A society had been instituted in Edinburgh, in the year 1731, for the advancement of medical knowledge, the plan of which was afterwards extended, at the suggestion of the celebrated Maclaurin, to subjects of philosophy and litera ture. It was now known by the title of The Society for Improving Arts and Sciences, but more generally by that of The Philosophical Society of Edinburgh. At what pe riod Mr Home first became a member is uncertain; but he appears to have been elected its president about the begin ning of the year 1769 ; and in the volume of the Transac tions of that learned body, published in 1771, there arc three papers of his writing, viz. On the Laws of Motion ; On the Advantages of Shallow Ploughing ; and On Eva poration. They exhibit the same ingenuity which is conspicuous in all his productions; but the papers on physical subjects are not built on sound philosophical prin ciples.
In the year 1755, Lord Kames was appointed a member of the Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of the Fisheries, Arts. and Manufactures of Scotland; and about the same period, he was chosen one of the commissioners for the management of the forfeited estates annexed to the crown, of which the rents were destined to be applied to the improvement of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. In the discharge of these important trusts, he was a zealous and faithful servant of the public. He regularly attended the stated meetings of these boards, generally officiating as chairman, and taking a most active concern in all their pro ceedings. In the midst of his professional and literary oc cupations, he was at all times easy of access to the mean est individual who had any application to make ; and was ready not only to advise, but even to assist the ig norant and needy suitor in bringing -his claims fairly into In 1757, he published The Statute Law of Scotland Abridged, with Historical Notes, and two years afterwards he gave to the world his Historical Law Tracts, each in one volume 8vo. The latter work has undergone several editions, and stands deservedly high in the estimation of the public. It is one of the few works which unite law with philosophy and the study of human nature ; and it has ac cordingly received the praise, not only of juridical authors, but of the writers on politics and morals, both of our own and of foreign countries. In 1760, appeared his Principles of Equity, in which he traces historically the origin of the courts of equity in each of the united kingdoms, and endea vours to ascertain those general rules by which a court of equity ought to be governed. The active mind of Lord Karnes, however, did not confine its efforts to those studies and researches which were more intimately connected with his profession, but exerted its powers in various pursuits of a generally interesting nature. In the course of the
education of his own children, he was led to the composi tion of an elementary work, suited to the minds or young persons, and calculated at once to improve the understand ing, and to cultivate just notions of morality. This little work he published in 1761, in a small volume, under the title of Introduction to the Art of Thinking. It is divided into two pat ts ; the former containing a series of moral and prudential maxims, and the latter a regular illustration of those maxims by stories taken either from real history, or fictitious narratives.
It appears from the letters of some of Lord Kames's correspondents, that he had for several years meditated an extensive work on the principles of criticism. This design he afterwards carried into execution by the pub lication of his Elements of Criticism. which first appeared in the year 1762, in three volumes 8 et). In this elaborate work, it was the object of the author to subject the im pressions made on the mind by the productions of the fine arts to the standard of reason, by showing, that what is generally called taste is by no means arbitrary, but de pends on certain principles or laws of the human constitu tion ; and that a good taste consists in the consonance of our feelings with those laws.
From the period of the publication of the last mention ed work, Lord Karnes appears to have devoted himself for a few years exclusively to his professional occupations. On the 15th of April 1763, he was appointed one of tho Lords of Justiciary, that is, one of the Judges of the su preme criminal tribunal in Scotland. The duties of that situation he continued to discharge, to the end of his life, with equal diligence and ability. In the year 1766, he re ceived a very large addition to his income by the succes sion to the estate of Biair-Drummond, which devolved on his wife by the death of her brother. The seasons of va cation were now spent at Blair-Drummond, where he be gan to execute a variety of agricultural improvements on an extended scale, which, while they set a great example tor the imitation of the neighbouring landholders, have proved of the most solid and permanent benefit to the proprietor and his heirs. Among these plans of improve ment was one of a nature so extraordinary, as to be gene rally regarded at first as chimerical, but which ulti mately succeeded far beyond the most sanguine views of its contriver. We allude to the operations commenced and carried on by his lordship on the moss of Kincardine ; of which we shall have occasion to take some notice in the article ;MOSS in this work. With these substantial im provements lie combined many plans of embellishment, suggested by those great features of natural beauty which the surrounding scenery exhibits.