OF ANCIENT AND MODERN PHILOSOPHY, IN ITS CONNECTION WITH SCEPTICISM AND RELIGION. CONTAINING ALSO A CORRESPONDENCE BETWIXT THE AUTHOR AND THE LATE GEORGE COMBE, Esq. TOGETHER WITH CRITICISMS ON MODERN THEOLOGIANS, AND ROBERT DEUCHAR, S.S.C. TWICE PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL PHYSICAL SOCIETY, EDINBURGH. EDINBURGH: JAMES THIN, 55 SOUTH BRIDGE. BELFAST: C. AITCHISON. 1864. PREFACE AND DEDICATION. THIS Book has been written for the Working Classes. Why so? At the age of twelve I was one of themselves. I wrought on iron, steel, and brass, and also engraved on stone. My father and his brother were seal engravers to the king. My predecessor was Greville Ewing. I sat on his vacant stool. He had broken his indenture that he might study divinity. My father refused to discharge him, but did not exact the penalty. He became an Evangelical Dissenter, and was held in high repute in Glasgow (see Kay's Caricatures). But why should I, in a Preface to Philosophy, refer to my early history? My answer is, that my readers may know whether it is worth their while to believe me, seeing I have nothing else to recommend me. Hence I shall proceed. May be what I am about to relate will at least amuse, or at best beguile, an otherwise idle hour. At the age of fourteen, I was bound apprentice to a lawyer—our City's Fiscal. This change was highly beneficial. Our first clerk, M'Queen, was a philosopher. On his right hand lay Locke's Essays, on his left Euclid's Elements. He taught me mathematics, and puzzled us with hard questions, which none of us could solve. I, however, for once succeeded, and my success pleased him. The question was, How many spirits of devils can dance on the point of a needle ? I solved it thus: Describe a circle round a given point; next, draw five radii—we were five-hence we called ourselves devils, and by our wild conduct we certainly deserved that name. (Our old woman, when excited, used to say, "It is a wonder that the heavens did not fall down and smoor us.") Well, said I, a radius is a straight line, and, according to Euclid, it has length without breadth ; hence five devils, as spirits, may locate on one central point. Again, the radii of a circle are in number infinite, hence if we could see them we would see them all resting on the same central point. But what is a point? It is sharper than our office needle, for it has position without magnitude. Hence I gained applause. This opened to me the first gate of Philosophy. Scepticism! One of the city officers had lodged a report; there is a secret meeting, said he, held in the Pleasance by men called atheists. My master held a consultation with the Lord Advocate. I was present, and his lordship seemed pleased when he was informed that their number was not more than five. Ah! said he, all this is the fruit of David Hume and Hugo Arnot's atheistical philosophy; but my advice |