15 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh
24th February 1868
My Dear Sir
Your kind letter of October should assuredly have received an earlier answer, but for the fact that the present Session has been to me an unusually busy one. A theological student in Scotland is always hard worked during the first two months of the Session, but this year I have had a good deal of unexpected work to do in the Hebrew Class, especially in writing an essay on a subject very much psychological – the dependence of prophetic dreams & visions on the character and circumstances of the prophet. Our English Psychologists do not pay much attention to the subject of dreams & I found the book of Jessen[2] that you gave me very useful. I find Jessen a very acute thinker as well as a careful observer; but does he not show too great a tendency to personify the various mental faculties, and as it were play them off one against the other? I think this sometimes gives his explanations a deceptive fluency.
I have been trying to spare as much time as possible for philosophical studies. I got a good deal done before coming up to Edinburgh but at present have less time at my disposal. I begin to think seriously of competing for the Shaw Fellowship in Philosophy (which I think I spoke of to you when in Germany) as the competition has been put off till next Christmas. I might thus have the whole summer for preparation with very little interference from my Theological work. The subject is stated with the utmost wideness[:] Psychology, Metaphysics, Logic, Ethics & the History of Philosophy. Probably the last branch of the subject will be that on which most weight is laid. In fact we hardly treat Metaphysics otherwise than historically or critically. Of course the examination will be by written papers in answer to questions set by the examiners. I do not think this is so good a plan as the German way of prescribing an Essay, but it is the plan invariably followed here. The Scholarship is worth £160 per annum for 5 years. There is one very good competitor against whom I feel that I have no chance, who is at present assistant[3] to Prof. Fraser the Senior Examiner. But I believe it would be very advantageous to me if I were the best candidate from the Aberdeen University, a position that I have perhaps a fair chance of obtaining.
You will I am sure excuse me troubling you with all these details, and allow me to ask you for some hints to guide my reading.
On your advice I have purchased the new edition of Kant so far as it has appeared and am reading the [“]Kr. d. reinen Vernunft”[4] very carefully trying to put myself thoroughly on the author’s own Standpoint & comparing his views with those of our empirical school. I have also gone over Descartes’ works pretty thoroughly & have made a beginning with Spinoza. In the Ancient Philosophy I have read a little of Aristotle’s Metaphysics and have been attacking Plato with great pleasure. I now know something of Gorgias Phaedrus Protagoras Republic Timaeus[5]. I have not studied these dialogues throughout but have passed over the greater part of the political matter in the Republic & the Mathematical speculations in the Timaeus very cursorily.
I have thought that the spurious dialogues might be safely got up at second hand, and I find far more unity & grandeur in Plato’s philosophy when I study it exclusively through your dialogues than in those expositions that combine with these the Sophista, Philebus etc. I have been comparing your book with Grote’s[6] treatment of the spurious dialogues, and I found your analyses much more pointed & telling. Hence I have begun to regret that, except indirectly, you have done nothing for the true dialogues. Would not an account of the nine dialogues which should keep these masterpieces quite free from the mists of the Sophista etc. & and give the grand lines of Plato’s own thoughts be a worthy employment for your pen & perhaps do more to establish your views than any direct polemic? Such a book would, if translated, be very useful in England.
Would you kindly give me some hints as to the best German books on Ethics. Is there any compendious account of recent German ethical speculations? Then again, is there any good book of moderate compass on Formal Logic which gives a sufficient account of the history. I do not suppose that German Philosophy will directly form a great part of our examination, but a knowledge of it must give one power in criticising other systems, and of course I feel that merely to read for an examination would be to waste time.
The chair of Moral Philosophy in Edinburgh is vacant just now & the election takes place (I think) in June. The Curators who appoint the professor are not satisfied with any of the candidates yet proposed & there is some talk of combining the professorship with the principalship, which is also vacant by Brewster’s[7] death, and appointing Sir A. Grant[8] , Editor of Aristotle’s Ethics. Grant has £2000 as Director of Education in Bombay and would not return home for the Professorship alone, which is only worth some £500 per annum. If this arrangement fall through the Chair is not unlikely to fall to a Hegelian. Two Hegelians are candidates — Stirling[9] author of “The Secret of Hegel” & an Oxford man, Greene[10].
I hope you are by this time Professor Ordinarius in room of Brandis[11]. Machenhauer[12] wrote me in December that the place was not yet filled up.
We have had most terrible weather in Edinburgh this winter. For more than a month there have been a series of most violent gales which have injured or blown down many buildings including two churches. After the first of these gales the city looked as if it had been bombarded[13] so great was the ruin, the streets covered with slates tiles and stones. I never saw such weather & am almost afraid that our climate is undergoing a permanent change for the worse.
I saw Professor Robertson in Aberdeen before the beginning of the session, and delivered your message to him. He talks of bringing out a volume on Hobbes sometime in spring.
I presume you have by this time completed your translation of Spinoza’s treatise[14]. I find that it has scarcely been heard of here. Indeed Spinoza has never excited very much attention in Scotland, and is much less read than Descartes.
We, in Scotland, are very proud just now of a new book by two Scottish Professors — “Thomson & Tait’s Natural Philosophy”[15] which I hope you have got in your Library. Some go so far as to say that when complete the work will be the most epoch-making physical treatise since Newton’s Principia. I daresay that in Germany you will not lavish such high praise on anything British, but you must I am sure admit that the book is a very valuable one.
Accept my best thanks for the trouble you took to procure my certificate for me. I should have been sorry indeed to lose it.
Although I write at a distance from home I am sure my Father would be much vexed if I closed this letter without sending you his best regards.
Remember me kindly to Mrs Schaarschmidt who I hope is enjoying better health than formerly, and also to Fritz & Hetta
and Believe me
Yours very truly
W. Robertson Smith
P.S. I quite forgot to ask if Herr Doctorandus Puckett[16] has become Herr Doctor Puckett yet; or has Rostock proved as unreasonable as Jena? I should have mentioned that I remain here till the end of March and then return to Keig for the Summer.
[1] ULB Bonn Autographensammlung
[2] Jessen, Paul Wilhelm: Versuch einer Wissenschaftlichen Begründung der Psychologie, Berlin, Veit & Comp., 1855.
[3] Fraser’s asstistant in Moral Philosophy was Thomas Lindsay.
[4] Kritik der Reinen Vernunft (Critque of Pure Reason), re-edited in 1868 by J.H. v. Kirchmann.
[5] WRS refers here to the Platonic Dialogues which he has been reading.
[6] George Grote, (1794–1871): historian. Plato and the other Companions of Sokrates was published in 1865 by Murray, London.
[7] Brewster, Sir David (1781–1868): In 1860, he moved from position of Principal at St Andrews to become Principal and Vice-Chancellor at Edinburgh University. An eminent supporter of the Free Church from the 1843 Disruption, Brewster was also a noted physicist with an especial interest in photography and is credited with inventing the kaleidoscope.
[8] Grant, Alexander (later Sir Alexander) (1826–1884): established his academic reputation with the Ethics of Aristotle, first published in 1857. He served as Principal of Edinburgh University from 1864 until his death and wrote The Story of the University of Edinburgh (1884)
[9] Stirling, James Hutchison (1829–1909): embarked on a medical career but from 1851 devoted his life to the study of philosophy, his most notable work being The Secret of Hegel (1865) which had doubtless come to WRS’s attention by way of P.G. Tait.
[10] Probably a misspelling by WRS of Green, Thomas Hill, (1836–1882): respected British philosopher whose collected Works were published between 1883 and 1888. Educated at Oxford Green became professor of Moral Philosophy there from 1878.
[11] Brandis, Christian August (1790–1867): was Professor Ordinarius of Philosophy in Bonn and an expert on Aristotle.
[12] Machenhauer, Alexander: a German philosopher.
[13] See 1868-01-25.
[14] Tractatus theologico-politicus, 1679.
[15] Thomson and Tait’s book, A Treatise on Natural Philosophy, was first published in 1867 as Part One of an intended longer work. Because of Thomson’s other commitments, the sequel was never completed. The Treatise became familiarly known to generations of students as T & T′.
[16] This evidently was the same “Puckett” mentioned in 1869-05-24.