PREFACE.

THE Editorship of the Collected Works of Professor DUGALD STEWART, which was appropriately committed by the Trustees of Miss Stewart to Sir William Hamilton, involved the preparation of a Memoir of the Author. The illustrious Editor had proceeded so far as to complete the publication of Nine Volumes of the works, and revise for the press the Memoirs of Smith, Robertson, and Reid, which appear in the present or Tenth Volume. Failing health, especially during the last year of his life, interrupted the preparation of the Memoir of Mr. Stewart, which was designed to form part of this volume. This cause had even led him to depart from the purpose of an original connected narrative of Mr. Stewart's life, as is manifest from the following Proposal made to Mr. Constable, of date 3d April 1856:-"I intend to incorporate in this Tenth Volume the following:

"1. The Memoir of his father by Col. Matthew Stewart; with Notes and Additions by me.

"2. An Extract about Mr. Stewart and his Philosophy, from his friend Mackintosh's Preliminary Dissertation; to which will also be added Notes by me.

"3. Observations by me on Stewart's Philosophy, and its

a

Connexion with the Scottish School, and the doctrine of Common Sense.

"4. A Selection from Mr. Stewart's Correspondence, with occasional observations on his life. The Correspondence will necessarily be imperfect; Col. Stewart having taken away many, if not most, of the more important letters relating to his father, and which were ultimately by him destroyed.

"In regard to time, I expect, if health be granted to me, that the volume will be ready for publication by the end of autumn, the next publishing season.

His lamented death, in the following month, prevented the accomplishment of this proposal-the last literary design of its author.

For the purposes of the Memoir, Sir William Hamilton had perused and noted what of Mr. Stewart's Correspondence was at that time collected, and in his hands. He had also commenced the preparation of "Observations on Mr. Stewart's Philosophy," &c.,-No. 3 of the Proposal. But these, it is deeply to be regretted, assumed no shape beyond that of fragmentary notes on separate points of the subject; nor have they a special bearing on the doctrines of Mr. Stewart.1 Though brief and interrupted, and written in the lassitude of failing bodily vigour, those fragments show all the force of the master mind, and possess that melancholy interest which attaches to the last words of one, whose life had been an earnest and profound meditation of the reach and bounds of human knowledge,-especially of man's relations to the

1 An appropriate place for the publication of these notices may be found in

connexion with the Lectures of the Author, now in the press.

Supersensible and Infinite,—and whose contemplation of the highest themes, while it issued in teaching contentment with a "learned ignorance," as the climax of human science, served, at the same time, to increase the humility of the man,-until at length, the love of knowledge becoming more and more the spirit of faith, the period of life that bordered on the setting of an intellect that had shone so luminous, was especially distinguished by the mellow radiance of deepening reverence.

For the following Memoir of Mr. Stewart, I am therefore alone responsible.

Materials for a detailed account of the life of Mr. Stewart do not exist. The largest and most valuable part of his Correspondence-his Journals kept in Paris before and shortly after the commencement of the Revolution of 1789, and during his visit to that city with Lord Lauderdale in 1806,—and, in general, all papers of interest fitted to throw light on his private life and social relations, were unfortunately destroyed by his son, Colonel Stewart, under the influence of mental delusion, arising from coup-de-soleil, and the effects of climate, while in India. Col. Stewart had prepared for publication a detailed Account of the Life and Writings of his Father, which abounded in anecdotes, and notices of the many distinguished men of the end of the last, and first quarter of the present, century, with whom Mr. Stewart was on terms of intimacy. But this perished with the other papers. The loss of this manuscript is deeply to be regretted, when we take into account the ability of its author, and the sources of information to which he had access.1

1 See Stewart's Works, vol. viii., Political Economy, vol. i., Advertisement by the Editor, pp. 9-11.

Being thus restricted, in respect of materials of biography, to Mr. Stewart's writings,-in which, indeed, his life is mainly to be read,―to general incidents, traditional impressions, fragmentary correspondence, and hints gathered from some who were personally acquainted with Mr. Stewart, I have sought to concentrate the scattered lights arising from those sources, so that, if unable to place in full relief the minutest features, I might, at least in some measure, recall and fix the general lineaments of his character, before oblivion should sweep wholly away even the few personal traces that remain, and thus merge both the Man and Academic Teacher in the Author.

Few men have won from friends a more ready love, or commanded among contemporaries greater personal reverence, than Dugald Stewart. His life,-simple, unvaried, and unostentatious, spent in the quest and inculcation of high truths, and in the love and practice of virtue,-appeared to all who knew him the exemplification of the elevated doctrines which he taught from the Chair, and to which he has given permanency in his Writings. A general notice of such a life would be valuable, did it merely prove the means of suggesting a lofty ideal of human character, and serve to keep in mind, as the incentive of a noble ambition, the fact of its actual realisation.

To the Memoir proper there is added a chapter containing a general notice of the Method and Scope of Scottish Philosophy, as represented by the writings of Reid and Stewart. This is by no means offered as a full discussion even of the Method, far less of the Results of Scottish Speculation. It may, however, afford a vindication and illustration of some fundamental points in that Philosophy.

To the many,-personal friends of Mr. Stewart, or otherwise interested in the Memoir,-from whom I have received general aid, I beg to offer my sincere thanks. Among these I have to

make special mention of the following:-Lady Hamilton, whose general assistance, most readily and kindly given, has been invaluable; the family of the late Dugald Bannatyne, Esq., Glasgow, (brother-in-law of Mr. Stewart,) and Mrs. Romilly, Liverpool, the intimate friend of Miss Stewart,— who most kindly placed at my service many letters and papers of value in connexion with the subject of the Memoir; Peter Miller, Esq., M.D., Exeter, (son of the Rev. Dr. Miller of Cumnock, and nephew of Mr. Stewart,) to whom I am indebted for careful memoranda of the family, and general notices of interest; Dr. W. P. Alison, Emeritus Professor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, (the elder son of the Rev. Archibald Alison,) to whose personal intimacy with Mr. Stewart, and eminent accomplishments in branches of learning, apart even from that study in which he is an acknowledged master,-especially his liberal acquaintance with Philosophy, I owe many valuable suggestions; and who very kindly placed at my service the most important of Mr. Stewart's letters that have been preserved (Appendix A). I am also indebted, for letters of Mr. Stewart, to the family of the late Professor Macvey Napier, (through James T. Gibson Craig, Esq., Edinburgh ;) to the family of the late M. Prévost of Geneva; to the Baron Degerando, the son of the author of the Histoire des Systèmes de Philosophie, (through the Baroness Blaze de Bury;) and to Leonard Horner, Esq., London.

For the present Edition of the Collected Works of Mr. Stewart, Dr. Miller has kindly furnished two Engravings,—the one from an admirable picture of the Author when in his seventy-first year, made by Wilkie in black-lead; and the other from a bust by Joseph. The engraving from the picture is by Cousins, and, in the opinion of competent judges, conveys