So consonant is this to experience, that, in the education of youth, no object has in every age appeared more important to wise men than to tincture them early with a relish for the entertainments of taste. The transition is commonly made with ease from these to discharge of the higher and more important duties of life. Good hopes may be entertained of those whose minds have this liberal and elegant turn. It is favourable to many virtues. Whereas to be entirely devoid of relish for eloquence, poetry, or any of the fine arts, is justly construed to be an unpromising symptom of youth; and raises suspicions of their being prone to low gratifications, or destined to drudge in the more vulgar and illiberal pursuits of life.

There are indeed few good dispositions of any kind with which the improvement of taste is not more or less connected. A cultivated taste increases sensibility to all the tender and humane passions, by giving them frequent exercise; while it tends to weaken the most violent and fierce emotions.

Ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes

Emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros.*

The elevated sentiments and high examples which poetry, eloquence, and history are often bringing under our view, naturally tend to nourish in our minds public spirit, the love of glory, contempt of external fortune, and the admiration of what is truly illustrious and great.

I will not go so far as to say that the improvement of taste and virtue is the same, or that they may always be expected to coexist in an equal degree. More powerful correctives than taste can apply, are necessary for reforming the corrupt propensities which too frequently prevail among mankind. Elegant speculations are sometimes found to float on the surface of the mind, while bad passions the interior regions of the heart. At the same time, this can not but be admitted, that the exercise of taste is, in its native tendency, moral and purifying. From reading the most admired productions of genius, whether in poetry or prose, almost every one rises with some good impressions left on his mind; and though these may not always be durable, they are at least to be ranked among the means of disposing the heart to virtue. One thing is certain, that without possessing the virtuous affections in a strong degree, no man can attain eminence in the sublime parts of eloquence. He must feel what a good man feels, if he expects greatly to move or to interest mankind. They are the ardent sentiments of honour, virtue, magnanimity, and public spirit, that only can kindle that fire of genius, and call up into the mind those high ideas, which attract the admiration of ages; and if this spirit be necessary to produce the most distinguished efforts of eloquence, it must be necessary also to our relishing them with proper taste and feeling.

George Campbell, the greatest name, with the single exception of Dr. Robertson, the historian, that the Scottish church can number amongst its clergy, was born at Aberdeen, in 1719. He was educated in the university of his native city, and afterwards became professor of divinity, and then principal of Marischal College, connected with the same institution. In the midst of the laborious duties which his professional position imposed upon him, he passed a long and useful life, and died, in 1796, deeply regretted by all who personally knew him.

Dr. Campbell, as a theologian and critic, possessed a vigor of intellect and

*These polished arts have humanized mankind,

Softened the rude, and calmed the boisterous mind.

a variety of learning, rarely found combined in the same individual. His Dissertation on Miracles, written in reply to Hume, is so conclusive and masterly a piece of reasoning, that even Hume himself admitted the 'ingenuity' of the work, and the great learning' of the author. The well-known hypothesis of Hume is, that no testimony for any kind of miracle can ever amount to a probability, much less to proof. To this Dr. Campbell opposed the argument that testimony has a natural and original influence on belief, antecedent to experience;' in illustration of which, he remarked, 'that the earliest assent which is given to testimony by children, and which is previous to all experience, is in fact the most unlimited.' His answer is divided into two parts: first, that miracles are capable of proof from testimony, and religious miracles not less than others; and secondly, that the miracles on which the belief of Christianity is founded, are sufficiently attested. Campbell had no fear for the result of such discussions, and hence he proceeds in the following strain :

I do not hesitate to affirm that our religion has been indebted to the attempts, though not to the intentions, of its bitterest enemies. They have tried its strength, indeed, and by trying, they have displayed its strength; and that in so clear a light as we could never have hoped, without such a trial, to have viewed it in. Let them, therefore, write; let them argue, and when arguments fail, even let them cavil against religion as much as they please; I should be heartily sorry that ever in this island, the asylum of liberty, where the spirit of Christianity is better understood (however defective the inhabitants are in the observance of its precepts) than in any other part of the Christian world; I should, I say, be sorry that in this island so great a disservice were done to religion as to check its adversaries in any way than by returning a candid answer to their objections. I must at the same time acknowledge, that I am both ashamed and grieved when I observe my friends of religion betray so great a diffidence in the goodness of their cause (for to this diffidence alone can it be imputed), as to show an inclination for recurring to more forcible methods. The assaults of infidels, I may venture to prophesy, will never overturn our religion. They will prove not more hurtful to the Christian system, if it be allowed to compare small things with the greatest than the boisterous winds are said to prove to the sturdy oak. They shake it impetuously for a time, and loudly threaten its subversion; whilst, in effect, they only serve to make it strike its roots the deeper, and stand the firmer ever after.

In 1776, Dr. Campbell published his Philosophy of Rhetoric, which is, perhaps, the best work on that subject that has appeared since the days of Aristotle. Most of the other treatises of this kind, are little less than compilations; but Campbell brought to the subject a high degree of philosophical acumen and learned research. Its utility is also equal to its depth and originality: the philosopher finds in it exercise for his ingenuity, and the student may safely consult it for its practical suggestions and illustrations. The work, however, is too philosophical for a text book, and hence its want of general popularity. Campbell's other works are, a Translation of the Four Gospels, worthy of his talents, some sermons preached on public occasions, and a series of Lectures on Ecclesiastical History, which were not published till after his death.

A manly and independent spirit, and a firm reliance on the ultimate triumph of truth, characterized Dr. Campbell's entire career; and hence he opposed the penal laws against the Catholics, and, in 1779, when the country was agitated with that intolerant zeal against Popery, which, in the following year, burst out in riots in London, he issued an Address to the People of Scotland, remarkable for its cogency of argument, and its just and enlightened sentiments. For this service to true religion and toleration, the mob of Aberdeen broke the author's windows and nicknamed him 'Pope Campbell.' In 1795, when far advanced in life, Dr. Campbell received a pension of three hundred pounds from the crown, on which he resigned his professorship, and his situation as principal of Marischal College. He enjoyed this well-earned reward, however, only one year, dying, as we have already observed, in the year that followed.

RICHARD HURD, a clergyman of taste and learning, was born in 1720, and educated at the university of Cambridge. He early became distinguished for his literary attainments, and having entered the church, advanced rapidly through its various preferments until he reached the bishopric of Worcester, in the enjoyment of which he died, in 1808, in his eighty-ninth year.

Dr. Hurd was a man of modesty, and true piety; and though the personal friend and disciple of Bishop Warburton, he was of an entirely different character. He was so far from being influenced by motives of ambition in the attainment of ecclesiastical dignities, that he even declined the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury, when tendered to him by the king. His principal work is an Introduction to the Study of the Prophecies, being the substance of twelve discourses delivered at Cambridge. Bishop Hurd was the author also of a commentary on Horace, and the editor of the works of Cowley.

RICHARD PRICE, an able dissenting minister, was born in Glamorganshire, in 1723. He was educated for the clerical office among the dissenters, and began early to preach, first at Newington, in Middlesex, but afterwards settled at Hackney. His eminent talents attracting much attention, he was elected, in 1764, a member of the royal society, and soon after obtained the degree of doctor of divinity from a Scottish university, and that of doctor of laws from Yale College, in Connecticut. He died on the nineteenth of March, 1791, just before he had attained the sixty-eighth year of his age.

Dr. Price published, in 1758, A Review of the Principal Questions and Difficulties in Morals, which attracted attention as an attempt to revive the intellectual theory of moral obligation, which seemed to have fallen under the attacks of Butler, Hutcheson, and Hume.' Price, after Cudworth, supports the doctrine, that moral distinctions being perceived by reason, or the understanding, are equally immutable with all other kinds of truth. On the other side, it is argued that reason is but a principle of our mental frame, like the principle which is the source of moral emotion, and has not

peculiar claim to remain unaltered in the supposed general alteration of our mental constitution. Soon after the appearance of his important work on 'Morals,' the author published three other useful treatises on the following subjects: Providence and Prayer, The Evidences of a Future State, and The Importance of Christianity.

Though a devoted and successful preacher, Dr. Price found time to give much attention to the political questions of the day; and was an able writer on finance, and political economy. In 1772, he published an Appeal to the Public on the National Debt, and in 1776, during the party disputes which attended the beginning of the American war, appeared his famous Observations on the Nature of Civil Government. As preacher at the meetinghouse in the Old Jewry, he delivered, in 1789, a discourse On the Love of our Country, in which he enlarged on the French Revolution with party preju dices, and with democratic zeal, and asserted the right of the people to cancel their obligations of obedience to their rulers for misconduct. These allusions to the fate of the French monarch were attacked by Burke, in his 'Reflections on the French Revolution' with great severity. It must, however, be confessed, that, as a political writer, Price carried his ideas of equality and liberty much farther than the vices and passions of men will, with safety, allow.

ADAM SMITH, born at Kirkaldy, in Fifeshire, on the fifth of June, 1723, succeeded Dr. Hutcheson, after an interval of a few years, as professor of moral philosophy in the university of Glasgow; and not only inherited his love of metaphysics, but adopted some of his theories, which he blended with his own peculiar views. His father held the situation of comptroller of the customs, but died before the birth of his son. After receiving instruction at Kirkaldy he was sent to Glasgow university, where he distinguished himself by his acquirements, and obtained a nomination to Baliol College, Oxford, at which he continued to prosecute his studies with great ardor for seven years. Having returned to Scotland, he gave, in 1751, a course of lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, which recommended him to the vacant chair of professor of logic in Glasgow, and this situation he, the next year, exchanged for the more congenial one of moral science.

In 1759, Dr. Smith published his Theory of Moral Sentiments, and in 1764, he was prevailed upon to vacate the professor's chair, and accompany the young Duke of Buccleuch, as travelling tutor, on the continent. They were absent two years, during which they visited many parts of France and Italy, and on Smith's return to Scotland he retired to his ancestral house at Kirkaldy, and there pursued a severe system of study, which resulted in the publication, in 1776, of his great work on political economy, entitled An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Two years after his 'Inquiry' appeared, he was made one of the commissioners of customs, and his latter days were spent in ease and opulence. He died in July, 1790, and after his death some essays and other miscellanies that

he had not ordered to be destroyed, were published, which but too plainly indicated that his great intellectual qualities were disgraced by notions of infidelity.

Dr. Smith's philosophical doctrines are vastly inferior, in value, to the language and illustrations he employs in enforcing them. He has been styled the most eloquent of modern moralists; and his Theory' is embellished with such a variety of examples, with such true pictures of the passions, and of life and manners, that it may be read with pleasure and advantage by those who, like the poet Gray, 'can not see in the darkness of metaphysics.' His leading doctrine, that sympathy must necessarily precede our moral approbation or disapprobation, has been generally abandoned. 'To derive our moral sentiments,' says Dr. Brown, which are as universal as the actions of mankind that come under our review, from the occasional sympathies that warm or sadden us with joys, and griefs, and resentments which are not our own, seems to me very nearly the same sort of error as it would be to derive the waters of an overflowing stream from the sunshine or shade which may occasionally gleam over it.' As a specimen of the flowing style and moral illustrations of Dr. Smith, we give the following extract:—

THE RESULTS OF MISDIRECTED AND GUILTY AMBITION.

To attain to this envied situation, the candidates for fortune too frequently abandon the paths of virtue; for unhappily, the road which leads to the one, and that which leads to the other, lie sometimes in very opposite directions. But the ambitious man flatters himself that, in the splendid situation to which he advances, he will. have so many means of commanding the respect and admiration of mankind, and will be enabled to act with such superior propriety and grace, that the lustre of his future conduct will entirely cover or efface the foulness of the steps by which he arrived at that elevation. In many governments the candidates for the highest stations are above the law, and if they can attain the object of their ambition, they have no fear of being called to account for the means by which they acquired it. They often endeavour, therefore, not only by fraud and falsehood, the ordinary and vulgar arts of intrigue and cabal, but sometimes by the perpetration of the most enormous crimes, by murder and assassination, by rebellion and civil war, to supplant and destroy those who oppose or stand in the way of their greatness. They more frequently miscarry than succeed, and commonly gain nothing but the disgraceful punishment which is due to their crimes. But though they should be so lucky as to attain that wished-for greatness, they are always most miserably disappointed in the happiness which they expect to enjoy in it. It is not ease or pleasure, but always honour, of one kind or another, though frequently an honour very ill understood, that the ambitious man really pursues. But the honour of his exalted station appears, both in his own eyes and in those of other people, polluted and defiled by the baseness of the means through which he rose to it. Though by the profusion of every liberal expense, though by excessive indulgence in every profligate pleasure-the wretched but usual resource of ruined characters; though by the hurry of public business or by the prouder and more dazzling tumult of war he may endeavour to efface, both from his own memory and from that of other people, the remembrance of what he has done, that remembrance never fails to pursue him. He invokes in vain the dark and dismal powers of forgetfulness and oblivion. He remembers himself what he has done, and that remembrance tells him that other people must likewise remember it. Amidst all the gaudy pomp of the most ostentatious greatness, amidst the venal and vile adulation of the great and of the learned, VOL. II.-2 N