STEWART, DUGALD, was born in Edinburgh, 22d November 1753. He was the son of Dr Matthew Stewart, at that time the eminent Professor of Mathematics in the University, and of Marjory, only child of Archibald Stewart of Catrine, writer to the signet in Edinburgh. Mr Stewart's father and grandfather were both clergymen of the Church of Scotland,—the former having been minister of Rothesay for upwards of fifty years, and the latter having held the charge of Roseneath, before his appointment, as the successor of Colin Maclaurin, to the chair of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh.
Mr Stewart received the principal part of his early education at the High School of his native city, where, under the instruction of the celebrated Dr Alexander Adam, he laid the foundation of those classical tastes and accomplishments which he cherished through life, and the influence of which was so strongly marked in the course of his subsequent career as thinker, professor, and author. From the High School, Mr Stewart passed to the University of Edinburgh, where he studied for four sessions, from 1765-66 to 1768-69. The two names which the young student of arts in the metropolitan university of last century heard mentioned with the greatest reverence, and was taught to honour above all others, were Bacon and Newton. The assiduous pursuit of physical and mathematical science, after the manner of the great Restorer of learning and his disciple, was the most notable feature of university life in Edinburgh during the first half of the eighteenth century. This change in the character of the university studies, from the more abstract and technical culture of the preceding century, was chiefly due to the energy and enthusiasm of the three Gregories and of Colin Maclaurin. The general method of scientific research, by which results so splendid as those of Newton had been achieved, naturally attracted a large share of attention. Accordingly we find that at the period of Mr Stewart's attendance at the university, the character of the Inductive Method formed a special topic in the prelections of the Professor of Natural Philosophy (James Russell), while, in the lectures of the Professors of Logic and Moral Philosophy, the importance of the application of the same method to the Science of Mind was impressively inculcated. By those influences was the youthful mind of Stewart powerfully moulded. He thus naturally imbibed that admiration of the spirit, method, and aims of Bacon which so strongly predominated through his entire life, intellectual and moral, and at the same time acquired that taste for physical and mathematical science
which he conjoined with his distinctive attachment to reflective studies.
It was, however, in the Logic and Moral Philosophy class-rooms that Mr Stewart found objects of study more immediately congenial to his taste and capacities. John Stevenson, the Professor of Logic, though not an original thinker, was nevertheless a careful and efficient instructor, as has been gratefully commemorated by more than one pupil, who afterwards rose to eminence in life. Stevenson, during Stewart's attendance on his course of lectures, showed the greatness of his mind by candidly giving up, as insufficient and in part erroneous, doctrines which he had inculcated during the greater portion of a long life, when, in his later years, he became convinced, on grounds adduced by another, of their inadequacy,—an exemplification of the philosophical spirit which gained the admiration and lived in the memory of his youthful auditors. The preceptor by whom Mr Stewart was most strongly influenced at this period was doubtless Adam Ferguson, the accomplished Professor of Moral Philosophy. With Ferguson Stewart had much in common. The pupil naturally and cordially sympathised with the admiration of classical antiquity, the fervid eloquence, the liberal political doctrines, and, above all, the lofty and ennobling ethical views, which characterised his instructor. Dr Ferguson, moreover, very early discovered and appreciated the peculiar capacity of his pupil for reflective studies. About this period Mr Stewart appears to have entertained the design of studying for the Church of England. The University of Glasgow then, as at present, afforded facilities to young men of talent and application for pursuing a course of study at Oxford. Stewart accordingly entered that university in 1771-72, partly with a view to the Snell Exhibition, but also, influenced by the recommendation of Ferguson, that he might enjoy the privilege of the prelections of Dr Thomas Reid, whose Inquiry into the Human Mind (1764) was already regarded by thinking men as the inauguration of a new epoch in Speculative Philosophy. Reid occupied a chair which had been rendered celebrated by his predecessors, Hutcheson and Adam Smith. Its influence and lustre were destined even more greatly to increase during Reid's professorship. While powerfully combating the fundamental doctrines of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume, the prelections of Reid were admirably fitted to evoke and regulate the philosophical capacity of his pupils. In a style lucid, simple, and devoid of technicality or much speculative refinement, he inculcated a philosophy of the nature, origin, and bounds of human knowledge, at once independent and restrained, and bearing in all its parts strong traces of that fresh and vigorous reflection, manliness, earnestness, and lofty aim by which he was so eminently characterised. Stewart caught the spirit of his instructor, and intelligently appreciated his philosophical method and purpose. During a long lifetime, consecrated to Philosophy, Stewart nourished that spirit in Scotland, and continued and extended the application of the method with a freshness, power, delicacy, amplitude of learning and illustration, all his own,—evincing that he was no mere inheritor of a dead tradition, but a true disciple, in whose mind principles quickened and grew, until they effloresced in all the fulness and variety of life and beauty.
In 1772, Mr Stewart, at the early age of nineteen, undertook the charge of the mathematical classes in the University of Edinburgh, in room of his father, whose health was beginning to decline. These classes he conducted with marked ability and success. After acting for three years as his father's substitute, he was formally elected conjoint Professor of Mathematics, June 14th 1775. During session 1778-79, Mr Stewart conducted the class of Moral Philosophy, at the urgent request of Professor Ferguson, who had engaged to accompany the American Commissioners as their secretary on their mission to the colo-
nies. Mr Stewart commenced an original course of lectures on Morals after only a week's notice. He was at the same time engaged for three hours daily as Professor of Mathematics, giving during the session a course of lectures on Astronomy for the first time. His brilliant appearances in this new and congenial sphere as a lecturer in Philosophy were long remembered by his auditors. In 1783 he visited Paris for the first time along with his friend, Lord Ancrum, afterwards Marquis of Lothian. On his return to Scotland in the autumn of the same year, he married Helen, daughter of Mr Neil Bannatyne, Glasgow. Mrs Stewart died in 1787, leaving an only child, afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Stewart. Mr Stewart again married in 1790 Helen D'Arcy Cranstoun, daughter of the Hon. George Cranstoun, and sister of the Countess Purgstall and of Lord Corehouse. On the resignation of the professorship by Dr Ferguson in 1785, Mr Stewart was transferred from the Chair of Mathematics to that of Moral Philosophy. From his appointment to this chair until his retirement from active academical duty in 1810, Mr Stewart exercised by his teaching alone, without taking into account the concurrent and more general impression made by his published writings, a wide, powerful, and peculiarly elevating and refining influence. Among his students were to be found not only the youth of Scotland, but many, and these of the highest rank, from England. The continent of Europe and America likewise furnished a number of pupils.
The sphere of investigation which Mr Stewart proposed to himself in the Chair of Moral Philosophy was far from being limited by the science of Ethics proper. The ground-plan of his course was a study of the human mind in the totality of its phenomena; or, to use more recent phraseology, the science of General Psychology. With this as a basis, or root, he connected Metaphysics proper, or the science of First Principles; the application of these principles in Natural Theology; Ethics proper; the theory of Taste; Politics, including the theory of Government and Political Economy. As a philosophical lecturer, Stewart must be allowed to have held a high place, though the character of his mind was not severely analytic or abstract. Without habitually offering a definite determination of the questions which he discussed, he had the faculty of unfolding comprehensive fields of thought, and thus of exciting, in a high degree, the intellectual activity of his students. He possessed, moreover, and wielded with the ease of a master, the power of sketching ideals of human life and action, which inspired in many of his youthful hearers an enthusiasm at once so intense and continuous as to influence and mould their whole future character. His mode of lecturing, that of speaking from notes, was well suited to the character of his mind, and to his treatment of philosophical themes. It allowed full scope for the imagination and feelings, and left unimpeded the flow of a versatile and abundant eloquence, which, as occasion required, was graceful, tender, and sublime. "Dugald Stewart," says Lord Cockburn, himself a pupil, "was one of the greatest of didactic orators. Had he lived in ancient times, his memory would have descended to us as that of one of the finest of the old eloquent sages. But his lot was better cast. Flourishing in an age which required all the dignity of morals to counteract the tendencies of physical pursuits and political convulsions, he has exalted the character of his country and generation. No intelligent pupil of his ever ceased to respect philosophy, or was ever false to his principles, without feeling the crime aggravated by the recollection of the morality which Stewart had taught him."
Mr Stewart gave from the beginning of his career as professor lectures on Politics proper, or the Theory of Government, in connection with his course of Moral Philosophy. In the winter of 1800, he commenced a separate
course of lectures on Political Philosophy, which, in addition to Politics proper, embraced also the recent science of Political Economy. In his lectures on Political Economy, Mr Stewart accepts in general the results of the speculations of the French economists and of Adam Smith. He concurs with the economists and Smith in advocating the propriety of allowing the freest scope for individual interest and effort in the matter of trade, and the unrestricted exchange between nations of the varied products of their industry. On this point, indeed, Stewart sought to give to the principles of the Wealth of Nations a wider application than their author had allowed; for he maintained against Smith the impolicy of those restrictions known as the navigation laws, which were only finally abolished in 1850. To the political teachings of Stewart, the present generation owes more than it can well appreciate. At a time when the mere discussion of the fundamental principles of Politics and Political Economy was sufficient to excite suspicion of disaffectedness to the interests of the country, and of sympathy with revolutionary tendencies, Stewart had the courage, in his place as a university professor, to canvass those questions, and to seek to inculcate on the intelligent youth of the land opinions of so advanced a character, that they did not meet with general appreciation and acceptance until long after the period of their promulgation.
In March 1792, Mr Stewart gave to the world the first volume of Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. This volume was his earliest contribution towards that scheme of a comprehensive delineation of the human mind, which he had proposed to himself as the grand aim of his life. The volume is chiefly psychological; and, after preliminary remarks on the nature, ends, and utility of philosophy, deals with the powers of Knowledge, embracing External Perception, Attention, Conception, the Laws of Association, Memory, and Imagination. At the period of the publication of the first volume of the Elements, philosophical speculation, at least in England, was of the lowest sensational school. The theorists in philosophy of that time sought to explain the mental phenomena by the material hypothesis of vibrations and vibruncles, and by an exaggerated application of the principle of Association. Nothing, accordingly, could be more opportune than the appearance of the first volume of Mr Stewart's writings at the period in question. In spirit and matter, the kind of thinking which these writings successively exemplified, was fitted to impart an elevated tone to the current speculation and feeling of the age, alike in Psychology, Metaphysics, and Morals.
In 1793 Mr Stewart read before the Royal Society his Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith. His Memoir of Principal Robertson, and that of Dr Reid, were read before the same body,—the former in 1796, the latter in 1802. In 1805 appeared his first pamphlet on what was known as the Leslie case, entitled, A Statement of Facts, &c.; and, in December of the same year, he added a second pamphlet, entitled, Postscript to Statement of Facts. The Statement of Facts, though hastily written, is remarkable for the clearness and ability with which it disentangles the real point at issue from the mass of irrelevant matter which, as usually happens, was raised in the popular discussion of a purely philosophical question. On general and historical grounds Mr Stewart seeks to vindicate, within certain limits, the doctrine of Causation, the approval of which by Mr Leslie was made the ground of objection to his appointment to the Chair of Natural Philosophy. Mr Stewart especially endeavours to show that the doctrine which teaches that the utmost we can observe in physical sequences is simply invariable antecedence and consequence, is both theologically innocuous, and the only safe opinion. The controversy was finally decided in favour of Mr Leslie.
In 1806, Mr Stewart received the appointment of the
writership of the Edinburgh Gazette, as a recognition of the services which he had rendered to education and philosophy. The salary attached to the office was £300 per annum. In the summer of this year, he accompanied Lord Lauderdale on his mission to Paris, which he had previously visited before and at the commencement of the Revolution, and where he had acquired a large circle of friends, distinguished in philosophy, literature, and politics, among whom may be mentioned the Abbé Morellet, the Baron de Gerando, &c. Mr Stewart's health, which had been delicate for some years, received a severe blow from the death of his second son, George, in 1809. He was unable to lecture during a great part of session 1809-10. Dr Thomas Brown, at his request, acted as his substitute. Mr Stewart finally withdrew from active professorial duty at the end of that session. Dr Brown was appointed conjoint-professor of Moral Philosophy. Mr Stewart's name still remaining in the commission. Shortly after the death of Dr Brown, in 1820, Mr Stewart formally resigned the professorship, which was conferred upon Mr John Wilson. From the year 1809 until the close of his life, Mr Stewart lived in comparative retirement at Kinneil House, Linlithgowshire, which was kindly placed at his disposal by his friend the Duke of Hamilton. His retirement was almost exclusively devoted to maturing and arranging the philosophical labours of his previous life; his reflective activity being interrupted only by friendly intercourse, and the calls of those strangers whom the lustre of his name led to pay a passing visit at Kinneil. From Kinneil were dated, in 1810, the Philosophical Essays; in 1813 (but only published in 1814), the second volume of the Elements; in 1815, the first, and, in 1821, the second part of the Dissertation; in 1826 (but only published in 1827), the third volume of the Elements; and, in 1828, a few weeks before his death, the Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers. The last mentioned work, with the relative part of the Outlines, embody the results of his ethical speculations. His Lectures on Political Economy were first published in his Collected Works, edited by the late Sir W. Hamilton. In January 1822, Mr Stewart was struck with paralysis. "The malady," says his son, "which broke his health and constitution for the rest of his existence, happily impaired neither any of the faculties of his mind nor the characteristic vigour of his understanding. As soon as his health was sufficiently re-established, he continued to pursue his studies with his wonted assiduity; exhibiting, among some of the heaviest infirmities incident to age, an admirable example of the serene sunset of a well-spent life of classical elegance and refinement, so beautifully imagined by Cicero: 'Quiete, et pure, et eleganter actæ ætatis, placida ac lenis senectus.'" Mr Stewart died in Edinburgh on the 11th June 1828, after a brief illness, and fresh shock of paralysis. His remains were interred in the family vault on the west side of the churchyard of Canongate, not far from the grave of Adam Smith.
Among Scottish philosophers Mr Stewart stands prominently out as a psychological observer. On questions properly metaphysical he has left little which can be regarded as essentially his own. The field within which he chiefly laboured was that of the phenomena of the mind, intellectual, moral, and æsthetic, as these appear under the modifications imposed on them by the general circumstances of human life,—education and society. In careful, delicate, and original observation, within this sphere, he has seldom been equalled; and though led into diffuse composition both by the character of his mind and the habits of the academical teacher, there are few writers in the English language whose beauties of style, and living sympathy with what is best in human life and in its aspirations, are more fitted to refine the taste and quicken the moral sensibilities.
(J. v.)