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matter-his valuable researches on achromatic combinations—the grand discoveries of Coulomb on electricity and magnetism-and the valuable hydraulic researches of the Chevalier de Buat on rivers and waterworks, were here for the first time laid before the British public. But although Professor Robison used to speak to his pupils of these essays as merely compilations intended to diffuse knowledge, yet they possess a character of a much higher kind. The labours of others rose in value under his hands: his thorough knowledge of the subject gave every contribution an air of originality, and new views and ingenious suggestions never failed to enliven his details. Throughout these multifarious treatises we feel everywhere the steady serene influence of an ardent love of truth, the highest tone of scientific morality, and a deep sense of religion.

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In the year 1810 a fourth edition of the work was completed under the editorship of the late Dr. James Millar, and a fifth and a sixth edition, marked by no distinguishing peculiarities, successively appeared. From this state of lethargy, however, the Encyclopædia' was destined to assume the highest station among the analogous works of the day. The enterprising house of Constable and Co. projected a Supplement, which extended to six volumes. It was placed under the skilful management of Professor Napier. Many very distinguished authors, among whom are numbered the names of Arago and Biot, were engaged as contributors, and all the resources of the proprietors, both pecuniary and commercial, were devoted to this favourite undertaking. The first half-volume (December, 1815) was enriched with a Preliminary Dissertation on the History of Ethical Science,' by Mr. Dugald Stewart, and the Supplement was completed in April, 1824.

A few years afterwards the copyrights were purchased by the present proprietors, who immediately made preparations for the seventh edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica,' which we have now before us. Their object was to widen it in its compass, to amplify and improve it in its contents, and to raise it, in all respects, to a level with the modes of thinking and spirit of the age;' and we have no hesitation in saying that they have, to a very large extent, fulfilled this obligation, both in the number and value of the original treatises which it contains, in the careful revision and extension of former articles, and in the elaborate engravings, maps, and embellishments with which the work is illustrated and adorned.

In order to give our readers some idea of the nature and value of this immense collection, we shall call their attention to its preliminary Dissertations,-to some of its principal articles on science

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and literature, and, in a more general manner, to the various subordinate departments of the work.

In arranging his general plan, the Editor proposed to have but two preliminary Dissertations, the first containing the History of Metaphysical, Ethical, and Political Philosophy,and the second that of Mathematical and Physical Science. Professor Stewart engaged to supply the former, and Professor Playfair the latter; but though each performed a large portion of his task, they were both carried off in the midst of their labours. Mr. Stewart had completed the History of Metaphysics, and Mr. Playfair had brought the History of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences down to the period of Newton and Leibnitz. Sir James Mackintosh undertook to complete the labours of his friend by a continuation, including the History of Ethical and Political Philosophy,* but he too was summoned from his labours before he had commenced the political portion of his subject. Professor Leslie resumed the History of the Physical Sciences at the point where they had been left by his predecessor, and brought it down to the commencement of the present century; but though he was spared to finish his task, he did not live to see the completion of the work to which he had been so active a contributor.

It is no wonder that the Dissertations produced by these four extraordinary men are regarded with peculiar pride in Scotland. Few nations, indeed, can boast of such an intellectual group living at the same time, and adorning the same society; and yet, with powers of mind not far from equality, how various were their gifts, and how diversified their genius! While Stewart derived his powers of mental analysis and combination from the study of his own mind, chastened by the early and severe discipline-of geometry, and expanded by extensive knowledge of preceding researches,-Mackintosh approached the same subject under a profound acquaintance with the world-with the penetrating acuteness derived from legal studies, and with all the generalisations which an active and political life is likely to supply to a naturally very acute understanding. In the Dissertation of the one a stately and persuasive eloquence-influenced, no doubt, but rendered more commanding, by the habit of extempore lecturing-excites the enthusiasm, without distracting the attention, of the reader;-while in the other the style is at once elegant, copious, and felicitous in its illustrations-pure in its metaphors -elevated by a high tone of moral feeling and exhibiting, in singular yet harmonious combination, the chaste and severe * This dissertation has been published separately, with a very able Preface by Mr. WHE WELL.

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language of philosophy, and the flexible and powerful periods of forensic eloquence.

But the contrast is much more striking between the two philosophers who have recorded the achievements of mathematical and physical science. Familiar though they both were with the highest acquisitions of geometry and analysis, yet how differently were those instruments of research directed and applied! In quest only of truth, the mind of Playfair never deviated from the accustomed and deep-worn channels by which it had been reached. Eager principally for fame, the scientific faculties of Leslie were counteracted by antagonist forces. Under the restraining influence of abstract truth, and the more powerful curb of the dread of error, the one seldom ventured into the regions of invention and discovery, while the other-with loose reins and heedless pace-diverged from the beaten highway of knowledge, and struck into those devious paths where Nature often unveils her mysteries, and yields to the daring enterprise of Fancy what she refuses to the more deliberate approaches of Reason. It is in science as it is in war,—the forlorn hope succeeds when the physical force of thousands has been exhausted. In the intellectual campaign it is not often that the gallantry of genius can be exercised simultaneously with the sapping and mining of mental labour, yet the philosophical character can only attain its full and perfect stature when the powers of reason and the gifts of fancy are united in definite proportions.

As separate lives of all these authors, except Leslie, had been previously published, our readers will, we doubt not, be gratified with the following candid and well-written character of this eminent man by Professor Napier :—

It would be impossible, we think, for any intelligent and well-constituted mind, thoroughly acquainted with the powers and attainments of Sir John Leslie, to view them without a strong feeling of admiration for his vigorous and inventive genius, and of respect for that extensive and varied knowledge, which his active curiosity, his excursive reading, and his happy memory, had enabled him to amass and digest. Some few of his contemporaries in the same walks of science may have excelled him in profundity of understanding, in philosophical caution, and in logical accuracy; but we doubt if any surpassed him, while he must be allowed to have surpassed most, in that creative faculty-one of the highest and rarest of Nature's gifts-which leads to and is necessary for discovery, though not all-sufficient of itself for the formation of safe conclusions; or in that subtilty and reach of discernment, which seizes the finest and least obvious qualities and relations of things, which elicits the hidden secrets of nature, and ministers to new and unexpected combinations of her powers. "Discoveries in science," says he, in one of his works, are sometimes invidiously referred to mere fortuitous incidents.

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But the mixture of chance in this pursuit should not detract from the real merit of the invention. Such occurrences would pass unheeded by the bulk of men; and it is the eye of genius alone that can seize every casual glimpse, and discern the chain of consequences." With genius of this sort he was richly gifted. Results overlooked by others were by him perceived with a quickness approaching to intuition. To use a poetical expression of his own, they seemed "to blaze on his fancy." He possessed the inventive in a far higher degree of perfection than the judging and reasoning powers; and it thus sometimes happened that his views and opinions were not only at variance with those of the majority of the learned, but inconsistent with one another. Notwithstanding the contrary testimony, explicitly recorded, of the founders of the English Experimental School, he denied all merit and influence to the labours of the immortal delineator of the Inductive Logic. He freely derided the supposed utility of Metaphysical Science, without perceiving that his own observations on Causation virtually contained the important admission, that physical is indebted to mental philosophy for the correct indication of its legitimate ends and boundaries. His writings are replete with bold and imaginative suppositions; yet he laments the "ascendancy which the passion for hypotheses has obtained in the world." His credulity in matters of ordinary life was, to say the least of it, as conspicuous as his tendency to scepticism in science. It has been profoundly remarked by Mr. Dugald Stewart that," though the mathematician may be prevented, in his own pursuits, from going far astray, by the absurdities to which his errors lead him, he is seldom apt to be revolted by absurd conclusions in other matters..... Thus, even in physics," he adds, "mathematicians have been led to acquiesce in conclusions which appear ludicrous to men of different habits." thing of this sort was observable in the mind of this distinguished mathematician. He was apt, too, to indulge in unwarrantable applications of mathematical reasoning to subjects altogether foreign to the science—as when he finds an analogy between circulating decimals and the lengthened cycles of the seasons! But when the worst has been said, it must be allowed that genius has struck its captivating impress over all his works. Whether his bold speculations lead him to figure the earth as enclosing a stupendous concavity filled with light of overpowering splendour; or to predict the moon's arrival at an age when her" silvery beams will become extinct; or to ascribe the phenomena of radiated heat to aërial pulsations, we at least perceive the workings of a decidedly original mind. This, however, is not all. His theoretical notions may be thrown aside or condemned, but his exquisite instruments, and his experimental combinations, will ever attest the utility no less than the originality of his labours, and continue to act as helps to farther discovery. We have already alluded to the extent and excursiveness of his reading. It is rare, indeed, to find a man of so much invention, and who himself valued the inventive above all the other powers, possessing so vast a store of information. Nor was it in the field of science alone that its amplitude was conspicuous. It was so in regard to every subject that books have touched upon. In Scottish history, in particu

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lar, his knowledge was alike extensive and accurate; and he had, in acquiring it, gone deep into sources of information-such as parish records, family papers, and criminal trials-which ordinary scholars never think of exploring. The ingenious mathematician, the original thinker, the rich depository of every known fact in the progress of science, would have appeared to any one ignorant of his name and character, and who happened to hear him talk on this subject, as a plodding antiquary, or, at best, as a curious and indefatigable reader of history, whom nature had blessed with at least one strong faculty, that of memory. His conversation showed none of that straining after "thoughts that breathe, and words that burn," so conspicuous in his writings. In point of expression, it was simple, unaffected, and correct. Though he did not shine in mixed society, and was latterly unfitted, by a considerable degree of deafness, for enjoying it, his conversation, when seated with one or two, was highly entertaining. It had no wit, little repartee, and no fine turns of any kind; but it had a strongly original and racy cast, and was replete with striking remarks and curious information.

Viewing the whole of his character, moral and intellectual, it must be confessed that it presented some blemishes and defects. He had prejudices of which it would have been better to be rid; he was not over-charitable in his views of human nature; he was not so ready, on all occasions, to do justice to kindred merit as was to be expected in so ardent a worshipper of genius; and his care of his fortune went much beyond what is seemly in a philosopher. But his faults were far more than compensated by his many good qualities; by his constant equanimity, his cheerfulness, his simplicity of character almost infantile, his straightforwardness, his perfect freedom from affectation, and, above all, his unconquerable good nature. He was, indeed, one of the most placable of human beings; and notwithstanding his general attention to his own interests, it is yet undeniable that he was a warm and good friend, and a relation on whose affectionate assistance a firm reliance ever could be placed. He was fond of society, and greatly preferred and prized that of the intelligent and refined; but no man ever was more easily pleased: no fastidiousness ever interfered with his enjoyment of the passing hour: he could be happy, and never failed to converse in his usual way, though in the humblest company; and we have often known him pass an afternoon with mere boys, discoursing to them pleasantly upon all topics that presented themselves, just as if they had been his equals in age and attainments. He was thus greatly liked by many who knew nothing of his learning or science, except that he was famous for both.'*

But it is time to leave the Preliminary Dissertations, and their authors, and come to the body of the book.

In almost all encyclopædias the mathematical and physical articles have occupied a prominent place, and have generally been regarded as the most valuable and important. Sir James Mackintosh, indeed, has made a similar remark, and has, at the same

*Art. LESLIE, Sir John, vol. xiii., p. 251.

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