cotland would do well to study and imitate. There may
be differences of opinion regarding the standing of Stewart as a
metaphysician, but there are no differences of opinion regarding his
excellence as a writer.

With regard to metaphysics themselves, we are disposed to acquiesce
in the judgment of Jeffrey, without, however, acquiescing in much
which he has founded upon it. To _observe_ as a mental philosopher,
and to _experiment_ as a natural one, are very different things;
and never will mere observation in the one field lead to results
so splendid or so practical as experiment on the properties of matter,
to which man owes his extraordinary control over the elements. To
the knowledge acquired by his observations on the nature or
operations of mind, he owes no new power over that which he surveys:
in at least its direct consequences, his science is barren. It would
be difficult, however, to overestimate its _indirect_ consequences.
It seems impossible that the metaphysical province should long
exist blank and unoccupied in any highly civilised country,
especially in a country of active and acquiring intellects, such as
Scotland. If the philosophy of Locke or of Reid fail to occupy the
field, we find it occupied instead by that of Comte or of Combe. Owens
and Martineaus take the place of Browns and of Stewarts; and bad
metaphysics, of the most dangerous tendency, are taught, in the lack
of metaphysics wholesome and good. All the more dangerous parties
of the present day have their foundations of principle on a basis
of bad metaphysics. The same remark applies to well-nigh all the
religious heresies; and the less metaphysical an age is, all the
more superficial usually are the heresies which spring up in it. We
question whether Morrisonianism could have originated in what was
emphatically the metaphysical age of Scotland, in the latter days
of Reid, or the earlier days of Stewart. What became in our times a
heresy in the theological field, would have spent itself, as the mere
crotchet of a few unripened intellects, in the metaphysical one.
It would have found vent in some debating club or speculative society,
and the Churches would have rested in peace. There are other
indirect benefits derived from metaphysical study. It forms the
best possible gymnastics of mind. All the great metaphysicians, if
not merely acute, but also broad-minded men, have been great also in
the practical departments of thought. The author of th