facetious. Yet Dr Reid furely could not be ignorant that those who have questioned the reality of a material univerfe, never affected to have perceptions, ideas, and fenfations of a different nature from other people. The debate was merely about the origin of thefe fenfations, and could not possibly affect the conduct or feelings of the individual. The fceptic, therefore, who has been taught by experience that certain perceptions are connected with unpleafant fenfations, will avoid the occafions of them as carefully as thofe who look upon the objects of their perceptions as external realities. Notions and fenfations he cannot deny to exift; and this limited faith will regulate his conduct exactly in the fame manner as the more extenfive creed of his antagonists. We are perfuaded that Mr Stewart would reject the aid of fuch an argument for the existence of an external world. The unexpected length to which thefe obfervations have extended, deters us from profecuting any farther our remarks on Dr Reid's philofophy. The other points in which it appears to us that he has left his fyftem vulnerable are, his explanation of our idea of cause and effect, and his fpeculations on the question of liberty and neceffity. In the former, we cannot help thinking that he has dogmatifed, with a degree of confidence which is fcarcely juftified by the cogency of his arguments, and has endeavoured to draw ridicule on the reafoning of his antagonists, by illuftrations that are utterly inapplicable. In the latter, he has made fomething more than a juft ufe of the prejudices of men and the ambiguity of language, and has more than once. been guilty, if we be not miftaken, of what, in a less respectable author, we fhould not have fcrupled to call the most palpable fophiftry. We are glad that our duty does not require us to enter into the difcuffion of this very perplexing controverfy; though we may be permitted to remark, that it is fomewhat extraordinary to find the dependence of human actions on motives fo pofitively denied by thofe very philofophers with whom the doctrine of caufation is of fuch high authority. We proceed now to the last fection of Mr Stewart's interefting publication, which contains little more than a fhort and fimple account of the ftudies and occupations of Dr Reid's latter years, and an admirable delineation of his character. His health had, all his life, been uncommonly vigorous, and, except a flight decay of memory, he appears to have retained all his faculties and affections unimpaired to the age of eighty-feven. A few months before his death, which happened in 1797, he read to a literary fociety a diftinct and philofophical treatife on the effects produced by old age on the mufcular motions; perfevering perfevering to the last in those habits of felf-obfervation which had conftituted the business and the glory of his life. The character of Dr Reid is drawn by Mr Stewart, in colours. particularly lively and attractive. We believe it to be entirely juft, at the fame that we are of opinion that there is fcarcely any thing wanting in the following paffage to complete the picture of a true philofopher and an excellent man. The most prominent features of his character were,-intrepid and inflexible rectitude;—a pure and devoted attachment to truth;-and an entire command (acquired by the unwearied exertions of a long life) over all his paffions. Hence, in thofe parts of his writings where his fubject forces him to difpute the conclufions of others, a fcrupulous rejection of every expreffion calculated to irritate thofe whom he was anxious to convince, and a spirit of liberality and good-humour towards his opponents, from which no afperity on their part could provoke him, for a moment, to deviate. In private life, no man ever maintained, more eminently or more uniformly, the dignity of philofophy; combining, with the most amiable modefty and gentlenefs, the nobleft fpirit of independence. The only preferments which he ever enjoyed, he owed to the unfolicited favour of the two learned Bodies who fucceffively adopted him into their number; and the refpectable rank which he fupported in fociety, was the well-earned reward of his own academical labours. The studies in which he delighted, were little calculated to draw on him the patronage of the great; and he was unfkilled in the art of courting advancement, by "fashioning his doctrines to the varying hour." As a philofopher, his genius was more peculiarly characterized by a found, cautious, diftinguishing judgement; by a fingular patience and perfeverance of thought; and by habits of the moft fixed and concentrated attention to his own mental operations ;-endowments which, although not the moft fplendid in the estimation of the multitude, would feem entitled, from the history of science, to rank among the rareft gifts of the mind. • With these habits and powers, he united (what does not always accompany them) the curiofity of a naturalift, and the eye of an ob ferver; and, accordingly, his information about every thing relating to phyfical science, and to the ufeful arts, was extenfive and accurate. His memory for historical details was not fo remarkable; and he used sometimes to regret the imperfect degree in which he poffeffed this faculty. I am inclined, however, to think, that in doing fo, he underrated his natural advantages; eftimating the ftrength of memory, as men commonly do, rather by the recollection of particular facts, than by the poffeffion of thofe general conclufions, from a fubferviency to which fuch facts derive their principal value. Towards the clofe of life, indeed, his memory was much lefs vigorous than the other powers of his intellect; in none of which could I ever perceive any fymptom of decline. His ardour for knowledge, too, VOL. III. NO. 6. U remained remained unextinguished to the laft; and, when cherished by the fociety of the young and inquifitive, feemed even to increase with his years. What is still more remarkable, he retained, în extreme old age, all the fympathetic tenderness, and all the moral fenfibility of youth; the livelinefs of his emotions, wherever the happiness of others was concerned, forming an affecting contract to his own unconquerable firmness under the fevereft trials. Nor was the fenfibility which he retained, the felfish and fteril offspring of tatte and indolence. It was alive and active, wherever he could command the means of relieving the diftreffes, or of adding to the comforts of others; and was often felt in its effects, where he was unfeen and unknown-Among the various proofs of this, which have happened to fall under my own knowledge, I cannot help mentioning particularly (upon the moft unquestionable authority) the fecrecy with which he conveyed his occafional benefactions to his former parifhioners at New Machar, long after his establishment at Glasgow. One donation, in particular, during the fearcity of 1782,-a donation which, notwithfanding all his precautions, was diftinctly traced to his beneficence,might perhaps have been thought difproportionate to his limited income, had not his own fimple and moderate habits multiplied the refources of his humanity. p. 181-187. Notwithstanding the length of the preceding extract, we cannot take our leave of this very interefting publication, without laying before our readers the paragraph in which Mr Stewart announces his intention of declining, from this time forward, the duties of a biographer. The whole paffage is marked with that grave and pathetic eloquence with which a man of fuperior genius is commonly found to fpeak of himself; and one part of it reminds us forcibly of thofe fine prophetic fentences in which Milton, in his earlier writings, announces to the world his affurance of a more exalted deftination. In concluding this Memoir, I truft I fhall be pardoned, if, for once, I give way to a perfonal feeling, while I exprefs the fatisfaction with which I now clofe, finally, my attempts as a Biographer. Those which I have already made, were impofed on me by the irrefiftible calls of duty and attachment; and, feeble as they are, when compared with the magnitude of fubjects so fplendid and fo various, they have encroached deeply on that fmall portion of literary leisure which indifpenfable engagements allow me to command. I cannot, at the fame time, be infenfible to the gratification of having endeavoured to affociate, in fome degree, my name with three of the greatest which have adorned this age; happy if, without deviating intentionally from truth, I may have fucceeded, however imperfectly, in my wifh, to gratify, at once, the curiofity of the public, and to footh the recollections of furviving friends. But I, too, have defigns and enterprizes of my own; and the execution of these (which, alas! fwell in magnitude, as the time for their accomplishment haftens to a period) claims, at length, an undivided attention attention. Yet I fhould not look back on the paft with regret, if I could indulge the hope, that the facts which it has been my province to record, by difplaying those fair rewards of extenfive usefulness, and of permanent fame, which talents and induftry, when worthily directed, cannot fail to fecure, inay contribute, in one fingle inftance, to fofter the proud and virtuous independence of genius; or, amidst the gloom of poverty and folitude, to gild the diftant prospect of the unfriended fcholar, whofe laurels are now flowly ripening in the unnoticed privacy of humble life. ' P. 2c4-206. ART. II. Voyage de Trois Mois en Angleterre, en Ecoffe, et en Irlande, pendant l'été de l'an IX (1801). Par Marc Augufte Pictet, Profes feur de Philofophie dans l'Academie de Geneve, Affocié de l'Inftitut National, Membre des Societés Royales de Londres, &c. &c. &c. 8vo. pp. 340. Geneva. 1802. A BOOK of travels is tried by a very fevere teft, when it is read in the country which it profeffes to defcribe. A foreigner can scarcely avoid committing fome mistakes, which a native will detect; and, laying prejudices on both fides out of the question, will probably enlarge most upon thofe subjects that stand least in need of explanation to the people whom they concern. M. Pictet, however, is not an ordinary traveller; and it would be doing him injustice to confider his book as intended to convey any general idea of the manners or appearance of the countries he has vifited. M. Pictet is a philofopher, and had been in England before the object of his prefent expedition therefore was, not to acquire exact or comprehenfive knowledge of the British dominions, but to visit and converfe with a few of our eminent men, and to infpect fome of the most remarkable of our public institutions and natural curiofities. Inftead of a general map of the country, therefore, his book prefents us with detailed reprefentations of a few infulated points. A complete account of the remarkable things in a country would be a very good account of the country itfelf; but the things to which M. Pictet has attended, are neither very numerous, nor, in our opinion, altogether judicioufly felected. Though mineralogy was one of his leading objects, he neither vifited Derbyshire nor Cornwall; and has hazarded various ftrictures upon the learning and fyftem of education in England, without having thought it worth while to visit either of the Universities. Though this work is written in the form of letters, it can fcarcely lay claim to any of thofe indulgences that are due to a private correfpondence. M. Pictet's letters are not addreffed to his individual friends, but to the fociety of his fellow-labourers in the Bibliotheque Britannique at Geneva, by whom they were originally inferted in that journal as fast as they were received. Confidering them, therefore, as having been written with a view to publication, we cannot help faying, that they appear to us to be very flight and fuperficial performances; and that they contain a great deal too much about the author's own feelings and affections. Perfonalities of this kind are always but awkwardly affociated, we think, with differtations upon natural philofophy: and, at all events, we do not think very favourably of M. Pictet's talents for inditing a Sentimental Journey.' His fits of tendernefs and vivacity generally appear to us as far from the gracefulnefs of nature, as from the refpectability of fcience. But though this book does not always imprefs us with those fentiments which fhould be excited by the work of a philofopher, it is impoffible to be out of humour with the author: he is the politeft foreigner, indeed, that has lately fpoken of our country, and is not only perfectly courteous, but abfolutely loving to every perfon whom he has occafion to mention. There is a character of cheerfulnefs and good temper, too, impreffed upon the whole work, that conciliates our esteem for the author; and whatever may be thought of his profundity, it is impoffible to accufe him of being tedious. The first letter contains a long eloge of Count Rumford, with a particular account of the Royal Inftitution of London, tranfcribed from the first report of the directors. The next, which is dated from Edinburgh, contains the reft of the author's obfervations in London, and is chiefly occupied with a defcription of the effects produced by the gazeous oxyd upon a felect party of liteterati to whom it was administered by Mr Davy. It contains also the hiftory of M. Pictet's vifit to the country feat of Sir Jo feph Banks, where he feems to have attached himself, in a particular manner, to an old blind beaver, who nibbled green twigs with fingular alacrity, and gave figns of great fenfibility to the careffes he received. At York, where M. Pictet passes a day, the experiment of the gazeous oxyd is repeated, and the power of the imagination over the nervous fyftem is illuftrated very fuccefsfully, by adminiftering a quantity of common air to a young lady, inftead of the gas; upon which the falls into an hyfterical fit, exactly fimilar to what the had formerly experienced from refpiring the gas itself. M. Pictet moves with fuch velocity, that he has never leisure to give an account of a place, till he has left it fifty miles behind him. His third letter, accordingly, dated from Glasgow, contains the defcription of his entry into Scotland, and of his proceedings at Edinburgh. M. Pictet had fcarcely croffed the Bor der, |