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T \ £ e . hare-to record , this week the death of a man who , in the purely intellectual order of greatness , has hardly left his exact parallel in Britain , or even in Europe—^ Sir Wixliam Hamilton , ' Bart ., Professor of Logic and M etaphysics in . the University of Edinburgh . Born in Glasgow about the year 179 . 0 , . and educated first in Scotland , and afterwards ati Oxford , Sir with little in the of
Wuti-iAM ,-who . derived his" baronetcy , or nothing shape hereditary property attached to it , from ancestors of some distinction in Scot tish history during the Covenanting times , adopted the Scottish Bar as his profession . He was called to the Bar in 1813 . Already at that time he had an extraordinary reputation among those who knew him , as a man of erudition and of speculative research . Younger men then living in Edinburgh as students , used to'lpok up with veneration , as they passed his house at night , to the lighted window of the room where they knewbinvto be busy with his books . His readings were of a kind at which ordinary of the
men stand aghast- ^ -Aristotle and Plato ; the Schoolmen middle ages ; all German , a l l Italian , all French , all English , all Scottish philosophers . He was preparing himself to be a new name and a new influence in purely -speculative philosophy—a man who , r esuming in himself all that his predecessors in the-series of Scottish'metaphysicians had done , and bringing to the work of philosophy a culture , an acquaintance with univefsal literature , such as none of them had possessed , and perhaps also greater energy of nature , -should again , in a utilitarian age , reinstate the old problems which Asistotle andPiiATO and the Schoolmen meditated , and call on the intellect
of modern Britain to refresh itself by entertaining them , even if their solution was impossible . At length he obtained a position suitable to his -genius and . tastes . After holding for some time the chair of Universal History in the University of Edinburgh , he was appointed , in 1836 , to the chair of Logic and Metaphysics in the same University . For twenty years , in this position , he was an intellectual power , influencing sixty or eighty youths annuallyteaching them a Logic , compared with which that of Whatjelt is child s play , and a Metaphysics as hard and profound as that of Kant and his Germans , and yet clear-grained , genuine , and British . The admiration he excited among the students competent to follow him was unbounded , and none lef t his class without bearing his intellectual mark . It was always regretted
by his admirers that his own insatiable passion for reading prevented him from putting forth works which would have conveyed to the world at large an adequate impression of his powers as a thinker . Even now what he has lef t behind him is but a fragment of what he might have done . About the year 1829 he began to contribute to the Edinburgh Review ; and the papers on speculative topics which he contributed to that periodical were , for some time , his sole literary manifestations of any importance . Scattered as they were , and fragmentary as they were , their influence on contemporary and subsequent thought was great ; they were reprinted in France , as recognitions of a new Philosophy ; and in Oxford they helped to determine rising minds to new and more profound
forms of logical and metaphysical studies . Some years ago , Sir William put forth an edition of Reid ' s works , with notes and dissertations , in which he expounded , by way of supplement to Reii > , some of the cardinal notions of his own more advanced mental science . The book is one of the most amorphous ever issued from the British press : it is very thick , it is printed in double columns in small type , and , what is worse , it is not finished , but ends abruptly in the middle of a sentence . And yet it is a book among ten thousand , in 1852 the articles in the Edinburgh Review were republished collectively , under the title of Discussions on Philosophy and Literaturea book as remarkable , and better known . Be fore the publication of the Discussions , and , if we remember aright , before that of Rjmjd , SirWiw-iAM was seized with paralysis , which affected one side of hie body and to some extent
alao his speech . It was a sad sight to see such a man—a man , too , of fine physical appearance—moving about , thus crippled . His intellect , however , was unaffected by the shock ; and ho continued to the last , with some assistance , to conduct his class regularly every winter . Latterly he was engaged on an edition of the works of Dugai-d Stewart , which , we believe , he has left complete . He had an affection for this kind of work , which , secing that it interfered with original labours , must be regarded as unfortunate . One is glad to know , however , that he has left his Lectures on Logic and Metaphysics fairly written out . When these arc published , they will perhaps be the most perfect revelation of the man , in both his aspectsthat of his colossal memory and acquaintance with the whole history of Opinion , and that of his native vigour and subtlety of speculative thought . It was the union of vast erudition with vast intellectual strength in pure
speculation that made Sir William almost unique among his British contemporaries . ; and it is solemnizing to think ' that in one brief day suoh a brain may cease its thinkings , and such a memory , with all that lay gathered up in it , may bo extinguished from the earth .
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One , of the strangest of vexed questions ie the question " Have Animals Souls ? " To the majority of modern Christians , thinking and unthinking , it seems eminentl y absurd , if not eminently ' dangerous , to maintain that
animals have . souls ; -although to ; . ancient Christians , asvwell as to ancieni philosophers , the absurdity would have been-in : the denial , Anima , from which the-name is derive ^ J »« w » ing . the breath of life , and tyvxri meaning , as we have shown imthese eolumus , . life and soul , iadifierently—for in trutl the two were not separated uatil 'modern metaphysics , probably among th « Schoolmen , came to divorce them , and make them essentially independent . An able writer in Putnam ' s Monthly- for / April- takes nip the question . He first adduces scriptural evidence of ** one and the same covenant binding us and animals to our Maker , " and justly remarks on the deplorable habit oi using the word animal as a ; term of contempt . All contempt is perilous ,
but contempt of Godte creatures in their free activity is essentially irreligious . Of plants , and even of stones , we speak with veneration-and admiration , but the " brutes that perish" we permit ourselves- to Vilify . Curiously enough , the nearer these brutes approach our own proud selves , the deeper is the loathing expressed for " our poor relations , " as Xuttbbx . wittily called monkeys ; and many a worthy gentleman would . drop -your personal acquaintance if you suggested to him that the dog which loves and obeys him has a soul not essentially different from his own . The writer in Ptetttam argues , and justly , for the inner life even of Plants ; which will be paradoxical only to the immature psychologist . His case is better made out with animals , however , because we ; are more acquainted with the functions
of animals . Read this t—Animals discern their food , as the first condition of their existence . The tree , also , it is true , uses all that nature has placed within its reach for self-preservation , aa if it were created solely for its own purposes ; hut it doea so mechanically , constantly , and without choice . The animal , on the contrary , knows its food from afar , seizes it with all the eagerness of instinct , and disposes of it in the most useful manner . In order to distinguish food , it must have been placed by the Creator . in a pre-established harmony with its food ; it must have apertures to seize it , and a space within to hold it . These , however , are not given to all -, for some , that dwell in the water , are mere know notThe infu
ribbons or threads , balls or cylinders . How they absorb , we . - soria , however , have each a stomach and often several ; they even begin to fight for their food . Others are endowed with cilia—tiny hairs , that whirl in Testless motion around the mouth , and fill it with invisible victims . How different from the grim medusa , that sends out-eighty thousand arms , & Whole army , eager with insatiable hunger . The shark swallows men , horses , and oiled powder-casks ; the whale entire hosts of sea animals . Other cunning-creatures are more festidious ; than the most experienced gourmet . The silk-worm-eats only mulberry leaves , and a suspicion of dampness deprives i him of his . appetite . and in eccentricities like
There is a large wasp that , lives in sandrburrows indulges ; few other beings : the only animal , save the horse , that sleeps standing , and so it dies . You see its lean , lank body , stand prim and prudish near its former dwelling—you touch it and it falls into dust . It proudly refuses to lie down , like other poor insects , and decently to fold up its limbs . But its pride is still greater in its choice of food . It catches spiders , butterflies , and caterpillars ; but , instead of killing them at once , it only bites them in the neck , paralyzes them , and drags them into its little hole . Who taught it to deprive large insects of -wings and legs , and to leave the smaller unharmed ? It rejects all alms and gifts . You may choose its choicest morsel and place it before , the hungry wasp , it will not touch it ; if you put it , during the owner's absence , into his house , he indignantly ejects it on his return . in tlieir stablesAlmost anthillbelonging to
The cunning ants keep cows . every , one variety , has a beetle in it , who lives , rears a family , and dies among them a welcome and honoured companion . When the ants meet him they stroke and caress him ¦ with their antennas ; in return he offers them a sweet liquid that oozes out under his wings , and of which the little topers are passionately fond . So great is their attachment to the odd confectioner , that they seize him , in times of danger , and carry him off to a place of safety ; the conquerors of an invaded nation spare the sweet beetle , and , what is perhaps more surprising , his maggot , and his chrysalis , though themselves utterly useless , are as safe among their wise hosts as if they also possessed the luscious honey . Other ants , again , keep countless aphides , that sit on the tender green , leaves of juicy plants , as on green meadows , and suck away so luatily that their delicate little bodies swell like tho udders of cows on rich spring pasture . At that season , the ants have to feed their , yOUng with more delicate food than their own ; they stroke and caress their tiny milch cows , gather the nutricious liquid that pours forth under their sagacious treatment , and carry it , drop by drop , to their nurseries .
All this , we know , is called Instinct , and much of it is probably not more psychial , in the usual sense , than tho union of an acid with a base . But the human soul is also mainly composed of Instincts , although these are less obvious owing to the complexity of higher psychial operations . It is evident that the simpler organisms will manifest simpler instincts and activities than the more complex organisms ; the philosopher ' s business is to identify the ' unity of composition' in the . psychinl as in tho anatomical world ,. and to show that animuls only differ inter se , by differences of degree . Besides tho simplest of all instincts , that of discerning food , there are others alao very simple , and consequently universal—tho discernment of ft proper domicile , or habitat , for example . The essayist has enumerated some curious facts on this point . He allows his imagination to run away with him occasionally in speaking of tho instinct of self-preservation ; and nofc
when he . says that the " cunning beetle feigns death because orows do touch dead beetles , " he is talking tho loose talk of Natural Theology , not science . In tho same way , when discussing whether all animals feel the sensations of hunger and thirst , he outruns observation and allows imagination to interpret . " Grasshoppora uro the first creatures that aro known tosatisfy thirst by drinking . " How is this known ? " They aro passionately fond of sipping the dew of the morning . " That they sip the dew is a fact of observation ; but no observation , no gleam of evidence reveals that they do so with " passionate fondness . " Generally animals which live on liquid food do not drink ; whilst birds which eat dry seeds aro ever thirsty . 41 Hence it has been often asked , wliy drinking and singing should over be found so closely bound to each other ? " A question for hilarious gentlemen who over a social glass' aro prone to indulge in bursts of lyrism , and who alternately " puss the rosy" toll clc roll I
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Leader (1850-1860), May 10, 1856, page 447, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2140/page/15/
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