In consequence of the failure of Dr. Ferguson's health in 1784, he resolved upon giving up the duties of a public lecturer, and an arrangement was made, by which Mr. Stewart should receive the moral philo sophy class, while Dr. Ferguson should be conjoined in the professorship of mathematics with Professor Playfair, and thus retain the larger salary which was attached to that chair. In 1787, Mr. Stewart was left a widower, and in the following summer he ac companied the late Mr. Ramsay of Barnton on a visit to the Continent.
In the year 1790 he married Miss Cranstoun (the youngest daughter of the Honourable George Cran stoun), a lady of congenial sentiment and talent, who contributed greatly to the happiness of his future years. In the tranquillity of domestic life, so favour able to the pursuits of science, Mr. Stewart seems to have begun with earnestness to prepare for the press the first of that series of works by which he has been so highly distinguished. In 1792 he published the first volume of' his Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. In this work he has stripped the science of the Human Mind of much of that mystery and paradox in which it had been involved; and while he has treated its most important and difficult topics with all the depth and clearness of mathe matical talent, he has, at the same time, enriched his speculations with the stores of his varied learning, and adorned them with all the elegancies of his classical taste. This volume contains a review of the intellectual powers of man. On many important points, Mr. Stewart's views necessarily coincided with those of his illustrious master; hut while he treated the opinions of Dr. Reid with all the vene ration of a disciple, he never scrupled to examine them with the freedom of an equal, and to advocate opposite opinions, or strike into a new train of thought, into which he had been led by a more profound or a more ingenious investigation. In this, as well as the other two volumes of his work, Mr. Stewart's great aim was to vindicate the principles of human know ledge against the attacks of modern sceptics, and to lay a solid foundation for a rational system of logic.
The first volume of Mr. Stewart's work did not ex cite that notice to which its own merit and the high reputation of its author unquestionably entitled it. The philosophy of the mind was then a subject of comparatively little interest, and though divested of its usual repulsive aspect, it was not considered, as it is now, a necessary branch of a polite education. The
long interval of twenty-one years, which elapsed be tween the publication of the first and the second volume, and the publication of his volume of Philoso phical Essays at an intermediate period, may afford us some reason for believing that Mr. Stewart had abandoned the prosecution of his plan.
The continuity of his studies was, indeed, inter rupted by a series of biographical works, which almost necessarily devolved upon him. The first of these was .fin .account of the Lifc and Writings of Smith, the celebrated author of the Wealth of Nations. This memoir, which occupies 82 quarto pages, was read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the 28th January and the 18th March 1793, and is published in the third volume of their Transactions. It forms one of the finest examples of biographical composition, and, independent of the value which it derives from its luminous exposition of the prin ciples of Dr. Smith's philosophy, it is rendered inte resting by the numerous anecdotes which it contains of the great men which had a short time before adorned the literary history of Scotland.
At the request, we believe, of Dr. Robertson him self, made a short time before his death, Mr. Stewart undertook to draw up an account of the life and writings of that illustrious historian. It was read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh in March 1796, and was afterwards published in a separate volume in 1801. To the memory of Dr. Reid, Mr. Stewart felt it his duty to pay the like homage, and be accordingly completed, in 1802, his account of the life and writings of that eminent metaphysician.
In the year 1796, Mr. Stewart was again induced to receive a few pupils into his house, and at this time the present Earl of Dudley, the Earl of Warwick, the late Lord Ashburton, the son of Mr. Dunning, Lord Palmerston, his brother the Honourable Mr. Temple, and Mr. Sullivan, the present Under Secretary of War, were placed under his care. The Marquis of Lansdown, though not under Mr. Stewart's superin tendence, was at this time studying in Edinburgh, and was honoured with Mr. Stewart's particular regard. Their friendship continued unabated, and Mr. Stew art had the happiness of seeing the Marquis of Lam down, Lord Dudley, and Lord Palmerston, members of the same cabinet. Mr. Brougham and Mr. Horner were at the same time two of the public pupils of Mr Stewart.