social affections. He contended that they were gradually improved by successive revolutions, and asserts that in the Bay of Bengal there existed a nation of human beings with tails like monkeys, which had been discovered a hundred and fifty years before by a Swedish skipper. He maintained that all the moral sentiments and domestic affections were the result of contrivance, art, and experience, just like shipbuilding, writing, or any other mechanical invention; thus he was led to place man, in his natural state, below beavers and seacats, which he terms social and political animals. Still, on occasion, he could write good sense, such as this :

:

"Had we no other desires than those belonging to the animal life, our imaginations, like those of other animals, would be wholly employed about the objects of those desires. But we have other desires. belonging to the rational nature, which make our imaginations much more rich and various than those of the brute creation. And, first, we have the love of Beauty of every kind, whether in objects visible or audible, in manners, sentiments, or actions. This love of beauty is congenial with the rational nature, and whoever is entirely devoid of it hardly deserves the name of man. But in this, as in other respects, man differs much from man; for some have the love and taste for beauty in a very small degree; others, whom Nature has formed of her best clay, and heaven bestowed on them more than an ordinary portion of the celestial fire, have it in a very high degree.

If it be the beauty of the visible kinds which captivates those minds, and if their imaginations are carried into works, then we have painters, sculptors, and poets, of an inferior kind, I mean descriptive poets. If it be the beauty of sounds, then we have musicians. But if the turn of mind be towards beauties of a higher kind, such as those of sentiments, manners, and actions, then are produced heroic and tragic poets, painters, sculptors, and musicians of the highest order, who express in their compositions what is most sublime and exalted in sentiment and character. The capacity of performing in these several arts is what we call Genius.” 26

Thomas, Lord Erskine,27 was the youngest son of the Earl of Buchan. He had served both in the army and navy, but resigned his commission and turned to the study of law, being called to the English bar in his twenty-eighth year. He soon took a foremost place, and some of his speeches are fine specimens of English forensic

26 Ancient Metaphysics, Vol. II., p. 265.

27 Born in 1750; died in 1823.

oratory. In 1783, he entered parliament as member for Portsmouth, but his success in the House of Commons was not remarkable. In 1806, he was appointed Lord Chancellor, and received the title of Baron Erskine; he only held the Great Seal for a short time, as he had to retire on the dissolution of the Whig government in the spring of 1807. In 1817, he published a political fragment entitled Armata, which contains some good remarks on constitutional law and history.

John Stockdale had published a defence of Warren Hastings, written by the Rev. John Logan, as before mentioned, which it was alleged contained a libel upon the House of Commons, and Erskine undertook the defence of Stockdale. The trial took place on the 9th of December, 1789, and the following is a part of Erskine's speech on the occasion, and refers to the government of India :—

"The unhappy people of India, feeble and effeminate as they are from the softness of their climate, and subdued and broken as they have been by the knavery and strength of civilisation, still occasionally start up in all the vigour and intelligence of insulted nature. To be governed at all they must be governed by a rod of iron, and our empire in the East would long since have been lost to Great Britain if skill and military prowess had not united their efforts to support an authority which heaven never gave, by means which it

can never sanction.

Gentlemen, I think I can observe that you are touched with this way of considering the subject, and I can account for it. I have not been considering it through the cold medium of books, but have been speaking of man and his nature, and of human dominion, from what I have seen of them myself amongst reluctant nations submitting to our authority. I know what they feel, and how such feelings can alone be suppressed. I have heard them in my youth from a naked savage in the indignant character of a prince surrounded by his subjects, addressing the governor of a British colony, holding a bundle of sticks in his hand, as the notes of his unlettered eloquence. 'Who is it,' said the jealous ruler over the desert, encroached upon by the restless foot of English adventure, who is it that causes the river to rise in the high mountains and empty itself into the ocean? Who is it that causes to blow the loud winds of winter, and that calms them again in summer? Who is it that rears up the shade of these lofty forests, and blasts them with the quick lightning at His pleasure? The same Being who gave to you a country on the other

side of the waters, and gave ours to us; and by this title we will defend it,' said the warrior, throwing down his tomahawk upon the ground, and raising the war-sound of his nation. These are the feelings of subjugated men all round the globe; and depend upon it, nothing but fear will control where it is vain to look for affection.

James Boswell 28 was the son of a Scottish judge, and his Life of Dr. Johnson is too well known to require any particular notice in these pages. Boswell studied for the bar, but he attached himself to Johnson, soothing and flattering him, and taking copious notes of his sayings and conversation. In 1773 he accompanied Johnson on his tour to the Highlands; and, after the death of the great lexicographer, in 1785 he published his journal of the tour, giving a record of each day's occurrences. In 1791 his Life of Johnson appeared in two volumes; a second edition was published in 1794, and Boswell was engaged in preparing a third when he died. Many editions of the work have since been issued.

Dr. James Currie 29 issued his edition of the Works of Burns in 1800 for the benefit of the poet's family. The edition was accompanied by a memoir of the poet, from which subsequent biographers have drawn freely. Dr. Currie's edition realised to the family of Burns the sum of £1400.

Lord Jeffrey 30 was a native of Edinburgh, the son of a gentleman who held the office of depute-clerk in the Court of Session. He was educated at the High School of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow, and Queen's College, Oxford. After studying law, he was called to the bar in 1794. For many years his income was small, but being sober and industrious, he kept himself out of debt. He was a Whig in politics throughout his career. He was also one of the originators of the Edinburgh Review, the first number of which appeared in October, 1802. From 1803 to 1829, Jeffrey was editor and sole manager of the Review. In its pages he found ample scope for his political opinions and his literary and critical faculties. Thus Jeffrey and his accomplished associates in the Review wielded. much political influence throughout that stirring period; and they also produced memorable effects on the periodical literature and criticism of the present century. From the date of the appearance of the Edinburgh Review, the standard of criticism in this country has

28 Born in 1740, died in 1795.
30 Born in 1773; died in 1850.

29 Born in 1756, died in 1805.

been gradually rising, and we owe a debt of gratitude to its originators.

In 1820, Jeffrey was elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. On the occasion of his installation he delivered an elegant and interesting address to the students, in which he reminded them that within the walls of this College "he had received by far the most valuable part of his own education." In 1829, Jeffrey was unanimously elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates; and he then resigned the editorship of the Review. On the formation of Earl Grey's administration in 1830, he was appointed Lord Advocate for Scotland, and sat for a short time in parliament. But, in 1834, he was raised to the bench, and as Lord Jeffrey, he discharged the functions of a Scotch judge with marked attention, uprightness, and ability, till the period of his death.

The most important of his contributions to the Edinburgh Review were collected by himself in 1844, and published in four volumes, and since reprinted in one large volume. His articles and criticisms cover a wide range of subjects-poetry, elegant literature, moral science, and the philosophy of life. As a critic he discharged his difficult task well, with sound judgment and taste, although occasionally, in the early years of the Review, he was rather harsh and severe. In poetic criticism he sometimes failed to appreciate the genuine merits of his author. His ethical ideas and sentiments were pure, elevated, and noble.

I have only space for one short specimen of his style on the prevailing notion that genius is a source of peculiar unhappiness to its possessors "Men of truly great powers of mind have generally been cheerful, social, and indulgent; while a tendency to sentimental whining or fierce intolerance may be ranked among the surest symptoms of little souls and inferior intellects. In the whole list of our English poets we can only remember Shenstone and Savage-two, certainly, of the lowest-who were querulous and discontented. Cowley, indeed, used to call himself melancholy; but he was not in earnest, and, at any rate, was full of conceits and affectations, and has nothing to make us proud of him. Shakespeare, the greatest of them all, was evidently of a free and joyous temperament, and so was Chaucer, their common master. The same disposition appears to have predominated in Fletcher, Jonson, and their great contemporaries. The genius of Milton partook something of the austerity of the party to which he belonged, and of the controversies in which

he was involved; but even when fallen on evil days and evil tongues, his spirit seems to have retained its serenity, as well as its dignity; and in his private life, as well as in his poetry, the majesty of a high character is tempered with great sweetness, genial indulgence, and practical wisdom. In the succeeding age our poets were but too gay; and though we forbear to speak of living authors, we know enough of them to say with confidence, that to be miserable or to be hated is not now, any more than heretofore, the common lot of those who excel."

Henry Brougham 31 was a native of Edinburgh, and subsequently known as Lord Brougham. He was educated at the High School and the University of Edinburgh; and, after studying for the legal profession, he was admitted to the Scottish bar, at which he practised for several years. He was also one of the original writers of the Edinburgh Review, to which he contributed a long series of articles, chiefly to the earlier numbers. Scotland became too small for him, and he joined the English bar, entered parliament in 1810, allied himself with the Whig party, and pushed his career with great energy. He proved a steady friend to political reform. In 1830, he attained the height of his ambition by his elevation to the Woolsack, with the title of Lord Brougham and Vaux. He held the office of Lord Chancellor for four years, and retired with his party in the autumn of 1834. This ended his official career; but he afterwards worked hard as a law reformer.

His works are numerous, but none of them can be ranked high, either in literature, philosophy, or science, in all of which he tried his hand. His style is loose, heavy, and verbose. His writings are lacking in clear thinking, and definite conclusions; he always seems to be coming to close quarters with the subject, but he never comes to it. I think the best of his works is the one entitled The British Constitution, published in 1861. He occupied the later years of his long life in writing notices of his Life and Times, which were pub lished in 1871, in three volumes.

The following quotation is from one of his speeches delivered in the House of Commons on law reform :- "The course is clear before us; the race is glorious to run. You have the power of sending your name down through all times, illustrated by deeds of higher fame, and more useful import, than ever were done within these walls.

31 Born in 1778, and died in 1868.