1

from the circumstances which have been detailed, we could not in equity call upon the contributors to supply the whole sum, which had become necessary from no fault of theirs.

After much deliberation, we proposed to pay them one half of this additional expence; a proposal which they gladly accepted, as also to complete the road themselves in a satisfactory manner. This condition was made peremptory, in order to avoid future disputes with any new contractor, as was likely to happen from the difficulty of ascertaining and specifying the innumerable details of perfecting every part of a road never finished, and now much out of repair. The contributors accordingly engaged to complete the road before the end of 1812; but, whether from want of exertion, or inevitable accident, it is not yet in a state which our superintendant can conscientiously pronounce to be equal to the specifications of our road contracts; in the meantime, the road is in full use, and the interest of the contributors strongly calls upon them to put it in to such a condition as may enable us to give it up to their care for future repair. This road extends from Loch-Moydart, on the western sea, to Lochiel at the ferry of Corran, where commodious boating piers have been constructed as a necessary appendage to this road, by means of which a direct communication is opened between an extensive district and the rest of Scotland.

SCOTTISH REVIEW.

A Series of POPULAR ESSAYS, illustrative of principles essentially connected with the improvement of the Understanding, the Imagination, and the Heart. By Elizabeth Hamilton, author of the Elementary

AMONG the numerous females,

whose writings throw a lustre upon the present age, none, perhaps, stand higher in public estimation than the author of the present volumes. The vigour of thought and observation, which her compositions display, is greatly enhanced by the excellent and benevolent intentions by which they are animated. All of them have had some laudable object in view; the exposure of some extravagance, some error in judgment or conduct, which invaded the wellbeing of social life. The present, and a former work, are distinguished by an attempt to cultivate a branch of speculation, which has been usually considered to lie beyond the reach of her sex. We allude to that branch of science which has for its object to analyse the faculties of the human mind. Without supposing any original disqualification, it is easy to see, that their habits and usual pursuits are entirely adverse to the successful prosecution of such abstruse disquisitions. It is only by turning the mind intensely inwards, that it can become well acquainted with its own operations; but all the avocations, both of employment and society, into which they are naturally led, tend to attract their attention towards a variety of external objects. The habits too of silent meditation and recueillement, which are essential to such speculations, are not those, in which fair students are observed to indulge with the greatest satisfaction. Mrs Hamilton, however, without being deterred by these difficulties, and by the want of precedents, boldly undertakes to tread the arduous path. of this important science.

There are two modes by which the study of human nature may be carried on. The one is by that ana

lysis and examination of the different parts of which it is composed, in which consists the science called Metaphysics, or the Philosophy of Mind. The other consists in the mere observation of man as acting in society, and with these powers combined and intermingled together. The former is the more profound and accurate science, and capable of leading to more important results; the other is of the most immediate and practical use, least liable to error, and most generally accessible. It is in this latter branch that women most usually excel. In that part of human character, and of the motives of human action which lies open to them, their observations are usually penetrating and accurate. This power of observation Mrs Hamilton's writings shew her to possess in a very extraordinary degree; and being combined with humour, and some degree of satire, it renders her writings extremely amusing and agreeable. This, we think, is her distinguishing merit. In regard to the more recondite, and abstruse branch of the study of human nature, she possesses a knowledge, competent indeed, but not equally profound. We do not anticipate from her exertions, any considerable extension to the limits of the science. But there are two views in which we think her writings on this subject may be useful. They may tend to initiate her own sex into an important branch of science, from which their circumstances have hitherto tended to estrange them. We may add to them indeed, all who are not enured to that severe and close meditation which this study requires. The copious illustrations, even the somewhat loose and excursive style in which they are conveyed, may tend to increase their value in this relative point of view. We perfectly agree with the author in thinking, that there is no sphere of action in which this study, properly

understood and applied, may not af ford the most important practical results.

In order to explain the second benefit, which we anticipate, from the writings of such an author as Mrs Hamilton, some previous observations will be necessary. The votaries of metaphysical science have, from its very nature, been generally recluse men, shut out from the living world, and little acquainted with human life and human character. Those, on the other hand, whose attention has been turned to these latter objects, gay, active, and busy, have been little disposed to look inwards, to analyse their own faculties, or to contemplate man in the abstract. Their knowledge, therefore, though it may serve particular purposes, and be of great practical benefit, wants all enlarged views, and is even inimical to virtue and greatness of character. He, on the other hand, who, without having observed man on his complex and active nature, should endeavour to apply to practice the results of his retired observation, would be betrayed into the most eggregious errors. would justly expose himself to the ridicule of those who had made the most superficial observation upon human life. To render the scientific branch applicable to use, it is necessary that it should fall into the hands of some one, who is versant in the practical branch. This Mrs Hamilton is to a degree rarely indeed attained by metaphysical students; and it is, we think, to the formation of this beneficial alliance between the two branches, that her attention may be most advantageously directed.

He

Mrs Hamilton has an introductory essay on the advantages to be derived from the study of the mind, in which we are entirely disposed to concur with her. We do not indeed much lament that it should hitherto have been so little applied to the direction of human conduct. Its progress has been

too

too small, and the mixture of error too great, to render such an application at alt practicable or safe. Even after it had emerged from the ontology and metaphysics of the schools, it was still in a vague and ill-defined state, and furnished room rather for bewildering controversy, than for solid discovery. But now, though it be far from that measure of perfection which some of the physical sciences have attained, it yet contains certain points which may be considered as fixed, and from the application of which no danger need be apprehended. The following observations are very deserving of attention.

'Let us reflect on the progress that chymical knowledge has made in our own days, and observe to what extent it has been diffused. How often are its principles referred to and applied, and properly applied, by those who have no pretensions to science, nor possess any information beyond what is common to all tolerably well educated persons? Such is the natural progress of knowledge. At first, the object of speculative inquiry to the learned or curious, who by their investigations separate truths from errors, and, by simplifying what was complex, render obvious what had been considered most obscure. When their discoveries are capable of being applied to useful purposes, the application of them becomes familiar; principles which had been deemed so far beyond the comprehension of vulgar minds, as to be attainable only to the few who devoted their lives to study, are gradually unfolded to the general view, and so completely explained as to be rendered level to the capacity of every person endowed with common understanding.'

To these we may add the following:

A good education, an excellent education,--a complete education,

are terms with which the ear is so familiar, that, to insinuate a doubt, concerning the accuracy of the ideas they convey, will, to many, seem unreasonable or absurd. Let us, however, put the matter to the test, by asking the first ten persons with whom we have an opportunity of conversing, to give a definition of these several terms; and we shall probably find, that no two persons in the number specified have attached to these terms ideas exactly similar. But however they may disagree, as to the number and nature of the accomplishments which they associate with the idea of a good, an excellent, or a complete education, we shall find, that not only not one of the ten, but perhaps not one of a thousand, connects with the idea of education, even when pronounced superlative, any notion of the general improvement of the faculties of the human mind, the regulation of the passions, or the cultivation of the affections. I do not say, that these are by so large a por tion of mankind considered as unworthy of attention, but that, in speaking of education, they are not considered as the great, the primary objects of attention; and that educa tion is not pronounced good, nor excellent, nor complete, in proportion as it has tended to exercise and invige rate all the faculties of the soul, and all the affections of the heart, but as it has imposed upon the memory a certain number of facts, and of words descriptive of the ideas or opinions of the wise and learned, and produced a facility in the performance of certain external acts, and in the pronunciation of certain sounds. Now, though there can be no doubt, that, in the course of these various exercises of the memory, a number of ideas must necessarily have been conveyed to the mind, it is by no mears clear, that the instruction given bas had any tendency to improve all the intellectual faculties, or to cultivate the

the affections, or to controul the operation of the selfish principle; all of which circumstances ought, according to my view of the subject, to enter into our definition of the terms excellent, or complete, when applied to education,

'Justly may we call that a good education which tends to develop and bring into action those faculties that are most essentially requisite in conducting the ordinary business of life, and at the same time gives such a direction to the active principles of our nature, as is essential to the happiness of the individual and of society. A A good education may, according to this definition, be the privilege of a peasant as well as of a prince; nor is the cultivation of the primary faculties of the mind more essentially necessary to the latter than to the former.

When we connect with the term education ideas that are foreign to those which imply an improvement of the rational faculties and moral principles of our nature, we must appreciate the advantages of education by a false and ever-varying standard; and as soon as the utility of any of those branches of knowledge, associated in our minds with the idea of education, appears questionable, we shall be disposed to deny that education has any beneficial effects.'

The two next essays, which are of very considerable length, are occupied with a subject on which the author is peculiarly inclined to dilate. This is the agency of attention in the developement and cultivation of the powers of the human mind. Attention seems to be considered by our author as almost the panacea, by which all mental maladies are to be cured. We confess we should have been better pleased, if Mrs Hamilton, instead of adopting a theory of her own, had been satisfied with applying the principles already ascertained to the uses of common life. The theory May 1813.

too appears to us to be carried a good deal too far. She thinks it unnecessary to define a word so common. But when any particular term is made the corner stone of a system, it is highly expedient, that its import should be determined with the utmost accuracy. Strictly speaking, attention is that act of the mind, which is necessary in order that it may receive the impressions of the external senses. In this sense it seems to be understood by Mr Stewart, by whom chiefly it has been brought forward as a distinct faculty. But there is also a popular sense, in which this term is more commonly used, and when it merely signifies the general application of the faculties to any subject. It is in this sense almost exclusively, that the term has been employed by our author. Now, before indiscriminately recommending, in this, or even in any sense, the cultivation of this faculty, a few preliminary considerations seem necessary.

We do not suppose that our author can mean to recommend an universal attention to all things. To be attracted by every passing object and incident, is characteristic of complete emptiness and frivolity. The great object is to direct the attention towards objects that are really interesting and important; and for this purpose it may often be necessary to withdraw it, even with effort, from those of a trifling and subordinate nature. The next question is, in what manner the attention is to be cultivat ed. It is very hard, by dint of mere resolution, to attend to a subject in which we take no interest; and the misfortune is, that the mere desire of the mind to attend, distracts it from the object which is to be attended to. On the other hand, any object in which we take a deep interest, attracts our attention without the smallest effort, and even perhaps while we were wishing to turn it in another direction. It appears, then, that the best

mode

mode of exciting the attention is by acting upon other desires and principles. The astronomer or the botanist, however inattentive to the occurrences of common life, observe with quickness the minute cireumstances connected with their favourite science; the slightest variation in the appear ance of the heavenly bodies, the minutest circumstance in the economy of a plant, is at once recognized. On the other hand, the votary of fashion, however indifferent to the objects of a more liberal curiosity, remarks at once every article of dress worn by every individual of a gay and numerous assembly. For those, therefore, who wish to direct either their own attention, or that of others, towards laudable pursuits, the most effectual plan does not seem to be that of urging a resolution to attend to them: but rather to place these pursuits in an interesting point of view, and to exclude objects which would distract the attention from them.

While, however, we thus differ somewhat from the ingenious author in regard to the general principle which runs through these two essays, we consider many of the observations which occur in them as extremely valuable and judicious. If they do not always, strictly speaking, afford illustrations of the power of attention, they at least shew the bad consequences of neglecting to employ the faculties upon subjects which intimately concern our well being. The following may be extremely useful to her own sex.

The propriety of domestic arrangement depends solely on the degree in which she who presides at the head of the establishment possesses the power of observation. It is on the quickness of her perceptions, that those who live beneath her roof are dependent for every domestic comfort. In these originate that perfection of order, which, in a well-regu

lated family, appears to be the work of destiny or chance, so effectually are the moving springs concealed from view. Where the perceptions have been early exercised, this attention to present objects operates with such certainty and celerity, that it interferes not with the exercise of any of the faculties. Where, on the other hand, the perceptions have become obtuse, the exercise of them is attended with sensible effort. Examples of this are frequent in the middle walks of life. There, from the limited number of domestics, more incessant demands are made on the attention of the mistress; and if, from the slowness of her perceptions, she is incapable of answering these demands without renewed and conscious effort, what anxiety,-what bustle,—what everlasting to and fro,-what complaints of negligence of servants,— what chiding,-in short, what misery! I had rather be a galley-slave than live with a good woman of this description! And yet, nevertheless, she merits praise and approbation; for, though she proves an intolerable annoyance to all around her, she is anxiously bent on the performance of her duties. How much then is it to be regretted that she was not enabled to perform them with ease?

Nor will the consequences be ren. dered less unfavourable to her family or friends, if, labouring under the same defect with respect to the power of observation, she makes no effort to direct her attention towards domestic concerns. Her house will be the abode of disorder and confusion. At her ill provided board all will be either bad or incongruous. Even should expense be no object, though her house may abound with luxuries, it will be destitute of comfort; for if her perceptions are torpid, the riches of the Indies will not supply the deficiency. To casual guests, indeed, her wit, her powers of conversation, or the display of her acquired accom

plishments,