W/E are still in an age in which young men belonging to county families devoted themselves to the work of the ministry of the gospel.George Campbell was the son of the Rev.John Campbell, a minister in Aberdeen, and one of the Campbells of Westhall, who claimed to be cadets of the house of Argyll.He was educated at the grammar-school, Aberdeen, and at Marischal College; and, being destined by his family to the law, he was apprenticed to a writer to the signet in Edinburgh.But he had a strong disposition towards the church, and he attended divinity lectures first in Edinburgh, and then in Marischal and in King's, Aberdeen.He was licensed to preach the gospel in 1746, and was settled as minister of Banchory-Ternan on the banks of the Dee in I748.He was translated to a church in Aberdeen in 1757, and there (in 1758) became a member of the famous Philosophical Society, and contributed papers which were afterwards elaborated into volumes.In 1759, he was made principal of Marischal College, and every one felt that he was worthy of the office and fitted for it.In 1779, he was appointed professor of divinity in the same college, as successor to Gerard.In his opening lecture he says: " It is supposed that I am to teach you every thing connected with the study of divinity." " I am to teach you nothing; but, by the grace of God, I will assist you to teach yourselves every thing."He now resigned his city charge; but, as minister of Grayfriars, an office conjoined with the professorship, he preached every Sunday in one of the churches.It is a curious coincidence that as Reid succeeded the Rev.John Bissett in Old Machar, so Campbell succeeded him in Aberdeen: the earnest evangelical giving way in both cases to the cultured moderate.From his entrance into Aberdeen he was much admired by the educated and refined.The story is that some one told Gerard that he must now look to his laurels, whereupon the old professor replied that the incomer was indolent, a remark which was reported to Campbell, who {240} profited by it, and became remarkable for his diligence.It is certain that in his later years he showed amazing industry in his literary pursuits.From time to time he gave to the press sermons characteristic of the age: calm, dignified, elegant, and moral, full of reverence, and carefully free from all extravagance and fanaticism.One feels as if be should have been a bishop delivering charges to his clergy, fitted to sustain the dignity of the Church of England.His speaking is thus described The closeness, the force, the condensed precision of his reasoning exceed the power of description.Not a single superfluous word was used, no weak or doubtful argument introduced."But he gave to the world more elaborate works.Hume's influence was now beginning to be felt, and in 1763, Campbell publicly entered the lists against him, in " ADissertation on Miracles." Before publishing the work, he transmitted through Dr.Blair a copy to Hume, who writes him in his usual pleasant manner, not entering into controversy, but stating how his own argument had occurred to him when a Jesuit was plying him with some " nonsensical miracle." In answering the sceptic, Campbell proposes to prove that testimony hath a natural and original influence on belief antecedent to experience.He may be right in saying that there is such a tendency, -- I believe it to be hereditary in children; but this can serve him very little in his argument, as it is not of the nature of a necessary principle, and he is obliged to admit that testimony often deceives, so that we are brought back, as Hume maintains, to experience.But he is more successful when he shows that experience can prove a miracle, and this notwithstanding that nature is uniform." For this purpose I make the following supposition.I have lived for some years near a ferry.It consists with my knowledge that the passage-boat has a thousand times crossed the river, and as many times returned safe.An unknown man, whom I have just now met, tells me in a serious manner that it is lost, and affirms that he himself saw the passengers carried down the stream and the boat overwhelmed.No person who is influenced in his judgment of things, not by philosophical subtleties, but by common sense, a much surer guide, will hesitate to declare that in such a testimony I have probable evidence of the fact asserted." The last work published by him was " The {241} Four Gospels, translated from the Greek, with Preliminary Dissertations, and Notes Critical and Explanatory," 1789, The translation, though elegant, is not idiomatic; but the dissertations show a fine critical spirit.After his death, his " Lectures on Ecclesiastical History," his " Lectures on Systematic Theology and Pulpit Eloquence," and his "Lectures on the Pastoral Character,"were published.But in this work we have to look merely at the philosophical discussions in his work on the "Philosophy of Rhetoric," which was commenced at Banchory, and published in 1776.
We have seen all throughout this history that the Scottish metaphysicians following Shaftesbury were fond of speculating about beauty and taste, and that all the Scottish thinkers at this time were anxious to acquire an elegant style.Adam Smith for several years read lectures with great eclat on rhetoric and belles-lettres in Edinburgh, under the patronage of Lord Kames, and afterwards did the same in the class of logic in Glasgow University.