Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/323

Rh failed to bring his arguments to a common point. The failing, if characteristic of lord Kames, was not unusual at the period, and is one which time, and the advantage of the labours of previous thinkers, tend to modify; in the work we are just considering, the line of argument maintained bids defiance to the adoption of any one general principle, while much confusion is prevented, by the author having given a definition of what he understands those laws of nature to which he refers our consciousness of good and evil to consist of. Although the author in the advertisement avows the purpose of his work to be "to prepare the way for a proof of the existence of the Deity," and terminates the whole with a very pious and orthodox prayer, he had the fortune to bring the church of Scotland like a hornet's nest about him, on the ground of certain principles tending to infidelity, which some of its active adherents had scented out in his arguments. A zealous clergyman of the name of Anderson published, in 1753, "An Estimate of the Profit and Loss of Religion, personally and publicly stated; illustrated with references to Essays on Morality and Natural Religion;" "in which the unfortunate philosopher is treated with no more politeness than the opponent of any given polemical disputant deserves. This blast of the trumpet was followed up by an "Analysis" of the same subject, "addressed to the consideration of the church of Scotland;" and the parties rousing themselves for battle, the hand of the respected Dr Blair, stretched forth in moderation of party rancour, and defence of his esteemed friend, protracted but did not prevent the issue. A motion was made in the committee for overtures of the General Assembly, "How far it was proper for them to call before them, and censure the authors of infidel books." After a stormy debate the motion was lost, but the indefatigable Mr Anderson presented in name of himself and those who adhered to his opinions, a petition and complaint to the presbytery of Edinburgh, praying that the author of the Essays on Morality, &c. might be censured "according to the law of the gospel, and the practice of this and all other well governed churches." Defences were given in, and the petitioner obtained leave to reply, but before the matter came to a conclusion he had breathed his last, and the soul of the controversy perishing along with him, lord Kames was left to pursue his philosophical studies unmolested. The chief subject of this controversy, may be discovered in the curious and original views maintained by the author of the essays, on the subject of liberty and necessity. Full freedom to the will of mankind he maintains to be in opposition to the existence and operation of a Deity, who prejudges all his actions, and has given him certain motives which he cannot avoid following; while, to preserve common uniformity with the doctrine of an innate sense of right and wrong previously maintained, the author is obliged to admit that man must have a consciousness of free-will, to enable him to act according to that innate sense: he therefore arrives at a sort of intermediate doctrine, which may be said to maintain, that while the will is not in reality free, it is the essence of our nature that it should appear to us to be so. "Let us fairly own," says the author, "that the truth of things is on the side of necessity ; but that it was necessary for man to be formed with such feelings and notions of contingency, as would fit him for the part he has to act," "It is true that a man of this belief, when he is seeking to make his mind easy after some bad action, may reason upon the principles of necessity, that, according to the constitution of his nature, it was impossible for him to have acted any other part. But this will give him little relief. In spite of all reasonings his remorse will subsist. Nature never intended us to act upon this plan: and our natural principles are too deeply rooted to give way to philosophy." * * * "These discoveries are also of excellent use, as they furnish us with one of the strongest arguments for the existence of the Deity, and as they set the wisdom and goodness of his