he had the West Port congregation for his audience, and we shall
be quite content to let you visit as much as you may.' The composition
of a sermon was never easy work to him. He devoted to it much time,
and the full bent of his powerful mind; and even when letting himself
down to the humblest of the people, the philosopher of largest
capacity might profitably take his place among the hearers, and listen
with an interest never for one moment suffered to flag.

_May 3, 1848._

DUGALD STEWART.

It is now more than forty years since it was remarked by Jeffrey, in
his _Review_, that metaphysical science was decidedly on the
decline in Scotland. Dugald Stewart, though in a delicate state of
health at the time, was in the full vigour of his faculties, and had
still eighteen years of life before him; Thomas Brown had just been
appointed his assistant and successor in the Moral Philosophy Chair
of the University of Edinburgh; and the _elite_ of the Scottish
capital were flocking in crowds to his class-room, captivated by the
eloquence and ingenuity of his singularly vigorous and original
lectures. Even fifteen years subsequent, Dr. Welsh could state, in
the Life of his friend, that the reception of his work on the
_Philosophy of the Human Mind_ had been 'favourable to a degree of
which, in metaphysical writings, there was no parallel.' It has been
recorded as a very remarkable circumstance, that the _Essay_ of
Locke--produced at a period when the mind of Europe first awoke to
general activity in the metaphysical province--passed through seven
editions in the comparatively brief space of fourteen years. The
_Lectures_ of Dr. Brown passed through exactly seven editions in
_twelve_ years, and this at a time when, according to Jeffrey, that
science of mind of which they treated was in a state of gradual
decay. The critic was, however, in the right. The genius of Brown
had imparted to his brilliant posthumous work an interest which
could scarce be regarded as attaching to the subject of it; and in a
few years after--from about the year 1835 till after the disruption
of the Scottish Church--metaphysical science had sunk, not in
Scotland only, but all over Britain, to its lowest ebb. A few
retired scholars continued to prosecute their researches in the
province of mind; but scarce any interest attached to their writings,
and not a bookseller could be found hardy enough to publish at his
own risk a metaphysical work. We ar