Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/368

Rh 350 REID as adventurous as any boy reader of his novels could desire. He was a native of Ulster, born in 1818, and was educated for the church, but, disliking the prospect of a regular pro- fession, went to America at the age of twenty in search of excitement and fortune. Among other experiences he made trading excursions on the Red River, and studied the ways of the retiring red man and the white pioneer on the spot. He made acquaintance with the Missouri in the same prac- tical manner, and roved about through all the States of the Union. When the war with Mexico broke out in 1845 he obtained a commission, was present at the siege and capture of Vera Cruz, and led a forlorn hope at Chapultepec. In one of his novels he says that he believed theoretically in the military value of untrained troops, and that he had found his theories confirmed in actual warfare. But, though he saw a good deal of service in America, he was disappointed in his plans for taking part in a conflict with the regular troops of a European country. An enthusiastic republican, he offered his services to the Hungarian insurgents in 1849, raised a body of volunteers, and sailed for Europe, but arrived too late. Thereafter he settled in England, and began his career of a novelist in 1849 with the Rifle Rangers. This was followed next year by the Scalp Hunters. He never surpassed his first productions, except perhaps in The White Chief (1855) and The Quadroon (1856); but he continued to produce tales of self-reliant enterprise and exciting adventure with great fertility. Simplicity of plot and easy variety of exciting incident are among the merits that contribute to his popularity with boys. His reflexions are not profound, but are frequently more sensible than might be presumed at first sight from his aggressive manner of expressing them. He died in London, October 22, 1883. REID, THOMAS (1710-1796), the chief founder of what is generally designated the Scottish school of philo- sophy, was born at Strachan in Kincardineshire, about 20 miles from Aberdeen, on the 26th April 1710. His father was minister of the place for fifty years, and traced his descent from a long line of Presbyterian ministers on Deeside. His mother belonged to the brilliant family of the Gregorys, which gave so many representatives to literature and science in Scotland last century. After two years at the parish school of Kincardine, Thomas Reid entered Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1722. He was instructed in philosophy by Dr George Turnbull, in his day a voluminous and versatile writer, but now almost entirely forgotten. TurnbulPs teaching would appear, from the account given of it by M'Cosh, to have antici- pated and suggested certain characteristics of Reid's sub- sequent theory. Reid graduated in 1726 at the early age of sixteen, but remained in Aberdeen as librarian to the university for ten years longer. This may be looked upon as his real student-time, and it seems to have been largely devoted to mathematical reading. In 1737 he was pre- sented to the living of Newmachar near Aberdeen. The parishioners, being violently excited at the time about the law of patronage, received Reid with open hostility ; and tradition asserts that, during the preaching of his first sermon, an uncle who lived near defended him on the pulpit stair with a drawn sword. But before he left the parish he was completely successful in winning the affections of his people. He was, however, nowise dis- tinguished as a preacher, being accustomed " from a dis- trust in his own powers," as Stewart puts it, " to preach the sermons of Dr Tillotson and of Dr Evans." The greater part of his time was given to study ; and, insti- gated by the publication of Hume's treatise, he now turned his chief attention to philosophy, and in particular to the theory of external perception. His first publica- tion, however, which dealt with a question of philosophical method suggested by the reading of Hutcheson, was more nearly allied to his mathematical studies. The "Essay on Quantity, occasioned by reading a Treatise in which Simple and Compound Ratios are applied to Virtue and Merit," denies that a mathematical treatment of moral subjects is possible. The essay appeared in the Transac- tions of the Royal Society for the year 1748. Before this, in 1740, Reid had married a cousin of his own, the daughter of a London physician. In 1752 the professors of King's College, Aberdeen, elected him to the chair of philosophy, which he held for the next twelve years. The foundation of the Aberdeen Philosophical Society, which numbered among its members Campbell, Beattie, Gerard, and Dr John Gregory, was mainly owing to the exertions of Reid, who was secretary for the first year (1758). Many of the subjects of discussion were drawn from Hume's speculations ; and during the last years of his stay in Aberdeen Reid propounded his new point of view in several papers read before the society. Thus we find from the minutes that on the 13th and 26th of July 1758 Mr Reid "handled" the following questions: "Are the objects of the human mind properly divided into impressions and ideas 1 And must every idea be a copy of a preceding impression 1 " The reply to Hume which these titles foreshadow was embodied by Reid in his Enquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense, published in 1764. The Enquiry does not go beyond an analysis of sense perception, and is therefore more limited in its scope than the later Essays ; but if the latter are sometimes more mature, there is more freshness about the earlier work. The same year saw Reid's removal from Aberdeen to the professorship of moral philosophy in the university of Glasgow, where he succeeded Adam Smith. This position he continued to hold till 1781, when he resigned his chair in order to give his undivided energies to completing a systematic exposition of his philosophy. As a public teacher, Reid did not possess the eloquence and charm of manner which afterwards characterized both Stewart and Brown. Stewart's account of his lecturing, which may be pre- sumed to be favourable, mentions only the " silent and respectful attention " which was accorded to " the sim- plicity and perspicuity of his style " and " the gravity and authority of his character." Reid's philosophical influence was mainly exerted through his writings, and, at second hand, through the eloquent treatment which his doctrines received at the hands of Dugald Stewart, and the learning which Hamilton subsequently devoted to their elucidation. The Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man appeared in 1785, and their ethical complement, the Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind, in 1788. These, with an account of Aristotle's Logic appended to Lord Kames's Sketches of the History of Man (1774), conclude the list of works published in Reid's life- time. Hamilton's edition of Reid also contains an account of the university of Glasgow and a selection of Reid's letters, chiefly addressed to his Aberdeen friends the Skenes, to Lord Kames, and to Dr James Gregory. With the two last-named he discusses the materialism of Priestley and the theory of necessitarianism. He reverted in his old age to the mathematical pursuits of his earlier years, and his ardour for knowledge of every kind remained fresh to the last. But in 1792 the serenity which marked the concluding years of his life was clouded by the death of his wife. All the children of their marriage except one daughter had died many years before. In other respects Reid's life pursued its equable and uneventful course till within a few weeks of his death, which took place on the 7th October 1796. The key to Reid's whole philosophy is to be found in