PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS.

BY

DUGALD STEWART, ESQ.

F. R. S. EDIN.

EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY, IN THE UNIVERSITY OF

EDINBURGH;
Honorary Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburgh; and

Member of the American Philosophical Society, held at Philadelphia.

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION.

PRINTED FOR ANTHONY FINLEY, PHILADELPHIA;

AND

WHITING AND WATSON, NEW-YORK,

Fry and Kammerer, Printers.

1811.

P 18/1

PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS.

M360481

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE state of my health having interrupted, for many months

past, the continuation of my work on the Human Mind, I was induced to attempt, in the mean time, the easier task of preparing for the press a volume of Essays. I have not, however, abandoned the design which I ventured to announce eighteen years ago; and in the execution of which I have already made considerable progress. . After thirty-eight years devoted to the various pursuits connected with my different academical situations, I now indulge the hope of enjoying, in a more retired scene, a short period of private study; and feel myself sufficiently warned by the approaching infirmities of age, not to delay any longer my best exertions for the accomplishment of an undertaking, which I have hitherto prosecuted only at accidental and often distant intervals; but which I have always fondly imagined (whether justly or not others must determine) might, if carried into complete efect

, be of some utility to the public.

Kimeil-House, 15th Jung 1810.