SCOTTISH PHILOSOPHY.
Scottish Philosophy in its National Development. By Henry Laurie. (James MacLehose and Sons, Glasgow. 6s.)—This is a good, useful, and unpretentious book. It covers ground which has been partially traversed by works that have recently appeared, such as Sir Henry Craik's "Century of Scottish History" and Mr. Henry Gray Graham's two works dealing with the social conditions and literature of Scotland during the eighteenth century. But a book like this by Professor Laurie was also needed, and is valuable as showing the remarkable metaphysical evolution, which began with the arrival of Francis Hutcheson in Glasgow from Belfast, and proceeded through Hume and Reid, Ferguson and Stewart, Brown and Chalmers, to Hamilton and Ferrier. Professor Laurie is attached to his country, its Universities, and its philosophers, but he is not a too fervid or undiscriminating "patriot." He errs, if at all, on the side of "imperfect sympathy." Here is the upshot of the whole national movement :—" To me it appears that the psychology of the Scottish thinkers, though imperfect and an- developed, was yet the fitting precursor of the newer psychology which raises questions as to the whole course of animal and human intelligence, and as to the relation of mental facts to their physical conditions. They were right in insist- ing that mental science is impossible without introspection or self-observation; and the lesson requires to be enforced from time to time." Some of Professor Laurie's characterisa- tions and conclusions are admirable. Thus :—" Reid, with the blood of his ancestors in his veins, slow, sturdy, tenacious, warmly attached to the national Church and its tenets, was the representative of Presbyterian Scotland in its quest for a specula- tive philosophy. Dugald Stewart's reputation depends not on any original contribution to Scottish philosophy, but rather on his liberality, his devotion to culture, his clearness and candour, his many-sided intellectual activity and the tradition of his eloquence. With greater breadth there is a failure in vigour and freshness.
Through Mr. Herbert Spencer the fundamental principles of Hamilton's philosophy bid fair to preserve their vitality for some considerable time to come, though in a form that Hamilton did not anticipate, and would not have approved."
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