Page:The British Controversialist - 1867.djvu/497

8 theme of the day. The lecture was read in a voice clear and melodious as the style, and fixed every word in the mind of the hearer; boldly and unaffectedly he carried his audience well with him throughout. Of the lecture as a discussion I cannot now speak particularly. Being introductory it was popular, and manifested the subtlety of the poetic glow which, to all that he wrote, gave the stamp of originality. His purpose evidently was to create a spirit of fearless, not faithless criticism and research, to convince students that if they wish to profit by the writings of the great thinkers, they must be to each not the dead dogmas of their thinking, but the living products of his own.' this point he enforced by illustrations drawn from the other spheres of mental action:—all the men of science had been original; poetry would have faded into formal insincerity had not Wordsworth gone to truth and nature, inhaling and then diffusing into his verse the very spirit of the green hills and the flowing streams; the true giants of philosophy had been fearless, earnest men, who worked out their conceptions, looking steadfastly at truth, and scorning servility to fashion or mere authority; sciolists, and dogmatists spurned men of deep and close thought, but they did this through ignorance. Great men knew all these gentlemen did, and a good many things besides.

"To some older students, even to some disciples of Hamilton, this lecture was not entirely satisfactory. Here was a man of evident power about to assail the citadel of 'Scottish Philosophy;' this surely would never do! But there were younger minds not indisposed to rejoice at the advent of this eager, sunbright combatant, whose 'glaive of light' flashed in a manner not unlikely to make some little havoc in the metaphysical Valhalla. What if this revolutionary analyst, with small respect of persons, should bring down from his seat of high authority the cautious sage of Aberdeen, and enthrone instead the bold and fascinating Irish idealist, whose philosophy the Scottish school had refuted and denounced? Would such a catastrophe be altogether tragical in the eyes of youths brimful of life, humour, and mind, to whom in in Scotland, as elsewhere, nothing is so attractive as the frankness and daring, nothing so distasteful as timidity and dull common sense?

"In the next lecture the work of mingled back attack and defense began in earnest Berkeley had been ridiculed by Reid and his followers as an idealist;—what if he were the true realist? Reid imputed to him this consequence; if the existence of the outward world depends on our perceived perceiving mind, then, mind being absent or inattentive, matter must evaporate! Stop a little, said Ferrier; What do you mean by saying that in this case the world would be held as ceasing to exist? You mean that houses, trees, &c., would cease to exist. But let us conceive this world annihilated, would there not remain a world of empty space which you cannot think away? You know in slaying Berkeley you commit suicide; your sword stroke does not strike him, but reverts on yourself. This retort on Reid either preceded or followed an exposition of the doctrine that