tion; but we fear not to put this on record, as | periods, they would be listened to with impa
our deliberate, and we think impartial, judg-tience. It is at such times, too, that the
ment-that they are the most candid, the telligent part of the lower and middling
most judicious, and the most pregnant with
thought, and moral and political wisdom, of
any in which our domestic story has ever yet

been recorded.

But even if we should discount his Histo-
ries, and his Ethical Dissertation, we should
still be of opinion, that Sir James Mackintosh
had not died indebted to his country for the
use he had made of his talents. In the vol-
unies before us, he seems to us to have left
them a rich legacy, and given abundant proofs
of the industry with which he sought to the
last to qualify himself for their instruction,
and the honourable place which his name
must ever hold, as the associate and successor
of Romilly in the great and humane work of
ameliorating our criminal law, might alone
suffice to protect him from the imputation of
having done less than was required of him, in
the course of his unsettled life. But, without
dwelling upon the part he took in Parliament,
on these and many other important questions
both of domestic and foreign policy, we must
be permitted to say, that they judge ill of the
relative value of men's contributions to the
cause of general improvement, who make
small account of the influence which one of
high reputation for judgment and honesty may
exercise, by his mere presence and conversa-
tion, in the higher classes of society, and still
more by such occasional publications as he
may find leisure to make, in Journals of wide
circulation,-like this on which the reader is
now looking-we trust with his accustomed
indulgence.

classes look anxiously through such publica
tions as treat intelligibly of the subjects to
which their attention is directed; and are the
led, while seeking only for reasons to justify
their previous inclinings, to imbibe principles
and digest arguments which are impressed on
their understandings for ever, and may fruc
tify in the end to far more important conclu
sions. It is, no doubt, true, that in this way,
the full exposition of the truth will often be
sacrificed for the sake of its temporary appli
cation; and it will not unfrequently happen
that, in order to favour that application, the
exposition will not be made with absolute
fairness. But still the principle is brought
into view; the criterion of true judgment is
laid before the public; and the disputes of
adverse parties will speedily settle the correct
or debatable rule of its application.

For our own parts we have long been of
opinion, that a man of powerful understand-
ing and popular talents, who should, at such
a season, devote himself to the task of an-
nouncing such principles, and rendering such
discussions familiar, in the way and by the
means we have mentioned, would probably
do more to direct and accelerate the rectifica-
tion of public opinion upon all practical ques
tions, than by any other use he could possibly
make of his faculties. His name, indeed,
might not go down to a remote posterity in
connection with any work of celebrity; and
the greater part even of his contemporaries
might be ignorant of the very existence of
their benefactor. But the benefits conferred
would not be the less real; nor the conscious-
ness of conferring them less delightful; nor
the gratitude of the judicious less ardent and
sincere. So far, then, from regretting that
Sir James Mackintosh did not forego all other
occupations, and devote himself exclusively
to the compilation of the two great works he
had projected, or from thinking that his coun
try has been deprived of any services it might
otherwise have received from him, by the
course which he actually pursued, we firmly
believe that, by constantly maintaining ha
mane and generous opinions, in the most en-
gaging manner and with the greatest possible
ability, in the highest and most influencing
circles of society,-by acting as the respected
adviser of many youths of great promise and
The first discovery of a great truth, or ambition, and as the bosom counsellor of many
practical principle, may often require much practical statesmen, as well as by the timely
labour; but when once discovered, it is gene-publication of many admirable papers, in this
rally easy not only to convince others of its
importance, but to enable them to defend and
maintain it, by plain and irrefragable argu-
ments; and this conviction, and this practical
knowledge, it will generally be most easy to
communicate, when men's minds are excited
to inquiry, by the pursuit of some immediate
interest, to which such general truths may
appear to be subservient. It is at such times
that important principles are familiarly started Such great works acquire for their authors
in conversation; and disquisitions eagerly pur-a deserved reputation with the studious few;
sued, in societies, where, in more tranquil and are the treasuries and armories from

It is now admitted, that the mature and en-
lightened opinion of the public must ultimately
rule the country; and we really know no other
way in which this opinion can be so effectu-
ally matured and enlightened. It is not by
every man studying elaborate treatises and
systems for himself, that the face of the world
is changed, with the change of opinion, and
the progress of conviction in those who must
ultimately lead it. It is by the mastery which
strong minds have over weak, in the daily in-
tercourse of society; and by the gradual and
almost imperceptible infusion which such
minds are constantly effecting, of the practical
results and manageable summaries of their
preceding studies, into the minds immediately
below them, that this great process is carried

on.

and in other Journals, on such branches of
politics, history, or philosophy as the course
of events had rendered peculiarly interesting
or important, he did far more to enlighten
the public mind in his own day, and to insure
its farther improvement in the days that are
to follow, than could possibly have been ef
fected by the most successful completion of
the works he had undertaken.

have been occasionally darkened by these
shadows of a self-reproach for which we think
there was no real foundation, we trust that he
is not to be added to the many instances of
men who have embittered their existence by
a mistaken sense of the obligation of some
rash vow made in early life, for the perform-
ance of some laborious and perhaps impracti-
cable task.

which the actual and future apostles of the | his place as the author of some finished work
truth derive the means of propagating and de- of great interest and importance. If he got
fending it. But, in order to be so effective, over the first illusion, however, and took the
the arms and the treasures must be taken forth view we have done of the real utility of his
from their well-ordered repositories, and dis- exertions, we cannot believe that this would
seminated and applied where they are needed have weighed very heavily on a mind like
and required. It is by the tongue, at last, and Sir James Mackintosh's; and while we can-
not by the pen, that multitudes, or the indi-not but regret that his declining years should
viduals composing multitudes, are ever really
persuaded or converted, by conversation and
not by harangues-or by such short and oc-
casional writings as come in aid of conversa-
tion, and require little more study or continued
attention than men capable of conversation
are generally willing to bestow. If a man,
therefore, who is capable of writing such a
book, is also eminently qualified to dissemi-
nate and render popular its most important
doctrines, by conversation and by such lighter
publications, is he to be blamed if, when the
times are urgent, he intermits the severer
study, and applies himself, with caution and
candour, to give an earlier popularity to that
which can never be useful till it is truly
popular? To us it appears, that he fulfils the
higher duty; and that to act otherwise would
be to act like a general who should starve his
troops on the eve of battle, in order to replen-
ish his magazines for a future campaign-or
like a farmer who should cut off the rills from
his parching crops, that he may have a fuller
reservoir against the possible drought of an-
other year.

Cases of this kind we believe to be more
common than is generally imagined. An am-
bitious young man is dazzled with the notion
of filling up some blank in the literature of
his country, by the execution of a great and
important work-reads with a view to it, and
allows himself to be referred to as engaged in
its preparation. By degrees he finds it more
irksome than he had expected; and is tempt-
ed by other studies, altogether as suitable and
less charged with responsibility, into long fits
of intermission. Then the very expectation
that has been excited by this protracted incu-
bation makes him more ashamed of having
done so little, and more dissatisfied with the
little he has done! And so his life is passed,
in a melancholy alternation of distasteful, and
of course unsuccessful attempts; and long fits
of bitter, but really groundless, self-reproach,
for not having made those attempts with more
energy and perseverance: and at last he dies,

But we must cut this short. If we are at
all right in the views we have now taken, Sir
James Mackintosh must have been wrong in
the regret and self-reproach with which he
certainly seems to have looked back on the
unaccomplished projects of his earlier years: not only without doing what he could not
And we humbly think that he was wrong. attempt without pain and mortification, but
He had failed, no doubt, to perform all that prevented by this imaginary engagement from
he had once intended, and had been drawn doing many other things which he could have
aside from the task he had set himself, by done with success and alacrity-some one of
other pursuits. But he had performed things which it is probable, and all of which it is
as important, which were not originally in- nearly certain, would have done him more
tended; and been drawn aside by pursuits credit, and been of more service to the world,
not less worthy than those to which he had than any constrained and distressful comple-
tasked himself. In blaming himself-not for tion he could in any case have given to the
this idleness, but for this change of occupa- other. For our own parts we have already
tion-we think he was misled, in part at said that we do not think that any man, what-
least, by one very common error-we mean ever his gifts and attainments may be, is really
that of thinking, that, because the use he ac- bound in duty to leave an excellent Book to
tually made of his intellect was more agree-posterity; or is liable to any reproach for not
able than that which he had intended to make,
it was therefore less meritorious. We need
not say, that there cannot be a worse criterion
of merit: But tender consciences are apt to
fall into such illusions. Another cause of
regret may have been a little, though we really
think but a little, more substantial. By the
course he followed, he probably felt, that his
name would be less illustrious, and his repu-
tation less enduring, than if he had fairly taken

having chosen to be an author. But, at all
events, we are quite confident that he can be
under no obligation to make himself unhappy
in trying to make such a book: And that as
soon as he finds the endeavour painful and
depressing, he will do well, both for himself
and for others, to give up the undertaking,
and let his talents and sense of duty take a
course more likely to promote, both his own
enjoyment and their ultimate reputation.

THE following brief notices, of three lamented and honoured Friends, certainly were not
contributed to the Edinburgh Review: But, as I am not likely ever to appear again as an
author, I have been tempted to include them in this publication-chiefly, I fear, from a fond
desire, to associate my humble name with those of persons so amiable and distinguished:-
But partly also, from an opinion, which has been frequently confirmed to me by those most
competent to judge-that, imperfect as these sketches are, they give a truer and more graphio
view of the manners, dispositions, and personal characters of the eminent individuals con-
cerned than is yet to be found-or now likely to be furnished, from any other quarter.

THE HONOURABLE HENRY ERSKINE.

He finally retired from the exercise of that | tion; but retained unimpaired, till within a
profession, the highest honours of which he day or two of his death, not only all his intel-
had at least deserved, about the year 1812, lectual activity and social affections, but, when
and spent the remainder of his days in do- not under the immediate affliction of a painful
mestic retirement, at that beautiful villa which and incurable disease, all that gaiety of spirit,
had been formed by his own taste, and in the and all that playful and kindly sympathy with
improvement and adornment of which he innocent enjoyment, which made him the idol
found his latest occupation. Passing thus at of the young, and the object of cordial attach-
once from all the bustle and excitement of a ment and unenvying admiration to his friends
public life to a scene of comparative inactivity, of all ages.
he never felt one moment of ennui or dejec-

methods of inquiry, and to imbue their minds,
from the very commencement of the study,
with that fine relish for the truths it disclosed,
and that high sense of the majesty with which
they were invested, that predominated in his
own bosom. While he left nothing unex-
plained or unreduced to its proper place in the
system, he took care that they should never
be perplexed by petty difficulties, or bewil
dered in useless details; and formed them
betimes to those clear, masculine, and direct
methods of investigation, by which, with the
least labour, the greatest advances might be

Or Mr. Playfair's scientific attainments,
of his proficiency in those studies to which he
was peculiarly devoted, we are but slenderly
qualified to judge: But, we believe we hazard
nothing in saying that he was one of the most
learned Mathematicians of his age, and among
the first, if not the very first, who introduced
the beautiful discoveries of the later conti-
nental geometers to the knowledge of his
countrymen; and gave their just value and
true place, in the scheme of European know-
ledge, to those important improvements by
which the whole aspect of the abstract sciences
has been renovated since the days of our il-accomplished.
lustrious Newton. If he did not signalise Mr. Playfair, however, was not merely a
himself by any brilliant or original invention, teacher; and has fortunately left behind him
ne must, at least, be allowed to have been a a variety of works, from which other genera-
most generous and intelligent judge of the tions may be enabled to judge of some of those
achievements of others; as well as the most qualifications which so powerfully recom-
eloquent expounder of that great and magnifi- mended and endeared him to his contempo-
cent system of knowledge which has been raries. It is, perhaps, to be regretted that so
gradually evolved by the successive labours much of his time, and so large a proportion of
of so many gifted individuals. He possessed, his publications, should have been devoted to
indeed, in the highest degree, all the charac- the subjects of the Indian Astronomy, and the
teristics both of a fine and a powerful under Huttonian Theory of the Earth: And though
standing, at once penetrating and vigilant, it is impossible to think too highly of the in-
but more distinguished, perhaps, for the cau- genuity, the vigour, and the eloquence of those
tion and sureness of its march, than for the publications, we are of opinion that a juster
brilliancy or rapidity of its movements, and estimate of his talent, and a truer picture of
guided and adorned through all its progress, his genius and understanding, is to be found
by the most genuine enthusiasm for all that in his other writings;-in the papers, both bio-
is grand, and the justest taste for all that is graphical and scientific, with which he has
beautiful in the Truth or the Intellectual Ener-enriched the Transactions of our Royal Socie
gy with which he was habitually conversant.
To what account these rare qualities might
have been turned, and what more brilliant or
lasting fruits they might have produced, if his
whole life had been dedicated to the solitary
cultivation of science, it is not for us to con-
jecture; but it cannot be doubted that they
added incalculably to his eminence and utility
as a Teacher; both by enabling him to direct
his pupils to the most simple and luminous

Originally printed in an Edinburgh newspaper
of August, 1819. A few introductory sentences are
now omitted.

ty; his account of Laplace, and other articles
which he contributed to the Edinburgh Re-
view, the Outlines of his Lectures on Natu
ral Philosophy, and above all, his Introduc-
tory Discourse to the Supplement to the
Encyclopædia Brittannica, with the final cor-
rection of which he was occupied up to the
last moments that the progress of his disease
allowed him to dedicate to any intellectual
exertion.

With reference to these works, we do not
think we are influenced by any national, or
other partiality, when we say that he was
certainly one of the best writers of his age

and the singular thing in his case was, not
only that he left this most material part of his
work to be performed after the whole outline
had been finished, but that he could proceed
with it to an indefinite extent, and enrich and
improve as long as he thought fit, without any
risk either of destroying the proportions of
that outline, or injuring the harmony and unity
of the original design. He was perfectly
aware, too, of the possession of this extraor

and even that we do not now recollect any
one of his contemporaries who was so great a
master of composition. There is a certain
mellowness and richness about his style,
which adorns, without disguising the weight
and nervousness which is its other great char-
acteristic, a sedate gracefulness and manly
simplicity in the more level passages, and a
mild majesty and considerate enthusiasm
where he rises above them, of which we
scarcely know where to find any other exam-dinary power; and it was partly, we presume,
ple. There is great equability, too, and sus- in consequence of it that he was not only at
tained force in every part of his writings. He all times ready to go on with any work in
never exhausts himself in flashes and epi- which he was engaged, without waiting for
grams, nor languishes into tameness or in- favourable moments or hours of greater alac-
sipidity: At first sight you would say that rity, but that he never felt any of those doubts
plainness and good sense were the predomi- and misgivings as to his being able to get cre-
nating qualities; but by and bye, this sim- ditably through with his undertaking, to which
plicity is enriched with the delicate and vivid we believe most authors are occasionally liable.
colours of a fine imagination,-the free and As he never wrote upon any subject of which
forcible touches of a most powerful intellect, he was not perfectly master, he was secure
-and the lights and shades of an unerring and against all blunders in the substance of what
harmonising taste. In comparing it with the he had to say; and felt quite assured, that if
styles of his most celebrated contemporaries, he was only allowed time enough, he should
we would say that it was more purely and finally come to say it in the very best way of
peculiarly a written style,—and, therefore, re- which he was capable. He had no anxiety,
jected those ornaments that more properly therefore, either in undertaking or proceeding
belong to oratory. It had no impetuosity, with his tasks; and intermitted and resumed
hurry, or vehemence,-no bursts or sudden them at his convenience, with the comfortable
turns or abruptions, like that of Burke; and certainty, that all the time he bestowed on
though eminently smooth and melodious, it them was turned to account, and that what
was not modulated to an uniform system of was left imperfect at one sitting might be
solemn declamation, like that of Johnson, nor finished with equal ease and advantage at
spread out in the richer and more voluminous another. Being thus perfectly sure both of
elocution of Stewart; nor, still less, broken his end and his means, he experienced, in the
into that patchwork of scholastic pedantry and course of his compositions, none of that little
conversational smartness which has found its fever of the spirits with which that operation
admirers in Gibbon. It is a style, in short, of is so apt to be accompanied. He had no
great freedom, force, and beauty; but the de- capricious visitings of fancy, which it was
liberate style of a man of thought and of necessary to fix on the spot or to lose for ever,
learning; and neither that of a wit throwing -no casual inspirations to invoke and to wait
out his extempores with an affectation of care- for,-no transitory and evanescent lights to
less grace,-nor of a rhetorician thinking more catch before they faded. All that was in his
of his manner than his matter, and deter-mind was subject to his control, and amena-
mined to be admired for his expression, what-ble to his call, though it might not obey at the
ever may be fate of his sentiments.
moment; and while his taste was so sure,
His habits of composition were not perhaps that he was in no danger of over-working any
exactly what might have been expected from thing that he had designed, all his thoughts
their results. He wrote rather slowly,-and and sentiments had that unity and congruity,
his first sketches were often very slight and that they fell almost spontaneously into har
imperfect, like the rude chalking for a mas-mony and order; and the last added, incor
terly picture. His chief effort and greatest
pleasure was in their revisal and correction;
and there were no limits to the improvement
which resulted from this application. It was
not the style merely, nor indeed chiefly, that
gained by it: The whole reasoning, and sen-
timent, and illustration, were enlarged and
new modelled in the course of it; and a naked
outline became gradually informed with life,
colour, and expression. It was not at all like
the common finishing and polishing to which
careful authors generally subject the first
draughts of their compositions, nor even
like the fastidious and tentative alterations
with which some more anxious writers assay
their choicer passages. It was, in fact, the
great filling in of the picture,-the working up
of the figured weft, on the naked and meagre
woof that had been stretched to receive it;

-

porated, and assimilated with the first, as if
they had sprung simultaneously from the same
happy conception.

But we need dwell no longer on qualities
that may be gathered hereafter from the works
he has left behind him. They who lived with
him mourn the most for those which will be
traced in no such memorial! And prize far
above those talents which gained him his high
name in philosophy, that Personal Character
which endeared him to his friends, and shed
a grace and a dignity over all the society in
which he moved. The same admirable taste
which is conspicuous in his writings, or rather
the higher principles from which that taste
was but an emanation, spread a similar charm
over his whole life and conversation; and gave
to the most learned Philosopher of his day
the manners and deportment of the most per