Page 80 of 109
FOOTNOTES:
[320:1] Stewart's Philosophy of the Human Mind, and Preliminary Dissertation to the Encyclopdia Britannica.
[320:2] In the following pages these papers will be cited as the Minto MSS.
[320:3] His grandfather distinguished himself by his resolute and skilful defence of William Veitch, one of the nonconforming clergy, who suffered in the persecutions of the reign of Charles II. Elliot acting as the persecuted man's agent, made an appeal to the feelings of the English statesmen, on the barbarity of the measures of their Scots colleagues; and was so far successful, that the sentence of death pronounced against Veitch, was commuted to banishment. He thenceforth became, of course, a marked man, and an act of forfeiture passed against him in 1685, as an accessory in Argyle's rising. He afterwards obtained a remission of his sentence, and on 22d November, 1688, he was received as a member of the faculty of advocates. He was created a baronet in 1700, and on 25th July, 1705, was raised to the bench. (Brunton and Haig's account of the Senators of the College of Justice.) In Dr. M'Crie's curious "Memoirs of Mr. William Veitch," (p. 99) it is stated, that when the evil days were passed, and the condemned nonconformist was parish minister of Dumfries, he was occasionally visited by the judge, when the following conversation passed between them,—"Ah Willie, Willie, had it no' been for me, the pyets had been pyken your pate on the Nether-bow Port;" to which the retort was, "Ah Gibbie, Gibbie, had it no' been for me, ye would ha'e been yet writing papers for a plack the page."
This Sir Gilbert's son, and the father of Hume's correspondent, was raised to the bench on 4th June, 1726, and became Lord Justice Clerk on 3d May, 1703. He died on 16th April, 1766.
[321:1] He was chosen member for the county of Selkirk in 1754, and 1762, and for Roxburghshire in 1765, 1768, and 1774. He succeeded to the baronetcy on his father's death in 1766. He was made a lord of the admiralty in 1756, treasurer of the chamber in 1762, keeper of the signet in Scotland in 1767, and treasurer of the navy in 1770. He died in 1777. Collins' Peerage. Beatson's Parliamentary Register.
[322:1] Minto MS.
[322:2] See as instances, Washington Irving's "Salmagundi," and Morier's "Hajji Baba."
[324:1] Discours sur Thophraste, where there are some bitter and just remarks on the Parisian manners of La Bruyere's day, as an appropriate introduction to the exhibition of the follies of the Athenians.
[324:2] Scroll, Minto MSS.
[325:1] "La Perptuit de la Foi, de l'Eglise Catholique touchant L'Eucharistie," 3 vols. 4to, 1669-1676. A smaller work published by the same author in 1664, was called "La Petite Perptuit." Its author, Pierre Nicole, one of the illustrious recluses of the Port Royal, was more efficient as a polemical supporter of the principles of his church, than as a practical administrator of its authority. An amusing story is told of his unguarded habits and absence of mind. A lady had brought under his notice, as her spiritual adviser, a matter of extreme delicacy, with which he felt it difficult to deal. Seeing approach at the moment Father Fouquet, whom he knew to have much judgment and experience in such matters, he cried out—"Ah, here comes a man who can solve the difficulty," and, running to meet him, told the whole case, loudly and energetically. The feelings of the fair penitent may be imagined.
[327:1] Probably "The Bellman's Petition," mentioned above.
[327:2] Minto MSS.
[328:1] In the MSS. R.S.E.
[331:1] The late Rev. Dr. Morehead of St. Paul's Chapel in Edinburgh, who was revered as a minister, and respected as a scholar and philosopher, published in 1830, "Dialogues on Natural and Revealed Religion," a pleasing continuation of the work we have just been considering, in which the speakers are made to approach a conclusion nearer to the reverend author's own opinions, than he found them to be when he had read to the end of Hume's little book. From a note by Dr. Morehead, I am tempted to extract the following passage: "Mr. Hume was conscious of his own power, probably while his countrymen were making him a theme of their uncouth derision; and he seems to have had a prescience that he had not yet gathered all his fame. . . . . . . I am much mistaken if the name of this profound thinker does not yet receive the encomiastic epithets of a grateful posterity; and if, when his errors have passed away, he does not yet come to be regarded as the philosopher who has made the most penetrating and successful researches in the intricate science of human nature. He is a cool anatomist, who has dissected it throughout every fibre and nerve; and he may be partly pardoned, perhaps, if, in this sort of remorseless operation, he has too much lost sight of the principle of its moral and intellectual life." The Dialogues on Natural Religion seem to have taken a firm hold of Dr. Morehead's mind. He left behind him a farther continuation, called "Philosophical Dialogues," in which he beautifully represented the Philo of the original, revising his old opinions amidst such a serene old age, as the writer was then himself enjoying. This little work was published after its author's death, by a distinguished surviving friend, who has probably done more towards the propagation of Christian philosophy, than any other living writer of the English language.
[334:1] Down to this point, the letter is printed in Dugald Stewart's Preliminary Dissertation to The Encyclopdia Britannica, Note ccc.
[336:1] Minto MSS. In this collection there is a scroll of a letter written by Mr. Elliot to Hume, returning the manuscripts to which the correspondence refers. It has been published in the notes (ccc,) to Dugald Stewart's Preliminary Dissertation. It is not only a criticism of the Dialogues on Natural Religion, but an examination of Hume's general theory of impressions and ideas, worthy of the perusal of all who take interest in these inquiries. It is of considerable length, and the temptation to print it along with Hume's letter, was only overcome by the circumstance that it is to be found in a work widely circulated, and that the disposable space in this book may be more economically devoted to some letters of Sir Gilbert Elliot which are not to be found elsewhere.
