Equally narrow is the view of the man who discerns the intellectual power which effected the peculiar civilization of Scotland, but cannot discover the moral power which awoke the intelligence. It should be added, that just as the steam polver, in vented by intellectual skill, may be devoted to very unintellectual uses, so the intelligence aroused by moral or religious causes may be turned (as Scotland shows)to very immoral and irreligious ends.
[5]There is a copy in the Edinburgh University Library.
[6]The reader curious on this subject will find ample information in ixossais en France," by Michel.
[7]Letters to a student at the University.
[8]It was owing, I doubt not, to the influence, direct or indirect, of Shaftesbury that the phrase "common sense" came to be so much used by the Scottish School.
[9]The intelligent reader will see how much indebted Bishop Butler was to Shaftesbury, for the views propounded in his "Sermons on Human Nature." Shaftesbury, before Butler, had spoken of human nature as a " constitution," and had shown that to live according to nature implies a respect to the conscience. Ife complains of those who speak much of nature, without explaining its meaning ("Wit and Humor," iii.2). He had divided our affections into personal and public and the moral power, and represented that power as a principle of reflection. Butler goes beyond Shaftesbury in showing that our personal affections are nnt in themselves selfish, and that the moral faculty is not only in our soul, but claims supremacy there. Butler declines to say whether the moral faculty is a a sense, or what else; and he will not say that moral good consists in benevolence.
[10]tewart was not "able to discover the date of the first edition," and others have been as unsuccessful. It is criticised in jackson's "Dissertation on Matter and Spirit,"1735, and referred to in " Bibliothque Raisonn6e des ouvrages des Savans," for April, May, and June, 1735. But the question is settled by its appearing (as a friend has shown us) in the " Gentleman's Magazine," in the register of books published October, 1733[11]"Account of the Life, Writings, and Character of Francis Hutcheson," by William Leechman, D.D., prefixed to Hutcheson's "Moral Philosophy;" Carlyle's "Autobiography;"MSS. Letters from Hutcheson to Dr. Drennan, &c.
[12]Sir James Mackintosh says in his "Dissertation:" "The place of Hutcheson's birth is not mentioned in any account known to me. Ireland may be truly said to be <incuriosa suorum>." Had Sir James made inquiries in the likely quarter, he would have found the place of his birth and the leading incidents of his life mentioned in an article signed "M." in the "Belfast Magazine" (for August, 1813), edited by Dr. Drennan, a man of superior literary ability, and son of the Rev. Thomas Drennan, one of Hutcheson's most intimate friends.
[13]"His father, laboring under a slight rheumatic affection, deputed him to preach in his place on a cold and rainy sabbath. About two hours after Francis had left Ballyrea, the rain abated and the sun shone forth, the day became serene and warm, and Mr. Hutcheson, feeling anxious to collect the opinions of his con. gregatioii on the merits of his favorite son, proceeded directly to the city. But how was he astonished and chagrined when he met almost the whole of his flock coming from the meetingghouse, with strong marks of disappointment and disgust visible in their countenance. One of the elders, a native of Scotland, addressed the surprised and mortified father thus: 'We a'
feel muckle wae for your mishap, reverend sit; but it canna be concealed. Your silly loon Frank has fashed a' the congregation wi' his idle cackle; for he has been babbling this oor about a gude and benevolent God, and that the sauls o' the heathens themsels will gang to heeven, if they follow the light of their own consciences. Not a word does the daft boy kl!n, speer, nor say, about the gude auld comfortable doctrine of election, reprobation, original sin, and faith.
Hoot, mon, awa' wi' sic a fellow!'" The only members who waited for the end of the sermon were Nir. Johnson of Knappa, Mr. M'Geough, and the clerk. (Stuart's "History of Armagh.") This story may be made somewhat more pointed in the telling, but is, we have no doubt, substantially correct. It will be remembered that P,.fessor Simson held similar views in regard to the heathen; and, in the Introduction to the Translation of Antoninus by Hutcheson and Moor, the authors maintain: "'Tis but a late doctrine in the Christian church that the grace of God and all divine influences were confined to such as knew the Christian history, and were by profession in the Christian church."[14]Wodrow's "Analecta."
[15]The valuable letters of Hutcheson have been kindly placed at the disposal of the author of this work by Dr.
Drennan, grandson of the Rev. Thomas Dren nan, and have been used in this Memoir.
[16]There is evidently an analogous (not identical) movement going on in Scot land at this present time. There is an understood combination of persons in and beyond the universities, laboring in reviews, in books, and from the pulpits "to put a new face upon theology in Scotland," just as Hutcheson and Lechman did.
[17]MS. letter to Rev. T. Steward, minister at St.
Edmundsbury, in possession of Mr. Reid in Londonderry.
[18]There is a curious book, " An Introduction towards an Essay on the Origin of the Passions, in which it is endeavored to be shown how they are all acquired, and that they are no other than Associations of Ideas of our own ******, or what we learn of others," London, printer for R.
Dodsley, at Tully's Head in Pall Mall, and sold by T.
