nas.

Libros Sententiarum," to which were attached some miscellaneous papers on Philosophy and Medicine. The book was published in folio at Paris, in 1517. Bassol was known by the title, Doctor Ordinatissimus, or the most Methodical Doctor, on account of the clear and accurate method in which he lectured and composed. The fashion of giving such titles to the great masters of the schools was then in its prime. Thus, Duns Scotus himself was styled Doctor Subtilis, or the Subtle Doctor. St Francis of Assis was called the Seraphic Doctor; Alexander Hales the Irrefragable Doctor; Thomas Aquinas the Angelical Doctor; Hendricus Bonicollius the Solemn Doctor; Richard Middleton the Solid Doctor; Francis Mayron the Acute Doctor; Durandus à S. Portiano the most Resolute Doctor; Thomas Bredwardin the Profound Doctor; Joannes Ruysbrokius the Divine Doctor, and so forth; the title being in every case founded upon some extravagant conception of the merit of the particular individual, adopted by his contemporaries and disciples. In this extraordinary class of literati, John Bassol, as implied by his soubriquet, shines conspicuous for order and method; yet we are told that his works contain most of the faults which are generally laid to the charge of the schoolmen. The chief of these is an irrational devotion to the philosophy of Aristotle, as expounded by Thomas AquiIn the early ages of modern philosophy, this most splendid exertion of the human mind was believed to be irreconcileable to the Christian doctrines; and at the very time when the Angelical Doctor wrote his commentary, it stood prohibited by a decree of Pope Gregory IX. The illustrious Thomas not only restored Aristotle to favour, but inspired his followers with an admiration of his precepts, which, as already mentioned, was not rational. Not less was their admiration of the "angelical" commentator, to whom it was long the fashion among them to offer an incense little short of blasphemy. A commentator upon an original work of Thomas Aquinas, endeavours, in a prefatory discourse, to prove, in so many chapters, that he wrote his books not without the special infusion of the spirit of God Almighty; that, in writing them, he received many things by revelation; and, that Christ had given anticipatory testimony to his writings. By way of bringing the works of St Thomas into direct comparison with the Holy Scriptures, the same writer remarks, “that, as in the first General Councils of the church, it was common to have the Bible unfolded upon the Altar, so, in the last General Council (that of Trent), St Thomas' 'Sum' was placed beside the Bible, as an inferior rule of Christian doctrine." Peter Labbé, a learned Jesuit, with scarcely less daring flattery, styles St Thomas an angel, and says that, as he learned many things from the angels, so he taught the angels some things; that St Thomas had said what St Paul was not permitted to utter; and that he speaks of God as if he had seen him, and of Christ as if he had been his voice. One might almost suppose that these learned gentlemen, disregarding the sentiment afterwards embodied by Gray, that flattery soothes not the cold ear of death, endeavoured by their praises to make interest with the “angelical” shade, not doubting that he was able to obtain for them a larger share of paradise than they could otherwise hope for. In the words of the author of the Reflections on Learning, "the sainted Thomas, if capable of hearing these inordinate flatteries, must have blushed to receive them."

Bassol was also characterised, in common with all the rest of the schoolmen, by a ridiculous nicety in starting questions and objections. Overlooking the great moral aim of what they were expounding, he and his fellows lost themselves in minute and subtle inquiries after physical exactness, started at every straw which lay upon their path, and measured the powers of the mind by grains and scruples. It must be acknowledged, in favour of this singular class of men, that they improved natural reason to a great height, and that much of what

is most admired in modern philosophy is only borrowed from them. At the same time, their curiosity in raising and prosecuting frivolous objections to the Christian system is to be regretted as the source of much scepticism and irreligion. To many of their arguments, ridicule only is due; and it would perhaps be impossible for the gravest to restrain a smile at the illustrissimo mentioned by Cardan, one of whose arguments was declared to be enough to puzzle all posterity, and who himself wept in his old age, because he had become unable to understand his own books.

The works of Bassol have been long forgotten, like those of his brethren ; but it is not too much to say regarding this great man of a former day, that the same powers of mind which he spent upon the endless intricacies of the school philosophy, would certainly, in another age and sphere, have tended to the permanent advantage of his fellow creatures. He was so much admired by his illustrious preceptor, that that great man used to say, "If only Joannes Bassiolis be present, I have a sufficient auditory.”

Mr

BAXTER, ANDREW, an ingenious moral and natural philosopher, was the son of a merchant in Old Aberdeen, and of Mrs Elizabeth Fraser, a lady connected with some of the considerable families of that name in the north of Scotland. He was born at Old Aberdeen, in 1686 or 1687, and educated at the King's College, in his native city. His employment in early life was that of a preceptor to young gentlemen; and among others of his pupils were Lord Gray, Lord Blantyre, and Mr Hay of Drummelzier. In 1723, while resident at Dunse Castle, as preceptor to the last-mentioned gentleman, he is known, from letters which passed between him and Henry Home, afterwards Lord Kaimes, to have been deeply engaged in both physical and metaphysical disquisitions. As Mr Home's paternal seat of Kaimes was situated within a few miles of Dunse Castle, the similarity of their pursuits appears to have brought them into an intimate friendship and correspondence. This, however, was soon afterwards broken off. Home, who was a mere novice in physics, contended with Mr Baxter that motion was necessarily the result of a succession of causes. The latter endeavoured, at first with much patience and good temper, to point out the error of this argument; but, teased at length with what he conceived to be sophistry purposely employed by his antagonist to show his ingenuity in throwing doubts on principles to which he himself annexed the greatest importance, and on which he had founded what he believed to be a demonstration of those doctrines most material to the happiness of mankind, he finally interrupted the correspondence, saying, "I shall return you all your letters; mine, if not already destroyed, you may likewise return; we shall burn them and our philosophical heats together." About this time, Mr Baxter married Alice Mabane, daughter of a respectable clergyman in Berwickshire. A few years afterwards he published his great work, entitled, "An Enquiry into the nature of the Human Soul, wherein its immateriality is evinced from the principles of Reason and Philosophy." This work was originally without date; but a second edition appeared in 1737, and a third in 1745. It has been characterised in the highest terms of panegyric by Bishop Warburton. "He who would see,” says this eminent prelate, "the justest and precisest notions of God and the soul, may read this book; one of the most finished of the kind, in my humble opinion, that the present times, greatly advanced in true philosophy, have produced.” The object of the treatise is to prove the immateriality, and consequently the immortality of the soul, from the acknowledged principle of the vis inertia of matter. His argument, according to the learned Lord Woodhouselee, is as follows: "There is a resistance to any change of its present state, either of rest or motion, essential to matter, which is inconsistent with its possessing any active power. Those, there

fore, which have been called the natural powers of matter, as gravity, attraction, elasticity, repulsion, are not powers implanted in matter, or possible to be made inherent in it, but are impulses or forces impressed upon it ab extra. The consequence of the want of active power in matter is, that all those effects commonly ascribed to its active powers, must be produced upon it by an immaterial being. Hence we discover the necessity for the agency of a constant and universal Providence in the material world, who is God; and hence we must admit the necessity of an immaterial mover in all spontaneous motions, which is the Soul; for that which can arbitrarily effect a change in the present state of matter, cannot be matter itself, which resists all change of its present state: and since this change is effected by willing, that thing which wills in us is not matter, but an immaterial substance. From these fundamental propositions, the author deduces as consequences, the necessary immortality of the soul, as being a simple uncompounded substance, and thence incapable of decay, and its capacity of existing, and being conscious when separated from the body.” In 1741, leaving his family in Berwick, he went abroad with his pupil Mr Hay, and resided for several years at Utrecht. In the course of various excursions which he made through Holland, France, and Germany, he was generally well received by the literati. He returned to Scotland in 1747, and, till his death in 1750, resided constantly at Whittingham in East Lothian, a seat of his pupil Mr Hay. His latter works "" were, Matho, sive Cosmotheoria puerilis, Dialogus," a piece designed for the use of his pupil, and, “An Appendix to his Enquiry into the nature of the human soul," wherein he endeavoured to remove some difficulties, which had been started against his notions of the vis inertia of matter by Maclaurin, in his "Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries.” In 1779, the Rev. Dr Duncan of South Warnborough published, "The evidence of reason in proof of the Immortality of the Soul, independent on the more abstruse enquiry into the nature of matter and spirit-collected from the MSS.

of the late Mr Baxter."

The learning and abilities of Mr Baxter are sufficiently displayed in his writings, which, however, were of more note in the literary world during his own time than now. He was very studious, and sometimes sat up whole nights reading and writing. His temper was cheerful; he was a friend to innocent merriment, and of a disposition truly benevolent. In conversation he was modest, and not apt to make much show of the extensive knowledge he possessed. In the discharge of the several social and relative duties of life, his conduct was exemplary. He had the most reverential sentiments of the Deity, of whose presence and immediate support, he had always a strong impression upon his mind. He paid a strict attention to economy, though he dressed elegantly, and was not parsimonious in his other expenses. It is known also that there were several occasions on which he acted with remarkable disinterestedness; and so far was he from courting preferment, that he repeatedly declined offers of that kind that were made to him, on the condition of his taking orders in the Church of England. The French, German, and Dutch languages were spoken by him with much ease, and the Italian tolerably; and he read and wrote them all, together with the Spanish. His friends and correspondents were numerous and respectable; among them are particularly mentioned, Mr Pointz, preceptor to the Duke of Cumberland, and Bishop Warburton. While travelling on the Continent, he had formed an intimate friendship with the celebrated John Wilkes; and he accordingly dedicated to this gentleman his Appendix to the Enquiry. After the death of Mr Baxter, Mr Wilkes published a remarkably interesting letter, the last but one which he had received from his friend, exhibiting in a very striking manner the deep impression which the excellent principles of Mr

Baxter had made upon his own mind, and which were only the more deeply and confidently cherished as life approached its close. "As to the state of my disease," says the dying philosopher, "unless I would make suppositions contrary to all probability, I have no reasonable hopes of recovery, the swelling which began at my legs, being now got up to my belly and head.

I am a trouble to all about me, especially to my poor wife, who has the life of a slave night and day, helping me to take care of my diseased frame. Yet I may linger on a while, as I can still walk a little through the room, and divert myself now and then with reading, nay, in writing down my remarks on what I read. But I can with sincerity assure you, my most dear Mr Wilkes, death has nothing terrible to me; or rather I look upon it with pleasure. I have long and often considered and written down the advantages of a separate state. I shall soon know more than all the men I leave behind me; wonders in material nature and the world of spirits, which never entered into the thoughts of philosophers. The end of knowledge then, is not to get a name, or form a new sect, but to adore the power and wisdom of the Deity. This kills pride, but heightens happiness and pleasure. All our rational desires, because rational, must be satisfied by a being, himself infinitely rational. I have been long aware that nothing can go beyond the grave, but habits of virtue and innocence. There is no distinction in that world, but what proceeds from virtue or vice. Titles and riches are laid off when the shroud goes on." [Mr Baxter then goes on to express his conviction that even the punishments which may be awarded in a future state will only be "to correct and make better."] Besides, what is it to be free from the pains and infirmities of the body-though I am satisfied just now, that the weakness of my distressed limbs is as much the immediate effect of the same power and goodness, as their growth and strength was sixty years ago! Dare I add a word without being thought vain? This is owing to my having reasoned honestly on the nature of that dead substance, matter. It is as utterly inert when the tree flourishes, as when the leaf withers. And it is the same divine power, differently applied, that directs the last parting throb, and the first drawing breath. O the blindness of those who think matter can do any thing of itself, or perform an effect without impulse or direction from superior power!"

BAYNE, [or BAINE] JAMES, A. M. a divine of some note, was the son of the Rev. Mr Bayne, minister of Bonhill in Dumbartonshire, and was born in 1710. His education commenced at the parish school, was completed at the university of Glasgow, and in due time he became a licensed preacher of the established church of Scotland. In consequence of the respectability of his father, and his own talents as a preacher, he was presented by the Duke of Montrose to the church of Killearn, the parish adjoining that in which his father had long ministered the gospel, and memorable as the birth-place of Buchanan. In this sequester. ed and tranquil scene, he spent many years, which he often referred to in after life as the happiest he had ever known. He here married Miss Potter, daughter of Dr Michael Potter, professor of divinity in the Glasgow university, by whom he had a large family. His son, the Rev. James Bayne, was licensed in the Scottish establishment, but afterwards received episcopal ordination, and died in the exercise of that profession of faith at Alloa.

The reputation of Mr Bayne as a preacher soon travelled far beyond the rural scene to which his ministrations were confined. His people, in allusion to the musical sweetness of his voice, honoured him with the poetical epithet of "the swan of the west." He was appointed to a collegiate charge in the High Church of Paisley, where his partner in duty was the celebrated Mr Wotherspoon, afterwards president of the Nassau Hall College, Princetown, New Jersey. The two colleagues, however,

did not co-operate harmoniously, although both enjoyed a high degree of popularity. Mr Bayne displayed great public spirit during his connection with the Established church, defending her spiritual liberties and independence in the church courts, and offering a determined opposition to the policy of the moderate or ruling party. The deposition of Mr Thomas Gillespie, of Carnock, the founder of the Relief church, made a powerful impression on his mind, and undoubtedly had a strong influence in inducing him to resign his pastoral charge in Paisley. But the immediate cause of that resolution was a keen dispute which took place in the kirk-session of his parish, respecting the appointment of a session-clerk. The session contested the right of appointment with the town-council; the whole community took an interest in the dispute; and the case came at last to be litigated in the Court of Session, which decided in favour of the town-council. Unhappily, Mr Bayne and his colleague took opposite sides in this petty contest, and a painful misunderstanding was produced betwixt them, followed by consequences probably affecting the future destinies of both. Mr Bayne refers to these differences in his letter of resignation, addressed to the Presbytery, dated 10th February, 1766:-" They (the Presbytery) know not how far I am advanced in life, who see not that a house of worship, so very large as the High Church, and commonly so crowded too, must be very unequal to my strength; and this burden was made more heavy by denying me a session to assist me in the common concerns of the parish, which I certainly had a title to. But the load became quite intolerable, when, by a late unhappy process, the just and natural right of the common session was wrested from us, which drove away from acting in it twelve men of excellent character." Mr Bayne joined the Relief church, then in its infancy, having, even whilst in the Establishment, held ministerial communion with Mr Simpson, minister of Bellshill congregation, the first Relief church in the west of Scotland. In his letter of resignation, already quoted, Mr Bayne assured his former brethren that the change of his condition, and the charge he had accepted, would make no change in his creed, nor in his principles of Christian and ministerial communion“Nay (he adds), none in my cordial regard to the constitution and interests of the Church of Scotland, which I solemnly engaged to support some more than thirty years ago, and hope to do so while I live. At the same time I abhor persecution in every form, and that abuse of church power of late, which to me appears inconsistent with humanity, with the civil interests of the nation, and destructive of the ends of our office as ministers of Christ." On the 24th December, Mr Bayne accepted a call to become minister of the College Street Relief Church, Edinburgh, and his induction took place on the 13th February, 1766, three days after his resignation of his charge in Paisley. As his demission fell to be adjudicated upon by the General Assembly, in May of that year, his name remained for the present upon the roll of the Establishment, and so little did he yet consider himself separated from the communion of that church, that when the half-yearly sacrament of the Lord's Supper came round in Edinburgh, soon after his settlement, after preaching in his own church in the forenoon, he went over in the afternoon, at the head of his congregation, to the New Greyfriars' church, and joined in the ordinance with the congregation of the Rev. Dr Erskine. At the Assembly in May, Mr Bayne, in obedience to a citation, appeared at the bar, and was declared to be no longer a minister of the Church of Scotland, and all clergymen of that body were prohibited from holding ministerial communion with him. Mr Bayne defended the course he had taken in a review of the proceedings of the Assembly, entitled, "Memoirs of Modern Church Reformation, or the History of the General Assembly, 1766, and occasional reflections upon the proceedings of said Assembly; with a brief account and vindication of the Presbytery of Relief, by James Bayne, A.M., minister of the gospel at Edinburgh." He denounces, with indignant severity, the injustice of his having been condemned by