Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/31

Rh and the undoubted truths which they occasionally lay open, will perhaps make the fairest appreciation of his merit, and by such it may perhaps be allowed, that the broad method he followed, has enabled him to lay before the world a greater number of interesting circumstances connected with moral science, than most other philosophers have been enabled to display. Before leaving the subject of his works, it may be mentioned, that he composed, as a portion of lord Kames' Sketches of the History of Man, " A brief Account of Aristotle's Logic ;" the chief defect of this production is, its professed brevity. It is very clear and distinct, and leads one to regret, that so accurately thinking and unprejudiced a writer, had not enriched the world with a more extensive view of the Aristotelian and other systems.

In 1763, while he was, it may be presumed, preparing his Inquiry for the press, a knowledge of what was expected to come from his pen, and his general fame, prompted the university of Glasgow to invite him to fill the chair of natural philosophy there. In this office, professor Stewart remarks, that "his researches concerning the human mind, and the principles of morals, which had occupied but an inconsiderable space in the wide circle of science, allotted to him by his former office, were extended and methodized in a course, which employed five hours every week, during six months of the year. The example of his illustrious predecessor, and the prevailing topics of conversation around him, occasionally turned his thoughts to commercial politics, and produced some ingenious essays on different questions connected with trade, which were communicated to a private society of his academical friends. His early passion for the mathematical sciences was revived by the conversation of Simson, Moor, and the Wilsons; and at the age of fifty-five, he attended the lectures of Black with a juvenile curiosity and enthusiasm." Ur Reid's constant desire for the acquisition of facts on which to raise his deductions, kept him continually awake to all new discoveries ; and he spent many, even of the latter days of his long life, in observing the truths which were developed by this illustrious chemist. The biographer, after observing that the greater part of the course of lectures delivered by Dr Reid at Glasgow, is to be found in his published works, proceeds: "Beside his speculations on the intellectual and active powers of man, and a system of practical ethics, his course comprehended some general views with respect to natural jurisprudence, and the fundamental principles of politics. A few lectures on rhetoric, which were read at a separate hour, to a more advanced class of students, formed a voluntary addition to the appropriate functions of his office, to which, it is probable, he was prompted rather by a wish to supply what was then a deficiency in the established course of education, than by any predilection for a branch of study so foreign to his ordinary pursuits." It may be right to quote, from the same authority, those observations as to his method of teaching, which none but an ear-witness can make. "In his elocution and mode of instruction, there was nothing peculiarly attractive. He seldom, if ever, indulged himself in the warmth of extempore discourse; nor was his manner of reading calculated to increase the effect of what he had committed to memory. Such, however, was the simplicity and perspicuity of his style; such the gravity and authority of his character; and such the general interest of his young hearers in the doctrines which he taught, that by the numerous audiences to which his instructions were addressed, he was heard uniformly with the most silent and respectful attention. On this subject, I speak from personal knowledge, having had the good fortune, during a considerable part of winter 1772, to be one of his pupils." In 1781, Dr Reid retired from the duties of his professorship; and while his labour and assiduity had earned for him a full right to enjoy his old age in literary retirement, his mental faculties