BOOK I.

ed upon to offer any opinion, whether the new solution
which Mr Home has given in the later editions of the
Essays, be more free from objection, or better fitted to re-
move the difficulties attending this most intricate of que-
stions, than the scheme which he at first proposed. The sub-
ject itself, we have the best grounds for believing to be
above the reach of the human understanding; (perhaps pur-
posely intended by our Creator to impress man with a just
sense of the limitation of the powers of his mind); and in-
stead of straining our faculties in a vain endeavour to com-
prehend, explain and reconcile its contradictory phenomena,
it were better at once to acquiesce in that conclusion which
one of the most subtile of metaphysicians has himself drawn,
after a full statement of all that with certainty could be af-
firmed on the question of Liberty and Necessity :-" These
are mysteries which mere natural and unassisted reason is
very
unfit to handle; and whatever system she embraces,
"she must find herself involved in "extricable difficulties,
"and even contradictions, at every step which she takes
"with regard to such subjects. To reconcile the indiffe-
rence and contingency of human actions with prescience,
or to defend absolute decrees, and yet free the Deity
" from being the author of sin, has been found hitherto to
"exceed all the power of philosophy. Happy, if she be
"thence sensible of her temerity, when she pries into these
"sublime mysteries; and leaving a scene so full of obscuri-

66

66

66

66

A

"ties

"ties and perplexities, return, with suitable modesty, to her "true and proper province, the examination of common "life; where she will find difficulties enow to employ her "inquiries, without launching into so boundless an ocean of "doubt, uncertainty and contradiction * !"

CHAP. V.

MEMOIRS

* DAVID HUME'S Essay on Liberty and Necessity.-Essays and Treatises

OF THE

LIFE AND WRITINGS

OF

LORD KAMES.

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

Mr Home appointed a Judge.-His character in that capacity. His patronage of literary merit.-State of Letters in Scotland at this period.-Colin Maclaurin.-First writers who cultivated Style.—Blackwell.—David Hume.-Dr Robertson.-Literary Societies.-The Rankenian Club.-The Select Society. Its influence in promoting the literary spirit. -The Philosophical Society.-Lord Kames's Essays on the Laws of Motion.-His friendship with Adam Smith.-Dr Robert Watson.-Dr Hugh Blair.—Professor John Millar.

IN February 1752, Mr Home was appointed one of the
Judges of the Court of Session, and took his seat on the
Bench on the 6th of that month, by the title of LORD
KAMES. This promotion was attended with the general sa-

tisfaction

CHAP. I.

Mr Home appointed a

Judge.

BOOK II.

His character in that oapacity.

tisfaction of his country; as he stood high in the public esteem, both on the score of his abilities and knowledge of the laws, and his integrity and moral virtues *.

As a judge, his opinions and decrees were dictated by an acute understanding, an ardent feeling of justice, and a perfect acquaintance with the jurisprudence of his country, which, notwithstanding the variety of pursuits in which his comprehensive mind had alternately found exercise, had always been his principal study, and the favourite object of his researches.

It might very naturally have been supposed, that the metaphysical bent of his understanding would have tinctured his judicial opinions, with that refinement of argument, and subtilty of discrimination, which are the usual attendants of such a habit of thinking: And perhaps, on a few occasions,

where

* Lord DESKFOORD (Earl of FINLATER) to Lord KAMES, 11th February 1752: "I have several letters saying, that the country is greatly obliged to "the Ministry for giving them so good a Judge. It has been remarked, that, "without intervals of darkness, we should not be sensible of the benefit of "light; and that, were it not for the bad weather with which we are fre"quently visited, we should not have so sensible a pleasure in the serenity "of a fine day. If Administration were always to do what they ought, "people would say they only do their duty; but, like sagacious politicians, "they often do wrong, to make us receive it as a favour when they some"times do right."