Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/187

Rh gree the air of good company. In the society of ladies he appeared to great advantage, and to women of cultivated understanding his conversation was particularly acceptable and pleasing. The immense range of his erudition, the attention he had bestowed on almost every branch of philosophy, his extensive acquaintance with every department of elegant literature, ancient or modern, and the fund of anecdote and information which he had collected in the course of his intercourse with the world, with respect to almost all the eminent men of the day, either in this country or in France, enabled him to find suitable subjects for the entertainment of the great variety of visitors of all descriptions, who at one period frequented his house. In his domestic circle, his character appeared in its most amiable light, and by his family he was beloved and venerated almost to adoration. So uniform and sustained was the tone of his manners, and so completely was it the result of the habitual influence of the natural elegance and elevation of his mind on his external demeanour, that when alone with his wife and children, it hardly differed by a shade from that which he maintained in the company of strangers; for, although his fondness, and familiarity, and playfulness, were alike engaging and unrestrained, he never lost anything either of his grace or his dignity: "Nec vero ille in luce modo, atque in oculis civium, magnus, sed intus domique praestantior." As a writer of the English language, as a public speaker, as an original, a profound, and a cautious thinker, as an expounder of truth, as an instructor of youth, as an elegant scholar, as an accomplished gentleman; in the exemplary discharge of the social duties, in uncompromising consistency and rectitude of principle, in unbending independence, in the warmth and tenderness of his domestic affections, in sincere and unostentatious piety, in the purity and innocence of his life, few have excelled him: and, take him for all in all, it will be difficult to find a man, who, to so many of the perfections, has added so few of the imperfections, of human nature. "Mini quidem quanquam est subito ereptus, vivit tamen, semperque vivet; virtutem enim amavi illius viri, qtias extincta non est; nee mini soli versatur ante oculos, qui illam semper in man i bus habui, sed etiam posteris erit clara et insignis."

Mr Stewart's death occurred on the llth of June, 1828, at No. 5, Ainslie Place, Edinburgh, where he had been for a few days on a visit.

The remains of this distinguished philosopher were interred in the Canongate churchyard, near the honoured remains of Dr Adam Smith. At a meeting of his friends and admirers, which soon after took place, a subscription was entered into for erecting a monument, in some conspicuous situation, to his memory; and a large sum being immediately collected, the work was soon after commenced, under the superintendence of Mr Playfair, architect. Mr Stewart's monument is an elegant Grecian temple, with a simple cinerary urn in the centre, and occupies a most fortunate situation on the south-west shoulder of the Calton hill, near the Observatory.

Mr Stewart left behind him a widow and two children, a son and daughter; the former of whom, lieutenant-colonel Matthew Stewart, has published an able pamphlet on Indian affairs. With appropriate generosity, the government allowed the sinecure enjoyed by Mr Stewart, to descend to his family.

The subject of this memoir was of the middle size, and particularly distinguished by an expression of benevolence and intelligence, which Sir Henry Raeburn has well preserved in his portrait of him, painted for lord Woodhouselee, before he had reached his 55th year. Mr Stewart had the remarkable peculiarity of vision, which made him insensible to the less refrangible colours of the spectrum. This affection of the eye was long unknown both to himself and his friends, and was discovered from the accidental circumstance of one of his