Universal Biography.' Use has been made of this work, especially in the latter portion of the lectures. The lives of Schelling and Hegel are taken from the same publication, with the kind permission of the publisher, Mr Mackenzie, of Howard Street, Glasgow.[1]
The second volume contains the papers on philosophical subjects which Mr Ferrier published in 'Blackwood's Magazine,' and a few occasional lectures which appeared to deserve insertion, with one or two specimens illustrating his general literary faculty. It is probable that if he had republished these essays he would have remodelled and rewritten much ; possibly omitted many portions ; and it would be in nowise surprising if treatises composed at so early a stage in his speculative progress exhibit either a seeming or an actual discrepancy from his later and more matured opinions. It might indeed be matter for juster surprise if such difficulties did not frequently occur in the writings of any original thinker, when separated by a long interval in the date of their production. It should not be forgotten that what, seen from without, may present the look of a partial inconsistency, may often more justly from within be regarded as a reconciliation and union of two different aspects of truth. " There is nothing
- ↑ Several other articles in this work are from the pen of Mr Ferrier, and may be distinguished by having his initials affixed. Among those likely to interest the general reader may be noticed Adam Smith, Swift, and Schiller.
