his decisions, even on those topics which he had most diligently studied; reserved and silent in promiscuous society; and retaining, after all his literary eminence, the same simple and unassuming manners which he brought from his country residence: the other, lively, rapid, and communicative; accustomed, by his professional pursuits, to wield with address the weapons of controversy, and not averse to a trial of his powers on questions the most foreign to his ordinary habits of inquiry. But these characteristical differences, while to their common friends they lent an additional charm to the distinguishing merits of each, served only to enliven their social intercourse, and to cement their mutual attachment.

I recollect few, if any anecdotes of Dr Reid, which appear to me calculated to throw additional light on his character; and I suspect strongly, that many of those which are to be met with in biographical publications are more likely to mislead than to inform. A trifling incident, it is true, may sometimes paint a peculiar feature better than the most elaborate description; but a selection of incidents really characteristical, presupposes, in the observer, a rare capacity to discriminate and to generalize; and where this capacity is wanting, a biographer, with the most scrupulous attention to the veracity of his details, may yet convey a very false conception of the individual he would describe. As, in the present instance, my subject afforded no materials for such a choice, I have attempted, to the best of my abilities, (instead of retailing detached fragments of conversations, or recording insulated and unmeaning occurrences,) to communicate to others the general impressions which Dr Reid's character has left on my own mind. In this attempt I am far from being confident that I have succeeded; but, how barren soever I may have thus rendered my pages in the estimation of those who consider biography merely in the light of an amusing tale, I have, at least, the satisfaction to think, that my picture, though faint in the colouring, does not present a distorted resemblance of the original.

The confidential correspondence of an individual with his friends, affords to the student of human nature, materials of far greater authenticity and importance; more particularly, the correspondence of a man like Dr Reid, who will not be suspected by those who knew him, of accommodating his letters (as has been alleged of Cicero) to the humours and principles of those whom he addressed. I am far, at the same time, from thinking that the correspondence of Dr Reid would be generally interesting; or even that he excelled in this species of writing: but few men, I sincerely believe,

| who have written so much, have left behind them such unblemished memorials of their virtue.

At present, I shall only transcribe two letters, which I select from a considerable number now lying before me, as they seem to accord, more than the others, with the general design of this Memoir. The first (which is dated January 13, 1779) is addressed to the Rev. William Gregory, (now Rector of St Andrew's, Canterbury,) then an undergraduate in Balliol College, Oxford. It relates to a remarkable peculiarity in Dr Reid's physical temperament, connected with the subject of dreaming; and is farther interesting as a genuine record of some particulars in his early habits, in which it is easy to perceive the openings of a superior mind.

"The fact which your brother the Doctor desires to be informed of, was as you mention it. As far as I remember the circumstances, they were as follow:

"About the age of fourteen, I was, almost every night, unhappy in my sleep, from frightful dreams: sometimes hanging over a dreadful precipice, and just ready to drop down; sometimes pursued for my life, and stopped by a wall, or by a sudden loss of all strength; sometimes ready to be devoured by a wild beast. How long I was plagued with such dreams, I do not now recollect. I believe it was for a year or two at least; and I think they had quite left me before I was fifteen. In those days, I was much given to what Mr Addison, in one of his "Spectators," calls castle-building; and, in my evening solitary walk, which was generally all the exercise I took, my thoughts would hurry me into some active scene, where I generally acquitted myself much to my own satisfaction; and in these scenes of imagination I performed many a gallant exploit. At the same time, in my dreams I found myself the most arrant coward that ever was. Not only my courage, but my strength failed me in every danger; and I often rose from my bed in the morning in such a panic that it took some time to get the better of it. I wished very much to get free of these uneasy dreams, which not only made me unhappy in sleep, but often left a disagreeable impression in my mind for some part of the following day. I thought it was worth trying whether it was possible to recollect that it was all a dream, and that I was in no real danger. I often went to sleep with my mind as strongly impressed as I could with this thought, that I never in my lifetime was in any real danger, and that every fright I had was a dream. After many fruitless endeavours to recollect this when the danger appeared I effected it at last, and have often, when I was sliding over a

D

precipice into the abyss, recollected that it was all a dream, and boldly jumped down. The effect of this commonly was, that I immediately awoke. But I awoke calm and intrepid, which I thought a great acquisition. After this, my dreams were never very uneasy; and, in a short time, I dreamed not at all.

"During all this time I was in perfect health; but whether my ceasing to dream was the effect of the recollection above mentioned, or of any change in the habit of my body, which is usual about that period of life, I cannot tell. I think it may more probably be imputed to the last. However, the fact was, that, for at least forty years after, I dreamed none, to the best of my remembrance; and finding, from the testimony of others, that this is somewhat uncommon, I have often, as soon as I awoke, endeavoured to recollect, without being able to recollect, anything that passed in my sleep. For some years past, I can sometimes recollect some kind of dreaming thoughts, but so incoherent that I can make nothing of them.

"The only distinct dream I ever had since I was about sixteen, as far as I remember, was about two years ago. I had got my head blistered for a fall. A plaster, which was put upon it after the blister, pained me excessively for a whole night. In the morning I slept a little, and dreamed, very distinctly, that I had fallen into the hands of a party of Indians, and was scalped.

"I am apt to think that, as there is a state of sleep, and a state wherein we are awake, so there is an intermediate state, which partakes of the other two. If a man peremptorily resolves to rise at an early hour for some interesting purpose, he will of himself awake at that hour. A sicknurse gets the habit of sleeping in such a manner that she hears the least whisper of the sick person, and yet is refreshed by this kind of half sleep. The same is the case of a nurse who sleeps with a child in her arms. I have slept on horseback, but so as to preserve my balance; and, if the horse stumbled, I could make the exertion necessary for saving me from a fall, as if I was awake.

of your feelings by the impression she made upon my own heart, on a very short acquaintance. But all the blessings of this world are transient and uncertain; and it would be but a melancholy scene if there were no prospect of another.

"I have often had occasion to admire the resignation and fortitude of young persons, even of the weaker sex, in the views of death, when their imagination is filled with all the gay prospects which the world presents at that period. I have been witness to instances of this kind, which I thought truly heroic, and I hear Mrs Ggave a remarkable one.

"To see the soul increase in vigour and wisdom, and in every amiable quality, when health, and strength, and animal spirits decay-when it is to be torn by violence from all that filled the imagination and flattered hope--is a spectacle truly grand and instructive to the surviving. To think that the soul perishes in that fatal moment when it is purified by this fiery trial, and fitted for the noblest exertions in another state, is an opinion which I cannot help looking down upon with contempt and disdain.

"In old people, there is no more merit in leaving this world with perfect acquiescence than in rising from a feast after one is full. When I have before me the prospect of the infirmities, the distresses, and the peevishness of old age, and when I have already received more than my share of the good things of this life, it would be ridiculous indeed to be anxious about prolonging it; but, when I was four-and-twenty, to have had no anxiety for its continuance, would, I think, have required a noble effort. Such efforts in those that are called to make them surely shall not lose their reward."

I have now finished all that the limits of my plan permit me to offer here as a tribute to the memory of this excellent person. In the details which I have stated, both with respect to his private life and his scientific pursuits, I have dwelt chiefly on such circumstances as appeared to me most likely to interest the readers of his works, by illustrating his character as a man, and his views as an author. Of his merits as an

For the other letter, I am indebted to one of Dr Reid's most intimate friends, to whom it was addressed, in the year 1784, on occasion of the melancholy event to which it alludes.

"I sympathize with you very sincerely the loss of a most amiable wife. I judge

partly from a wish to avoid unnecessary diffuseness, but chiefly from my anxiety to enlarge on those still more important labours of which he has bequeathed the fruits to future ages. And yet, had he left no such monument to perpetuate his name, the fidelity and zeal with which he discharged, during so long a period, the obscure but momentous duties of his official station would, in the judgment of the wise and good, have ranked him in the first order of

useful citizens.

"Nec enim is solus reipublicæ prodest, qui candidatos extrahit, et tuetur reos, et de pace belloque censet; sed qui juventutem exhortatur; qui, in tantâ bonorum præceptorum inopiâ, virtute instruit animos; qui, ad pecuniam luxuriamque cursu ruentes prensat ac retrahit, et, si nihil aliud, certe moratur: in privato, publicum negotium agit."*

In concluding this memoir, I trust I shall be pardoned, if, for once, I give way to a personal feeling, while I express the satisfaction with which I now close, finally, my attempts as a biographer. Those which I have already made, were imposed on me by the irresistible calls of duty and attach- | ment; and, feeble as they are, when compared with the magnitude of subjects so splendid and so various, they have encroached deeply on that small portion of literary leisure which indispensable engagements allow me to command. I cannot, at the same time, be insensible to the gratification of having endeavoured to associate, in some degree, my name with three of the greatest which have adorned this age

happy, if, without deviating intentionally from truth, I may have succeeded, however imperfectly, in my wish to gratify at once the curiosity of the public, and to soothe the recollections of surviving friends. But I, too, have designs and enterprises of my own; and the execution of these (which, alas! swell in magnitude, as the time for their accomplishment hastens to a period) claims, at length, an undivided attention. Yet I should not look back on the past with regret, if I could indulge the hope, that the facts which it has been my province to record-by displaying those fair rewards of extensive usefulness, and of permanent fame, which talents and industry, when worthily directed, cannot fail to securemay contribute, in one single instance, to foster the proud and virtuous independence of genius; or, amidst the gloom of poverty and solitude, to gild the distant prospect of the unfriended scholar, whose laurels are now slowly ripening in the unnoticed privacy of humble life.*

On Reid's doctrines Mr Stewart has also some valuable observations in his " Dissertation on the Progress of Metaphysical and Ethical Philosophy."-H.

NOTE A.-Page 4.

Is the account given in the text of Dr Reid's ancestors, I have followed scrupulously the information contained in his own memorandums. I have some suspicion, however, that he has committed a mistake with respect to the name of the translator of Buchanan's History; which would appear, from the MS. in Glasgow College, to have been, not Adam, but John. At the same time, as this last statement rests on an authority altogether unknown, (being written in a hand different from the rest of the MS.,†) there is a possibility that Dr

If another edition of this Memoir should ever be called for, I must request that the printer may adhere to the plan which I myself have thought advisable to adopt in the distribution of my notes. A mistake which has been committed in a late edi. tion of my Life of Dr Robertson, where a long Appendix is broken down into foot-notes, will suf. ficiently account for this request to those who have seen that publication.

It is to the following purport:-"The Historie of Scotland, first written in the Latin tungue by that famous and learned man, George Buchanan, and afterwards translated into the Scottishe tungue by John Read, Esquyar, brother to James Read, person of Banchory-Ternan, whyle he lived. They both ly intered in the parish church of that towne, seated not farre from the banke of the river of Dee, expecting the general resurrection, and the glorious a pearing of Jesus Christ, there Redimer." The date

Reid's account may be correct; and, therefore, I have thought it advisable, in a matter of so very trifling consequence, to adhere to it in preference to the other.

The following particulars with respect to Thomas Reid may, perhaps, be acceptable to some of my readers. They are copied from Dempster, a contemporary writer; whose details concerning his countrymen, it must, however, be confessed, are not always to be implicitly relied on :-

"Thomas Reidus, Aberdonensis, pueritiæ meæ et infantilis otii sub Thoma Cargillo collega, Lovanii literas in schola Lipsii seriò didicit, quas magno nomine in Germania docuit, carus Principibus. Londini diu in comitatu humanissimi ac clarissimi viri, Fulconis Grevilli, Regii Consiliarii Interioris et Anglia Proquæstoris, egit: tum ad amicitiam Regis, eodem Fulcone deducente, evectus, inter Palatinos admis

Accord

of the transcript is 12th December 1634. ing to Calderwood's MS. History of the Church of Scotland, John Read was "servitor and writer to Mr George Buchanan." But this is not likely.-H.

This is doubtful; for Sir Robert Aytoun, in the account he gives of Reid's studies, makes no mention of so remarkable a circumstance. Dempster possibly confused Thomas Reid with Reid's friend, Sir Thomas Seghet, another learned and wandering Scotchman, and a favourite pupil of" the Prince of Latin Let ters."-H.

sus, à literis Latinis Regi fuit. Scripsit multa, ut est magnâ indole et varià eruditione," &c." Ex aula se, nemine conscio, nuper proripuit, dum illi omnia festinati honoris augmenta singuli ominarentur, nec quid deinde egerit aut quo locorum se contulerit quisquam indicare potuit. Multi suspicabantur, tædio aulæ affectum, monasticæ quieti seipsum tradidisse, sub annum 1618. Rumor postea fuit in aulam rediise, et meritissimis honoribus redditum, sed nunquam id consequetur quod virtus promeretur."-Hist. Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, lib. xvi. p. 576.

What was the judgment of Thomas Reid's own times with respect to his genius, and what their hopes of his posthumous fame, may be collected from an elegy on his death by his learned countryman [Sir] Robert Aytoun. Already, before the lapse of two hundred years, some apology, alas! may be thought necessary for an attempt to rescue his name from total oblivion.

Aytoun's elegy on Reid is referred to in terms very flattering both to its author and to its subject, by the editor of the collection entitled, "Poëtarum Scotorum Musa Sacræ."* "In obitum Thomae Rheidi [Rhadi] epicedium extat elegantissimum Roberti Aytoni, viri literis ac dignitate clarissimi, in Delitiis Poëtarum Scotorum, ubi et ipsius quoque poëmata, paucula quidem illa, sed venusta, sed elegantia, comparent."t

In that country, he taught philosophy and humane letters for several years with distinguished reputation, in the universities of Leipsic and Rostoch. "Palladis in castris multa hic cum laude merentem, Et victa de Barbarie sciolisque sophistis Ducentem insignes fama victrice triumphos Lipsia detinuit longum. Quis credidit illic Se rite admissum in Phoebi sacraria, Rhædo Non pandente fores? Quis per dumeta Lycæi Ausus iter tentare, nisi duce et auspice Rhædo? Nec tibi fama minor qua Balthica littora spectat Rostochium, paucis istic tibi plurimus annis Crevit honos, nullo non admirante profundæ Doctrinæ aggestos tot in uno pectore acervos, Felicemque viami fandi, quocunque liberet Ore loqui, quocunque habitu producere partus Mentis, et exanimes scriptis animare papyros."

While in Germany, he wrote the following treatses, which display great philosophical talent:Thomæ Rhadi, Scoti, De Objecto Metaphysicæ Dissertatio contra Henningum Arnisæum. tochii: 1619." 4to.

Ros

"Thoma Rhadi, Scoti, Pervigilia Metaphysica desideratissima. Rostochii: 1613." 4to.

I have likewise seen referred to, a System of Logic by him, published at Rostoch; but in what year I know not. Though the date of the earliest of the preceding treatises be 1613, it appears that he was at Rostoch before 1611, and that he then had pub

The only works of Alexander Reid of which I have heard are "Chirurgical Lectures on Tumors and Ulcers," London, 1635; and a "Treatise of the First Fart of Chirurgerie," London, 1638. He appears to have been the physician and friend of the celebrated mathematician Thomas Harriot, of whose interesting history so little was known till the recent discovery of his manuscripts by Mr Zach of Saxe-Gotha.

A remarkable instance of the careless or capricious orthography formerly so common in writing proper names, occurs in the different individuals to whom this note refers. Sometimes the family name is writtenReid; on other occasions, Riede, Read, Rhead, or Rhaid.

NOTE B.-Page 4.

Dr Turnbull's work on moral philosophy was published at London in 1740. As I have only turned over a few pages, I cannot say anything with respect to its merits. The mottoes on the title-page are curious, when considered in connection with those inquiries which his pupil afterwards prosecuted with so much success; and may, perhaps, without his perceiving it, have had some effect in suggesting to him that plan of philosophizing which he so systematically and so happily pursued:

"If natural philosophy, in all its parts,

lished a dissertation against Arnismus; to which this philosopher in that year replied in his "Vindiciæ secundum veritatem pro Aristotele et sanioribus quibusque philosophis contra Thomæ Rhædi, Scoti, Dissertationem clenchticam de subjecto Metaphysices et natura Entis, assertæ ab Henningo Arnisæo, Halberstadiensi. Francofurti: 1611." 4to.

At what date Reid returned to England, or when he was appointed Latin Secretary to King James, does not appear. I find, however, from Smith's Life of Patrick Young, who was associated with him in the translation into Latin of James's English works, and who succeeded him as Secretary, that Reid died in 1624. There is also to be found in the same Life (see "Vitæ quorundam eruditissimorum virorum," &c.) the fragment of a Dissertation by Reid-" Quod Regibus et Licitum et Decorum sit Scribere." A considerable number of Reid's poems are to be found in the "Delitiæ Poëtarum Scoto. rum:" and his paraphrase of the 104th Psalm, which is not among these, was published during his life, with high encomium, by William Barclay in his "Judicium de Poetico duello Eglisemmii." The writings which he left were, however, only occa sional and fugitive pieces-only indications of what he would have accomplished had an early death not frustrated his great designs.

"Et tu Rhæde jaces opera inter manca, minasque
Scriptorum ingentes, queis si suprema fuisset
Cum lima porrecta manus, non ulla fuisset
Calliopes toto Sophiæve illustrior albo
Quam quæ Rhædeum præferret pagina nomen.
Nunc ceu rapta tuis superant tantummodo bustis
Paucula furtivas schediasmata fusa per horas,
Qualiacunque tamen sunt hæc, hæc ipsa revincent

Esse Caledoniis etiamnum lumen alumnis
Et genium, quo vel Scoti Subtilis acumen,
Vel poterunt dulces Buchanani æquare Camœnas."
Mr Stewart (p. 3) is misinformed in stating that
Reid published any collection of his Dissertations.-
H.

"Dr_Moor combined," &c.—James Moor, LL.D., author of a very ingenious fragment on Greek grammar, and of other philological essays. He was also distinguished by a profound acquaintance with ancient geometry. Dr Simson, an excellent judge of his merits, both in literature and science, has somewhere honoured him with the following encomium :-"Tum in Mathesi, tum in Græcis Literis multum et feliciter versatus."

"The Wilsons," (both father and son,) &c.-Alexander Wilson, M.D., and Patrick Wilson, Esq., well known over Europe by their "Observations on the Solar Spots," and many other valuable

memoirs.

NOTE D.-Page 20.

A writer of great talents (after having reproached Dr Reid with "a gross ignorance, disgraceful to the university of which he was a member") boasts of the trifling expense of time and thought which it had cost himself to overturn his philosophy. "Dr Oswald is pleased to pay me a compliment in saying, that I might employ myself to more advantage to the public, by pursuing other branches of science, than by deciding rashly on a subject which he sees I have not studied.' In return to this compliment, I shall not affront him, by telling him how very little of my time this business has hitherto taken up. If he alludes to my experiments, I can assure him that I have lost no time at all; for, having been intent upon such as require the use of a burning lens, I believe I have not lost one hour of sunshine on this account. And the public may, perhaps, be informed, some time or other, of what I have been doing in the sun, as well as in the shade."-[Priestley's] " Examination of Reid's Inquiry," &c., p. 357. See also pp. 101, 102 of the same work.

NOTE E.-Page 27.

The following strictures on Dr Priestley's "Examination," &c., are copied from a very judicious note in Dr Campbell's "Philosophy of Rhetoric," vol i. p. 3.

"I shall only subjoin two remarks on this book. The first is, that the author, through the whole, confounds two things totally distinct-certain associations of ideas, and certain judgments implying belief, which, though in some, are not in all cases, and, therefore not necessarily connected with association. And if so, merely to account for the association is in no case to account for the belief with which it is attended. Nay, admitting his plea, (p. 86,) that, by the principle of association, not only the ideas, but the concomitant belief may be accounted for, even this does not invalidate the doctrine he impugns; for, let it be observed, that it is one thing to assign a cause, which, from the mechanism of our nature, has given rise to a particular tenet of belief, and another thing to produce a reason by which the understanding has been convinced. Now, unless this be done as to the principles in question, they must be considered as primary truths in respect of the understanding, which never deduced them from other truths, and which is under a necessity, in all her moral reasonings, of founding upon them. In fact, to give any other account of our conviction of them, is to confirm, instead of confuting the doctrine, that, in all argumentation, they must be regarded as primary truths, or truths which reason never inferred through any medium, from other truths previously perceived. My second remark is, that, though this examiner has, from Dr Reid, given us a catalogue of first principles, which he deems unworthy of the honourable place assigned them, he has nowhere thought proper to give us a list of those self-evident truths which, by his own account, and in his own express words, must be assumed as the foundation of all our reasoning.' How much light might have been thrown upon the subject by the contrast! Perhaps we should have been enabled, on the comparison, to discover some distinctive characters in his genuine axioms, which would have preserved us from the danger of confounding them with their spurious ones. Nothing is more evident than that, in whatever regards matter of fact, the mathematical axioms will not answer. These are purely fitted for evolving the abstract relations of quantity. This he in effect owns himself, (p. 39.) It would have been obliging, then, and would have greatly contributed to shorten the controversy, if he had given us, at least, a specimen of those self-evident