8 ,if not1 grave  consequences     
seemed to follow3 faith and hope must   
die out of human life4  ,so ,reid       
argued4    ,the ,treatise of ,human     
,nature was the scarecrow that warned   
,reid of the  destructive consequences  
of this assumption1 that we are shut up 
among  our own ideas2 as he had himself 
in youth been taught to believe1 and  by
 which he had been led on to ,berkeley's
 conception of a wholly ideal  material 

world4 ,he now began to see this ideal  
material world of ,berkeley  in a new   
light4 ,it seemed to leave him alone in 
the universe of his  own mind4 ,the     
ideal matter of ,berkeley cannot1 he    
argued1 inform me of  the existence of  
other living persons3 what ,i have      
supposed to be other  persons must be1  
like the rest1 only some of my own      
ideas4 ,if ,i allow  that my own        
sensations and ideas are my only        
possible original data1 ,i  cannot from 
such transitory phantoms infer the real 
existence of other  persons4 ,with this 
starting-point as my only one1 the whole
 universe  naturally supposed to        
surround me--bodies and spirits1 friends
 and  relations1 all dead things and all
 living persons--acknowledged by common 
judgment to have a permanent existence1 
whether ,i am having ideas of them  or  
not--vanish at once4 ,my private        
sensations and ideas can never really   
signify to me the existence of other    
conscious beings2 only what might  be   

called public ideas1 common to other    
minds and to me1 could do this4  ,and   
such objects are not properly called    
#8ideas'--public or private2 they  are  
dead things and living persons2 they    
exist whether ,i individually  have     
sensations and ideas or not4 ,in short1 
,reid could find nothing in  ,berkeley's
 philosophical theory--as he interpreted
 it#aa--which afforded  even probable   
ground for concluding that there were in
 existence other  intelligent           
beings--fathers1 brothers1 friends1 or  
fellow-citizens4 #8,i am  left alone1'  
the only creature of ,god1 in that      
forlorn state of egoism  into which it  
was said some of the disciples of       
,descartes were brought by  this same   
preliminary assumption of their         
master--a sufficient reductio  ad       
absurdum of the favourite postulate     
which leads to it4 ,to act upon  it     
would argue insanity in the agent2 it   
must therefore be empty verbal          
speculation4 ,so ,reid further argued4  

,but even this solitude is not the last 
issue of ,reid's bte noire4  ,the system
 in which ,i have been educated1 he     
said1 not only leaves me  absolutely    
alone2 it extinguishes me1 along with   
the external universe  of things and    
persons2 it is at last literally        
suicidal4 ,it transforms  persistent    
personal existence into a mere          
succession of unconnected  sensations   
and ideas4 ,if the magic circle of      
sensations and ideas1 within  a self    
that persists amidst perpetual changes1 
cannot be broken through1  then even    
this supposed #8self' must be an        
illusion1 and the word self  must be    
meaningless4 ,the personal pronoun      
#8,i1' as well as the personal  pronoun 
#8you1' are both alike unmeaning4 ,the  
universe resolves at last1  not merely  
into sensations that are all referable  
to myself1 but into  sensations without 
any self--into isolated                 
sensations--which seem indeed to  follow
 one another in an orderly way1 but     

without any guarantee that the  seeming 
order is more than transitory1 or that  
the illusory cosmos may  not at any     
moment become chaos4    ,is there       
nothing within the resources of reason  
to arrest this  intellectual suicide8   
,has reason got anything to show in     
justification  of this preliminary      
sacrifice of a conviction on which men  
have to  act1 whatever their theories   
may be8 ,must ,i surrender the          
conviction1  that when ,i am seeing or  
touching ,i am actually having revealed 
to me  something that is extended and   
solid1 and that1 as such1 must be more  
and other than the private sensations   
and ideas of the person that is  seeing 
and touching8 ,must this conviction1 and
 others like it1 on which  human        
experience practically depends1 be all  
sacrificed on the altar of  authority   
and conjecture8    ,this had been the   
question around which ,reid's thoughts  
were revolving  in the twenty years     
preceding the publication of his book4  

#8,for my own  satisfaction1' he tells  
us1 #8,i entered into a serious         
examination of  the principles upon     
which this sceptical system is built2   
and was not  a little surprised to find 
that it leans with its whole weight upon
 a  hypothesis which is ancient indeed1 
and hath been very generally received   
by philosophers1 but of which ,i could  
find no solid proof4 ,the hypothesis  ,i
 mean is--that we do not really perceive
 things that are external1 but  only    
certain images and pictures of them     
imprinted upon the mind1 which  are     
called 8impressions0 and 8ideas40 ,i    
thought it unreasonable1 upon the       
authority of philosophers1 to admit an  
hypothesis which1 in my opinion1        
overturns all philosophy2 all religion  
and virtue1 and all common sense2  and  
,i resolved to inquire into this subject
 anew1 without regard to any            
hypothesis4'    ,to accept as a         
spiritual fact the judgment of human    
nature1 which  assures me that when ,i  

am seeing or touching ,i am #8face to   
face' with a  reality that exists       
independently of my changing sensations 
or ideas1  instead of trying in vain by 
reasoning to prove the existence of this
  reality by means of intervening       
sensations and ideas1--this was the     
alternative he adopted4 ,i dismiss the  
unwarranted supposition that only  my   
own mind and its invisible contents can 
be immediately manifested  to me2 and ,i
 fall back on the perception ,i have of 
something solid and  extended1 and      
therefore more and other than a mere    
sensation or idea1  as what is present  
to me when ,i see and touch4            
,recognition of the fact  that our five 
senses somehow bring us into a          
consciousness of what is  neither a     
transitory sensation nor an idea of a   
sensation1 but something  independent of
 me1 and that would continue to exist   
after ,i individually  had ceased to    
exist--this recognition of external     
realities is ,reid's  key to sound      

philosophy4 ,it is a displacement of the
 so-called #8ideas'  of the             
philosophers1 and of fallacious         
inferences founded upon them1  and a    
substitution of the common reasonable   
sense1 or common judgment  of reason1   
which neither requires nor admits of    
logical proof4 ,reid  might say that    
what is most worth proving cannot be    
logically proved4  ,we all have a direct
 perception of external reality which   
cannot be  eradicated by reasoning4     
,abolition of the prejudice which       
interposed  reasonings founded on unreal
 ideas between our perception and the   
solid  and extended reality1 seemed to  
,reid1 in virtue of its far-reaching    
consequences1 to be the chief good he   
had as a philosopher secured to         
mankind4 ,in his old age he writes thus 
to ,dr4 ,gregory3--        #8,the merit 
of what you are pleased to call my      
philosophy      lies1 ,i think1 chiefly 
in having called in question the common 
theory of ideas1 or images of things in 

the mind1 being the      only objects of
 thought--a theory founded on natural   
prejudices1      and so universally     
received as to be interwoven with the   
structure of language4 ,yet1 were ,i to 
give you a detail of what      led me to
 call in question this theory1 after ,i 
had long held      it as self-evident   
and unquestionable1 you would think1 as 
,i      do1 that there was much of      
chance in the matter4 ,the discovery    
was the birth of time1 not of genius2   
and ,berkeley and ,hume      did more to
 bring it to light than the man that hit
 upon it4      ,i think there is hardly 
anything that can be called mine in     
the philosophy of mind which does not   
follow with ease from the      detection
 of this prejudice4'    ,yet ,reid's    
,inquiry has been condemned as an       
unphilosophical appeal  from the        
thoughtful to vulgar intelligence1      
making the unreflecting many  supreme   
judges in questions intelligible only to
 the reflecting few4 ,his  employment of

 #8common sense' to express the         
regulative principle of his  philosophy 
would put his book outside philosophical
 literature1 if this  term were taken as
 a synonym for unreasoned opinion--the  
average judgments  of the man in the    
street4 ,reid's own account of what he  
means by common  sense1 not to speak of 
,hume's recognition of the #8deeply     
philosophical'  character of the        
argument in the ,inquiry1 should protect
 him against  this imputation4 ,he      
describes the common sense to which he  
constantly  appeals as #8the first      
degree of reason1' and as having for its
 office #8to  judge of things           
self-evident4' ,as such1 he contrasts it
 with reasoning1  or #8the second degree
 of reason1 which draws conclusions that
 are not  self-evident from the         
self-evident judgments of the common    
sense4' ,this  distinction between the  
common rational sense1 on which a       
knowledge  of the universe1 like the    
human1 which falls short of omniscience1

  must ultimately turn1 and those       
judgments that are reached by logical   
reasoning1 corresponds to what the      
,greeks distinguished as noetic and     
dianoetic power of reason in man4       
,reid's genuine judgments of the common 
sense may be regarded as the divinely   
inspired response to questions  which   
can be determined for man only by this  
ideal man latent in us  all--judgments  
verified by the insanity that is implied
 in resisting them  in our actions4     
,as obtrusive examples of judgments of  
the common sense1 ,reid takes  the      
logically undemonstrable convictions    
7#a7 of the existence of  things        
external to and independent of me and my
 perceptions2 7#b7 of my  individual    
personal existence1 and continuous      
personal identity2 and 7#c7  of the     
uniformity1 and therefore               
interpretability1 of nature1 implying   
that ,i may form conclusions about what 
,i have not experienced by what ,i  have
 experienced4 ,i cannot demonstrate the 

truth of these judgments3 ,i  can only  
justify them in reason by showing that  
human nature responds  to them1 and     
forbids me to reject them in my actions1
 on pain of being  judged a lunatic1    
whatever ,i may say in my speculative   
theories4 #8,such  original and natural 
judgments1' he says1 #8are part of the  
furniture  which nature hath given to   
the human understanding4 ,they are the  
inspiration of the ,almighty4 ,they     
serve to direct us in the common        
affairs of life1 when our reasoning     
faculty would leave us in the dark2     
they are part of our constitution2 all  
the discoveries of our reason  are      
grounded upon them2 they make up what is
 called the common sense  of mankind4 ,a
 remarkable deviation from them1 arising
 from a disorder  in the constitution1  
is what we call lunacy1 as when a man   
believes  that he is made of glass4     
,when a man suffers himself to be       
reasoned out  of the principles of      
common sense by metaphysical arguments1 

we call  it metaphysical lunacy1 which  
differs from the other species of the   
distemper in this1 that it is not       
continued1 but intermittent2 it is apt  
to seize the patient in solitary and    
speculative moments2 but when he  enters
 into sanity1 ,common ,sense recovers   
her authority4'    ,it is the first of  
these three examples of the common sense
 that is  the subject of the            
,inquiry--intended as preliminary to    
others which  may follow4 #8,a clear    
enumeration and explication of the      
principles of  common sense' was        
henceforward ,reid's ultimate aim2 but  
thus far he  took those involved in our 
experience when we are tasting1 or      
smelling1  or hearing1 or touching1 or  
seeing4 ,as axioms and definitions are  
the  preliminaries of abstract          
mathematical reasonings1 so our sensuous
  perceptions through the five senses   
are the preliminaries to reasonings     
about concrete realities in the world of
 change4 ,the leading principle  of the 

,inquiry is1 that something extended1   
solid1 and movable is  directly         
manifested in our sensuous experiences1 
equally with the direct  manifestations 
of our own sensations and other feelings
 when we are  conscious of them2 and    
also that we are obliged by common sense
 to regard  extended1 solid1 and movable
 things as other than mere transitory   
sensation or idea4 ,extended things1    
large or small1 refuse to be melted     
down into sensations or states of one's 
private consciousness4 ,take this       
specimen of philosophical argument for  
accepting perceptions which cannot  be  
logically demonstrated1 but which the   
common sense of human nature  refuses to
 reject3--        #8,suppose ,i am      
pricked with a pin1 ,i ask1 is the pain 
,i feel      a sensation8 ,undoubtedly  
it is4 ,there can be nothing that       
resembles pain in an inanimate thing3   
the pain must be in me1      a living   
being4 ,but ,i ask again1 is the pin a  
sensation8 ,to      this question ,i    

feel myself under a necessity of        
answering that      the pin is not a    
sensation1 nor can have the least       
resemblance      to any sensation4 ,the 
pin has length and thickness1 figure and
      weight4 ,a sensation can have none
 of these qualities4 ,i am      not more
 certain that the pain ,i feel is a     
sensation than      that the pin is not 
a sensation4 ,yet the pin is an object  
of sense2 and ,i am as certain that ,i  
perceive its figure and      hardness by
 my senses as that ,i feel pain when ,i 
am pricked by      it4'    ,this is to  
say that if1 with the philosophers1 ,i  
call the pin as well  as the pain a     
sensation or an idea1 ,i must mean by   
#8sensation' and  #8idea1' when ,i apply
 those words to the pin1 not a private  
self-contained  feeling or a fancy1 in  
which ,i am only manifesting my         
conscious self1  but 7so to speak7 a    
public sensation or idea--perceivable by
 other  persons as well as by me--a     
manifestation1 in short1 of what is     

outside  my mind--of something that     
exists permanently in space and not     
transitorily in me--and that is thus fit
 to be a medium of communication        
between me and other living persons1    
informing me of their existence and  in 
some measure of their thoughts--all     
which 7,reid takes for granted7  each   
person's private feelings and fancies   
could not do4 ,but to employ  the words 
#8sensation' and #8idea' in this new    
meaning1 and to speak of  an idea as    
public or external1 would be an abuse of
 language4 ,we must  mark1 always by    
appropriate words1 distinctions which we
 are obliged to  acknowledge in fact4   
,the inspirations or revelations of the 
common sense1  in and through which the 
,almighty ,power gives us an            
understanding of the  life and world in 
which we find ourselves1 inspirations in
 which all men  are believed more or    
less to participate1 require us to      
distinguish the  solid and extended pin1
 as something public or outward1 in     

contrast  to the private feeling of     
pain1 of which no one except the person 
who  feels it is conscious4 ,i am thus  
obliged to recognise more in existence  
than my own sensations and ideas--as    
much obliged as ,i am to recognise  my  
sensations and ideas themselves when ,i 
am conscious of them4 ,only so  can ,i  
find myself living in an environment    
that is capable of signifying  the      
contemporaneous life1 and some of the   
thoughts and feelings of other  persons4
 ,in all this ,i am only falling back on
 the divine revelations of  the common  
sense4 ,they make me reject in conduct  
what is inconsistent  with them2        
although this natural obligation is all 
the reason ,i can give  in justification
 of my obedience4    ,it is thus that   
,reid recognises his right in reason to 
grasp realities  that are independent of
 his individual self2 and he thinks that
 he  is doing this philosophically by   
getting rid of the unphilosophical      
supposition1 that he needs to work his  

way to them by logical reasoning1       
founded on wholly inward impressions4   
,the true philosophy of perception  with
 him is to discharge the medium1 and at 
once take the bull by the  horns4       
,some may think that the ,inquiry       
represents wasted labour--that the      
#8metaphysical lunacy' which abolishes  
personal pronouns as meaningless  words1
 and inconsistently reasons that all who
 reason must be fools1 is  at the best  
the idle intellectual pastime of persons
 who pretend to be  universal           
sceptics--all which ,reid has taken too 
seriously1 and which  at any rate by its
 self-contradiction refutes itself4 ,for
 it asserts  that assertion is          
impossible4 ,it is an argument that     
concludes for the  rejection of the     
postulates without which it is          
impossible for human  beings to reason  
at all4 ,it is a philosophy that        
destroys itself in  destroying all      
philosophy4 ,the suicide does not need  
to be put to death4    ,yet the suicide1

 doubly slain in the ,inquiry1 may be   
used as a warning  of the consequence of
 doing violence to the genuine common   
sense1 or  ideal man that is latent in  
each man2 especially on subjects in     
which  doubt is easier than in the case 
of outward things and persons4 ,the     
#8metaphysical lunacy' of doubt about   
the existence of other persons  may be  
acknowledged1 while the common sense1   
unawake in its moral  or spiritual      
elements1 fails to protest against      
ethical atheism or  agnosticism4 ,what  
,reid calls the common sense is alive   
consciously  in various degrees1 in     
different persons1 in different         
countries and  periods4 ,a common sense 
of the existence of outward things and  
persons is  practically awake in all    
sane minds4 ,but the spiritual          
convictions1 of  which some are hardly  
conscious1 may be rejected even         
practically without  obvious lunacy4    
,and something is gained for those      
convictions1 if it can  be shown1 as a  

reductio ad absurdum1 that their        
rejection involves  the moral sceptic   
too in the #8lunacy' of universal doubt 
and pessimist  despair4    ,that ,reid  
lays much stress on #8calling in        
question the common theory of  ideas or 
images in perception' is explained by   
his assumption1 that this  theory       
involves perversion of the common sense 
even in its preliminary  contact with   
outward things in sense1 thus obviously 
discrediting it as  the final court of  
appeal in every other instance4 ,it may 
in this way be  taken as a plea for a   
more faithful adherence on the part of  
philosophers  to the genuine            
common-sense judgments1 which can be    
made to respond to an  adequate appeal1 
however dormant they may be in          
individuals4 ,this final  appeal to     
human nature must1 in short1 be to human
 nature as it is in  fact1 not to human 
nature as distorted in hypothesis4      
,for1 after all1 the root of the        
agnosticism which is found in history   

alternating with the final faith of the 
common sense1 lies deeper than  in      
mistaken hypotheses of philosophers     
about our perceptions in sense4  ,reid's
 substitution in philosophy of immediate
 for mediate perception of  matter is   
therefore an inadequate cure4 ,the      
periodically returning doubt  concerns1 
not the outness or inwardness of what is
 revealed to sense1  but the meaning and
 character of the ,power that is at work
 within the  universe of matter and     
mind1 and with which we first come into 
contact  and collision in sense4 ,is it1
 in its final and pervading ,power1 a   
bad  or a good sort of universe that we 
open our eyes upon1 when we begin to    
exercise our senses8 ,what are its final
 relations to me1 and my final          
relations to it8 ,nobody doubts the     
existence of things and persons1 so  far
 as they are revealed to the senses4    
,but what is our implied ,common  ,sense
 of the final meaning of the ,whole8 ,am
 ,i to put an optimist or a  pessimist  

ultimate interpretation upon it all8    
,the lurid mixture of pain  and         
pleasure1 evil and good1 presented by   
the animated world1 combined  with      
spiritually dormant common sense in     
individual men1--is surely a more       
potent factor of agnostic doubt than an 
erroneous account of perception  in     
circulation among persons who speculate4
    ,reid's course of thought amidst new
 surroundings in ,glasgow brought him   
nearer to the source and corrective of  
the scepticism that is aroused by  the  
suspicious-looking universe of mingled  
good and evil1 to which our  sense      
perceptions introduce us4               
,,chapter ,,vi    ,,glasgow ,,college3  
,,the ,,professor ,,of ,,moral          
,,philosophy    #agfd-aghj      ,in     
,november #agfd we find ,reid1 now      
almost fifty-five years of age1 in  the 
,chair of ,moral ,philosophy in the ,old
 ,college in the ,high ,street of       
,glasgow4 ,the ,reid family lived then1 
and for two years after1 not in the     

,professors' ,court within the ,college1
 but a quarter of a mile away1 in an    
old-fashioned street called the         
,drygate4#ab ,the manuscript in the     
family  bible records that ,reid was    
admitted to the ,glasgow professorship  
on the  #abth of ,june4 ,he carried with
 him from the quaint manse in ,aberdeen 
to  his new home in the ,drygate1 his   
wife1 three daughters1 all above twenty 
years of age1 and two boys2 they left   
three infant children buried in         
,aberdeenshire4 ,the ,glasgow ,chair    
supplied an income1 including fees1     
somewhat in advance of the ,aberdeen    
regency2 and its duties required        
concentrated study of intellectual and  
moral agency in man1 instead of  the    
dispersion over a wide range of the     
phenomena and laws of matter  and mind  
which was necessary in ,king's ,college4
 ,yet it was #8not without  reluctance1'
 we are told1 that he consented to tear 
himself from a spot  where he had so    
long been fastening his roots2 and much 

as he loved the  society in which he    
passed the remainder of his days1 the   
advantages of  the change hardly        
compensated for the sacrifice of feeling
 caused by the  break in his early      
habits and associations4    ,glasgow in 
#ahih is even more changed from ,glasgow
 in #agfd than ,aberdeen  when ,reid    
lived in it from ,aberdeen as it is now4
 ,to-day ,glasgow is the  second city in
 ,britain1 with nearly a million of     
people1 the industrial  metropolis of   
the north1 with all the stir of         
industrial life4 ,it was  then a        
provincial town with hardly thirty      
thousand inhabitants1 almost            
inaccessible from the sea1 surrounded by
 the cornfields and hedgerows and       
orchards of ,lanarkshire1 its few       
streets converging on the ,cathedral and
  the ,college with their historic      
associations4 #8,glasgow1' according to 
,humphrey ,clinker1 #8is the pride of   
,scotland4 ,it is one of the prettiest  
towns in ,europe4' ,pennant describes it

 as #8the best built of any  second-rate
 city ,i ever saw4 ,the view from the   
,cross has an air of vast               
magnificence4' ,in #agfd it was only    
laying the foundations of its present   
commercial fame4 ,the tobacco trade with
 the ,american plantations1 and  the    
sugar trade with the ,west ,indies1 had 
hardly altered its character  as an     
ancient ,church and ,university town4   
#8,jupiter ,carlyle1' referring  to     
,glasgow before the middle of last      
century1 speaks of #8a few families  of 
ancient citizens who pretended to be    
gentlemen2 and a few others1  recently  
settled1 who had obtained wealth and    
consideration in trade4  ,the rest were 
shopkeepers and mechanics1 who occupied 
large warerooms to  furnish cargoes to  
,virginia4 ,it was then usual for the   
sons of merchants  to attend the        
,college for one or two years1 and a few
 of them completed  their academical    
education4'    ,the ,college in the     
,high ,street1 erected early in the     

seventeenth century1  seemed to ,samuel 
,johnson in #aggc #8without a sufficient
 share in the  magnificence of the      
place4' ,nevertheless he found          
#8learning an object  of wide           
importance1 and the habit of application
 much more general than  in the         
neighbouring ,university of ,edinburgh4'
 ,the two ,college squares1  connected  
with memories of many generations in the
 west of ,scotland1 have  been likened  
to those of ,lincoln ,college in        
,oxford4 ,about the middle  of last     
century from three to four hundred      
students gathered in those  curious old 
courts1 almost all living in apartments 
in the town1 a few  boarded in the      
houses of professors4 ,they wore scarlet
 gowns1 #8most of  which1' when ,wesley 
visited ,glasgow1 #8were very dirty1    
some very ragged1  and all of very      
coarse cloth4' ,the houses of the       
professors formed a  square on the north
 side of the ,college1 built early in   
the eighteenth  century4 ,eastward were 

the ,college gardens and the park1      
through which  the classic ,molendinar  
found its way to the ,clyde4 ,it was a  
quaint and  curious old-world life that 
was then lived in the ,college1 and in  
the  ,high ,street1 passing from the    
,college to the ,cathedral at one end   
and  from the ,college to the ,cross at 
the other4    ,in the half-century      
before ,reid was admitted to his        
,glasgow ,chair1 the  ,university had   
professors of more than ,scottish       
reputation4 ,glasgow is  in fact        
associated with almost all the names    
that adorn the literature  of           
,philosophy in ,scotland in the last    
century and in this4 ,adam ,smith  was  
,reid's immediate predecessor in the    
,chair of ,morals4 ,his ,theory  of     
,moral ,sentiments had been for five    
years before the world when  he resigned
 his professorship to give to literature
 what ,sir ,james  ,mackintosh describes
 as #8perhaps the only book which       
produced an  immediate1 general1 and    

irrevocable change in some of the most  
important  parts of the legislation of  
all civilised states'--fit to be ranked 
with  the classic works of ,grotius1    
,locke1 and ,montesquieu--its author    
#8the  first economical philosopher1 and
 perhaps the most eloquent theoretical  
moralist1 of modern times4' ,smith's    
predecessor was ,francis ,hutcheson1    
author of that ,inquiry into our ,ideas 
of ,beauty and ,virtue which gave  rise 
to ,reid's ,new ,machar essay on        
#8,quantity' in #agdh1 the reputed      
father  of modern philosophy in         
,scotland2--and in the second quarter of
 last  century the most potent agent and
 pioneer of the liberal culture and     
literary taste which made the           
intellectual moderation of the          
eighteenth  century in ,scotland so     
remarkable a contrast to the less       
tolerant  spiritual fervour of the      
seventeenth4 ,this influence was        
continued by  his friend and biographer1
 ,william ,leechman1 the ,principal of  

,glasgow  ,college in #agfd1 still      
remembered as one of the philosophical  
theologians  of the ,church of          
,scotland4 #8,it was owing to ,hutcheson
 and ,leechman1'  says ,carlyle1 #8that 
a new school was formed in the western  
provinces of  ,scotland1 where the      
clergy till that period were narrow and 
bigoted1  and had never ventured to     
range their minds beyond the bounds of  
strict  orthodoxy4 ,for though neither  
of these professors taught any heresy1  
yet they opened and enlarged the minds  
of the students1 which soon gave  them a
 turn for inquiry2 the result of which  
was candour and liberality  of          
sentiment4 ,from experience this freedom
 of thought was not found so  dangerous 
as might at first be apprehended2 for   
though the more daring  youth at first  
made excursions into the unbounded      
regions of metaphysical  perplexity1 yet
 all the more judicious soon returned to
 the lower sphere  of long-established  
truths1 which they found not only more  

subservient to  the good order of       
society1 but necessary to fix their own 
minds in some  degree of stability4'    
,gershom ,carmichael1 too1 is not to be 
forgotten4  ,he was ,hutcheson's        
predecessor1 with an intellectual and   
religious  influence not inconsiderable 
in the opening years of last century1   
author  of a ,latin manual of logic     
which appeared in #agbj1 and a ,synopsis
  ,theologi ,naturalis1 published       
shortly before his death in #agbi1 but  
best known perhaps as editor of         
,puffendorff4    ,reid thus entered     
,glasgow ,college when it was the centre
 of the reviving  philosophical and     
literary activity of ,scotland in the   
modern spirit4  ,he met colleagues and  
fellow-citizens who were in sympathy    
with his own  sincere and independent   
scientific temper4 ,the aged ,simpson1  
restorer of  ancient geometry1 who had  
lately retired from the mathematical    
chair1  which he had adorned for half a 
century1 was a congenial mathematician  

of  ,european fame4 ,joseph ,black1 the 
most celebrated ,british chemist of his 
generation1 was illustrating his own    
discoveries in his ,college lectures1   
and drawing the attention of the world  
to the phenomena of latent heat4  ,the  
vigour and acuteness of ,millar were    
educating a new generation  in          
jurisprudence and statesmanship4 ,moore1
 the author of ,zeluco1  an eminent     
,glasgow physician1 was adding to its   
literary name4 ,the  grandfather1 and   
afterwards the father1 of ,sir ,william 
,hamilton held in  succession the ,chair
 of ,anatomy1 both colleagues of ,reid1 
who might have  been seen in the        
,college ,courts when his future editor 
and commentator  was there in his       
infancy4    ,reid's inaugural lecture as
 ,professor of ,moral ,philosophy1      
delivered  on the #ajth of ,october     
#agfd1 is among his unpublished         
manuscripts at  ,birkwood4 ,the opening 
sentences 7deleted as irrelevant in     
after years7  are not without interest  

in the characteristic modesty and       
candour of the  reference to ,adam      
,smith1 his predecessor3--              
#8,before entering upon the subject of  
my prelections1 there      are some     
things which ,i think proper to lay     
before you1 and      to which ,i beg    
your attention4 ,i doubt not that you   
are      all sensible of the loss which 
the ,university1 and you in             
particular1 sustain by the resignation  
of the learned and      ingenious       
gentleman who last filled this chair4   
,those who      knew him most and had   
most access to attend his prelections1  
and especially those who most profited  
by them1 will be most      sensible of  
their loss4 ,i had not the happiness of 
his personal      acquaintance1 for want
 of opportunity2 though ,i wished for   
it1      and now wish for it far more   
than ever4 ,but ,i could not be a       
stranger to his fame and reputation1 nor
 to the respect with      which his     
lectures from this chair were heard by a

 very crowded      audience4 ,i am much 
a stranger to his system1 unless so far 
as      he hath published it to the     
world4 ,but a man of so great genius    
and penetration must have struck new    
light to the subjects      which he     
treated1 as well as have handled them in
 an excellent      and instructive      
manner4 ,i shall be much obliged to any 
of      you1 gentlemen1 or to any       
others1 who can furnish me with         
notes of his prelections1 whether in    
morals1 jurisprudence1      politics1 or
 rhetorick4 ,i shall always be desirous 
to borrow      light from every quarter1
 and to adopt what appears to me sound  
and solid in every system1 and ready to 
change my opinions      upon conviction1
 or to change my method and materials   
where ,i      can do it to advantage4 ,i
 desire to live no longer than this     
candour and ingenuity1 this openness of 
mind to education and      information1 
live with me4'    ,an apology follows   
for the imperfect preparation of a first

 course1  inadequately provided for by  
the miscellaneous lectures in physics   
and  metaphysics at ,aberdeen4 ,the past
 performance of ,adam ,smith1 and the   
high expectation associated with the new
 professor1 the author of the  ,inquiry1
 were doubtless fresh in the minds of   
the crowded audience  that met on that  
,october morning in the faint light of  
the ,old ,college  class-room4 ,the     
audience1 the new professor1 and his    
predecessor1 have  all now receded into 
the dim distance1 and are seen under the
 cold  light of history4 ,the lectures  
delivered in the years that followed    
are preserved at ,birkwood1 in ,reid's  
valley of the ,dee--lectures on         
,pneumatology1 ,ethics1 ,jurisprudence1 
and ,political ,philosophy--for the     
most part embodied in substance in the  
published ,essays of his old age4       
,reid's placid temperament and          
restrained imagination suggest sober    
unadorned statement1 and cautious       
inference founded on fact1 not fervid   

eloquence1 as the character of his      
prelections4 ,he was more likely slowly 
to influence opinion by his books than  
to startle a youthful audience by       
spoken words4 ,this conjecture is       
confirmed by the account of ,reid in the
  ,glasgow class-room given by ,dugald  
,stewart1 who was among his students  in
 #aggb-gc4 #8,in his elocution and mode 
of instruction1' ,stewart says1  #8there
 was nothing peculiarly attractive4 ,he 
seldom if ever indulged  in the warmth  
of extempore discourse2 nor was his     
manner of reading  calculated to        
increase the effect of what he had      
committed to writing4  ,such1 however1  
was the simplicity and perspicuity of   
his style1 such the  gravity and        
authority of his character1 and such the
 general interest of  his young hearers 
in the doctrines which he taught1 that  
by the numerous  audiences to which his 
instructions were addressed he was heard
 uniformly  with the most silent and    
respectful attention4' ,and this        

delivery of deep  and patient thought1  
regarding the duties and relations of   
man1 and the  foundation of his beliefs1
 was continued in the class-room for    
sixteen  years4    ,as we might expect  
from their mental affinities1 ,reid     
greatly esteemed  the works of ,bishop  
,butler4 ,among the manuscripts at      
,birkwood is an  abstract of the        
,analogy2 and ,butler's ethical writings
 were recommended  to his students as   
the best in the literature of moral     
philosophy1 with  regret to see them    
superseded in ,england by the           
productions of inferior  moralists4 ,in 
tone and method of inquiry ,reid is the 
,butler of ,scotland4  ,and ,butler1    
too1 is the ,reid of ,england in his    
trustful appeals to what  ,reid would   
call the common sense4 ,when ,butler    
asks himself whether we  may not be     
deceived in our natural sense of our    
continuous personal  identity1 he       
replies1 that #8this question may be    
asked at the end of  any demonstration2 

because it is a question concerning the 
truth of  perception by memory4 ,and he 
who can doubt whether perception by     
memory  can in this case be depended on1
 may doubt also whether perception1 by  
reasoning1 or indeed whether any        
intuitive perception1 can4 ,here then we
  can go no further4 ,for it is         
ridiculous to attempt to prove the truth
  of those perceptions1 whose truth we  
can no otherwise prove than by other    
perceptions which there is just the same
 ground to suspect2 or to attempt  to   
prove the truth of our faculties1 which 
can no otherwise be proved  than by     
these very suspected faculties          
themselves4' ,this is the substance  of 
the argument that rests on the data of  
the sense or reason with which  human   
nature is inspired4    ,reid's homely   
letters to his ,aberdeen friends1       
,andrew and ,david ,skene1  give some   
interesting pictures of the details of  
the family's life1 in  the years which  
immediately followed the settlement in  

,glasgow4 ,the  extracts that follow may
 help the reader to form the pictures4  
,in a letter to ,dr4 ,andrew ,skene1    
dated ,november #ae1 #agfd1 we see the  
,moral ,philosophy class-room on a      
winter morning a hundred and thirty     
years ago1 and life in the ,drygate home
 a few weeks after the family  entered  
it3--        #8,i must launch forth in  
the morning1 so as to be at the ,college
      7which is a walk of eight minutes7
 half an hour after seven1      when ,i 
speak for an hour without interruption  
to an audience      of about a hundred4 
,at eleven ,i examine for an hour upon  
my      morning prelection2 but my      
audience is a little more than a        
third part of what it was in the        
morning4 ,in a week or two ,i      must1
 for three days in the week1 have a     
second prelection at      twelve1 upon a
 different subject1 where my audience   
will be      made up of those who hear  
me in the morning but do not attend     
at eleven4 ,my hearers commonly attend  

my class two years at      least4 ,they 
pay fees for the first two years1 and   
then they      are cives of the class1  
and may attend gratis as many years     
as they please4 ,many attend the moral  
philosophy class four      or five      
years2 so that ,i have many preachers   
and students      of divinity and law of
 considerable standing1 before whom ,i  
stand in awe to speak without more      
preparation than ,i have      leisure   
for4 ,i have a great inclination to     
attend some of the      professors here1
 several of whom are very eminent in    
their way2      but ,i cannot find      
leisure4 ,much time is consumed in our  
college      meetings about business1 of
 which we have commonly four or five    
in the week4 ,we have a ,literary       
,society once a week1 consisting      of
 the ,masters and two or three more2    
where each of the members      has a    
discourse once in the session4444 ,near 
a third part of      our students are   
,irish4 ,thirty came over lately in one 

ship1      besides three that went to   
,edinburgh4 ,we have a good many        
,english1 and some foreigners4 ,many of 
the ,irish1 as well as      ,scotch1 are
 poor1 and come up late to save money2  
so that we      are not yet fully       
convened1 although ,i have been teaching
 ever      since the #ajth of ,october4 
,those who pretend to know1 say that    
the number of students this year1 when  
fully convened1 will      amount to     
#cjj4444 ,by this time ,i am sure you   
have enough of      the ,college2 for   
you know as much as ,i can tell you of  
the      fine houses of the ,masters1 of
 the ,astronomical ,observatory1      of
 ,robin ,foulis' collection of pictures 
and painting college1      and of the   
foundry for types and printing-house4   
,therefore      ,i will carry you home  
to my own house1 which lyes among the   
middle of the weavers1 like the         
back-wynd in ,aberdeen4 ,you      go    
through a long1 dark1 abominably nasty  
entry1 which leads      you into a clean

 little close4 ,you walk upstairs to a  
neat      little dining-room1 and find  
as many other little rooms as      just 
accommodate my family2 so scantily that 
my apartment is      a closet of six    
feet by eight or nine off the           
dining-room4 ,to      balance these     
little inconveniences1 the house is new 
and free      of buggs2 it has the best 
air and finest prospect in ,glasgow2    
the privilege of a large garden1 very   
airy1 to walk in1 which      is not so  
nicely kept1 but one may use freedom    
with it4 ,a five      minutes' walk     
leads us up a rocky precipice into a    
large park1      partly planted with    
firs1 and partly open1 which overlooks  
the town and all the country round1 and 
gives a view of the      windings of the
 ,clyde for a great way4 ,the ancient   
,cathedral      stands at the foot of   
the rock1 half of its height below you1 
and half above you2 and indeed it is a  
very magnificent pile4      ,when we    
came here1 the street we live in 7which 

is called the      ,drygate7 was        
infested with the small-pox1 which were 
very      mortal4 ,two families in our  
neighbourhood lost all their            
children1 being three each4 ,little     
,david was seized with the              
infection1 and had a very great eruption
 both on his face and      over his     
whole body1 which you will believe would
 discompose      his mother4444         
,although my salary here be the same as 
,aberdeen1      yet if the class does   
not fall off1 nor my health1 so as to   
disable me from teaching1 ,i believe ,i 
shall be able to live as      easily as 
at ,aberdeen1 notwithstanding the       
differences in the      expense of      
living at the two places4 ,i have       
touched about #gj      of fees1 and may 
possibly make out the #ajj this         
session4444      ,the common people here
 have a gloom in their countenance1     
which      ,i am at a loss whether to   
ascribe to their religion or to the     
air and climate4 ,there is certainly    

more of religion among the      common  
people in this town than in ,aberdeen2  
and although it      has a gloomy       
enthusiastical cast1 yet ,i think it    
makes them      tame and sober4 ,i have 
not heard either of a house or of a head
      broke1 or of a pocket picked1 or  
of any flagrant crime1 since      ,i    
came here4 ,i have not heard any        
swearing in the streets1 nor      seen a
 man drunk 7excepting1 inter nos1 one   
,prof--r7 since      ,i came here4444   
,if this scroll tire you1 impute it to  
this1      that to-morrow is to be      
employed in choosing a ,rector1 and ,i  
can sleep till ten o'clock1 which ,i    
shall not do again for six      weeks4' 
,after the first winter1 and when he had
 gained some experience of  ,glasgow1 he
 writes to ,dr4 ,david ,skene1 on #acth 
,july #agfe3--        #8,i have a strong
 inclination to attend the chymical     
lecture      the next winter2 but am    
afraid ,i shall not have time4 ,i have  
had but very imperfect hints of ,dr4    

,black's theory of fire4444             
,chemistry seems to be the only branch  
of philosophy that can be      said to  
be in a progressive state here1 although
 other branches      are neither ill    
taught nor ill studied4 ,i never        
considered      ,dolland's telescopes   
till ,i came here4 ,i think they open a 
new field in optics which may greatly   
enrich that part of      philosophy4444 
,i find a variety of things here to     
amuse me in      the literary world1 and
 want nothing so much as my old friends1
      whose place ,i cannot expect at my
 time of life to supply4 ,i      think  
the common people here and in the       
neighbourhood greatly      inferior to  
the common people with you4 ,they are   
,botian      in their understandings1   
fanatical in their religion1 and        
clownish in their dress and manners4    
,the clergy encourage this              
fanaticism too much1 and find it the    
only way to popularity4 ,i      often   
hear a gospel here which you know       

nothing about2 for you      neither hear
 it from the pulpit nor will you find it
 in the      ,bible4 ,what is your      
,philosophical ,society doing8 ,still   
battling      about ,d4 ,hume8 or have  
you time to look in8444 ,i believe you  
do not like to be charged with          
compliments1 otherwise ,i would         
desire of you to remember me            
respectfully to ,sir ,archibald         
,grant1 ,sir ,arthur and ,lady ,forbes1 
and others of my country                
acquaintances1 when you have occasion to
 see them4'    ,in another letter to    
,dr4 ,david1 written about ,christmas in
 his second  winter1 we find that--     
#8,mr4 ,watt has made two small         
improvements in the                     
steam-engine4#ac ,these are minutely    
described4 444 ,i have      attended    
,dr4 ,black's lectures4 ,his doctrine of
 latent heat is      the only thing ,i  
have yet heard that is altogether new4  
,and      indeed ,i look upon it as a   
very great discovery4444 ,i have        

not met with any botanists here4 ,our   
,college is considerably      more      
crowded than it was last session4 ,my   
class indeed is much      the same as   
last year1 but all the rest are better4 
,i believe      the number of our       
students of one kind or another may be  
between four and five hundred4 ,but the 
,college at ,edinburgh is      increased
 this year much more than we are4 ,the  
,moral ,philosophy      class there is  
more than double ours4 ,the ,professor1 
,ferguson1      is indeed1 as far as ,i 
can judge1 a man of a noble spirit1 of  
very elegant manners1 and has an        
uncommon flow of eloquence4 ,i      hear
 he is about to publish1 ,i don't know  
under what title1 a      natural history
 of man2 exhibiting a view of him in the
 savage      state1 and in the several  
successive states of pasturage1         
agriculture1 and commerce4 ,our ,society
 ,senate is not so      harmonious as ,i
 wish4 ,schemes of interest1 pushed by  
some and      opposed by others1 are    

like to divide us into parties1 and     
perhaps engage us in law suits4 ,mrs4   
,reid1 ,pegie1 and ,i1 have      all had
 a severe cold and cough4 ,i have been  
keeping the house      these two days in
 order to get the better of it4'    ,on 
#8,december #cjth1 #agfe1' a less       
sanguine view appears1 in a letter to   
,andrew ,skene3--        #8,i assure you
 ,i can rarely find an hour which ,i am 
at liberty      to dispose of as ,i     
please4 ,the most disagreeable thing in 
the teaching part is to have a great    
number of stupid ,irish      teagues1   
who attend classes for two or three     
years to qualify      them for teaching 
schools or being dissenting teachers4 ,i
      preach to them as ,st4 ,francis   
did to the fishes4 ,i don't know        
what pleasure he had in his audience2   
but ,i should have none      in mine1 if
 there were not in it a mixture of      
reasonable      creatures4 ,i confess ,i
 think there is a smaller proportion of 
these in my class this year than there  

was the last4 ,i have      long been of 
the opinion that1 in a right constituted
 ,college1      there ought to be two   
professors for each class--one for the  
dunces1 and another for those who have  
parts4 ,the province of      the former 
would not be the most agreeable1 but    
perhaps it      would require the       
greatest talents1 and therefore ought to
      be accounted the post of honour4  
,there is no part of my time      more  
disagreeably spent than that which is   
spent in college      meetings2 and ,i  
should have been attending one at this  
moment      if a bad cold ,i have got   
had not furnished me with an excuse4    
,these meetings are become more         
disagreeable by an evil spirit      of  
party that seems to put us in a ferment1
 and ,i am afraid      will produce bad 
consequences4 ,the temper of our        
northern      ,colonies makes mercantile
 people here look very grave4 ,it is    
said that the effects in these colonies 
belonging to this town      amount to   

above #djj1jjj4ad ,the mercantile people
 are for      suspending the ,stamp-act1
 and redressing the grievances of the   
colonists4444 ,in what light the ,house 
of ,commons will view      this matter  
,i don't know1 but it seems to me one of
 the most      important matters that   
have come before them4 ,i wish often an 
evening with you1 such as we have       
enjoyed in the days of former           
times1 to settle the important affairs  
of ,church and ,state1 of      ,colleges
 and ,corporations4 ,i have found this  
the best expedient      to think of them
 without melancholy and chagrin4 ,and ,i
 think      all that a man has to do in 
the world is to keep his temper and     
to do his duty4 ,mrs4 ,reid is tolerably
 well just now1 but is      often       
ailing4'    ,in a letter to ,dr4 ,david1
 in ,march #agff1 he refers to the death
 of his  early friend1 ,john ,stewart1  
the ,mathematical ,professor in         
,marischal  ,college1 and his companion 
in the ,english tour thirty years       

before3--        #8,mr4 ,stewart's death
 affects me deeply4 ,a sincere          
friendship1      begun at twelve years  
of age1 and continued to my time of     
life1      without any interruption1    
cannot but give some pangs4 ,you know   
his worth2 yet it was shaded ever since 
you knew him by too      great          
abstraction from the world4 ,the former 
part of his life      was more amiable  
and more social2 but the whole was of a 
piece      in virtue1 candour1 and      
humanity4444 ,i have always regarded    
him as my best tutor1 though of the same
 age with me4 ,if the      giddy part of
 my life was in any degree spent        
innocently and      virtuously1 ,i owe  
it to him more than to any human        
creature2      for ,i could not but be  
virtuous in his company1 and ,i could   
not be so happy in any other4 ,but ,i   
must leave this pleasing      melancholy
 subject4 ,he is happy2 and ,i shall    
often be happy in      the remembrance  
of our friendship2 and ,i hope we shall 

meet      again4'    ,a minute account  
of ,black's theory of latent heat       
follows4    ,later in the same year1    
,black was called to the ,chair of      
,chemistry in  ,edinburgh1 which he     
filled for nearly thirty years1 and in  
,reid's  letters to the ,skenes there is
 much about candidates for the vacant   
office in ,glasgow1 with a suggestion   
that ,david ,skene should himself  enter
 the lists4 #8,there is a great spirit  
of inquiry among the young  people here4
 ,literary merit is much regarded2 and  
,i conceive the  opportunities a man has
 of improving himself are much greater  
here than  at ,aberdeen4 ,the           
communication with ,edinburgh is easy4  
,one goes in the  stage coach to        
,edinburgh before dinner2 has all the   
afternoon there1 and  returns to dinner 
at ,glasgow next day2 so that if you    
have any ambition  to get into the      
,college of ,edinburgh 7which ,i think  
you ought to have71 ,i  conceive        
,glasgow would be a good step4'    ,the 

appeal was ineffectual4 ,meantime his   
own appointment1 as an  #8examinator' of
 candidates for the vacant ,mathematical
 ,chair in ,marischal  ,college1 made a 
visit to ,aberdeen necessary1 as        
anticipated in a letter  on #8,may      
#hth'3--        #8,my class will be over
 in less than a month1 and by that time 
,i shall be glad to have some respite4  
,i hope to have the      pleasure of    
seeing my friends in ,aberdeen in       
,august1 if not      sooner4 ,we have   
had a stronger ,college this year than  
ever      before4 ,we have been         
remarkably free from riots and disorders
      among the students2 and ,i did not
 indeed expect that #cej young          
fellows could have keen kept quiet for  
so many months with so      little      
trouble4444 ,you'll say to all this that
 cadgers are aye      speaking of       
crooksaddles4 ,i think so they ought2   
besides1 ,i      have nothing else to   
say to you1 and have had no time to     
think      of anything but my           

crooksaddles for seven months past4     
,when      the session's over1 ,i must  
rub up my mathematics against the       
month of ,august4 ,there is one         
candidate for your profession      of   
mathematics to go from this ,college2   
and if your ,college      get a better  
man1 or a better mathematician1 they    
will be very      lucky4#ae ,i am so    
sensible of the honour the ,magistrates 
have      done me in naming me to be one
 of the examinators1 that ,i will       
not decline it1 though ,i confess ,i    
like the honour better than      the    
office4'    ,in the autumn of #agff     
,reid exchanged the house in the        
,drygate for an  official residence in  
the ,professors' ,court of the ,old     
,college4 ,this  appears in a letter to 
,dr4 ,andrew ,skene on ,december        
#agth3--        #8,i live now in the    
,college1 and have no distance to walk  
to my      class in dark mornings1 as ,i
 had before4 ,i enjoy this ease1        
though ,i am not sure whether the       

necessity of walking up and      down a 
steep hill#af three or four times a day 
was not of      use4 ,i have of late had
 a little of your distemper1 finding a  
giddiness in my head when ,i lie down1  
or rise1 or turn myself      in my bed4 
,our ,college is very well peopled this 
session4 ,my      public class is above 
three score1 besides the private class4 
,dr4 ,smith never had so many in one    
year4 ,there is nothing so      uneasy  
to me here as our factions in the       
,college4'    ,in ,february #agfg1 along
 with other local news1 we find this in 
a letter  to ,david ,skene3--           
#8,we are now resolved to have a canal  
from ,carron to this place1      if the 
,parliament allows it4 #dj1jjj was      
subscribed last week      by the        
merchants of the ,carron ,company for   
this purpose4#ag      ,our medical      
college has fallen off greatly this     
session1 most      of the students of   
medicine having followed ,dr4 ,black to 
,edinburgh4 ,the natural and moral      

philosophy classes are more             
numerous than they have ever been2 but  
,i expect a great falling      off1 if  
,i see another session4 ,i was just now 
seeing your      furnace along with ,dr4
 ,irvine4444 ,if ,i could find a machine
      as proper for analysing ideas1    
moral sentiments1 and other             
materials belonging to the fourth       
kingdom1 ,i believe ,i should      find 
in my heart to bestow the money first4  
,i have the more use      for a machine 
of this kind1 because my alembic for    
performing      these operations--,i    
mean my cranium--has been a little out  
of      order this winter1 by a vertigo1
 which has made my studies go      on   
heavily1 though it has not hitherto     
interrupted my teaching4      ,i have   
found air and exercise and a clean      
stomach the best      remedies2 but ,i  
cannot command the two former as often  
as ,i      could wish4 ,i am sensible   
that the air of a crowded class is      
bad1 and often thought of carrying my   

class to the ,common ,hall2      but ,i 
was afraid it might have been construed 
as a piece of      ostentation4'        
,reid's letter of condolence to ,dr4    
,david ,skene on the death of his       
father1 in ,september #agfg1 mentions   
the loss of his own infant daughter1    
#8my sweet little ,bess1' and also      
refers to an excursion to ,hamilton     
#8with  ,mr4 ,beattie'--the only        
occasion on which1 for more than three  
months1 he  had been more than three    
miles from ,glasgow4 #8,having time at  
command1'  he had been tempted #8to fall
 to the tumbling over books2 as we have 
a  vast number here which ,i had not    
access to see at ,aberdeen4 ,but this is
  a mare magnum1 wherein one is tempted 
by hopes of discoveries to make  a      
tedious voyage1 which seldom repays the 
labour4 ,i have long ago found  my      
memory to be like a vessel that is full3
 if you pour in more1 you lose  as much 
as you gain2 and on this account ,i have
 a thousand times resolved  to give up  

all pretence to what is called learning1
 being satisfied that  it is more       
profitable to ruminate on the little ,i 
have laid up than  to add to the        
indigested heap4 ,i have had little     
society1 the ,college  people being out 
of town1 and have almost lost the       
faculty of speaking by  disuse4 ,i blame
 myself for having corresponded so      
little with my friends  at ,aberdeen4 ,i
 wished to try ,lumsden's experiment    
which you was so good  as to communicate
 to me4444 ,a nasty custom ,i have of   
chewing tobacco has  been the reason of 
my observing a species of as nasty      
little animals4 ,i  spit in a basin of  
sawdust1 which1 when it comes to be     
drenched1 produces  a vast number of    
animals1 three or four times as large as
 a louse1  and not very different in    
shape2 but armed with four or five rows 
of  prickles like a hedgehog1 which seem
 to serve it as feet4 ,its motion is    
very sluggish4 ,it lies drenched in the 
aforesaid mass1 which swarms with  these

 animals of all ages from top to        
bottom4444 ,i have gone over ,sir       
,james ,stewart's great book of         
political economy1 wherein ,i think     
there  is a great deal of good          
material--carelessly put together       
indeed2 but ,i  think it contains more  
sound principles concerning commerce and
 police  than any book we have yet had4 
,we had the favour of a visit from ,sir 
,archibald ,grant4 ,it gave me much     
pleasure to see him retain his spirits  
and vigour4' ,a letter in ,october      
mentions that ,reid had #8passed eight  
days lately with ,lord ,kames at        
,blair-,drummond1' and that his lordship
  is preparing a fourth edition of his  
,elements4 ,he adds1 #8,i have been     
labouring at ,barbara ,celarent for     
three weeks bygone4' ,a new friend1     
,lord ,kames1 here comes in sight4      
,the last of the ,skene letters is dated
 three years later1 in #aggj4 ,after    
pressing ,david ,skene to visit him in  
,glasgow1 he ends thus3--#8,as to       

myself1 the immaterial world has        
swallowed up all my thoughts since ,i   
came here2 but ,i meet with few that    
have travelled far in that region1  and 
am often left to pursue my dreary way in
 a more solitary manner than  when we   
used to meet at the ,club4'    ,the     
homely simplicity of ,reid's character  
is shown in those letters4 ,they  differ
 from the letters we have after the     
,skenes disappear4 ,these are  almost   
all on questions in philosophy1 and show
 a slow but steady advance  in          
reflection upon the #8common sense'     
constitution of man's knowledge of  the 
universe of matter and mind4    ,in     
#aggb there was sorrow in the ,reid     
household4 ,the two eldest  daughters1  
,jane and ,margaret1 both died1 in the  
bloom of youth1 leaving  only the third 
daughter1 ,martha1 who not long after   
married ,dr4 ,patrick  ,carmichael1 a   
,glasgow physician1 and youngest son of 
,professor ,gershom  ,carmichael4 ,this 
marriage added much to the comfort of   

,reid's later years4    ,we have a      
passing glimpse of ,reid in #aggc1 when 
he was entertained  in ,glasgow by      
,johnson and ,boswell1 at the ,saracen's
 ,head ,inn1 in  the ,gallowgate1 #8that
 paragon of inns in the eyes of the     
,scotch1 but  wretchedly managed4' ,the 
travellers arrived there on the #bhth of
 ,october1  on their return from their  
romantic excursion to the ,western      
,highlands4  ,at the ,saracen's ,head1  
on the following morning1 as ,boswell   
tells us1  #8,dr4 ,reid1 the            
philosopher1 and two other ,glasgow     
professors1 breakfasted  with us1' and  
they met them afterwards at supper4 #8,i
 was not much pleased  with any of      
them1' the sage wrote to ,mrs4 ,thrale4 
#8,the general impression  upon my      
memory1' ,boswell says1 #8is1 that we   
had not much conversation at  ,glasgow1 
where the professors1 like their        
brethren at ,aberdeen1 did not  venture 
to expose themselves much to the battery
 of cannon which they  knew might play  

upon them4' ,it is a pity that          
,boswell's indifference1 or  indolence1 
on this occasion has deprived us of talk
 at the ,saracen's  ,head and in the    
,college ,court1 as dramatic in its way 
as the pictures  of ,rasay or ,inch     
,kenneth4 ,notwithstanding ,reid's      
cautious and modest  silence1 or want of
 vivacity1 he surely said and heard     
something at those  ,glasgow breakfasts 
and suppers4           99       99      
99       99       99    ,before death   
had put an end to the letters to the    
,skenes1 ,reid had become  intimate with
 one of the most notable men of the time
 in ,scotland4 ,i  do not know how the  
intimacy began1 but as early as #agfg we
 have found  him referring to a visit to
 ,lord ,kames at ,blair-,drummond1 and  
to the  mysteries of ,barbara ,celarent4
 ,this means that he was at work on the 
,brief ,account of ,aristotle's ,logic1 
with ,remarks1 published seven years    
afterwards as an ,appendix to one of    
,lord ,kames' ,sketches of the ,history 

of ,man4 ,the ,sketches appeared in two 
quarto volumes1 in #aggd1 and  the      
,brief ,account fills about seventy     
pages in the second volume4 ,it  was    
,reid's only appearance in print in the 
sixteen years of his public             
professorship in ,glasgow4 ,this1 along 
with the essay on ,quantity1 given  to  
the ,royal ,society in #agdh1 and the   
,inquiry1 in #agfd1 made up his  work as
 an author1 until after he had ceased to
 be an oral teacher4    ,in ,henry      
,home1 ,lord ,kames1 notwithstanding a  
temperament very different  from his    
own1 ,reid found congenial              
companionship--a strong disposition to  
metaphysical speculation1 a ready and   
accomplished if not deeply learned      
lawyer1 and a considerable author4      
,kames was fourteen years his senior4   
,curiously1 ,henry ,home's closest early
 friendship was with ,david ,hume4      
,thirty years before his friendship with
 ,reid1 he advised ,hume about the      
,treatise of ,human ,nature1 and had    

given the youth an introduction to      
,bishop ,butler4 #8,my opinions1' ,david
 writes in #agcg1 #8are so new1 and even
  some terms ,i am obliged to make use  
of1 that ,i could not propose1 by  any  
abridgment1 to give my system an air of 
likelihood1 or even to make  it         
intelligible4 ,i have had a greater     
desire of communicating to you a  plan  
of the whole1 that ,i believe it will   
not appear in public before  the        
beginning of next winter4 ,i am at      
present castrating my work1 that  is1   
cutting off its nobler parts1 that is1  
endeavouring it shall give  as little   
offence as possible4 ,this is a piece of
 cowardice for which ,i  blame myself4  
,but ,i resolved not to be an enthusiast
 in philosophy while  ,i was blaming    
other enthusiasms4' ,it was thus that   
,hume wrote about the  book which1 even 
in its #8castrated' form1 startled ,reid
 in the manse at  ,new ,machar1 and     
determined his whole intellectual life4 
,in #agea ,home  published ,essays on   

the ,principles of ,morality and        
,natural ,religion1  on which ,jonathan 
,edwards congratulated him in a letter  
to ,dr4 ,erskine4  ,yet his             
speculations1 and his association with  
the sceptic1 raised a  suspicion of his 
orthodoxy in the ,general ,assembly4    
,according to ,lord ,woodhouselee1 his  
biographer1 #8the intercourse of  ,lord 
,kames was frequent with his much-valued
 friend ,dr4 ,reid1 and they            
corresponded on various topics of       
philosophy--a correspondence which1     
notwithstanding the dissimilarity of    
character in many respects between      
these two eminent men1 subsisted for a  
long period of years1 with the  most    
perfect cordiality and mutual esteem4'  
,dr4 ,reid1 ,dugald ,stewart  tells us1 
lived in the most cordial and           
affectionate friendship with  ,lord     
,kames1 notwithstanding the avowed      
opposition of their sentiments on  some 
moral questions to which he attached the
 highest importance4 ,both  of them1    

however1 were the friends of virtue and 
of mankind2 and both  were able to      
temper the warmth of free discussion    
with the forbearance  and good humour   
founded on mutual esteem4 #8,no two     
men1' ,stewart adds1  #8ever exhibited a
 more striking contrast in their        
conversation or in  their constitutional
 tempers--the one slow and cautious in  
his decisions1  even on those topics    
which he had most diligently studied2   
reserved and  silent in promiscuous     
society1 and retaining1 after all his   
literary  eminence1 the same simple and 
unassuming manners which he had brought 
from his country residence2 the other1  
lively1 rapid1 and communicative2       
accustomed by his professional pursuits 
to wield with address the  weapons of   
controversy1 and not averse to a trial  
of his powers on  questions the most    
foreign to his ordinary habits of       
inquiry4 ,but  these characteristical   
differences1 while to their common      
friends they  lent an additional charm  

to the distinguishing merits of each1   
served  only to enliven their social    
intercourse1 and to cement their mutual 
attachment4' ,from #agfg till the death 
of ,lord ,kames in ,december #aghb1     
their intercourse was unbroken4#ah      
,lord ,kames thus explains ,reid's      
contribution to the ,sketches3--#8,in   
reviewing the foregoing ,sketch1 it     
occurred to me that a fair analysis of  
,aristotle's logic would be a valuable  
addition to the historical branch4  ,a  
distinct and candid account of a system 
that for so many ages governed  the     
reasoning part of mankind cannot but be 
acceptable to the public4  ,curiosity   
will be gratified in seeing a phantom   
delineated that so long  fascinated the 
learned world2 a phantom which1 like the
 pyramids of  ,egypt1 or hanging gardens
 of ,babylon1 is a structure of infinite
 genius1  but absolutely useless1 unless
 for raising wonder4 ,dr4 ,reid1        
,professor  of ,moral ,philosophy in the
 ,college of ,glasgow1 relished the     

thought1  and his friendship to me      
prevailed on him1 after much            
solicitation1  to undertake the         
laborious task4 ,no man is better       
acquainted with  ,aristotle's writings2 
and 7without any enthusiastic           
attachment7 he holds  that philosopher  
to be a first-rate genius4'    ,measured
 by the present standard of             
,aristotelian criticism1 ,reid's        
exposition of the ,organon1 and estimate
 of its place in the development  of    
human understanding1 may seem meagre and
 inadequate2 especially as the  issue of
 seven years of preparation1 and as his 
solitary contribution to  philosophy in 
these sixteen years4 ,but when we       
remember that ,aristotelian  logic was  
then under an eclipse1 especially in    
,scotland1 and that ,reid's  #8,brief   
,account' was an attempt to draw the    
,organon out of the obscurity  to which 
it had been condemned by leaders of     
modern thought1 the merit  of his sober 
and sagacious commentary may be more    

recognised4 ,it is as  a signal monument
 of abstracted intellectual activity1   
rather than as  a philosophical         
instrument for advancing or organising  
our knowledge1  that ,reid regards the  
syllogistic logic4 ,he concludes that   
the art of  syllogism is better fitted  
to promote scholastic litigation than   
real  improvement in the sciences2 he   
sees in it only #8a venerable piece of  
antiquity and a great effort of human   
genius4' ,when he contrasts the  utility
 of ,bacon's ,organum1 as a factor in   
the progressive intelligence  of        
mankind1 he fails to see that each      
,organon may consistently supplement    
the other4    ,reid characteristically  
ends his account of the old ,organon by 
suggesting  an ,organon1 different from 
either the old or the new1 as still     
wanting4  ,this should neither1 like    
,aristotle's1 unfold only abstract forms
 of  deductive reasoning1 nor1 like     
,bacon's1 only methods for verifying    
inductive generalisations4 ,it should be

 concerned with the rational  principles
 which compose the ,common ,sense of    
mankind4 #8,all the real  knowledge of  
mankind may be divided into two parts3  
the first consists of  self-evident     
propositions1 the second of those which 
are deduced by just  reasoning from     
self-evident propositions4 ,the line    
that divides these  two ought to be     
marked as distinctly as possible1 and   
principles that are  really self-evident
 reduced to general axioms4 ,although   
first principles  do not admit of direct
 proof1 yet there must be certain marks 
by which  those that are truly such may 
be distinguished from counterfeits4     
,these  marks ought to be described and 
applied to distinguish the genuine from 
the spurious4444 ,this is a subject of  
such importance that if inquisitive  men
 can be brought to the same unanimity in
 the first principles of  the other     
sciences as in those of mathematics and 
natural philosophy1  this might be      
considered as a third grand era in the  

progress of human  reason4' ,thus in    
#aggd ,reid's thought still converges on
 the subject which  had engaged him     
since the ,treatise of ,human ,nature   
found its way into  the manse of ,new   
,machar4 ,perhaps he was unduly sanguine
 in expecting  unanimity regarding the  
ingredients of the final reason of      
mankind--so  imperfectly developed in   
the individual consciousness1 in its    
higher  elements1 as long as men are    
disposed to resist the final venture of 
the  heart and conscience in their      
interpretation of the world and of human
  life4    ,it was in #aggd that ,reid's
 appeal in #agfd to the common reason of
 human  nature aroused hostile          
criticism4 ,he had been seconded by     
others in  his response to the sceptics4
 ,the resort to a #8sense' of           
self-evident  truth1 in his ,inquiry in 
#agfd1 which itself looked like a reply 
to  argument by feeling1 was followed in
 #agff by ,an ,appeal to ,common ,sense 
on behalf of ,religion1 by ,dr4 ,james  

,oswald1 minister of ,methven in        
,perthshire4 ,in #aggj ,beattie's ,essay
 on the ,nature and ,immutability of    
,truth1 in opposition to ,sophistry and 
,scepticism1 followed4 ,oswald  and     
,beattie were not deep and patient      
thinkers like ,reid2#ai but the  rising 
literary and social reputation of       
,beattie1 secured for the ,essay  on    
,truth more rapid and widespread        
admiration than was given to the        
,inquiry4 ,beattie often visited        
,london1 was there one of the lions of  
the day1 was made a ,d4,c4,l4 of        
,oxford1 and had interviews with ,george
 the  ,third1 who admired his book1     
conferred a pension on ,beattie1 and    
rallied  ,mr4 ,dundas about #8,scotch   
,philosophy4' ,reid1 ,beattie1 and      
,oswald thus  became known as a         
triumvirate of #8,scottish              
,philosophers'2 and the appeal  to      
common sense1 in which they were at     
least verbally agreed1 began to be      
spoken about as #8the ,scottish         

,philosophy1' a term which has since    
been  adopted in this country and       
abroad4    ,this ,scottish triumvirate1 
helped into vogue by ,beattie1 roused   
,joseph  ,priestley1 an ,english        
dissenter4 ,priestley had abandoned the 
,calvinism  of his early creed for      
materialism1 philosophical necessity1   
and free  thought1 and1 after serving   
for some years as pastor of a           
nonconformist  chapel in ,cheshire1 and 
next as a schoolmaster much devoted to  
experiments in the natural sciences1 was
 already known as an author in  natural 
science4 ,in #aggd1 when he was living  
with ,lord ,shelburne1 as  librarian and
 literary companion1 he appeared for the
 first time as a  metaphysical critic1  
in ,an ,examination of ,reid's ,inquiry1
 ,beattie's  ,essay1 and ,oswald's      
,appeal to ,common ,sense4 ,he played   
upon the term  #8common sense1' and took
 for granted that the aim of the        
triumvirate  was to substitute mere     
feeling and authority for reason1--the  

authority  of the multitude for that of 
the philosophical elect1--alleging blind
  instinct when unable to produce       
argument1 and multiplying instincts to  
suit each controversial emergency4 #8,as
 men have imagined innate ideas1        
because they had forgot how they came by
 their ideas1 the ,scottish             
philosophers set up almost as many      
distinct instincts as there are         
acquired principles of acting4' ,he     
ridiculed ,reid for his supposed        
discovery of the root of scepticism in  
the ideal hypothesis2 charging  him with
 innocently mistaking a metaphor for a  
scientific theory1 and  for overlooking 
the leading part which mental           
association plays1 as the  cause of     
those convictions which ,reid mistook   
for infallible constituents  of common  
sense4 #8,if we consider the general    
tenor of the writings of  these         
philosophers1' ,dr4 ,priestley said1    
#8it will appear that they  are saying  
one thing and doing another--talking    

plausibly about the  necessity for      
admitting axioms as the foundation of   
all reasoning1 but  meaning to recommend
 particular assumptions of their own as 
axioms--not  as being founded on        
perception of the agreement of ideas1   
which is the  great doctrine of ,mr4    
,locke1 and which makes truth to depend 
upon the  necessary nature of things1 to
 be therefore absolute1 unchangeable1   
and  everlasting1 but merely on some    
unaccountable instinctive persuasions1  
depending upon the arbitrary            
constitution of our nature--which makes 
all  truth be relative to ourselves     
only1 and consequently to be infinitely 
vague and precarious4 ,this system      
admits of no final appeal to reason     
properly considered1 which any person   
might be at liberty to examine and      
discuss2 on the contrary every man is   
taught to think himself authorised  to  
pronounce dogmatically upon every       
question1 according to his present      
feeling and persuasion1 under the notion

 of its being something original1       
instructive1 and incontrovertible2      
although1 stoutly analysed1 it may      
appear to be mere prejudice4' ,thus1 as 
opposed to the man of straw he  set up  
under the name of ,reid1 ,priestley     
postulated a materialistic  conception  
of man1 as only an organism1 the        
so-called mental and  moral power of    
which was the natural issue of physical 
structure2  his perceptions the effects 
of their own objects2 and on the whole a
  necessitated system of the universe1  
which excluded morally responsible      
agency4    ,reid made no reply at the   
time to this argumentative discharge4   
,in an  unpublished letter to ,dr4      
,price he gives a reason for his        
silence4 #8,i  will not answer ,dr4     
,priestley1' he says1 #8because he is   
very lame in  abstract reasoning4 ,i    
have got no light from him4 ,and indeed 
what light  with respect to the powers  
of the mind can one expect from a man   
who has  not yet learned to distinguish 

ideas from vibrations1 nor motion from  
sensation1 nor simple apprehension from 
judgment1 nor simple ideas from  complex
 ideas1 nor necessary truths from       
contingent truths8'#bj ,in #agge  ,reid 
writes to ,lord ,kames3--        #8,dr4 
,priestley in his last book thinks that 
the power of      perception1 as much as
 the other powers that are termed       
mental1      is the natural result of an
 organic structure such as that of      
the human brain4 ,consequently1 the     
whole man becomes extinct      at death2
 and we have no hope of surviving the   
grave but what      is derived from the 
,christian revelation4 ,i would be glad 
to      know your lordship's opinion1   
whether1 when my brain has lost      its
 original structure1 and when some      
hundred years after1 the      same      
materials are again fabricated so       
curiously as to become      an          
intelligent being--whether1 ,i say1 that
 being will be me2      or if two or    
three such beings should be formed out  

of my      brain1 whether they will all 
be me1 and consequently be all      one 
and the same intelligent being4 ,this   
seems to me a great      mystery2 but   
,dr4 ,priestley denies all mysteries4444
 ,i am not      surprised that your     
lordship has found little entertainment 
in a late ,french writer on human       
nature4 ,from what ,i learn      the    
,french philosophers are become rank    
,epicureans4 ,i detest      all systems 
that depreciate human nature4 ,if it be 
a delusion      that there is something 
in the constitution of man that is      
venerable and worthy of its author1 let 
me live and die in this      delusion   
rather than have my eyes opened to see  
my species in      a disgusting light4  
,every good man feels his indignation   
rise      against those who disparage   
his kindred or country2 why should      
it not rise against those who disparage 
his kind8 ,were it not      that we     
sometimes see extremes meet1 ,i should  
think it very      strange to see       

atheists and high-shod divines          
contending who      should most blacken 
and degenerate human nature4 ,yet ,i    
think      the atheist acts the most    
consistent part of the two2 for         
surely such views of human nature tend  
more to promote atheism      than to    
promote religion and virtue4'    ,this  
allusion to contemporary ,french        
philosophers is almost the only  one ,i 
find in ,reid4 ,the chief works of      
,condillac appeared before the          
,inquiry1 but it does not seem that     
they1 or ,diderot and the ,french       
,encyclopedists1 were known to him4     
,that ,kant is not referred to1 nor even
  known by name1 is less surprising4    
,this ignorance is characteristic of    
,reid's home-bred1 self-contained       
philosophy4    ,inquiry into our        
conception of ,power or ,causation      
becomes prominent  in ,reid's letters to
 ,lord ,kames throughout #8the          
seventies1' along  with experimental    
investigations in physics and physiology

 which show  continued interest in      
natural causes4 ,a letter1 written in   
#agge1 contains  a curious conjecture   
with regard to the generation of plants 
and animals1  more speculative than was 
his habit4 ,he is #8apt to conjecture1' 
he tells  his friend1 #8that both plants
 and animals are at first organised     
atoms1  having all the parts of the     
animal or plant1 but so slender1 and    
folded  up in such a manner1 as to be   
reduced to a particle far beyond the    
reach  of our senses1 and perhaps as    
small as the constituent parts of water4
  ,the earth1 the water1 and the air    
may1 for anything ,i know1 be full of   
such organised atoms4' ,he then goes on 
to consider the relation of this        
hypothesis to the idea of active design 
in nature1 and expresses doubt  about   
the possibility of the atoms being      
endowed with power to form  themselves  
into an organised body like the human4  
#8,i cannot help thinking  that such a  
work as the ,iliad1 and much more an    

animal or vegetable body1  must have    
been made by express design4 ,it seems  
to me as easy to contrive  a machine    
which should compose a variety of epic  
poems and tragedies1  as to contrive    
laws of motion by which unthinking      
particles of matter  should coalesce    
into a variety of organised bodies4' ,he
 suggests that  the organisation is the 
issue of constant and uniform divine    
activity4  #8,can we1' he asks1 #8show  
by any good reason that the ,almighty   
finished  his work at a stroke1 and has 
continued ever since an inactive        
spectator8  ,and if ,his continued      
operation be necessary1 it is no        
miracle1 while it  is uniform1 and      
according to fixed laws4 ,though we     
should suppose the  gravitation of      
matter to be the immediate operation of 
the ,deity1 it  would be no miracle     
while it is constant and uniform2 but if
 it should  cease for a moment1 only by 
,his withholding ,his hand1 this would  
be a  miracle4' ,this is to say that all

 natural changes are immediate effects  
of divine action1 proceeding according  
to natural law or rule4    ,the         
suggestion illustrates the bent of      
,reid's thought in later life4 ,if  our 
common sense of the continuous          
independent existence of sensible       
things1 and of their manifestation in   
,perception as directly as states  of   
our own minds are manifested to us when 
we are conscious of them--if  this was  
the factor of the ,common ,sense that   
engaged him in ,new ,machar  and ,king's
 ,college days1 the ,power or ,causality
 which all changes in the  universe     
presuppose now becomes prominent1 alike 
in his correspondence  and in his books4
 ,what is meant by ,power1 and where is 
the ,power centred  that is implied in  
the changes that are always going on1 in
 ourselves and  in our surroundings8    
,priestley's assumption that matter     
explains all the  phenomena of a human  
mind2 the theory of universal necessity 
advocated by  ,kames2 and the duties of 

his ,glasgow professorship1 all tended  
to carry  his reflections onward from   
the merely physical to the ethical      
judgments  of the common sense1 and so  
upward from the merely natural to the   
spiritual interpretation of the         
universe4 #8,first that which is        
natural1  then that which is spiritual4'
    ,this runs through his              
correspondence with ,lord ,kames4 ,that 
there is  no absolute necessity for men 
being bad2 that their immoral acts are  
centred and originate in themselves and 
not in ,god2 that it would be  unjust to
 exact as a duty what it is not in a    
person's power to do2 that  what a man  
does voluntarily or with deliberate     
intention1 it is also in  his power not 
to do2 that what is done without his    
will is not really  done by him at all2 
and that real power is moral            
agency1--these are  ultimate judgments1 
reached #8not by logical reasoning1' but
 in #8the more  trustworthy way of      
immediate perception and feeling1' to   

which ,reid so  often appeals4 #8,if ,i 
could suppose ,god to make a devil a    
devil1 ,i cannot  suppose that ,he would
 condemn him for being a devil1' is in a
 letter to  ,lord ,kames4#ba ,the       
impotence of matter rather than its     
independence is  now insisted on2 with  
the inference that at any rate it cannot
 cause  our perceptions1 as ,priestley  
supposed4 ,he begins to see that power  
must be referred to mind or spirit      
alone1 and that matter is powerless4    
#8,efficient causes are not within the  
sphere of natural philosophy1 which  is 
concerned only with the laws or methods 
according to which ,power  operates4 ,it
 exhibits the grand machine of the      
material world1 analysed1  as it were1  
and taken to pieces4 ,it belongs to     
metaphysics and natural  theology to    
show the ,power that continues and gives
 motion to the whole2  according to laws
 which the naturalist discovers1 and    
perhaps according  to laws still more   
general4'           99       99       99

       99       99    ,it was thus that 
,reid's uneventful life of              
thought--deep1 steady1  unobtrusive--was
 sustained for sixteen years1 when he   
was educating  the rising generation in 
the old class-room at the ,college2     
unfolding  philosophy in correspondence 
with a sympathetic friend2 contributing 
essays to the ,literary ,society which  
met monthly at the ,college2 and        
preparing his #8,brief ,account' of     
,aristotle--all until he had reached his
  seventieth year4 ,on the #aith of ,may
 #aghj he wrote to ,lord ,kames of a    
change that had occurred the day        
before3--        #8,i find myself       
growing old2 and ,i have no right lo    
plead      exemption from the           
infirmities of that stage of life4 ,for 
that reason ,i have made choice of an   
,assistant in my office4      ,yesterday
 the ,college at my desire made choice  
of ,mr4 ,archibald      ,arthur1        
preacher1 to be my assistant and        
successor4 ,i think ,i      have done   

good service to the ,college by this1   
and procured      some leisure to       
myself1 though with reduction of my     
finances4'    ,it was ,reid's desire1   
while his faculties were yet vigorous1  
to devote  his strength to further      
philosophical authorship4 ,during the   
remaining  sixteen years of his life his
 lectures were delivered to the students
  by ,mr4 ,arthur1 to whom the          
professorial work in the class-room was 
transferred4 ,arthur1 then thirty-six   
years of age1 was a native of           
,renfrewshire1 a distinguished alumnus  
of ,glasgow1 as it seems from a         
posthumous volume of his ,essays1 and a 
man not unlike ,reid in mind and        
character1 but in inferior form2 at this
 time chaplain and librarian  of the    
,university1 and a member of the        
,literary ,society4 ,after one of       
,arthur's ,sunday services in the       
,college chapel1 ,reid had whispered to 
one of his colleagues on the            
professorial bench--#8,this is a very   

sensible  fellow1 and in my opinion     
would make a good professor of          
morals4'#bb ,he  is described by a      
contemporary as #8a man of              
unprepossessing exterior1 of  invincible
 bashfulness1 which continued to clog   
his manner and impede  his exertions    
during the whole course of his life2 but
 of a thoughtful1  grave1 silent habit1 
which led him to a due estimate of what 
he was  individually adapted to4' ,he   
survived ,reid1 as his successor1 a     
little  more than a year1 when he was   
followed in the ,chair by ,james ,mylne1
 a  strong man unknown in philosophical 
literature1 whose professorial career   
of forty years made him a familiar      
figure to generations of ,glasgow       
students4          ,,chapter ,,vii      
,,philosophical ,,retirement3           
,,authorship ,,in ,,old ,,age           
#aghj-agie      ,dugald ,stewart1 when  
illustrating the changes in human memory
 that  are connected with disease and   
old age1 refers thus to ,reid3--#8,one  

old  man ,i have myself had the good    
fortune to know1 who1 after a long1 an  
active1 and an honourable life1 having  
begun to feel some of the usual  effects
 of advanced years1 has been able to    
find resources in his own  sagacity     
against most of the inconveniences with 
which they are commonly  attended2 and  
who1 by watching his gradual decline    
with the courage  of an indifferent     
observer1 and employing his ingenuity to
 retard its  progress1 has converted    
even the infirmities of old age into a  
source of  philosophical amusement4'    
,for sixteen years ,reid had been       
discharging  that part of the duties of 
a professor which belongs to the        
class-room3  the remaining sixteen years
 of his life1 devoted to original       
research  and authorship1 illustrate the
 words of ,stewart4 ,he continued1 after
 the  appointment of ,arthur1 to live as
 before in the ,professors' ,court in   
old ,glasgow ,college--a placid1        
methodical life1 steadily industrious1 a

  sagacious interpreter of nature and of
 man1 still active in the academic      
senate--with occasional recreation in   
visits to the country4 ,the year #aghj  
was saddened by another of those        
domestic sorrows which formed the chief 
interruption to the tranquil happiness  
of his life2 for his eldest son1        
,george1 died in ,newfoundland in       
,february1 at the age of twenty-five4   
,two years later the only remaining son1
 ,david1 was taken away2 after  which   
his daughter1 ,mrs4 ,carmichael1 alone  
survived of the nine sons and           
daughters4    ,very soon after he had   
been released from the public work of   
the  professorship1 letters to his      
cousin1 ,dr4 ,james ,gregory1 then an   
,edinburgh ,professor of ,medicine1     
speak of activity in transforming the   
lectures into the form of philosophical 
essays for publication4 ,this           
enterprise was indeed ,reid's principal 
employment for the next eight  years4   
,the ,essays appeared in two            

instalments1 in #aghe and #aghh4 ,the   
first instalment was a matter-of-fact   
inquiry into the intellectual power  of 
man2 the second was a matter-of-fact    
inquiry into man's moral power3  the    
#8facts' inquired about and appealed to 
were the invisible ones of  which men   
are conscious1 not those that can be    
seen and touched--above  all1 the final 
convictions of which the ,common ,sense 
consists4 ,both  instalments appeared in
 the same decade of last century in     
which ,kant's  #8,kritiks' of ,pure and 
,practical ,reason were given to the    
world4    ,reid's ,essays form1 as it   
were1 the inner court of the temple of  
which  the ,aberdonian ,inquiry is the  
vestibule4 ,but the vestibule is a more 
finished work of constructive skill than
 the inner court1 for the aged          
architect appears at last as if         
embarrassed by accumulated material4    
,the  ,essays1 greater in bulk1 perhaps 
less deserve a place among modern       
philosophical classics than the         

,inquiry1 notwithstanding its narrower  
scope1 confined as it is to man's       
perception of the extended world1 as  an
 object-lesson in the method of appeal  
to the common sense4 ,in the  ,essays an
 advance is made towards a finally      
ethical interpretation of  man and the  
universe4    ,we have no longer the     
light of letters to ,lord ,kames in this
 closing  stage of ,reid's life2 for    
,kames died in #aghb4 ,reid's retiring  
modesty deprived him of that large      
literary intercourse to which his       
philosophical position might otherwise  
have led4 ,his correspondence  with men 
eminent in letters or philosophy seems  
almost confined to  ,kames1 the         
,gregories1 ,dugald ,stewart1 and ,dr4  
,price4 ,i find no trace of             
correspondence with his ,aberdeen       
friends ,campbell and ,beattie1 whose   
pursuits had so much in common with his 
own4 ,but letters to ,dr4 ,james        
,gregory take the place in the          
#8eighties' which those to ,lord ,kames 

took in the #8seventies'2 they reveal an
 old age given to proof-sheets1         
scientific experiments1 and benignant   
interest in social progress4 ,one  dated
 #8,glasgow ,college1 ,april #g1 #aghc1'
 tells of the ,essays on the            
,intellectual ,powers in the            
press3--#8,i shall be much obliged if   
you will  continue to favour me with    
your observations2 therefore ,i have put
  off examining those you have sent     
until the manuscripts be returned1      
which ,i expect about the end of this   
month1 along with ,dugald ,stewart's    
observations4' ,again he writes in      
,june3--#8,i cannot get more copied of  
my  papers till next winter1 and indeed 
have not much more ready4 ,this parcel  
goes to page #feh4 ,i believe what you  
have got before may be one-half  of all 
,i intend4 ,the materials of what is not
 yet ready for the copier  are partly   
discourses read in our ,literary        
,society1 partly notes of my  lectures4 
,your judgment of what you have seen    

flatters me very much1  and adds greatly
 to my own opinion of it2 though authors
 seldom are  deficient in a good opinion
 of their works4 ,i am at a loss to     
express my  obligations to you for the  
pains you have taken4' ,he refers in    
another  letter to what he regards as   
the source of the fashionable           
agnosticism  against which his life was 
a continued philosophical protest3--#8,i
 have  often thought of what you        
propose--to give a ,history of the      
,ideal ,system  and what ,i have to say 
against it1 by itself2 and ,i am far    
from being  satisfied that it stands in 
the most proper place in the ,essays4 ,i
  have endeavoured to put it in separate
 chapters e4g4 ,essay ii4 ch4  #g-ae1   
whose titles may direct those who have  
no taste for it to pass  over them4 ,i  
observe that ,bayle and others1 who at  
the reformation of  ,natural ,philosophy
 gave new light1 found it necessary to  
contrast their  own discoveries with the
 ,aristotelian notions which then       

prevailed4 ,we  may now wish their works
 purged of this controversial part2 but 
perhaps  it was necessary at the time   
they wrote1 when men's minds were full  
of  the old system1 and prepossessed in 
its favour4 ,what ,i take to be the     
genuine ,philosophy of the ,human ,mind 
is in so low a state1 and has so  many  
enemies1 that ,i apprehend those who    
would make any improvement in  it must1 
for some time at least1 build with one  
hand1 and hold a weapon  with the       
other4' ,so ,reid claimed the office of 
modern reformer of the  philosophy of   
human mind1 as ,bacon and others had    
been the reformers of  the sciences     
which interpret external nature4    ,on 
#8,march #ad1 #aghd1' he mentions the   
progress of the book3--#8,i send  you   
now the remainder of what ,i propose to 
print with respect to the  ,intellectual
 ,powers of the ,mind4 ,it may perhaps  
be a year before what  relates to the   
,active ,powers be ready2 and therefore 
,i think the former  might be published 

by itself1 as it is very uncertain      
whether ,i shall  live to publish the   
latter4 ,i think the title may be       
,essays on the  ,intellectual ,powers of
 the ,human ,mind4 ,it will easily      
divide into eight  ,essays2 but with    
regard to this1 as well as whether the  
two parts may  be published separately1 
,i wish to have your advice and ,mr4    
,stewart's4  ,i apprehend that the      
,second ,part--,i mean what relates to  
the ,active  ,powers--will not be near  
so large as the ,first4' ,on #8#bnd ,may
 #aghe' he  announces that the ,essays  
on the ,intellectual ,powers are ready  
for  publication1 dedicated to ,dr4     
,gregory and to ,dugald ,stewart3--#8,i 
send you  enclosed what ,i propose as   
the title of my ,essays1 with an        
,epistle  which ,i hope you and ,mr4    
,stewart will allow me to prefix to     
them4 ,whether  your name should go     
first1 on account of your doctor's      
degree1 or ,mr4  ,stewart's1 ,i leave   
you to adjust between yourselves4 ,i    

know not how to  express my obligations 
to you both1 for the aid you have given 
me4'    ,the book thus ushered into the 
world in #aghe treats of those          
constituents  of the common sense that  
are implied1 not only in perception of  
things  through the five senses and     
memory1 but also in imagination and in  
the  experimental sciences that deal    
with the past1 the distant1 and the     
future4 ,one of them contains the       
rudiments of a criticism of the common  
sense principles that finally regulate  
all abstract reasonings1 and  above all1
 those that determine our judgments of  
truths contingent upon  ,will--human and
 divine2 in all of which what           
philosophers called #8ideas'  seemed to 
him to spoil the genuine common sense   
and its inspirations4  ,the fifth ,essay
 deals with the office and relations of 
our abstract  conceptions4 ,of this     
,essay ,schopenhauer remarks that #8the 
best and most  intelligent exposition of
 the nature and essence of conceptions  

which  ,i have been able anywhere to    
find is in ,thomas ,reid's ,essays on   
the  ,powers of the ,human ,mind4 ,this 
was afterwards condemned by ,dugald     
,stewart in his ,philosophy of the      
,human ,mind4 ,not to waste paper1 ,i   
will briefly remark with regard to      
,stewart1 that he belongs to that  large
 class who have obtained an undeserved  
reputation through favour  and friends1 
and therefore ,i can only advise that   
not an hour should be  wasted over the  
scribbling of this shallow writer4'#bc  
,this unworthy  criticism of ,stewart is
 far removed from the calm judgment of  
,reid4    ,that our perceptions are not 
related to their objects as effects are 
related to their causes1 is insisted on 
in the ,essays1 in opposition  to       
,priestley1 who treats cognitive acts as
 the issue of power which  belongs to   
matter4 #8,men1' ,reid says1 #8have been
 prone to imagine that1  as bodies are  
put in motion by some impulse or        
impression made upon them  by contiguous

 bodies1 so the mind is made to think   
and perceive by some  impression made   
upon it by contiguous objects4 ,but to  
say that an object  which ,i see with   
perfect indifference makes an impression
 upon my mind  is not good ,english4 ,it
 is evident from the manner in which    
this phrase  is used by modern          
philosophers that they mean1 not barely 
to express by  it my perceiving an      
object1 but to explain the manner of    
perception4 ,they  think that the object
 perceived acts upon the mind in some   
way similar to  that in which one body  
acts upon another4 ,the impression upon 
the mind  is conceived to be something  
wherein the mind is altogether passive4 
,but this is a hypothesis which         
contradicts the common sense of mankind4
  ,when ,i look upon the wall of my     
room1 the wall does not act at all1  nor
 is capable of acting3 the perceiving it
 is an act or operation in  me4' ,in    
short1 the relation between perceptions 
and their objects is a  unique relation1

 not to be confounded with the causal1  
the only causality  involved being the  
percipient power that is in me4         
,those ,essays of ,reid which treat of  
the constituents of the common  sense   
that are implied in the ,intellect power
 of man1 appeared in the  early summer  
of #aghe4 ,in ,september he informed    
,dr4 ,gregory of the opinion  of ,dr4   
,price1 the most eminent contemporary   
,english metaphysician3--#8,i had  a    
letter from ,dr4 ,price lately1 thanking
 me for a copy of the ,essays  ,i       
ordered to be presented to him2 which he
 has read1 and calls a work  of the     
first value2 commends me particularly   
for treating ,dr4 ,priestley  so gently1
 who1 he says1 had been unhappily led to
 use me ill4' ,he then  refers to his   
own health1 which seems to have suffered
 from the mental  strain1 now relieved  
by the issue of his book3--#8,as you are
 so kind as  to ask me about my         
distemper1 ,i think it is almost quite  
gone1 so as to  give me no uneasiness4  

,i abstain from fruit and malt liquor1  
and take a  little port wine1 mostly    
noon and night1 not above two bottles a 
week  when alone4 ,the more ,i walk or  
ride1 or even talk or read audibly1 ,i  
am  the better4'    ,dr4 ,beattie writes
 thus to the ,bishop of ,chester in     
,october3--        #8,has your lordship 
read ,dr4 ,reid's ,essays on the        
,intellectual      ,powers of ,man8     
,those readers who have been conversant 
in      the modern philosophy of mind1  
as it appears in the writings      of   
,descartes1 ,malebranche1 ,locke1       
,berkeley1 and ,hume1 will      be much 
entertained with this work1 which does  
great honour      to the sagacity and   
patience of the author4 ,it contains the
      principles of his ,inquiry1 laid  
down on a larger scale1 and      applied
 to a greater variety of subjects4 ,dr4 
,reid treats his      opponents and     
their tenets with a respect and a       
solemnity that      sometimes tempt me  
to smile4 ,his style is clear and       

simple2 and      his aversion to the    
word idea is so great1 that ,i think he 
never once uses it in delivering his own
 opinions4 ,it was not      without     
reason that ,stillingfleet took the     
alarm at ,mr4 ,locke's      indiscreet  
use of that word4 ,it was indeed an     
ignis fatuus      that decoyed him in   
spite of his excellent understanding    
into a      thousand pits and quagmires4
 ,berkeley it bewildered still more4    
,and it reduced ,david ,hume to the     
condition of a certain old              
gentleman of whom we read1 that--       
,fluttering his pinions vain1           
,plumb down he dropped1 ten thousand    
fathoms deep4'    ,whether our power of 
conceiving is so far a test of          
possibility1 as that  what is distinctly
 conceived must be concluded to be      
possible1 and what  cannot be conceived 
impossible1 was a question which        
interested ,reid4  ,it is discussed in  
the ,essays on the ,intellectual        
,powers1 and also in  the draft of a    

letter to ,dr4 ,price1 preserved among  
the manuscripts at  ,birkwood2 in which 
it is argued that our power of          
conception cannot be a  criterion of    
what is possible4 ,the argument turns   
much on the meanings of  #8conception1' 
#8possibility1' and #8impossibility4'   
,he thus addresses ,dr4  ,price3--      
#8,i would willingly suggest some       
subject on which ,i might have      the 
favour of your thoughts when you have   
leisure and are      disposed for such  
correspondence4 ,what occurs to my      
thoughts      just now is a metaphysical
 axiom very generally adopted1 and1     
,i think1 occasionally adopted by you in
 your ,review of the      ,principal    
,questions in ,morals--,that what we    
distinctly conceive      is possible4   
,from this axiom ,d4 ,hume infers that  
it is possible      that an universe may
 start into existence without a cause1  
and other like extravagancies4 ,the use 
he makes of it led me      to consider  
it a good many years ago1 and ,i have a 

strong      suspicion that there is some
 fallacy in it1 which has imposed       
on men's understandings1 owing to the   
ambiguity of the word      conceive4    
#8,as to the history of this axiom1 ,i  
suspect it to have taken      its rise  
from what ,descartes laid down as the   
criterion      of truth1 which he       
maintained to be clear and distinct     
conception4 ,quidquid clare et distincte
 concipio esse verum1      id est verum4
 ,cudworth seems to have followed him in
 this1      making the criterion of     
verity to be clear1 self-consistent     
intelligibility4 ,those who came after1 
judging it difficult to      maintain   
that everything is true which is clearly
 conceivable      or intelligible1 have 
maintained that everything that can be  
clearly conceived is at least possible4 
,this seemed to be the      proper      
correction of ,descartes' maxim1 and it 
has passed from      one hand to another
 without strict examination4            
#8,whatever is true or false1 whatever  

is possible or impossible1      may be  
expressed by a proposition4 ,now1 what  
do we mean when we      say that we     
conceive a proposition8 ,i think no more
 is meant1      if we speak properly1   
than that we understand what is meant by
      that proposition4 ,if this be so1 
it must surely be granted that      we  
may understand the meaning of a         
proposition which expresses      what is
 impossible4 ,he who understands the    
meaning of this      proposition1 8,two 
and two make four10 must equally        
understand      the meaning of this     
other1 8,two and two do not make four40 
,both are equally understood2 that is1  
the conception of both      is equally  
clear2 yet the first is necessarily     
true1 and the      second impossible4   
#8,perhaps it will be said1 that we may 
not merely conceive the      meaning of 
a proposition1 but we may conceive it to
 be a      true proposition1 and that it
 is our being able to conceive      it  
to be true that gives us ground to think

 it possible4 ,in      answer to this1  
,i beg you would attend very carefully  
to the      meaning of these            
words--8,conceiving a proposition to be 
true40 ,i      can put no other meaning 
upon them but judging it to be true1    
that is1 giving some degree of assent to
 it4 ,judgment or assent      admits of 
various degrees1 from the slightest     
suspicion to the      most deliberate   
conviction2 from the most modest and    
diffident      assent to the most       
pertinacious and dogmatical4 ,i conceive
      there maybe inhabitants in the    
moon2 that is1 my judgment leans      a 
little that way4 ,i would not use that  
expression unless the      probability1 
however small1 seemed to be on that side
 of the      question4        #8,if this
 be the meaning of conceiving a         
proposition to be true1      then the   
meaning of the axiom will be1 that a    
proposition      which appears to us to 
have any degree of probability1 however 
small1 must at least be possible4 ,but  

the axiom1 taken in      this sense1 is 
surely false4 ,it would be superfluous  
to give      instances of this to a     
mathematician4        #8,if it should be
 said that conceiving a proposition to  
be      true means1 neither barely to   
understand the meaning of the           
proposition1 nor the giving any degree  
of assent to it1 ,i would      be glad  
to know what it really does mean4 ,for  
,i am at a loss to      know what power 
of the understanding we mean by the     
conceiving      a proposition to be     
true1 if it is neither simple           
apprehension1      by which we barely   
understand the meaning of a proposition1
      nor judgment1 by which we assent  
to the proposition or dissent      from 
it4 ,i know of no power of the          
understanding intermediate      between 
these two4 ,and if there is none1 ,i    
think the axiom must      be false4     
#8,there are many propositions which1 by
 the faculties ,god has      given us1  
we perceive to be not only true1 but    

necessarily      true2 and the          
contradictions of these must be         
impossible4 ,so      that our knowledge 
of what is impossible keeps pace with   
our      knowledge of necessary truth4  
#8,by our senses and our memory1 by     
testimony and other means1      we have 
the certain knowledge of many truths    
which we do not      perceive to be     
necessary2 their contraries therefore   
may be      possible for aught we know4 
,but we know that whatever is true1     
whether necessary or not1 is possible4  
,our knowledge therefore      of what is
 possible keeps pace with our knowledge 
of truth1      whether contingent or    
necessary4 ,beyond this1 ,i am afraid   
our      knowledge of what is possible  
is conjectural4 ,and although      we   
are apt to think everything to be       
possible which we do      not perceive  
to be impossible1 yet in this we may be 
greatly      deceived4 ,you know well1  
sir1 that mathematics affords many      
instances of impossibilities in the     

nature of things1 which      no man     
would have dreamed of or believed1 until
 they were      discovered by accurate  
and subtle reasoning4 ,perhaps if we    
were      able to reason demonstratively
 to as great an extent in other         
subjects as in mathematics1 we might    
discover many things to      be         
impossible which we now take to be      
possible4 ,we are apt      to think it  
possible that ,god might have made an   
universe of      sensible and rational  
creatures1 into which neither natural   
nor moral ,evil should ever enter4 ,it  
may be so for what ,i      know4 ,but   
how are you certain that this is        
possible8 ,i can      distinctly        
conceive it1 say you2 therefore it is   
possible4 ,i do      not admit this     
argument4 ,may not a man who is a       
mathematician      as distinctly        
conceive that in the infinite variety of
 numbers      gradually ascending1 there
 is no ratio whatsoever which is not    
equal to the ratio of some one whole    

number to some other whole      number8 
,yet the mathematician can demonstrate  
that there are      innumerable ratios  
which are not equal to the ratio of some
 one      number to another4 ,many      
mathematicians1 taking it for granted   
that it was possible to square the      
circle1 have spent their      lives in a
 fruitless pursuit4 ,may not our taking 
things to be      possible1 in matters  
of higher moment1 when we can show no   
good      reason that they are so1 lead 
us into unnecessary disputes and        
vain theories8 ,ought we to admit that  
as a just argument in      reasoning1 or
 even as a pressing difficulty1 which is
 grounded      on the supposition that  
such a thing is possible1 when in       
reality we have no good evidence of its 
being possible1 and for      anything we
 can show to the contrary1 it may be    
impossible8'    ,a letter to ,dr4       
,gregory in ,march #aghf shows the      
,essays on the ,active or  ,moral       
,powers in the press3--#8,i am proud of 

the approbation you express of  the     
,essays4 ,i have made some corrections  
and additions1 but such as ,i  hope will
 not make it necessary to write the book
 over again4 ,but ,i wish1  if ,i find  
health and leisure in summer1 to add    
some ,essays to go before  that on      
8,liberty of the ,will10 in order to    
give some further elucidation  of the   
principles of morals4 ,i expect your    
remarks and ,d4 ,stewart's on  what is  
in hand4 ,it will be no inconvenience to
 wait two1 three1 or  even four months4'
 ,two years later1 early in #aghh1 when 
he was in his  seventy-eighth year1 the 
five ,essays on the ,active ,powers of  
,man were  published4 ,this was ,reid's 
last appearance as a philosophical      
author4 ,the  eight ,essays of #aghe1   
and the five ,essays of #aghh1 all      
relate to human  ,power--power immanent 
or intellectual1 and power overtly      
operative or  moral4    ,in ,march1 a   
few weeks after the book appeared1      
,beattie writes to ,sir ,w4  ,forbes3-- 

#8,i have been looking into ,dr4 ,reid's
 book on ,the ,active      ,powers of   
,man4 ,it is written with his usual     
perspicuity and      acuteness2 is in   
some parts very entertaining2 and to me1
 who      have been obliged to think    
much on those subjects1 is very         
interesting throughout4 ,the question   
concerning ,liberty and      ,necessity 
of the ,will is very fully discussed1   
and very ably1      and ,i think nothing
 more need be said about it4 ,i could   
have      wished that he had given a    
fuller examination of the passions1     
and been a little more practical in     
illustrating the duties of              
morality4 ,but his manner in all his    
writings more turned to      speculative
 than to practical philosophy2 which may
 be owing      to his having employed   
himself so much in the study of ,locke1 
,hume1 ,berkeley1 and other theorists2  
and partly1 no doubt1      to the habits
 of study and modes of conversation     
which were      fashionable in this     

country in his younger days4 ,if ,i were
 not      personally acquainted with the
 ,doctor1 ,i should conclude from       
his books that he was rather too warm an
 admirer of ,mr4 ,hume4      ,he        
confutes1 it is true1 some of his       
opinions2 but pays them      much more  
respect than they are entitled to4'     
,to ,beattie's less profound            
intelligence1 indignant sentiment was   
more  acceptable1 in defence of         
fundamental faith1 than the calm inquiry
 and  sympathetic criticism of ,reid4   
,the ,literary ,society which met       
monthly in the ,college was occasionally
  a channel for his thoughts through all
 the years of the ,glasgow              
professorship1 as the more famous       
#8,wise ,club' had been at ,aberdeen4   
,principal ,leechman1 ,black1 ,moor1    
,arthur1 and ,dr4 ,thomas ,hamilton were
  also members4 ,some of ,reid's        
contributions before #aghh seem to have 
been incorporated in the ,essays4 ,after
 that he still found vent for  his      

thoughts in papers for the ,society1 and
 in letters to ,dr4 ,gregory1  chiefly  
about ,power and ,causation4 ,among the 
most important of those  submitted to   
the ,society in his last years1 ,i find 
#8,some ,observations  on the ,modern   
,system of ,materialism1' in which the  
impotence of matter  is maintained2 as  
also in another1 entitled               
#8,miscellaneous ,reflections  on       
,priestley's account of ,hartley's      
,theory of the ,human ,mind4' ,then we  
have #8,observations on the ,utopia of  
,sir ,thomas ,more4' ,a short essay     
#8,on  ,power1'#bd in ,march #agib1 was 
his last metaphysical performance3 it   
sums  up his conclusions regarding our  
conception of causation1 as regulated by
  the ,common ,sense4 #8,observations on
 the ,danger of ,political ,innovation1'
  suggested by the ,revolution in       
,france1 were read in the ,society on   
,november #agid4    ,this last ,essay is
 characteristic4 ,it presses a          
distinction between two  political      

attitudes that are apt to be            
confounded--the one speculative1        
dealing with abstractions1 treating the 
facts of the case and history as        
irrelevant2 the other practical1 taking 
account of the actual conditions1       
therefore disposed to modify its ideals 
by a due regard to what has  been and   
now is4 ,the first asks what that       
organisation of society is1  which1     
abstractly considered1 is most          
favourable to progress3 the  other      
cautiously considers how the inherited  
political organism may  with least      
friction be adapted to the changed      
conditions of the social  evolution4    
,reid assumes this last as his attitude1
 arguing that the  ,british             
,constitution encourages continuous     
orderly evolution1 not sudden           
revolution1 and that this is illustrated
 in its history since #afhh4  ,at first1
 he had looked with sanguine hope to the
 ,french ,revolution1  but1 like ,edmund
 ,burke1 who shortly before had been    

,rector of ,glasgow  ,university1 his   
hope gave place to fear4 ,it is         
interesting that it was  the ,vindici   
,gallic of ,sir ,james ,mackintosh that 
had inspired him with  the hope2 for1   
according to his daughter1 ,mrs4        
,carmichael1 he was struck  with        
admiration on reading the book1 and used
 often to speak of it as one  of the    
most ingenious essays in political      
philosophy he had ever met with4        
,jeremy ,bentham as well as ,mackintosh 
was known to ,reid by his writings1  as 
appears in this letter to ,dr4 ,gregory1
 in ,september #aghh1 which refers  to  
,bentham's ,defence of ,usury1 published
 the year before3--        #8,i am much 
pleased with the tract you sent me on   
,usury4 ,i think      the reasoning     
unanswerable1 and have long been of the 
author's      opinion1 though ,i suspect
 that the general principle--that       
bargains ought to be left to the        
judgment of the parties1 may      admit 
of some exceptions2 when the buyers are 

the many1 the      poor1 the simple1 and
 the sellers few1 rich1 and cunning4    
,the former may need the aid of the     
magistrate to prevent      their being  
oppressed by the latter4 ,it seems to be
 upon      this principle that postage1 
freight1 the hire of chairs and         
coaches1 and the price of bread1 are    
regulated in most great      towns4 ,but
 with regard to the loan of money in a  
commercial      state1 the exception can
 have no place--the borrowers and       
lenders are upon an equal footing1 and  
each may be left to take      care of   
his own interest4'    ,three years      
before his death ,reid is found         
preparing the ,account of the           
,university of ,glasgow1 which appeared 
three years after his death1 in  the    
,statistical ,account of ,scotland      
published by ,sir ,john ,sinclair4 ,it  
was not communicated by him to ,sir     
,john1 but transmitted by ,professor    
,jardine1 in name of the ,principal and 
,professors1 at whose request ,reid     

seems to have engaged in this work4 ,it 
was an anonymous publication1 but  it   
has been attributed to him1 and it bears
 internal evidence of his  hand4 ,his   
colleague1 ,professor ,richardson1 in   
his biographical account  of ,professor 
,arthur1 ,reid's successor1 published in
 #ahjc1 mentions that  #8the            
,statistical ,account of the ,university
 was all written by ,dr4 ,reid1  except 
the statements respecting the business  
of particular classes4' ,it  shows      
intelligence then uncommon in ,scotland 
of the medival constitution  of         
,universities1 and appreciation of the  
true academical ideal4 ,the life  begun 
at ,king's ,college forty years before  
in projects of ,university  reform1 was 
fitly closed by this account of the     
great western seat of  learning4        
,mrs4 ,reid died early in #agib4 ,his   
feelings were thus expressed in a       
letter to ,dugald ,stewart3--           
#8,by the loss of my bosom friend1 with 
whom ,i lived fifty-two      years1 ,i  

am brought into a kind of new world1 at 
a time of life      when old habits are 
not easily forgot1 or new ones acquired4
      ,but every world is ,god's world1 
and ,i am thankful for the      comforts
 ,he has left me4 ,mrs4 ,carmichael has 
now the care of      two deaf old men1  
and does everything in her power to     
please      them2 and both are very     
sensible of her goodness4 ,i have more  
health than at my time of life #hb ,i   
had any reason to expect4      ,i walk  
about2 entertain myself with reading    
what ,i soon forget2      ,i can        
converse with one person if he          
articulates distinctly      and within  
ten inches of my left ear2 ,i go to     
church without      hearing a word of   
what is said4 ,you know ,i had never any
      pretensions to vivacity1 but ,i am
 still free from languor and            
ennui4'    ,after this sorrow1 his      
daughter1 ,mrs4 ,carmichael1 lived much 
in his house  in the ,professors'       
,court4 ,she became a widow in the same 

year1 for her  husband died a few months
 after ,mrs4 ,reid4 ,elizabeth ,leslie1 
daughter of  his stepsister ,margaret1  
was also an inmate1 and added to the    
comfort of  the closing years4 ,soon    
after her father's death ,mrs4          
,carmichael went to  live at ,aberdeen4 
,,chapter ,,viii    ,,inspired ,,common 
,,sense ,,and ,,causation3 ,,active ,,or
 ,,moral ,,power ,,in ,,man             
,philosophical recognition of the       
genuine ,common ,sense or natural       
judgment  of mankind1 especially in two 
of its factors1 which seemed to ,reid   
obscured if not suppressed by dogmatic  
hypothesis1 gave its character  to his  
whole intellectual life4 ,he found1 in  
the first place1 that #8all             
philosophers2 from ,plato to ,mr4 ,hume1
 agree in this1 that we do not  perceive
 external objects immediately1 and that 
the immediate object of  perception must
 be some image present to the mind4' ,to
 rid philosophy  of this hypothesis1 as 
a mere prejudice1 inconsistent with the 

absolute  trustworthiness1 and therefore
 with the supreme and final rational    
authority of our natural judgment1 was  
the chief aim of his ,aberdonian        
life--culminating in the ,inquiry in    
#agfd4 ,he found1 in the second place1  
that #8to confound the notion of agent  
or efficient cause with that of         
physical cause has been a common error  
of philosophers1 from the days of       
,plato to our own'2 and it seemed to him
 as subversive of moral relations  in   
the universe as the other was of        
physical relations4 ,accordingly1 our   
conception of ,power or ,causation      
chiefly engaged him in ,glasgow4 ,this  
appears in his #8,essays' on moral      
,power in man2 in his correspondence    
with  ,kames and ,gregory in the last   
twenty years of his life2 as well as in 
the  unpublished fragment on #8,power1' 
in #agib1 which was his last expression 
of reflective thought4 ,the ,philosophy 
of ,perception and the ,philosophy of   
,causation--our common sense of extended

 reality in our first intercourse  with 
it in the senses1 and our common sense  
conception of #8power' and  #8cause'    
which arises in the presence of the     
changes amidst which we live  and have  
our being--these were the two poles of  
,reid's philosophical  life4 ,his whole 
life was a war against two common errors
 of philosophers  regarding these1 from 
the days of ,plato to our own1 in each  
of which the  seeds of speculative and  
practical scepticism seemed to lie      
thickly4  ,if these two fundamental     
convictions were untrustworthy1 then    
faith in  anything must lose its        
sustaining strength4 ,for our           
perceptions through  the five senses are
 the first principles of all our        
reasonings about the  actual universe1  
and our causal judgments are the means  
of interpreting  the realities to which 
those perceptions only introduce us4    
,we find ourselves continually in       
contact and collision with ,power that  
is external to ourselves individually2  

and we seem1 too1 to be exerting  powers
 of our own3 on the ,power latent in the
 universe1 our happiness  or misery1 our
 whole destiny1 depends4 ,what does all 
this mean8 ,what is  meant by the       
judgment that all changes in the        
universe are #8caused'2 and  what is the
 origin of this judgment1 or of the     
conception of #8cause' that  is involved
 in it8 ,are the powers which we        
recognise in us and around  us to be    
referred only to inanimate things as    
their centres2 or only to  living and   
self-conscious persons2 or to both8     
,priestley1 as an advocate of the claim 
of matter to account sufficiently  for  
self-conscious life in man1 and ,kames  
and ,priestley by their  universal      
necessity1 confirmed ,reid's disposition
 to inquire further into  the nature and
 origin of the conception of power1 and 
the judgment that  every change         
presupposes what we ambiguously call a  
cause4 ,his cousin  ,gregory1 too1      
inquired about causation1 and gave the  

results to the world  in an ,essay on   
the ,difference between the ,relation of
 ,motive and ,action1  and that of      
,cause and ,effect in ,physics1 which   
appeared in #agib4    ,that every change
 must be caused1 ,reid regarded as a    
postulate of which  the contradictory   
was absolutely inconceivable3 it was    
necessarily  implied in the common      
rational sense of ,man1 and1 while      
incapable of  logical proof1 was that   
without which nothing else could be     
proved4 ,that  the things presented to  
our senses are themselves powerless2    
that all  power is spiritual1 referable 
only to ,will2 and that this is the     
common  sense implicate of our physical 
and moral experience of changes1 was the
  proposition which ,reid now set       
himself to justify4 ,our experience of  
our  own voluntary exertion is the only 
experience which directs us to the      
quarter in which power1 properly so     
called1 resides4 ,a voluntary agent is  
our only example of a cause1 or of that 

to which change must be finally         
referred as its responsible source4 ,we 
can find no productive power in  any    
inanimate thing4 ,matter1 instead of    
being the universal cause1 is  in itself
 powerless1 and can account for nothing4
 ,the material universe  is virtually an
 external system of interpretable signs1
 regulated by  non-material power4      
,take the following extracts from       
various letters of ,reid's to ,gregory1 
from #aghe onwards1#be in the           
unpublished paper on ,power3--          
#8,power to produce an effect supposes  
power not to produce it2      otherwise 
it is not power but necessity1 which is 
incompatible      with power taken in a 
strict sense4444 ,i am not able to form 
a conception how power 7in the strict   
sense7 can be exerted      without will2
 nor can there be will without some     
degree of      understanding4 ,therefore
 nothing can be an efficient cause in   
the proper sense but an intelligent     
being i4e4 a person4      ,hence the    

only notion we can form of ,almighty    
,power is1 that      ,god can do        
whatever ,he wills4 ,matter cannot be   
the cause of      anything3 it can only 
be an instrument in the hands of a real 
cause4444 ,in physics the word cause has
 another meaning1      which1 though ,i 
think it an improper one1 yet is        
distinct1      and therefore may be     
reasoned upon4 ,when a phenomenon is    
produced according to a certain law of  
nature1 we call the law      or rule the
 cause of that phenomenon2 and to the   
laws or      rules of nature we         
accordingly ascribe power or efficiency4
      ,the whole business of physics is 
to discover1 by observation      and    
experiment1 the laws of nature1 and to  
apply them to      the solution of      
phenomena4 ,now a law of nature is a    
purpose      or resolution of the       
,author of nature to act according to   
a certain rule4 ,there must be a real   
agent to produce the      phenomenon    
according to the law4 ,a malefactor is  

not hanged by      the law1 but by the  
executioner according to the law4'      
,again3--#8,a cause in the proper and   
strict sense signifies a      mind that 
has power and will to produce the       
effect4 ,a cause      in the physical   
sense means only something which1 by the
 laws      of nature1 the effect always 
follows2 as when we say that      heat  
is the cause that turns water into      
vapour4444 ,between a      physical     
cause and its effect the conjunction    
must be constant2      unless in the    
case of a miracle4 ,what ,d4 ,hume says 
of causes      in general is very just  
when applied to physical causes--that   
a constant conjunction with the effect  
is essential to such      causes1 and   
implied in the very conception of them4'
 ,again3--#8,i      wish that the same  
general name--cause--had not been given 
to      both4 ,they differ toto genere4 
,for a physical cause is not an         
agent4 ,it does not act1 but is acted   
upon4 ,you accordingly      give them   

different names2 calling the one the    
agent and      not the cause1 the other 
the cause and not the agent4 ,but       
,i think this too bold an innovation in 
language4 ,men have      been so much   
accustomed to call the ,deity the ,first
 ,cause of      things1 that to maintain
 that ,he is no cause at all would be   
too shocking4 ,to say that the world    
exists without a cause      would be    
accounted atheism1 in spite of all      
explanations4444      ,the words agent  
and action are less ambiguous4 ,we say  
one      body acts upon another2 and in 
vain would one attempt to      abolish  
this language4 ,to remedy this ambiguity
 of 8cause0 and      8agent10 ,i say    
that each of these words has two        
meanings--a      lax or popular and a   
philosophical4444 ,it is remarkable that
      the philosophical meaning must    
have been the first1 and the            
popular a corruption introduced by      
time4444 ,power is first      conceived 
from being conscious of it in ourselves4

 ,conceiving      of inanimate beings   
from what we are conscious of in        
ourselves1      we at first ascribed to 
them such power as we are conscious     
of1 till experience informs us that     
inanimate things have not      the same 
powers as we have2 but language was     
formed before      this discovery was   
made4444 ,it is a curious question how  
we      come by the cognition of power  
and cause1 so that we ascribe      them 
to things that have no will nor         
intelligence4 ,i am apt      to think   
that savages1 whenever they see motion  
which they      cannot account for1     
there they suppose a soul4 ,in this     
period      of society language is      
formed4 ,at length the more acute and   
speculative few discover that some of   
the things which the      vulgar believe
 to be animated are inanimate4 ,what use
 must      wise men make of this        
discovery8 ,will they affirm that the   
sun      does not shine nor give heat8  
that the sea never rages nor the        

winds blow8 nor the earth bring forth   
grass and corn8 ,the wiser      part    
will speak the common language1 and suit
 it to their new      notions as well as
 they can2 just as philosophers still   
say      with the vulgar1 that the sun  
8rises0 and 8sets40'    ,that morally   
responsible intending ,will is our      
ultimate conception  of ,power or       
,cause1 properly so called1 is not less 
the lesson of the  ,birkwood manuscript 
#8,on ,power' of #agib4 ,thus3--        
#8,will is necessarily implied in the   
notion of ,power4 ,volition      and    
what naturally follows upon our         
volitions1 is all that we      conceive 
to be in our own power4 ,what a man     
never willed can      never be imputed  
to him as his action4 ,a being that has 
no      will can have no power4 ,when we
 impute powers to dead matter1      it  
must be in some popular or analogical   
sense1 but not in the      proper sense4
 ,there can be no productive power in an
 inanimate      object4444 ,a cause is  

that which has power to produce an      
effect4 ,when we ascribe power to things
 inanimate as causes1      we mean      
nothing more than a constant conjunction
 by the laws or      rules of nature1   
which experience discovers4 ,thus we say
 that      the sun has power to retain  
the planets in their orbits1 and        
that heat has power to melt lead4 ,if   
the ignorant be led by the              
ambiguity of the word to conceive power 
in the sun or in heat      to produce   
the effects attributed to them1 this is 
a vulgar      error which philosophy    
i4e4 of common sense corrects4 ,by      
what agents these effects are           
immediately produced we know      not2  
but we have good reason to believe that 
they cannot be      produced by         
inanimate matter4'    ,reid also allows 
that1 for anything we can tell1 things  
which have no  proper power of their own
 may be terms in a sequence that is     
subject to  an absolute necessity of    
being the sequence that it is4 ,but     

however  this may be1 it transcends our 
knowledge2 we must be satisfied with the
  common sense conviction of persistent 
uniformities in fact pervading the      
universe of change1 whether this fact is
 the result of a divine necessity  or of
 arbitrary divine will4 ,natural        
uniformities are presupposed in  all our
 reasoning about our natural            
surroundings1 and without this          
presupposition things could not be      
reasoned about or formed into science4  
,all our knowledge of natural events1   
beyond original perceptions of  sense1  
consists in interpretation of the       
phenomena of which the senses  make us  
aware4 ,upon this judgment of the common
 sense our inductions are  all grounded1
 so that it may be called the inductive 
principle4 ,withdraw  trust from it and 
experience becomes blind as a mole4 ,we 
may feel what  is present at the moment1
 but the distant and the future are     
wholly hid  in darkness4    ,power or   
intelligent agency is thus the exclusive

 characteristic of  conscious persons3  
interpretable order is the              
characteristic of inanimate  things4    
,these are two correlative judgments or 
inspirations of our  natural common     
sense upon which human reasonings turn4 
,reid finds  when he reflects patiently 
that he is obliged1 by a rational       
instinct  as it were1 to recognise      
himself and other persons as the centres
 of  responsible power1 the only sort of
 power or causality in existence that   
can be supposed by us2 and also to      
recognise in the impersonal world       
without1 something that in itself is    
passive and impotent1 but which1  as a  
system of interpretable sense signs1 may
 be said metaphorically to  form the    
language of nature1 of which the natural
 sciences are 7so far7  the             
interpretation4 ,the universe is thus a 
material order directed by  spiritual   
power1 in a measure corresponding to the
 body and the spirit  in man1 as man now
 is4 ,but this larger conception carries

 us beyond the  modest philosophy to    
which ,reid confined himself2 although  
he more than  once approached it1       
perhaps through some unconscious        
reminiscence of the  ,berkeleyism of his
 youth1 of which1 ,i think1 he failed to
 see the real  drift1 as it was unfolded
 in ,alciphron and especially in ,siris4
    ,yet the following scrap1 which ,i  
find among unpublished manuscripts of   
his later life1 shows that such thoughts
 were not quite absent from his  mind3--
        #8,the ancient philosophers     
called ,god the ,soul of the ,world4    
,this1 considered as a figurative       
expression1 is destitute      neither of
 beauty nor of truth4 ,what the soul of 
man is to his      body1 that ,god is to
 the universe1 in several respects2 but 
not      in all4 ,there are many        
respects in which the metaphor fails3   
7#a7 ,the human soul did not make its   
own body1 but ,god made      the world2 
7#b7 the human soul is ignorant of the  
nice texture      and mechanism of its  

body1 but ,god knows the whole mechanism
      of the universe1 because ,he      
conceived and made it2 7#c7 the         
human soul receives much of its         
information by bodily organs3           
,god's knowledge of all things is       
immediate and not dependent      on     
bodily organs2 7#d7 our power over our  
own bodies is      limited3 the power of
 ,god over the universe is unlimited2   
7#e7      our bodies are wholly made up 
of inert and soulless matter3      the  
universe is stored with various orders  
of living beings      and free agents1  
subject to the ,divine ,power as their  
moral      governor and capable of      
paying back the service of rational     
subjects4'    ,but the philosophy of the
 ,common ,sense1 as represented by      
,reid1 did not  rise to the conciliation
 of the natural order of the material   
with the  originative freedom of the    
spiritual world1 in which operating law 
in  outward nature is recognised as     
immediate divine agency1 or a part of  a

 revelation of perfectly reasonable     
,will in and through a universe of      
things and persons4          ,,chapter  
,,ix    ,,the ,,end--#agif      ,in the 
last winter of his life ,reid read an   
interesting discourse on  #8,muscular   
,motion1' in the ,literary ,society1 of 
which he so long had  been a member4    
,after describing articulately the      
progressive changes  in the human       
muscles which mark the advance of age1  
and proposing an  explanation1 he thus  
concludes his last public discourse3--  
#8,may ,i be permitted to mention that  
it was my own experience      of some of
 these effects of old age on the        
muscular motions      that led my       
thoughts to this explanation1 which1 as 
it is      owing to the infirmities of  
age1 will1 ,i hope1 be treated      with
 the greater indulgence4 ,it is both    
pleasant and useful      to contemplate 
with gratitude the wisdom and goodness  
of the      ,author of our being1 in    
fitting this machine of our body to the 

various employments and enjoyments of   
life4 ,the structure is      admirable  
as far as we are permitted to see it in 
this infancy      of our being4 ,and the
 internal structure which is behind the 
veil that limits our understanding1 and 
which gives motion to      the whole1   
is1 in a manner most wonderful1 though  
unknown to      us1 made subservient to 
our volition and efforts4 ,this grand   
work of nature1 like the fruits of the  
earth1 has its maturity1      its decay1
 and its dissolution4 ,like those also1 
in all its      decay it nourishes a    
principle within which is to be the seed
      of a future existence4 ,were the  
fruit conscious of this1 it      would  
drop into the earth with pleasure1 in   
the hope of a happy      ,resurrection4 
,this hope1 by the mercy of ,god1 is    
given to all      good men4 ,it is the  
consolation of old age1 and more than   
sufficient to make its infirmities sit  
light4'    ,the dissolution of the      
material organism which for eighty-six  

years  had served the writer of these   
words was now near4 ,of his few early   
philosophical associates1 ,campbell and 
,beattie only were alive at the         
beginning of #agif1 and in ,april of    
that year ,campbell died4 ,reid followed
  him six months later4 ,dugald         
,stewart1 then ,professor of ,moral     
,philosophy  in ,edinburgh1 gives the   
following account of the months before  
the end3--        #8,in the summer of   
#agif1 about two years after the death  
of      his wife1 he was prevailed on by
 ,dr4 ,gregory to pass a few      weeks 
at ,edinburgh4 ,he was accompanied by   
,mrs4 ,carmichael1      who lived with  
him in ,dr4 ,gregory's house1 a         
situation which      united under the   
same roof every advantage of medical    
care1 of      tender attachment1 and of 
philosophical intercourse4 ,as ,dr4     
,gregory's professional engagements     
necessarily interfered with      his    
attentions to his guests1 ,i enjoyed    
more of ,dr4 ,reid's      society than  

might otherwise have fallen to my share4
 ,i had      the pleasure1 accordingly1 
of spending some hours with him         
daily1 and of attending him in his      
walking excursions1 which               
frequently extended to the distance of  
three or four miles4      ,his faculties
 7excepting his memory1 which was       
considerably      impaired7 appeared as 
vigorous as ever2 and1 although his     
deafness prevented him from taking any  
share in general      conversation1 he  
was still able to enjoy the company of a
      friend4 ,mr4 ,playfair and myself 
were both witnesses of the              
acuteness which he displayed on one     
occasion1 in detecting a      mistake1  
by no means obvious1 in a manuscript of 
his kinsman1      ,david ,gregory1 on   
the subject of 8,prime and ,ultimate    
,ratios40      ,in apparent soundness   
and activity of body1 he resembled more 
a man of sixty than of eighty-seven4 ,he
 returned to ,glasgow      in his usual 
health and spirits2 and continued for   

some weeks      to devote as formerly a 
regular portion of his time to the      
exercise both of body and mind4 ,it     
appears from a letter of      ,dr4      
,cleghorn's to ,dr4 ,gregory1 that he   
was still able to work      with his own
 hands in his garden2 and he was found  
by ,dr4      ,brown occupied in the     
solution of an algebraical problem of   
considerable difficulty1 in which1 after
 the labour of a day or      two1 he at 
last succeeded4'    ,it was thus in     
summer4 ,in ,september he was attacked  
by a violent  disorder1 and after a     
severe struggle1 attended with repeated 
strokes of  palsy1 he passed away on the
 #gth of ,october4 ,thus ended the      
tranquil life  of deep and patient      
thought1 which opened at ,strachan and  
almost spanned  the eighteenth century1 
morally and intellectually the          
representative of  ,scottish            
philosophical restoration under the     
conditions of the time4 ,his  ashes were
 laid in the ,college ,church           

burial-ground1 within the shadow of  the
 ,college of which he had so long been  
the chief ornament1 and under a         
tombstone bearing this inscription3--   
#8,memori sacrum ,,thom ,,reid1         
,s4,t4,d41 quondam in ,schola ,regia    
,aberdonensi ,philosophi ,professoris2  
nuper vero in ,universitate             
,glasguensi1 ab anno #agfd usque ad     
annum #agif1 ,philosophi      ,moralis  
,professoris2 qui in ,scientia ,mentis  
,human1 ut olim in      ,philosophia    
,naturali illustris ille ,baconius      
,verulamius1 omnia      instauravit2 qui
 ingenii acumine doctrinque omnigen1    
summam      morum gravitatem1 simul     
atque comitatem1 adjuvavit2 qui obiit   
#g ,october1 #agif1 annos natus #hf4    
,cujusque ossa cum cineribus            
,,elizebeth ,,reid1 conjugis carissim1  
triumque filiarum morte      prematura  
abrepturam1 sepulchro condita sunt4 ,hoc
 ,monumentum      poni jussit filia     
piissima1 unica superstes1 ,martha      
,carmichael4'    ,after the ,university 

of ,glasgow had in #ahgb exchanged the  
,college in the  ,high ,street1 with its
 touching memories1 for its new and     
stately home on  the bank of the        
,kelvin1 ,reid's remains were carried to
 the ,necropolis  which overlooks his   
old home in the ,drygate1 and the       
tombstone was  removed to the ,college  
on ,gilmore ,hill4    ,i find ,reid's   
will1 dated #gth ,may #agib1 recorded in
 the ,sheriff-,court  ,books of         
,lanarkshire4 ,dr4 and ,mrs4 ,carmichael
 are executors1 with ,mr4  ,leslie and  
,mr4 ,rose conjoined4 ,furniture1 books1
 and papers are left to  ,mrs4          
,carmichael1 except a few books for the 
,university ,library4 ,of the  rest of  
the property1 personal and real--after  
payment of debts1 including  #cjj to    
,dr4 ,carmichael1 #8payable in full of  
my daughter's tocher1' and  #8#cjj to   
,john ,sargent1 ,london1 cousin-german  
of the dearest ,elizabeth  ,reid1 my    
wife'--one half is assigned to ,mrs4    
,carmichael1 and the other  half1 in    

equal portions1 to #8my sisters1 ,mrs4  
,leslie and ,mrs4 ,rose1'  burdened with
 #8a liferent annuity of #aj1 to my     
stepmother1 ,janet ,fraser1  widow of   
,mr4 ,lewis ,reid4' ,the real property  
is described as consisting of  #8eleven 
and a half falls of ground1 with the    
whole houses thereon1 and  the well     
therein1 bounded on the west by ,william
 ,street1 on the north by  the property 
of ,dr4 ,carmichael1 on the south by the
 property of ,joseph  ,crombie1 and on  
the east by the property of ,john       
,duguid and ,wm4 ,risk1 all  in the     
,barony parish4' ,this property appears 
to have been bought about  #aghj1 the   
year in which ,reid ceased to teach in  
the ,college4           99       99     
99       99       99    ,that this life1
 much withdrawn from the public eye in  
the interest of  philosophic reflection1
 was not unappreciated when it ended1 is
 shown by  the recognition which        
immediately followed4 ,on the day after 
he died the  event was thus announced in

 the ,glasgow ,courier3--               
#8,thomas ,reid1 ,d4,d41 ,professor of  
,moral ,philosophy in the               
,university of ,glasgow1 died on the    
seventh day of ,october4 ,his           
ingenious and elaborate works1          
especially his ,inquiry into the        
,human ,mind1 and his ,essays on the    
,intellectual and the ,active           
,powers of ,man1 are noble and lasting  
monuments of his eminent      abilities1
 his deep penetration1 and his extensive
 learning4      ,by unravelling         
sceptical perplexities1 overturning     
ill-founded      hypotheses1 and resting
 every conclusion on evident principles1
      he has brought about a memorable  
revolution in the ,philosophy      of   
,human ,nature4 ,his character through  
life was distinguished      by an ardent
 love of truth1 and an assiduous pursuit
 of it in      various sciences2 by the 
most amiable simplicity of manners1     
gentleness of temper1 strength of       
affection1 candour1 and      liberality 

of sentiments1 which displayed          
themselves in the      habitual exercise
 of all the social virtues2 and by      
steadiness1      fortitude1 and rational
 piety4'    ,a few days later a more    
elaborate study of his character        
appeared in the  ,courier3--            
#8,dr4 ,reid was unquestionably one of  
the profoundest      philosophers of the
 age2 and although some who think it a  
proof of weakness to differ from ,mr4   
,hume have slighted the                 
speculations of ,dr4 ,reid1 and         
undervalued the precision which      he 
laboured to introduce1 his ,inquiry into
 the ,senses will      probably be      
coeval with our language4 ,it is founded
 on facts      which must continue to   
interest men while their constitution   
continues unchanged4 ,in his pursuit of 
new knowledge he studied      the late  
improvements in chemistry2 he observed  
the great      political events which   
have happened1 and contemplated that    
with which the time seems pregnant with 

the keen interest of      one entering  
on life4 ,he venerated religion--not the
 noisy1      contentious systems which  
lead men to hate and persecute each     
other1 but the sublime principle which  
regulates the conduct1      by          
controuling the selfish and animating   
the benevolent      affections4 ,when   
vilified by intemperate philosophers    
e4g4      ,priestley1 he made no reply1 
being satisfied with having      stated 
what he thought the truth2 and when     
outraged by zealots      who falsely    
call themselves ,christians1 he bore the
 outrage      meekly1 using no terms of 
complaint or reproach4 ,he was to       
the last moment free from that morose   
querulous temper which      has been    
deemed inseparable from age4 ,instead of
 repining      at the prosperity and    
enjoyments of the young1 he delighted   
in promoting them2 and after having lost
 all his own family      except one     
daughter1 he continued to treat children
 with such      condescension and       

benignity that some very young ones     
noticed      the peculiar kindness of   
his eye4 ,his end accorded with the     
wisdom and goodness of his life4 ,he    
used sometimes to say1      8,i am      
ashamed of having lived so long after   
having ceased to      be useful10 though
 at that very time he was acquiring and 
communicating useful knowledge4 ,during 
his last illness1 which      was severe1
 he complained of nothing but the       
trouble that he      gave his           
affectionate family1 and he looked to   
the grave as a      place not of rest   
merely but of triumph4'    ,the         
affectionate judgment of his            
contemporaries1 in the first days of    
sorrow1 instead of exceeding1 fall short
 of the deliberate judgment  of leaders 
of ,european thought in a later         
generation4 ,the rise of his  reputation
 was slow4 ,as there are too many who   
make themselves appear  more wise than  
they are1 it was the more uncommon fault
 of ,reid to  appear less a philosopher 

than he really was4 ,extreme caution    
made him  suspicious of ingenious       
conjecture in matter-of-fact inquiry1   
and perhaps  blinded him to the large   
part which imagination as well as reason
 has  to play in progress4 #8,it is     
genius1 and not the want of it1' he     
says1  #8that adulterates philosophy1   
and fills it with error and false       
theory'2  and in the spirit of this     
warning1 as well as by temperament1 he  
was  intellectually conservative more   
than progressive or adventurous4    ,in 
outward appearance he was somewhat under
 the middle size1 with a  bodily        
constitution of uncommon strength and   
tenacity1 maintained by a  methodically 
regulated life and habitual serenity of 
temper4 ,raeburn's  picture1 now in     
,fyvie ,castle1 for which he sat during 
his last visit to  ,edinburgh1 expresses
 the deep and persistent thought1 as    
well as the  reposeful and benevolent   
temper1 which gave unity to his long    
life4  ,copies of this picture are      

preserved at ,birkwood1 in the ,college 
of  ,glasgow1 and in the ,national      
,portrait ,gallery at ,edinburgh1 as    
well as in  the great window of the     
,mitchell ,hall of ,marischal ,college4 
,there is also  an excellent medallion  
by ,tassie1 done six years before       
,reid's death4    ,after the death of   
,mrs4 ,carmichael1 in ,february #ahje1  
all who were  descended of the ,rev4    
,lewis ,reid of ,strachan1 by his wife  
,margaret  ,gregory1 had passed away4   
,his second wife and widow died at      
,aberdeen  in #agih1 like her stepson1  
in her eighty-seventh year1 having      
survived  him about eighteen months4    
,the great-granddaughter of ,mrs4       
,leslie his  half-sister1 ,grace ,anna  
,leslie1 now of ,birkwood1 married ,dr4 
,ross  ,paterson in #ahfd4 ,their       
youngest daughter has charge of the     
,reid family  papers1 to which ,i owe   
many facts first published in these     
pages4 ,a son  of his other half-sister1
 ,mrs4 ,rose1 a medical officer in the  

,indian  army1 was introduced in #ahje  
to ,sir ,james ,mackintosh1 then        
,recorder of  ,bombay1 by ,professor    
,ogilvie of ,aberdeen1 as a relative of 
the advocate  of the final philosophical
 appeal to the ,common ,sense2 and      
,mackintosh  in a letter to ,mr4        
,ogilvie expresses the deep interest    
with which he  saw #8the nephew of ,dr4 
,reid1 whose philosophy1 like you1 ,i do
 not  embrace1 but whose character and  
talents every cultivator of science must
  venerate4' ,sir ,james's later        
judgments of the philosophy1 after a    
more  attentive study of its scope1 were
 more favourable4          ,,chapter ,x 
,,retrospective ,,and ,,critical        
,we find truth1 as ,pascal says1 not    
only by logical reasoning but by  an act
 of immediate reason1 not to be effaced 
by all the subtleties  of the           
speculative sceptic1 who is thus        
confounded by the resistance  of        
rational human nature4 ,this is a       
general expression of ,reid's more      

elaborate reply to sceptical distrust in
 all human knowledge and  belief4 ,that 
genuine human nature1 when awakened into
 conscious life1  is practically        
irresistible1 is what ,reid insists on2 
for no sane man  acts in contradiction  
to the common sense of which he is      
conscious1  although he can speculate   
sceptically in an abstract way1 and may 
even  serve truth in doing so4 ,for this
 scepticism may amend philosophical     
systems in which the constituent        
principles of human nature are not      
theoretically recognised in their       
integrity2 and it may also stimulate    
the unphilosophical to a deeper and     
truer insight of what the natural       
principles are on which men must proceed
 in their actions4 ,but the  principles 
themselves are not reached by reasoning3
 they are the  inspiration of ,god2 and 
it is this divine inspiration that makes
  experience and reasoning at all       
possible for men4    ,that ,i am an     
individual self-conscious person1 to    

whom something other  than1 and         
independent of1 my individual self is   
presented in my senses--so  independent 
of me individually that it can inform me
 of the existence of  other persons     
whose conscious life is numerically     
different from mine2  that the free     
agency of a person is the only sort of  
power that we are  obliged to recognise1
 persons being revealed as responsible  
powers in  and through our moral nature2
 and that the powerless things of sense1
  of which we are immediately percipient
 in our sense perceptions1 are          
interpretable for purposes of common    
life and science1 inasmuch as their     
changes must be determined by natural   
laws1 all reasoning being otherwise     
impossible--these ,i think are the chief
 #8inspirations' or #8revelations'  of  
the ,common ,sense on which ,reid       
enlarges4 ,this account of those        
inspirations is not offered as complete2
 only as results1 more or less          
fragmentary1 reached by the deep and    

steady reflection of a long life4       
,reid's philosophical appeal to the     
divine inspirations of the common       
sense1 without which nothing can be     
proved1 on behalf of truths which do    
not admit of direct logical proof1 but  
only of a sort of philosophical         
justification1 has been disparaged as an
 ignoble retreat from the  standpoint of
 the philosopher1 in the interest of    
popular prejudices and  blind authority4
 ,it has been spoken of as an appeal    
from the reasoned  judgments of the     
reflecting minority to the unreasoned   
opinions of the  unreflecting majority1 
an opening for arbitrary dogmas to enter
 and crush  free inquiry4 ,this is the  
drift of the criticism of ,priestley in 
last  century1 and of ,ferrier in this1 
while ,kantian critics complain of      
,reid's  lazy arrest of philosophy at   
the level of ordinary beliefs4 ,besides 
this1 what ,reid claims as #8the chief  
merit of his philosophy'--that of       
questioning the common assumption that  

external things cannot present          
themselves in our perceptions1 but only 
unauthenticated representations  of     
them--proceeds1 according to ,priestley1
 on a misinterpretation of the          
metaphorical language of philosophers3  
to refute it is an idle waste of        
controversial labour1 taking figures of 
speech for serious science4    ,if      
#8common sense' in this philosophy means
 only unintelligent opinion1  as opposed
 to the judgments of thinkers1 ,reid's  
response to the sceptic  may well be    
regarded as an arrest of                
intelligence1--blind dogmatism  instead 
of philosophy4 ,but candid critics      
interpret words in the meaning  intended
 by those who use them4 ,this appeal to 
the judgments named those  of the common
 sense1 is intended as an appeal to     
reason itself--reason1  that is to say1 
in its final form in a finite           
intelligence1 whose  experience of the  
universe is incomplete1 and working     
under conditions  imposed upon its      

exercise in intelligent beings who are  
not omniscient4  ,reid's ,common ,sense 
is the final perception of a being who  
can know the  universe of reality only  
in part1 and is therefore needed by man 
in that  intermediate position in which 
an absolute beginning or end of things  
must be to him incomprehensible4 ,it is 
an appeal to that which must in  reason 
be final1 in an intelligence that only  
partly shares in divine  omniscient     
reason4 ,although its judgments are not 
evolved from premises1  they are        
nevertheless what all men1 except       
infants and lunatics1 more  or less     
distinctly acknowledge in their         
individual actions1 although  they may  
misconstrue them in their uneducated    
opinions1 or spoil them  by indulgence  
in purely speculative systems4 ,the     
divine inspiration of  the common sense 
is therefore man's final support1 amidst
 the so-called  #8contingencies' of     
temporal change in himself and his      
surroundings4 ,a  philosophical appeal  

to it is of practical importance in     
reference  to what1 at the human point  
of view1 are contingent truths of moral 
reasoning3 the necessary truths of      
abstract thought1 it has been well      
said1 #8sufficiently guard themselves4' 
,accordingly the judgments of the common
 sense which chiefly interested  ,reid  
are what he calls first principles of   
#8contingent' truths1 as  distinguished 
from abstract necessities the opposites 
of which are  self-contradictory or     
unthinkable4 ,contingent truths1 on the 
other hand1  may be rejected in thought2
 but those who reject them speculatively
  must proceed upon them in their       
actions and reasonings1 including even  
sceptical reasonings4 ,the man whose    
scepticism involves a practical         
surrender of the common judgment1 that  
what we call the outward world  is      
independent enough of his individual    
existence to make it a  trustworthy     
medium of intercourse for him with other
 living persons2  and who acts          

accordingly on the belief that #8other  
persons' are only  conscious states of  
his own individual mind1 would be       
pronounced a  lunatic4 ,again1 the      
fatalist1 who rejects practically the   
moral judgment  that refers the issues  
of a deliberate voluntary determination 
to the  voluntary or personal agent as  
its responsible centre1 insanely sits   
still in the midst of danger1 and       
refrains from exerting a power which he 
denies4 ,and he who refuses to proceed  
upon the logically undemonstrable       
postulate of universal natural order1 by
 ceasing to reason about wholly         
uninterpretable chaos1 is inevitably    
crushed by the ,universal ,power that   
he ignores4    ,it is thus that         
practical disregard of inspired final   
reason appears to  ,reid to be          
#8destructive at once of the science of 
the philosopher1 the  prudence of the   
man of the world1 and the faith of the  
,christian4' ,the  unjust as well as the
 just1 so far as they live at all1 must1

 he sees1  live by faith in what cannot 
be either proved or disproved by direct 
demonstration4 ,and if all those final  
judgments of practical reason were      
contradicted in daily action1 as well as
 in academic theory1 #8piety1           
patriotism1 parental affection1 and     
private virtue would appear as          
ridiculous as knight-errantry3 the      
pursuits of pleasure1 ambition1 and     
avarice must be grounded upon this sort 
of belief as well as those that  are    
honourable and virtuous4'    ,on the    
other hand there are common prejudices  
which1 while they last1  are popularly  
dignified as #8common sense4' ,some now 
universally admitted  truths of science 
at first shocked men1 although          
afterwards found  to be in harmony with 
the general common sense to which       
philosophy  appeals4 ,that we are living
 on a material ball that revolves in    
space2  that the revolving ball revolves
 also on its axis2 that the sun does    
not rise and set1 but is at rest2 the   

existence of the antipodes2 the         
invisibility of the distances of        
things--are a few examples4 ,instead  of
 contradicting the common sense1 the    
common sense1 in the light of  further  
experimental evidence1 finally imposes  
them upon us4 ,at any  rate their       
contradictories cannot be justified by  
the universal  intellectual paralysis   
which is the alternative to the         
rejection of a  genuine judgment of the 
common sense4 ,the assertion that the   
earth is  in motion and the sun         
relatively at rest does not contradict  
sane human  nature3 that changes in     
nature are all wholly chaotic1 and      
therefore  wholly uninterpretable1 can  
never become a scientific discovery1    
because  it implies subversion of all   
science and makes scientific reasoning  
impossible4 ,the invisibility of the    
distances of things1 rightly  understood
 in the light of its evidence1 draws no 
protest from genuine  human nature4     
,human nature or final reason protests1 

on the other hand1  when the material   
world is believed to be so unreal that  
,i cannot by  means of it find that     
there are other human beings4 ,the      
impotence of all  things presented to   
the senses does not contradict reason in
 the common  sense in the way the       
impotence1 and consequent               
irresponsibility1 of man  does4    ,but 
,reid1 ,i think1 makes too little of the
 service of philosophical  reflection1  
in quickening into conscious life in the
 individual the  postulates on which    
human knowledge and conduct finally     
turn1 and in  developing their meaning4 
,such primary assumptions as the real   
existence  of outward things2 our own   
individual personal existence2 and the  
existence of ,god1 are held with very   
different degrees of intelligence1  by  
the indolent and thoughtless and by     
those who reflect4 ,advance in          
philosophy is advance in interpreting   
the meaning of each of these  three     
postulates1 and of their mutual         

relations1 as seen in an improved       
conception of what #8matter' means1 what
 #8self' means1 and what #8,god'  means4
 ,the common sense or final reason of   
man is developed in different  degrees  
in different persons1 in different      
places1 at different periods  of human  
history1 and in the same person at      
different times in his life4  ,it is not
 individually independent of            
evolutionary law2 although its  genuine 
constituents are latent in each man and 
may be made to respond to  an adequate  
appeal4 ,the practical reason of the    
common sense1 while not  founded on but 
presupposed in philosophy1 may          
nevertheless be deepened  and           
enlightened in each man by reflection   
and criticism4 ,its final action  is    
therefore far from superseding the      
philosopher1 who has to systematise     
man's advancing experience of the       
universe in the light of an idealised   
common sense1 or the common sense in the
 ideal man1 which the philosopher  tries

 to approach more nearly4 ,in this      
intellectual progress the cruder        
conceptions of #8matter' and #8self' and
 #8,god1' as well as of the final       
physical and the moral relations of the 
three postulated existences1 are        
purified and expanded2 but always       
without disparagement to the primary    
roots4 ,improvement of human knowledge1 
in harmony with the awakened  common    
sense inspirations1 is our intellectual 
ideal4    ,it may perhaps be said that  
,reid makes his appeal to the root      
principles  of practical reason--the    
essential sanity of mankind--only on    
behalf of  what no one seriously calls  
in question2 and moreover that he       
attributes  the scepticism with which he
 struggled to a speculative theory of   
philosophers1 instead of to facts in    
nature and in man1 which suggest        
distrust in the #8inspirations' on which
 human understanding depends1 in  its   
lack of omniscience4 ,what need1 it may 
be asked1 for a prolonged  endeavour to 

justify belief in the existence of the  
house in which we  live1 the planet on  
which it stands1 or the human beings    
among whom we  seem to play our parts8  
,only insane persons--really insane--can
 be found  to doubt realities like      
these4 ,insanity cannot be cured by an  
elaborate  disproof of the #8ideal      
system'2 and as for the sane1 such      
common sense  sanities as these are safe
 enough without this philosophical      
appeal to  human sanity4 ,as regards    
those beliefs--si non rogas intelligo4  
,i know  all that ,i need to know1 as   
long as ,i am not asked to justify and  
explain  my knowledge1 logically or     
otherwise1 and remain contented to enjoy
 the  things that unpractical thinkers  
vainly try to understand4    ,that      
sceptical distrust in our original      
faculties1 and in ,power or  ,providence
 that is finally operative in the       
universe in which we have our  being1   
lies deeper than the #8ideal system'    
which was ,reid's bugbear2 and  also    

that it arises mostly in connection with
 less obtrusive elements  in the common 
sense than our perceptions through the  
five senses1 is in  harmony with the    
gradual development of ,reid's own      
thought which ,i have  tried to trace4  
,for he advanced1 as we saw1 from       
reflection upon those  #8inspirations'  
of the common sense that are implied in 
our physical  perceptions1 to reflection
 upon those other data of the common    
sense  that are implied in our          
perceptions of personal and morally     
responsible  agency4 ,it is in touching 
and seeing the material world that the  
common  sense is first awakened2 and    
thus the material world is the most     
obtrusive object in human experience1   
its perceptions affording the  fittest  
preliminary object-lesson on the office 
of this final reason  in the whole      
rational economy of man4 ,external      
perceptions are the  beginnings of all  
reasonings about concrete existence4    
,they are the  obvious examples of those

 original judgments1 which are #8the    
inspiration  of the ,almighty1' more    
obvious than the often dormant ones that
 are  moral and spiritual4 ,all the     
discoveries of our reason are grounded  
on  them4 ,a remarkable deviation from  
them1 arising from a disorder in the    
constitution1 is called lunacy by all2  
as when a man believes that he  is made 
of glass3 but when a man suffers himself
 to be reasoned out of  them by         
metaphysical arguments he would call    
this metaphysical lunacy2  which differs
 from the other species of the distemper
 in this1 that it  is not continued1 but
 intermittent4 ,he thus tests reason in 
its final  authority1 as distinguished  
from reason in its innumerable          
inferential  exercises3 the authority   
may be logically vindicated as          
reasonable1 but  its judgments are not  
conclusions originally deduced from     
premises4    ,it must also be remembered
 that the ,reidian protest on behalf of 
a  philosophical recognition of the     

blended judgment and feeling which makes
  this common reason that is more or    
less consciously alive in all men1  is a
 protest on behalf of the regulative    
authority of this reason in  its genuine
 integrity4 ,all philosophical systems1 
so far1 proceed upon  and acknowledge   
its judgments2 but1 as it seemed to     
,reid1 often only  after spoiling them4 
,he made it his particular mission to   
restore them  in their genuine integrity
 to philosophy as the prime factors of  
all  true theories4 ,in perception does 
the outward reality actually appear1    
extended as it really is1 without any   
unextended medium interposed1  exactly  
as the internal reality of a pain or a  
pleasure appears without  a medium1 when
 ,i am conscious of being pained or     
pleased8 ,if so1 let us  then1 ,reid    
would say1 accept this fact as final1   
even although we cannot  account for it2
 instead of perverting it by supposing  
that the external  reality is one thing1
 and the immediately perceived object of

 which alone  we are curious a different
 thing2--dreaming that this supposed    
internal  object1 as its copy1 explains 
our perception of the external object   
that  is imperceptible4 ,again1         
according to genuine common sense1 the  
#8self'  which ,i am obliged to         
presuppose is invisible2 my body or my  
brain is  external to it1 as much so as 
the sun and moon are2 for they are all  
parts of the material world--all objects
 of my senses--unlike my proper         
personality1 which is approached only   
through the inner consciousness1  and   
not at all through perception of the    
senses4 ,here1 too1 ,reid protests  on  
behalf of the genuine common sense1 and 
against the scientifically  perverted   
common sense offered to him by          
,priestley4 ,for the distinctive        
feature of ,reidism is not vague        
acknowledgment of the common sense1 but 
acknowledgment of it as it is found to  
be when steadfast reflection is  applied
 to the final mental experience of man4 

,a modern critic may complain that      
,reid's point of view is too narrow and 
special1 and his method too             
matter-of-fact to entitle the result to 
be  called philosophy4 ,it looks unlike 
philosophy proper1 which is concerned   
with the universe and universals1 and is
 like a special science of human  mind1 
having human mind for its finite object 
or province1 as other  special sciences 
have their limited provinces4 ,for      
instance1 astronomy  has the stellar    
bodies2 chemistry1 the elementary       
constitution of bodies2  geology1 the   
phenomena in the strata of the earth's  
crust2 and so on4 ,now  the final       
problem of universal reality1 or at     
least universal reality in  ultimate    
relation to man1 is the proper business 
of the philosopher1 who  contemplates   
the all-comprehensive synthesis which   
sustains or explains  each special      
science1 and even the universe of nature
 and man2 while1 as  human philosophy1  
it still recognises the inherent        

infinity that makes  realities overleap 
the special sciences4 ,for philosophy is
 the supreme  speculation1 concerned    
with ,matter or outward ,nature1 ,self  
or ,spirit1 and  ,god or the final      
all-determining ,power--and of this     
final inquiry ,reid had  hardly a       
conception4 ,yet we must allow that when
 ,reid's method is called  #8inductive1'
 it is more than inductive in the       
ordinary meaning of the  word induction 
in the natural sciences4 ,he does not   
reach the several  principles of the    
common sense by the way of probable     
generalisation from  observed facts2    
rather as truths which arise out of     
latency into more  or less distinct     
consciousness1 in response to steadfast 
meditation4  ,they are philosophically  
recognised #8inspirations1' or          
#8revelations'--not  tentative          
generalisations2 and their justification
 must not be confounded  with the       
ordinary verification with which we are 
familiar in sciences of  outward nature4

 ,the common sense provides material to 
the philosopher1  not ready made1 but   
still not mere issue of empirical       
generalisation4    ,how far a philosophy
 akin to that of ,reid admits of        
philosophical  expansion1 or of being   
brought up to date at the end of the    
nineteenth  century1 when the           
fundamental questions of religious      
thought are at the  root of our doubts  
and perplexities1 may be considered on a
 review of  the fortunes of ,reid's     
appeal to the inspirations of final     
reason in the  century which has passed 
since he died4          ,,chapter ,,xi  
,,reid ,,in ,,the ,,nineteenth          
,,century3 ,,development ,,of ,,the     
,,common ,,sense  ,,philosophy3 ,,reid  
,,in ,,france3 ,,reid ,,and ,,hamilton3 
,,reid ,,and ,,scoto-,,hegelian         
,,idealism3 ,,ethical ,,or ,,theistic   
,,final ,,faith      ,how has ,reid's   
protest of reason in the name of common 
sense--a  protest against sceptical     
paralysis of human intelligence1        

physical  and moral--fared in the       
nineteenth century8 ,has ,reid by this  
protest  established what is of lasting 
value either to human happiness or to   
philosophical theory8 ,what has modern  
thought1 as developed at the end of  the
 nineteenth century1 to say to a        
,scottish eighteenth century inquiry    
into human mind that finds its root in a
 postulated sense of reality1  which    
must be taken as finally authoritative  
when it is recognised in  its genuine   
integrity8 ,how do faith and doubt now  
stand finally related1  as compared with
 their relations when ,reid opposed     
,hume8 ,is there still  room for        
philosophical argument founded on the   
divine inspirations of  the ,common     
,sense1 under1 for instance1 our        
transformed conception of the  universe 
as an evolution8    ,expansion rather   
than subversion of the philosophy which 
ultimately  argues from the common      
sense1 has1 ,i think1 been going on4    
,matter-of-fact  study of human mind1 as

 engaged in perception of the material  
world1  and in the moral exercise of    
voluntary agency1 which with ,reid makes
  this perception of matter1 and moral  
consciousness of free agency its        
prominent spiritual facts1 has now risen
 to criticism of our conception  of the 
,supreme ,power that is finally at work 
in the universe in which we  live and   
move and have our being4 ,and a less    
purely academic scepticism  than that   
against which ,reid summoned the common 
sense now confronts  us4 ,if ,reid's    
mission was to call attention to our    
direct mental grasp  of outward         
realities1 by exploding a theory which  
seemed to paralyse  that grasp1 it would
 have been his corresponding mission now
 to justify1  in name of the moral and  
spiritual elements of the common sense1 
the  religious interpretation of the    
universe1 which finds in the facts of   
matter and man a continuous             
self-revelation of omnipotent love and  
mercy--and this in the face of a world  

which repels our more philanthropic     
civilisation1 by its abundant suffering 
and sin4 ,instead of philosophy  at war 
with common sense1 common sense is now  
alleged as at war with  the finally     
moral and religious conception of the   
universe1 which ,reid  accepted as      
conclusive under the premises of an     
old-fashioned natural  theology4 ,now   
universal natural law is supposed to    
exclude ,god1 and  sentient misery to   
make theistic faith in the goodness1 and
 therefore  trustworthiness1 of the     
,supreme ,power an anachronism1 which   
must give  place to universal pessimist 
doubt and despair4 ,how can we rest with
  trust in those practical principles of
 human nature to which ,reid  appealed1 
when they and we are found in a universe
 so full of evil as  this in which we   
find ourselves8 ,are we not navigating  
the ocean of life  in a vessel that is  
not seaworthy8 ,these are questions now 
expressed or  felt4    ,for forty years 
after ,reid's death the higher thought  

of ,scotland1  represented by its       
leaders1 remained well within the old   
lines4 ,it was  still careful analysis  
of what is presented in human           
consciousness1 with  a gradual decline  
of interest in the metaphysical and     
moral problems  which ,hume's agnostic  
distrust had introduced even into       
,reid's modest  treatment of the common 
sense4 ,scottish philosophy became a    
search for  natural sequences and       
co-existences among phenomena1 instead  
of search  for firm intellectual and    
moral footing in a universe to which we 
are  introduced by being percipient of  
an infinitesimal part through our five  
senses4 ,for a quarter of a century     
,dugald ,stewart was ,reid's            
acknowledged  successor1 less original1 
and even less adventurous1 than his     
master1  but unrecognisable in the      
ill-tempered criticism of ,schopenhauer4
 ,with  dignified eloquence1 wider      
intimacy with society than ,reid's1 and 
more  learning1 he applied inductive    

methods to find the laws that determine 
intellectual character and the education
 of the human mind1 also to solve       
social questions1 in graceful           
language--all which touched the popular 
imagination more than his somewhat      
prosaic predecessor4           99       
99       99       99       99    ,early 
in the nineteenth century1 ,thomas      
,brown1 the young ,edinburgh  ,professor
 of ,moral ,philosophy1 and colleague of
 ,stewart1 raised a revolt  against     
,reid and ,stewart in some of their     
characteristic philosophy4  ,this       
brilliant youth1 minor poet as well as  
philosopher1 had practised  medicine in 
,edinburgh before his appointment1 in   
#ahaj1 at the age of  thirty-two1 to the
 chair of ,stewart4 ,in medical practice
 he had been the  colleague of ,dr4     
,gregory1 ,reid's cousin1 and so long   
his correspondent4  ,brown1 unlike      
,reid1 was one of the precocious        
philosophers4 ,at the age  of twenty he 
appeared as a critic of the ,zoonomia of

 ,darwin1 and a few  years later as     
author of an ,inquiry into the ,relation
 of ,cause and  ,effect1 which contains 
the essence of the philosophy that was  
afterwards  expanded and applied in his 
,lectures4 ,he died at the age of       
forty-two1  leaving works               
undistinguished by the deep and patient 
thought of ,reid1  and diffuse in style1
 but abounding in ingenious analysis--an
 interesting  contribution to the logic 
of physical inquiry1 instead of appeals 
to  carefully considered judgments of   
the ,common ,sense in ,perception and in
  ,causation4 ,brown recognised         
instinctive belief in natural           
constancies of  co-existence and        
sequence among phenomena1 and treated   
associations among  mental states as the
 chief explanation of the phenomena of  
mind4 ,the  originative moral agency of 
intending and intelligent ,will1 so     
prominent  latterly in ,reid1 disappears
 in ,brown4 ,and ,brown1 like           
,priestley1  disparaged ,reid's claim to

 merit for reversing the philosophical  
prejudice that #8ideas' are the only    
objects of human cognition1 regarding   
it as a metaphor mistaken for a dogma4  
,indeed1 the empirical laws of          
association tend with ,brown1 as with   
,priestley1 to be the sole ultimate     
laws of mind3 perhaps this tendency was 
restrained in expression as much  by    
personal respect for ,reid and ,stewart 
as by conviction4    ,after ,brown1     
philosophy in ,scotland was for a time  
dormant--superseded  by ,combe and      
phrenology4 ,but contemporaneously1 in  
#8the twenties1'  a philosophy more akin
 to ,reid than to ,brown made its       
appearance  in ,england2 although the   
analogy is not on the surface1 and has  
not1 ,i think1 been observed4           
,coleridge1 especially in his ,aids to  
,reflection1 published in #ahbe1 insists
 with eloquent emphasis upon  the       
difference between #8the ,reason1' which
 is divine or inspired1 and  mere       
#8,understanding1' which generalises the

 phenomena that emerge in  experience3  
he also presses the distinction between 
free agency1 as  implied in morally     
responsible causation1 and the          
mechanical order of  nature with which  
physical sciences are exclusively       
concerned4 #8,the  ,reason1' to which   
,coleridge appeals1 corresponds in      
function to #8the  ,common ,sense' of   
,reid4 ,it is described as fixed and    
final2 as in all its  decisions         
appealing to itself2 and as #8much      
nearer to sense than the                
understanding1' for it is direct insight
 of truth1 whereas understanding  must  
refer all its judgments to premises4    
,that man1 because he is morally        
responsible1 must originate1 within his 
individual personality as their  final  
centre1 all acts for which he is        
responsible1 is with ,coleridge a       
postulate1 #8the proof of which no man  
can give to another1 yet every man  may 
find for himself1' and so see the true  
meaning of the words power  and         

causality4 ,in short1 this postulate is 
among the inspired revelations  of the  
,common ,sense that are contained in our
 share of ,divine ,reason4  ,we may     
speak of understanding as #8human1' with
 its often discordant  generalisations2 
but there can be no merely #8human'     
,reason4 ,there neither  is nor can be  
but one and the same ,reason2 the light 
without which the  individual           
understanding would be darkness4        
99       99       99       99       99  
,the philosophy that carefully measures 
its conclusions by the ,common  ,sense  
found its way from ,scotland into       
,france early in this century1  in      
arrest of the materialism and scepticism
 which had taken the place  of the      
spiritual philosophy of ,descartes and  
,pascal4 ,in #ahaa ,royer  ,collard1    
eminent as a philosopher and a          
statesman1 was made ,professor of       
,philosophy in ,paris4 ,in that year1   
when he was preparing his lectures1  he 
accidentally found a copy of ,reid's    

,inquiry at a book-stall near  the      
,seine4 ,he was charmed with its        
contents1 which thereafter inspired  his
 teaching4#bf ,through ,royer ,collard1 
,reid's philosophy became  the dominant 
philosophy of ,france1 and it still     
retains an elevating  spiritual         
influence in the national schools4#bg   
,in #ahbh ,reid's works  were translated
 and discussed by ,jouffroy1 a leading  
thinker in his  generation1 who thus    
leavened thinking minds among           
contemporaries4 ,but  ,victor ,cousin   
was ,reid's most eloquent and famous    
missionary4 ,he had  been educated by   
,royer ,collard in ,reid's principles4  
,his ardent and  comprehensive genius1  
however1 became dissatisfied with what  
he called  a #8sage but timid doctrine1'
 and treated it as a vigorous but hardly
  philosophical protest against the     
sceptic in the name of uncritical       
common sense4 ,in his enthusiasm1       
,cousin turned to ,germany for #8a      
philosophy so masculine and brilliant   

that it could command the attention  of 
,europe4' ,at first he thought he found 
in ,kant the profound refutation  of the
 sceptic1 and the grand constructive    
philosophy he wanted4 ,but soon  ,kant's
 mode of expelling the #8mortal poison' 
seemed as unsatisfactory as  ,reid's1   
and he parted company with him so far as
 to join first ,schelling  and then     
,hegel in an eclectic or all-reconciling
 system4 ,but in the end  the           
fascination of ,hegelian thought abated4
 ,there might1 after all1 be  deeper    
meaning1 and more capacity for          
development1 in ,reid's appeal than  he 
had supposed4 ,so in his later years    
,cousin returned to his first love4     
,his ,philosophie cossaise1 which       
appeared in its latest form in #aheg1   
is an eloquent appreciation of          
,hutcheson1 ,adam ,smith1 ,reid1 and    
,beattie1  with ,reid as the chief      
figure in the centre4    ,meantime a    
formidable intellectual force had       
appeared in ,scotland1 in  argumentative

 collision with those ,germans by whom  
,cousin had been  fascinated1 and also  
with ,cousin's own eclectic assimilation
 of all  philosophies4 ,sir ,william    
,hamilton was warning his contemporaries
 against  the #8masculine and brilliant'
 ,continental philosophy1 and           
energetically  recalling them to ,reid1 
by two essays in the ,edinburgh         
,review--one in  ,october #ahbi1        
destructive of the #8,philosophy of the 
,unconditioned1'  the other in ,october 
#ahcj1 constructive1 on ,reid's         
#8,philosophy of  ,perception4' ,the    
reconstruction of the philosophy of the 
,common  ,sense1 contained by           
implication in these famous essays1 was1
 in #ahdf1  elaborated in commentaries  
which embrace the literature of         
philosophy1  in ,hamilton's ,reid4 ,the 
,glasgow professor re-appeared in the   
company  of the most learned of all     
,scottish philosophers1 educated        
especially  by ,aristotle and his       
commentators1 by ,kant1 and by ,reid    

himself1 whose  modest enterprise was   
now measured by the profoundest problems
 and  most comprehensive conceptions of 
ancient and modern speculation4 ,the    
magnificent intellect of ,hamilton      
raised deep questions among us that lay 
dormant in ,reid4    ,hamilton in       
,scotland is so far in parallel with    
,cousin in ,france1  that--moving in    
opposite directions--they both helped to
 germanise  the philosophy which makes  
its last appeal to the common sense4    
,cousin1 dissatisfied with the          
#8timidity' of ,reid1 tried to reconcile
  a philosophy that should comprehend   
the ,infinite with the philosophy  that 
is confined to experience4 ,hamilton's  
mission was to clip the  wings of the   
speculative adventurers4 ,this made him 
put the emphasis  on the inadequacy of a
 human understanding for fully coping   
with the  eternal reality4 ,while he    
praised ,reid for making the ,common    
,sense in  its integrity the necessary  
criterion of philosophy1 he claimed for 

himself the special credit of           
distinguishing its necessities as of two
  sorts--the one a positive power1 the  
other the impotence implied in  finite  
intelligence4 ,hence human experience   
rests on a conditioned1 or  7so far7    
paralysed intelligence2 and if          
omniscience only can be called          
#8knowledge1' while to know #8in part1' 
therefore with involved mysteries1  must
 be called ignorance--it follows that   
man knows nothing4 ,ignorance is  then  
the consummation of human philosophy1   
and its highest attainment is  this     
discovery4 #8,our dream of knowledge is 
a little light rounded with  darkness4' 
#8,the highest reach of science and     
philosophy is the scientific            
recognition of human ignorance4'        
#8,doubt is the beginning and the end of
  all our efforts to know4' #8,the last 
and highest consecration of all true    
religion is an altar to the unknown and 
unknowable ,god4' ,man's knowledge  of  
existence must be relative to his       

limited experience and intelligence4    
,the missionary of a neglected truth is 
apt to be one-sided and even            
paradoxical1 and strenuous expression   
was natural to ,hamilton4 ,from  his    
first essay in #ahbi to his last in     
#ahee he sought to show the             
inconsistency of infinite knowledge with
 our limited share of inspiration  in   
the ,common ,sense4 ,accordingly1 the   
negative and incomplete1 or what  ,bacon
 calls #8broken' character of man's     
knowledge1 rather than its  positive    
victories1 is ever supreme in the       
,hamiltonianised ,reid1 along  with a   
recast of ,reid's account of the ,common
 ,sense as involved in  perception of   
the outward things of sense4    ,the    
respective offices of ,reid and         
,hamilton might be compared in this     
aphorism of ,pascal--#8,la ,nature      
soutient la ,raison impuissante4' ,need 
for the common sense with which human   
nature is charged1 illustrates the      
impotence of man's unomniscient         

understanding and limited share of the  
,divine ,reason4 ,taking those words of 
,pascal1 ,reid puts emphasis on #8la    
nature'2 ,hamilton on #8impuissance4'   
,but both are recognised by each3  it is
 a difference of emphasis4 ,neither     
,hamilton nor ,mansel excludes  the     
conservative influence of #8la nature1' 
taken in its integrity1  in the way ,mr4
 ,herbert ,spencer does1 when he rests  
philosophy only on  the strongly        
emphasised part of ,hamiltonian         
philosophy4 ,in ,hamilton the  #8raison 
impuissante' is insisted on really in   
order to make room for  #8la nature'2 on
 the ground that the logical            
understanding1 here #8la  raison1' is   
too impotent to be able to disprove the 
genuine judgments  of the ,common       
,sense4    ,brown's rebellion against   
,reid early in the century1 in the      
interest  of a universal physical       
causation or association1 has its       
parallel in  ,ferrier's revolt1 in the  
middle of the century1 against the      

,hamiltonian  ,reid1 in the interest of 
abstract metaphysics as opposed to      
uncriticised  common sense4 ,in the name
 of philosophy he excludes from         
philosophy  all except necessary truths 
of abstract reason2 neglecting1 as      
beneath  its regard1 the world of       
change1 in which ,reid's mixed and      
practical  reason1 or ,common ,sense1   
had been offered as final guide4 ,the   
office of  philosophy1 according to     
,ferrier1 is among the eternal truths1  
which  alone can be absolutely          
demonstrated1 and which relieve         
philosophy  from #8the oversight of     
popular opinion and the errors of       
psychological  science1' which had been 
unworthily dignified as the final test  
of  truth4 ,the natural beliefs of      
mankind1 instead of being worshipped as 
divine1 are banished in ,ferrier's      
philosophy1 on the ground that their    
self-contradictoriness is demonstrable3 
the business of the philosopher1        
accordingly1 is to substitute           

#8reasonable thinking' for #8common     
sense4'  ,the #8raison impuissante1'    
emphasised by ,hamilton--the ignorance  
in  which ,hamilton revels--is not      
allowed by ,ferrier to be ignorance at  
all2  for #8man cannot be said to be    
ignorant of self-contradictions that can
  be knowledge for no mind1 human or    
divine4' ,independent or unperceived    
matter is not merely hid from man's     
knowledge on account of his #8raison    
impuissante'2 it is hid from all        
intelligence1 because inconsistent with 
the necessarily mind-dependent essence  
of ,being4 ,pure reason does not  need  
to be finally supplemented by practical 
principles of common sense4  ,it is able
 to shift for itself without this       
surrender4 ,the conciliation  of common 
sense thinking and philosophy is        
accomplished by the submission  of      
common sense to universal compulsory    
reason4 ,opinion must submit to         
demonstration1 instead of demonstration1
 intelligible only by the few1  having  

to make way for the undemonstrable      
dogmas of the unreflecting4    ,reid1 ,i
 suspect1 could hardly recognise1 in the
 stuffed figure thus put  up by ,ferrier
 to be knocked down1 either the #8common
 sense' in which  he found the root of a
 human knowledge of the realities       
revealed in  place and time throughout  
the long experience of man1 or the      
#8perception'  in which things external 
to the individual mind make their       
appearance  #8in part4' ,the practical  
impassibility of disbelieving the       
existence  of other living beings1 of   
discarding memory as wholly delusion1 of
  treating man as irresponsible1 and our
 surroundings as chaotic or wholly      
uninterpretable1 alike for science and  
in common life--these were alleged      
constituents of the common sense with   
which ,reid concerned himself4 ,they    
all lie outside the demonstrations of   
,ferrier1 in which he unfolds his       
theory in forms of artistic beauty and  
easy grace1 which make him the  most    

picturesque figure in the succession of 
,scottish philosophers4 ,yet  ,brown and
 ,ferrier in the end helped on the      
expansion of ,reid4           99        
99       99       99       99    ,before
 ,ferrier passed away in #ahfd1 a       
revolution in the conception of  the    
universe was in progress in ,britain4   
,the idea of continuous physical        
evolution of external nature and of man1
 promulgated biologically by  ,darwin1  
and by ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer as the    
all-comprehensive generalised  law of a 
universe that was supposed to be the    
outcome of unknowable  ,power1 has      
become a popular creed within the last  
forty years4  ,simultaneously1 methods  
of development akin to ,hegel were      
introduced  by ,dr4 ,hutcheson ,stirling
 in his ,secret of ,hegel1 and          
afterwards  in ,glasgow by ,dr4 ,caird1 
who adorned ,reid's chair for nearly    
thirty  years--methods for making       
explicit latent ,divine ,reason as what 
explains  and sustains the universe4    

,reid's appeal in a practical temper1 to
 the  mixed and moral reason in man1 as 
that with which man is inspired--an     
appeal widened and prolific of deeper   
questions in ,hamilton--was still too   
cautious to attempt to formulate the    
mysteries of existence1 in fully        
intelligible principles1 which should   
remove the darkness around the  #8little
 light' with which ,reid was satisfied4 
,he would have looked with  distrust at 
the more ambitious intellectual         
constructions which seemed to  be       
superseding the common sense of human   
nature1 as the human response  to the   
sceptic or agnostic1 whose philosophical
 knowledge turned all  knowledge into   
ignorance at the last4 ,reid was too    
human to be satisfied  with merely      
physical generalisations of sequences   
and co-existences  of phenomena1 finally
 unintelligible1 and therefore unworthy 
of trust2  and he would have been too   
cautious to accept a network of abstract
  intellectual necessities1 latent in   

the universe1 as the last and best      
human account of nature and man as      
actually found in place and time4  ,to  
rest satisfied with the evolutionary    
generalisation he would have  regarded  
as involving the #8common error of      
philosophers since the days  of ,plato1'
 in confounding moral agency with       
physical causation4 ,of the  magnificent
 ,hegelian constructions he would       
probably have said1 what  he says of    
,samuel ,clarke's theological           
demonstration--#8,these are the         
speculations of men of superior genius4 
,but whether they be as solid as  they  
are sublime1 or whether they be the     
wanderings of imagination in a  region  
beyond the limit of human understanding1
 ,i am unable to determine4'    ,the    
alternatives presented to this          
generation--either agnostic pessimist   
despair or universal science in which   
man is in some sense identified  with   
,god--final nescience versus final      
omniscience--ultimate and  universal    

problem of existence taking the place of
 a ,reid's science of  human            
mind--represent the unending struggle   
between sceptical distrust of  the      
,universal ,power1 ignorantly           
worshipped1 and reasonable ethical faith
  in the ,universal ,power1 with        
consequent hope for men4 ,it is in      
,scotland  a new form of the war with   
,david ,hume to which ,reid's life was  
given4  ,it has been going on since     
,socrates argued with the ,sophists at  
,athens1  and since ,job justified the  
morality of ,providence among the       
,eastern  emirs4 ,the eighteenth-century
 question1 #8,what is ,matter8' has     
risen  in the nineteenth to the         
question1 #8,what is ,god8' ,the        
inspired ,common  ,sense or ,common     
,reason of ,reid seems to be sublimated 
in universally  necessitating           
dialectical ,reason1 in this            
,scoto-,german way of resisting  the    
agnostic4 ,to fill the place of the     
#8unknown and unknowable ,god'  of the  

,hamiltonian emphasis1 human knowledge  
appears identified and  co-extensive    
with the ,divine1 in an absolute        
idealism1 presumed to be  the only      
adequate refutation of all subverting   
doubt4 ,the #8raison  impuissante1'     
sustained by and culminating in #8la    
nature1' or inspired  common sense1 is  
exchanged for what looks like a         
pantheistic necessity  that leaves no   
room for moral agency in man or ,god1   
and which scorns the  incomplete        
knowledge that cannot dispense with a   
faith venture at its  root4    ,yet     
,reid1 if he were now among us1 might   
find the common sense not  superseded   
but idealised1 in the more articulate   
response of reason  in man to the       
all-pervading active ,reason which the  
later philosopher  identifies with his  
own4 ,that the common sense latent in   
man is the  inspiration of ,god is an   
assumption with which he started in his 
,inquiry4 #8,the inspiration of the     
,almighty giveth man understanding4'    

#8,the spirit of man is the lamp of the 
,lord4' ,so the common sense moral      
trust in ,god1 or universal moral       
venture1 is at the root of all human    
life and human knowledge1 giving unity  
and vitality to the whole4 ,it is  the  
#8little light'--a ray from the perfect 
divine light1--and the universe  is     
interpretable for all human purposes    
only in and through it4 ,it is  that in 
each of us through which the            
inspirations in the ideal man1  when    
dormant in individuals1 can nevertheless
 be made to respond1 in an  ethical or  
religious common sense of the infinite  
love and mercy of the  all-sustaining   
,power that is always waiting to be     
gracious--to respond to  the            
inspirations of ,hebrew prophets and    
,christian apostles4    ,if #8knowledge'
 means only what is reached by the      
logical understanding  elaborating      
materials given by sense2 and if the    
name is denied to  the inspirations of  
the ,common ,sense1 what those          

inspirations should  be called becomes a
 question about the meaning of a word4  
,god is then  #8unknowable' by man1 only
 inasmuch as faith in the perfect reason
 and  goodness of the ,universal ,power 
is more than an ordinary scientific     
generalisation4 ,but if we recognise in 
the ,common ,sense1 and in its          
underlying ,theistic ,faith1 that       
without which all our knowledge must    
dissolve in ignorance1 then the faith   
must be accepted as in reason the  final
 ground of the knowledge2 and therefore 
as in us the last form of  the universal
 reason1 in and through which what is   
divine in us protests  against          
limitation to an intelligence that      
becomes paralysed in the  absence of    
this its indispensable factor4 ,if      
knowledge means omniscient  physical    
science of the universe of reality1 then
 the universe of  reality is finally    
unknown and unknowable4 ,but if man can 
live in  intelligible relations to what 
transcends natural science1--call this  

which enables him so to live1           
#8knowledge1' #8science1' #8common      
sense1'  #8faith1' #8inspiration1'      
#8revelation1' #8feeling1' or           
#8reason1'--it is  treasure found for   
the philosopher4    ,can ,reid's        
#8common sense' be sublimated into the  
universal consciousness  of ,hegelian   
dialectic1 and does this translation of 
faith into absolute  science constitute 
the true ideal of ,scottish common sense
 philosophy at  the end of the          
nineteenth century8 ,is common          
knowledge1 and scientific  knowledge in 
special sciences1 only knowledge #8in   
part1' while the true  philosopher may  
aspire to know even as ,god knows8 ,must
 man thus claim  omniscience as the only
 fit ground of his protest against      
sceptical  nescience8 ,or1 must his     
interpretation of the experience through
 which  he is passing be1 even in the   
end1 only an inspired faith-venture1    
instead of the omniscience which        
elevates the common sense into itself8  

,rather1 must not the supposed          
omniscience1 which is dissatisfied with 
faith-ventures1 because faith is        
supposed to be blind1 be itself only the
  common sense under another name--but  
with its intellectual constitution  more
 articulately explicated8    ,surely    
only omniscience and omnipotence can    
dispense with the moral and  religious  
venture of our inspired common sense and
 its implied theistic  faith1 as the    
root of reason in man--in his           
intermediate place and office1  between 
perfect knowledge and total ignorance4  
,so understood1 ,reid's  philosophy is  
virtually the philosophy that makes its 
final appeal to  the divine in man1     
latent in each individual man1 in and   
through whom  the universe is gradually 
interpreted as a revelation of perfect  
reason  or perfect goodness4 ,true      
philosophy is then the moral and        
religious  venture which accepts and    
applies the principles of common sense1 
in the  assurance that1 in genuine      

submission to their inspired authority1 
we  cannot finally be put to            
intellectual or moral confusion4 ,faith 
in ,god is  latent even in the          
perceptions of external sense1 in which 
,reid found the  first example of the   
operation of this inspiration4 ,alike in
 the outer  world of the senses1 and in 
free or responsible agency in man1      
filial  faith1 ethical or theistic1 may 
be justified by reasoning1 although it  
,cannot be reached by logic as a direct 
conclusion from premises4 ,it is  our   
primary postulate1 and not an object of 
logical proof2 therefore  credible in   
reason while it is not demonstrable4    
,in this way a humanised ,hegelianism1  
which seeks to restore or retain  the   
often dormant faith in the perfectly    
good ,god1 and thus in the  future of   
man1 may even be taken as in line with  
,reid1 under the altered  intellectual  
conditions at the end of the nineteenth 
century4 ,it  virtually appeals at last 
to moral faith4#bh           99       99

       99       99       99    ,poetry  
in another way than philosophy expresses
 and interprets for man  the inspired   
experience that transcends physical     
science and its logical  understanding4 
,and we find in the great poets of the  
,victorian era an  appeal through the   
imagination to those elements in human  
nature1 to  which ,reid made            
argumentative appeal as a philosopher4  
,in this lies  ,wordsworth's #8healing  
power4' ,his #8,intimations of          
,immortality' express  divine           
inspirations1 through which man learns  
to understand himself and  his          
surroundings--inspirations that1        
dormant1 #8fade into the light of       
common day1' yet1 recovered by          
reflection1 #8in a season of calm       
weather1  though inland far we be1 our  
souls have sight of that immortal sea   
which  brought us hither4' ,and #8,in   
,memoriam' is ,tennyson's protest       
against the  doubting spirit of the age1
 on behalf of the final and             

life-determining  principles1 which     
underlie creeds1 belong to our earliest 
childhood1  and on which the wisest and 
best have rested with a more or less    
intelligent consciousness through the   
ages--,god revealed in the ideal man    
latent in all men4 ,the human office of 
inspired common sense or ethical        
reason1 final for beings whose          
#8knowledge' must be intermediate       
between  omniscience and blind ignorance
 of mere sense and feeling1 is its tacit
  philosophy--          #8,our wills are
 ours1 we know not how1      ,our wills 
are ours1 to make them ,thine4          
,we have but faith3 we cannot know2     
,for knowledge is of things we see2     
,and yet we trust it comes from ,thee1  
,a beam in darkness3 let it grow4       
,let knowledge grow from more to more1  
,but more of reverence in us dwell2     
,that mind and soul1 according well1    
,may make one music as before1          
,but vaster4'    ,our scientific        
interpretation of the ever-changing     

universe at last rests  on ethical      
theistic faith1 and the ,christian      
revelation of divine love is  responded 
to by the divine inspiration of ,god in 
,man1 in the form of the  spiritual     
,common ,sense4 ,if this be not so1 we  
cannot rely on the ,common  ,sense1 for 
it then belongs to a morally            
untrustworthy universe4    ,established 
on this faith1 philosophy or theology1  
in ,scotland and  throughout the world1 
awaits the sceptical criticism and the  
spiritual  healing power of the masters 
of thought in the twentieth century1 for
 its  further development1 and          
application to human affairs4      ,,the
 ,,end          ,,footnotes      #a ,the
 above from data at ,birkwood4    #b    
,scottish ,notes and ,queries1 iii4     
#hd-hh2 #abh4    #c ,the number is1     
unfortunately1 unrecorded4    #d        
,birkwood ,,mss4    #e ,in ,scotland and
 ,scotsmen of the ,eighteenth ,century1 
by ,ramsay of  ,ochtertyre1 there is an 
interesting account of this ,mr4        

,bisset4    #f ,essays on the           
,intellectual ,powers1 ,,ii4 ch4 #aj4   
#g ,while he lived here1 he seems to    
have retained the incumbency of ,new    
,machar till ,may #ageb4    #h ,long ago
 removed4 ,i have an engraving of it4   
#i ,these ,,ms4 dissertations have been 
lately recovered1 and ,i have thus  been
 able to compare them with the ,inquiry1
 in which ,i find them mostly  embodied4
    #aj ,birkwood ,,ms4    #aa ,i have  
elsewhere discussed the true meaning of 
,berkeley's philosophy4    #ab ,between 
the ,college and the ,cathedral1        
diverging to the east4    #ac ,watt     
began those experiments in ,glasgow     
about #agfc4    #ad ,the ,american      
revolt was a severe stroke to ,glasgow  
at the time1  though it led to a great  
development of manufactures in the city 
afterwards4 ,see ,colville's ,by-,ways  
of ,history 7#ahig71 pp4 #bha-cad4      
#ae ,william ,traill1 a ,glasgow        
graduate1 was elected4 ,playfair 7of    
,st4  ,andrews71 afterwards ,professor  

,john ,playfair of ,edinburgh1 was also 
a  candidate1 then only eighteen4    #af
 ,the ,bell of the ,brae4    #ag ,the   
,forth and ,clyde ,canal was commenced  
in #agfh and opened from sea  to sea in 
#agij4    #ah ,ramsay of ,ochtertyre1   
who often met him at ,blair ,drummond1  
mentions  that #8for more than fifteen  
years ,reid spent great part of the     
,college  vacation there with ,lord     
,kames4'    #ai ,kant's uncritical      
identification of ,reid's philosophical 
appeal  to the common rational sense    
with the popular appeal and declamation 
of ,oswald and even ,beattie1 is exposed
 by ,professor ,sidgwick in ,mind       
7,april #ahie74    #bj ,birkwood ,,mss4 
#ba ,birkwood ,,mss4    #bb ,professor  
,richardson's ,memoir of ,arthur4    #bc
 ,the ,world as ,will and ,idea1        
translated by ,mr4 ,haldane and ,mr4    
,kemp1 ii4 #bdj4 ,schopenhauer makes    
other interesting references to ,reid4  
#bd ,birkwood ,,mss4    #be ,see also   
,reid's ,essays on the ,active ,powers1 

,i4 #a-f1 and passim4    #bf ,m4        
,boutroux1 in ,revue ,franaise          
d',edimbourg1 ,no4 #d4    #bg ,reid's   
philosophy was ,renan's #8ideal' in his 
early life1 according  to his           
biographer4    #bh ,so in the           
#8,preliminary ,notice1' in the new     
edition of ,dr4 ,stirling's  ,secret of 
,hegel--last paragraph4