(George, D.D.), so judiciously admired for his metaphysical acuteness and various erudition, was, in 1719, born at Aberdeen, where his father, the reverend Colin Campbell, was one of the ministers of the established church. He was educated in his native city; and, after passing through the usual course of academical learning, he studied divinity under the Rev. J. Chalmers, professor of divinity in Marischal College.—He was, in 1749, an unsuccessful candidate for the church of Fordown, though his competitor Mr Forbes was a man of very slender abilities, and supposed to be attached to the constitution and liturgy of the church of England. It might indeed be that attachment which contributed principally to procure him the living in preference to Mr Campbell.
The living of Fordown is in the gift of the crown; and it has generally been a rule with his majesty's ministers, to give such livings, when they become vacant, to those candidates who are favoured by the majority of land-owners in the parish. At the era of 1749, the land-owners in some of the northern and middle counties of Scotland were more generally attached to the constitution of the church of England than to that of their own establishment; and such was certainly the case in the parish of Fordown. But whatever was the cause of Mr Campbell's failure, he failed by a very small number, and was not long without an establishment. In 1750, he was presented, by Sir Thomas Burnett of Leys, to the living of Bancharry Ternan, on the Dee, about twenty miles west from Aberdeen. From this he was translated, or, as the Scotch ecclesiastical phrase is, transported to Aberdeen in 1756, and nominated one of the city ministers, in the room of Mr John Bisset deceased, a puritan of the old school, whose strictness and peculiarities are yet remembered by many in that place.
In 1759, on the decease of principal Pollock, he was chosen principal of the Marischal college, and succeeded to the divinity chair in 1771, on Dr Alexander Gerard being translated to the professorship of divinity in King's college. Before his settling in Aberdeen, he married Miss Grace Farquharson, daughter of Mr Farquharson of Whitehouse, by whom he had no issue. This amiable woman died about a year before him. They were an eminent pattern of conjugal affection.
From this time he enjoyed a remarkable share of good health and spirits. He had, all his life, a rooted aversion to medicine. He got the better of every ailment by a total and rigorous abstinence from all kind of sustenance whatever; and it was not till he was attacked by an alarming illness, about two years before his death, that he was persuaded by his friends to call in medical aid. What nature could do, she had all along performed well; but her day was over, and something of art became necessary. Then, for the first time, he owned the utility of medical men, and declared his recantation of the very mean opinion he had formerly entertained of them and their art. A few months before his death, he resigned his offices of principal, professor of divinity, and one of the city ministers, and was in all succeeded by Dr W. L. Brown, late of Utrecht, a man of distinguished abilities. Dr Campbell retained all his faculties entire to the last, and died on the 6th of April 1796, in the 77th year of his age. His character has been so justly drawn by his successor, that we shall give it to our readers in his words, adding only a circumstance or two, which we have reason to think will contribute to endear his memory to every liberal and enlightened mind.
"Dr Campbell, as a public teacher, was long admired for the clearness and copiousness with which he illustrated the great doctrines and precepts of religion, and the strength and energy with which he enforced them. Intimately persuaded of the truth and infinite consequence of what revelation teaches, he was strongly desirous of carrying the same conviction to the minds of his hearers, and delivered his discourses with that zeal which flows from strong impressions, and that power of persuasion which is the result of sincerity of heart, combined with clearness of understanding. He was satisfied, that the more the pure dictates of the gospel were studied, the more they would approve themselves to the mind, and bring forth, in the affections and conduct, all the peaceable fruits of righteousness. The unadulterated dictates of Christianity, he was, therefore, only studious to recommend and inculcate, and knew perfectly to discriminate them from the inventions and traditions of men. His chief study ever was, to direct belief to the great objects of practice; and, without these, he viewed the most orthodox profession as 'a founding bras, and a tinkling cymbal.' Campbell, but, besides the character of a preacher of righteousness, he had also that of a teacher of the science of divinity to sustain. How admirably he discharged this duty, and with what effect he conveyed the soundest and most profitable instruction to the minds of his scholars, let those declare who are now in various congregations of this country, communicating to their fellow Christians the fruits of their studies under so able and judicious a teacher. Discarding all attachment to human systems, merely considered as such, he tied his faith to the Word of God alone, possessed the happiest talent in investigating its meaning, and communicated to his hearers the result of his own inquiries, with a precision and perspicuity which brought light out of obscurity, and rendered clear and simple what appeared intricate and perplexed. He exposed, without reserve, the corruptions which ignorance, craft, and hypocrisy, had introduced into religion, and applied his talent for ridicule to the best of all purposes, to hold up to contempt the absurdities with which the purest and sublimest truths had been loaded.
"Placed at the head of a public seminary of learning, he felt all the importance of such a situation, and uniformly directed his influence to public utility. His enlarged and enlightened mind, justly appreciated the extensive consequence of the education of youth. He anticipated all the effects resulting to the great community of mankind, from numbers of young men issuing in regular succession, from the university over which he presided, and occupying the different departments of social life.
"His benevolent heart delighted to referent to itself the students under his direction usefully and honourably discharging the respective duties of their different professions; and some of them, perhaps, filling the most distinguished stations of civil society. With these prospects before him, he constantly directed his public conduct to their attainment. He never suffered his judgment to be warped by prejudice or partiality, or his heart to be seduced by passion or private interest. Those mean and ignoble motives by which many are actuated in the discharge of important trusts, approached not his mind. A certain honourable pride, if pride it may be called, diffused an uniform dignity over the whole of his behaviour. He felt the man degraded by the perversion of public character. His understanding also clearly shewed him even personal advantage attached to such principles and practice, as he adopted from a sense of obligation, and those elevated conceptions of real worth which were so congenial to his soul. He saw, he experienced, esteem, respect, and influence, following in the train of integrity and beneficence; but contempt, disgrace, aversion, and complete insignificance, closely linked to corruption and selfishness. Little minds are seduced and overpowered by selfish considerations, because they have not the capacity to look beyond the present advantage, and to extend to the millet that stands on the other side of it. The same circumstance that betrays the perversity of their hearts, also evinces the weaknesses of their judgments.
"His reputation as a writer, is as extensive as the present intercourse of letters; not confined to his own country, but spread through every civilized nation. In his literary pursuits, he aimed not, as is very often the case, Cam
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case, with men of distinguished literary abilities, merely at establishing his own celebrity, or increasing his fortune; but had chiefly at heart the defense of the great cause of Religion, or the elucidation of her dictates.
"At an early period he entered the lists as a champion of Christianity against one of its acute opponents. He not only triumphantly refuted his arguments, but even conciliated his respect by the handsome and dexterous manner in which his defense was conducted. While he refuted the infidel, he spared the man, and exhibited the uncommon spectacle of a polemical writer possessing all the moderation of a Christian. But while he defended Christianity against its enemies, he was desirous of contributing his endeavors to increase, among its professors, the knowledge of the sacred writings. Accordingly, in the latter part of his life, he favored the world with a work, the fruit of copious erudition, of unrestrained application, for almost thirty years, and of a clear and comprehensive judgment. We have only to regret, that the other writings of the New Testament have not been elucidated by the same pen that translated the Gospels. Nor were his literary merits confined to theology, and the studies more immediately connected with it. Philosophy, and the fine arts, are also indebted to his genius and labors; and in him the polite scholar was eminently joined to the deep and liberal divine.
"Political principles will always be much affected by general character. This was also the case with Dr Campbell. In politics, he maintained that moderation which is the surest criterion of truth and rectitude, and was equally distant from those extremes into which men are apt to run on great political questions. He cherished that patriotism which consists in wishing, and endeavoring to promote, the greatest happiness of his country, and is always subordinate to universal benevolence. Firmly attached to the British constitution, he was animated with that genuine love of liberty which it inspires and invigorates. He was equally averse to despotism and to popular anarchy; the two evils into which political parties are so frequently hurried, to the destruction of all that is valuable in government. Party-spirit, of whatever description, he considered as having an unhappy tendency to pervert, to the most pernicious purposes, the best principles of the human mind, and to clothe the most iniquitous actions with the most specious appearances. Although tenacious of those sentiments, whether in religion or politics, which he was convinced to be rational and just, he never suffered mere difference of opinion to impair his good-will, to obstruct his good offices, or to cloud the cheerfulness of conversation. His own conversation was enlivened by a vein of the most agreeable pleasantry."
So far was he from being influenced by jealousy, or any portion of that corporation-spirit which sometimes incites men of undoubted abilities to detract from the merit of every writer who fills not a station as conspicuous as their own; that he was loud in his praises of those, whom men of meaner minds would have looked upon with disgust, as upon presumptuous rivals. This generosity was fully experienced by the writer of the article Miracle, in the Encyclopedia Britannica, who, though he had presumed to treat the subject differently from Dr Campbell, received from him such a testimony of approbation of what he had done, as he will hardly look for from any other man in similar circumstances.
Among his other qualities, which so much endeared him to all who had the honour of his acquaintance, Dr Campbell possessed an uncommon facility of passing from the grave to the most airy subjects, and from the liveliest to the gravelest, without degrading the one or diminishing the pleasure of the other. The infirmities of age abated not the cheerfulness of his temper, nor did even the persuasion of approaching dissolution impair his serenity.
We cannot conclude this short sketch better than with a list of his works, in the order in which they were published. In 1752, he published a Sermon, preached before the Synod of Aberdeen.
1761. A Dissertation on Miracles, against Mr Hume. This treatise is well known to the learned world. He obtained, and deservedly obtained, a very high reputation, not only from the able manner in which he handled the subject, but from the liberal style in which he addressed his antagonist. It was speedily translated into French, German, and Dutch.
1771. A Sermon before the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, Edinburgh.
before the Synod of Aberdeen.
1776. The Philosophy of Rhetoric, 2 vols 8vo. A work which discovers a clearness of discernment, and accuracy of observation, which justly entitled him to be ranked among the most judicious critics. He entered on this inquiry as early as 1750, when a part of the work was composed. The laws of elegant composition and criticism are laid down with great perspicuity; but the most valuable part of the work is undoubtedly the theory of evidence, to which we know nothing superior, perhaps nothing equal, on the subject, in our own or any other language. His philosophy, in general, is the philosophy of Dr Reid; and where he differs from that acute reasoner reflecting abstraction, and some other objects of metaphysical disquisition, we think it impossible to refuse him the pre-eminence in every thing but style.
1777. A Sermon on the King's Fast-day, on Allegiance, first printed in 4to, and afterwards, at the expense of government, five thousand copies were printed in 12mo, enlarged with notes, and sent to America, when the unhappy struggle had, however, put on appearances which prevented the effect hoped for from this sermon.
1782. An Address to the People of Scotland on the Alarms which have been raised by what is called the Popish Bill. This is a powerful diffusive from bigotry, and every species of religious persecution.
1793. His Magnum Opus. The translation of the Gospels, with Preliminary Dissertations, 2 vols 4to.