We lament that we cannot afford space, for the observations of Mr. Degérando, on the German philosophy, as well as for his interesting survey, of the writings and genius of Lavater and Pestalozzi. We should now think of bringing this article to a close, and have perhaps already said enough, to give our readers a full insight, into the merits and objects of the Report under consideration. We shall finish, then, with a translation of that part of Mr. Degérando's section, which relates to the state of speculative philosophy in Great Britain, and which, notwithstanding its length, we cannot consent to withhold from the public, so great is the satisfaction it has afforded us, and so honourable is the testimony it bears, to the intellectual and moral elevation, of the country of our ancestors. In dwelling on the several statements of Mr. Degérando, partial as he is to the philosophical labours of his own countrymen and of his continental neighbours, it is difficult for a true American, not to feel the striking contrast, and to form a flattering comparison between the mysterious refinements and epicurean tenets of the German, or the lofty pretensions, the vague harangues, the deadening scepticism of the French school, and the pure morality, the dignified simplicity, the luminous reasonings, the sound, sober sense of the moralists and metaphysicians of Scotland.

"In England," says Mr. Degérando, "philosophy has, in general, preserved a distinctive character, derived as much from the authority still possessed by the writings of Bacon, Locke and Shaftesbury, as from the genius of the nation. The greater part of the English writers, less enamoured of speculative theories than the Germans, have considered philosophy as a science which has experience for its basis, and which should lead to practical results. To study facts, to classify and generalize them, to apply them usefully, has been their chief object. If this prudent plan has debarred them of triumphs, to be obtained only by the hardihood of abstraction, it has, however, enabled them to reap fruits more appropriate to the wants of society."

"Notwithstanding the general tendency of their investigations, we have seen the opinions of men in England, divided during the last age, between various speculative systems, such as the idealism of Berkeley,-the materialism of Priestley,the scepticism of Hume,-and the hypothesis of Hartley with regard to the principle of association, which is so nearly allied to the doctrine of Stahl.-Other theories have been devised, to explain the operations of the will, by mechanical agency,

and the law of duty, by principles foreign to that of morality. These theories were framed and expounded with much ingenuity, supported in the absence of solid proof, by the aid of the most subtle dialectics, and although chiefly made up of errors, were not wanting in new and judicious observations, on the operations of the mind, and the study of the human heart. Each of them still retains a certain number of adherents and advocates, but the controversy which they raised, has perhaps, by producing at length a kind of lassitude and irresolution, contributed to that indifference manifested by the majority of the English public, in relation to philosophical researches."

"In the mean while, however, a celebrated school nourished the sacred flame; preserved and developed in a series of glorious efforts, the most noble and precious truths which philosophy can offer.-The Scottish school re-produced the sound doctrines of the sages of antiquity, enriched with modern lights.-Reid, Oswald, Beattie, and others, opposed to idealism and materialism,-to systematic scepticism, (the almost inevitable consequence of both one and the other) the authority of those primitive truths, of those intuitive principles, which are, for all men, the source of knowledge, and which are incapable of being demonstrated, precisely because they are the necessary basis of demonstration.-Hutcheson refuted the unsatisfactory code of ethics drawn from habit and convention, by the eternal and sacred voice of nature, which, addressing itself to the heart of man, when he does not refuse to listen, teaches him his destiny, and his duties. He inculca-ted doctrines devoid indeed of ostentation and parade, but which recommend themselves by their simplicity and their wisdom;-which give solid foundations to the two most precious goods of the earth, virtue and truth,-which preclude the recurrence of the idle subtleties, that too often bewildered and misguided those, who would persist in endeavouring to make elementary principles the subject of reasoning."

"These doctrines have received, during the last twenty years, additional support, and material improvements, from the labours of the worthy continuators of the Scottish school. The primitive canons of intuition, and of feeling, which it is the province of philosophy, not to prove, but to designate and to develope, have been better defined, and established with more precision. The production of subordinate truths, the analysis of the operations of the understanding, the theory of the affections and of duties, have been elucidated from day to day.

The celebrated author of the Wealth of Nations and of the Theory of Moral Sentiments, has bequeathed to philosophy some fragments of the highest value; fragments which are so many abridged, yet profound treatises, on the march of the human mind, on the origin of systems, and the fundamental principles of sound metaphysics.-Reid and Beattie, two of the luminaries of this school, were still living, at the commencement of the period, which we comprise in this Report. The first had just published his treatise on Active Powers, the complement to a theory which may be justly styled, the code of good-sense; -he had consummated the discredit of the ancient opinion of philosophers, concerning the character of images or impres sions ascribed to our sensations, by distinguishing the impression received, from the concomitant judgment of exteriority. Beattie prosecuted until towards the close of the century, his researches in moral philosophy;-in the theory of language, and the foundations of truth. Ferguson traced the elements of political science to the soundest and purest ethics, and with the same torch, by which he shed new light, on civil legislation, and the history of nations, unfolded to view the constituent laws of our nature, the movements of sensibility, the mechanism of habit, the working of the human faculties, and observed the progressive growth of the human mind.

Dugald Stewart, the friend, the disciple, and in some sort, the heir of these great men, has systematized, continued, completed their work; and enjoys the rare felicity of seeing his writings become, during his life time, almost classical in his own country. He has raised moral philosophy to the rank of a positive science, by subjecting it to the method of Bacon, to a judicious classification, and to a rigorous analysis and strict connexion. He has most profitably applied, and established upon clear principles, the laws of attention, of memory, of imagination, and those of the association of ideas, and of intellectual habits. He has irradiated the old question, of the causes of our errors, with new lights, and has made new observations, on the phenomena of insanity and of dreams. Above all,—he has developed in their full extent, both the utility and the danger of abstract and general notions:-their utility in every branch of knowledge; their danger, particularly in political science;thus uniting and reconciling two maxims which, either be cause they were kept separate, or but imperfectly known, have occasioned successively, the prevalence either of blind dogmatism or impotent empiricism;-two maxims the union of

which, must lend very precious aid to the progress of the human mind, and to the perfection of the sciences."

"Doctor Hutton has employed himself in new researches on the origin of human knowledge, and the study of wisdom. He has endeavoured to open a midway path between the doctrines of Hume and Berkeley, in explaining how the ideas of the properties which we ascribe to bodies, are artificially formed in our minds, and how the activity of the mind excited by sensation, collects, with respect to the causes that have produced it, lights which sensation itself is incapable of furnishing. The explanations which he has given, do not, in our opinion, afford a completely satisfactory result; but they serve at least, to facilitate the solution, of one of the most intricate problems, which has tried the sagacity of philosophers.† Although the Treatise on Population by Malthus, belongs, from its object, to political science, the development of this new and prolific principle, may be regarded as a precious acquisition for moral philosophy."

"If the Scottish school professes a doctrine nearly uniform, this circumstance does not spring from a sectarian spirit; the inculcation of this doctrine is unaccompanied, by any of those jggling pretensions, by any of those rites of initiation, which the authors of systems have but too often employed, for the purpose of retaining their proselytes, in a state of blind devotion. The love of truth is the bond of union between these writers; and they are unanimous, because a constant intercourse has enabled them to understand each other well.— There may appear to be something vague in the terms common sense, moral instinct, which they have employed to desig nate the faculty given to man, of perceiving intuitively primitive truths, and of discovering the laws of morality by an innate feeling; but in justice, this must be said, that they have, both in the one and the other branch of philosophy,

Nothing can be more just than this view of the merits of Dugald Stewart as a philosopher. We rejoice to find, that his last work, entitled "Philosophical Essays,” has been reprinted in this country, and widely circulated. It should be in the library of every lover of moral truth and elegant literature. Why are not his Biographical Sketches also re-published here? They have a peculiar character of excellence, and that of the highest order.- We would, if it were in our power, familiarize our countrymen with such models of just thought and classical composition.

The theory of Hutton is uncommonly ingenious and imposing. It is ably and beautifully expounded in a memoir on the life of that philosopher, written by the celebrated professor Playfair of Edinburgh, and inserted in the Transactions of the Philosophical Society of that capital.

wisely assigned limits, at which the analyses of the human mind should stop, and have restored to our reason, bewildered in the maze of speculation, that fulcrum which she requires, to build up the edifice of human knowledge.”

"In the same manner as Hartley had combated the principle of common sense, some English writers have likewise, within the few years past, attacked that of moral instinct, and by various arguments, have endeavoured to reinstate the ideas of just and unjust, in the class of artificial or acquired notions. Thus Thomas Cogan in his Treatise on the Passions, in subjecting the affections of the human heart to the analysis of reason, and giving them a sort of classification or methodical nomenclature, allows them no other source than self-love, and the state of society. Thus Priestley, when by denying free will, he destroyed the essential foundation of all morality, looked to revelation for that sanction and basis, which he would not admit to exist for it in nature.-So also W. Paley, in his work on morals and politics,—a work in other respects so eminently praise-worthy for the wisdom of its corollaries, and the purity of its spirit,-imagined that he could invest religious ideas with new force, and provide a more dignified origin for the laws of morality, by deriving the motives of duty, exclusively, from a system of eternal rewards and punishments; not remarking, that a doctrine like this, might yield some justification, or rather afford pretexts, to the errors of blind enthusiasm; and would take from religion, one of the most noble evidences in her favour,-that which results, from the agreement between her precepts and natural morality.-Far be from us the thought, of denying the powerful aid, which the latter receives from religious opinions, and the character of elevation which is stamped upon it, by this alliance! When considered in a practical point of view, the work of Paley is, therefore, still extremely useful. We cannot, unfortunately, allege the same apology for that of Bentham, who in labouring to build upon morality the whole of civil legislation, has resuscitated the old opinion of the sophists, so eloquently refuted by the sages of antiquity, which makes the utile the origin of the honestum, or rather considers the last as wholly subordinate to the other; which establishes the interest of the individual as the rule of private, and the interest of the majority, as that of public morality:-a doctrine which must inevitably conduct to selfishness in the individual, and to a most pernicious Machiavelism in states, which is fitted to lead astray both the legislator and the moralist."

"Constrained as we are by the nature of our undertaking,