Chapter XXXIX · (continued 2)

George Croom Robertson was born in Aberdeen on the 10th of March, 1842. He was educated at the Grammar School there, and at the University of Aberdeen, where, after a very distinguished career, he graduated in 1861 with highest honours in classics and mental philosophy. The same year he gained the Ferguson Scholarship, in these two subjects, one of the great prizes open to all Scottish graduates. Subsequent to this Mr. Robertson pursued his philosophic studies for upwards of two years at Heidelberg, Berlin, Göttingen, and Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Trendeleburg, Du Bois, Reymond, Bona Meyer, Lotze, and other distinguished teachers and thinkers, and profited greatly by their instruction and intercourse. He returned to Aberdeen in 1863, and continued to devote his attention to philosophical study.

Having elaborated a number of valuable and interesting notes from his German studies, he assisted Dr. Bain in the revision and amplification of his work, entitled, The Senses and the Intellect, the Emotions and the Will, for a second edition. He also aided Dr. Bain in the ethical part of the excellent manual​—Mental and Moral Science, and contributed to it the articles on the Neo-Platonists, the Scholastic Ethics, Hobbes, Cumberland, Cudworth, Kant, Cousin, and Jouffroy. In these there is ample evidence of Robertson’s philosophic, critical, and literary powers, scholarship, and research.

In 1864 he was appointed assistant to Professor Geddes in the University of Aberdeen, and held the post for two sessions; he also assisted in teaching the Greek classes. In December, 1866, he was appointed to the Chair of Mental Philosophy and Logic in University College, London, and opened his class in January, 1867. He carefully prepared courses of lectures for his classes on Systematic Psychology, Ethical Theory, and Logic​—inductive and deductive. He mainly directed his teaching to the elaboration and explication of psychological doctrines, and the history of philosophy. His knowledge of recorded thought, and of the great philosophical systems, ancient and modern, was wide and accurate, while his clear style of stating psychological doctrines and expository powers were remarkable.

For ten years he was Examiner in Philosophy in the University of London. He also acted as Examiner in the University of Aberdeen for two terms. Occasionally he delivered popular lectures at Manchester, Newcastle, and the Royal Institution, London. For several years he gave the philosophical course of lectures to the College of Preceptors. He took an active interest in the business and management of University College, as a member of the Senate, and subsequently as one of the Senate’s Representatives on the Council.

In 1874 Dr. Bain originated a proposal for establishing a Quarterly Journal of Philosophy, and consulted Robertson on the subject. Dr. Bain desired that Professor Robertson should be editor, and after consideration he accepted the editorship. Time, however, was required to obtain the approbation and promise of support from, at least, some of the eminent living writers on philosophy. Accordingly both made efforts by personal interviews and correspondence, and they received sufficient encouragement to make arrangements for the publication. Under the title of Mind: a Quarterly Journal of Psychology and Philosophy, the first number appeared in January, 1876. Robertson was editor of Mind for sixteen years, and expended a great amount of thought and labour upon it. Besides his own original articles, and many reviews of works on psychology, ethics, and philosophy, he carefully revised most of the articles contributed by others before they appeared in the pages of Mind. This quarterly publication​—the first entirely devoted in the English language to the discussions of mental philosophy, has, during the last twenty years, had a considerable influence upon philosophic thought.

Professor Robertson’s health began to fail twelve years before his death. During the sessions from 1883 to 1888 he had several times to employ substitutes for his teaching work in the College. In the later years of his life he suffered much severe pain, which he bore with great patience. He resigned his Chair in the College on the 7th of May, 1892. His wife died on the 29th of May, the same year; and he himself died on the 20th of September following.¹

¹ Philosophical Remains of George Croom Robertson, with a Memoir, 1894. This volume was edited by Dr. Bain and Mr. T. Whittaker, who had long acted as Robertson’s assistant in preparing notices for Mind.

Owing to weak health in the later part of his life, and his death at the comparatively early age of fifty, his writings are not voluminous. Yet they touch on a considerable variety of subjects of much interest, embracing biography, psychology, and philosophy treated historically and associated with the characteristics of an elevated and candid criticism.

He contributed to the Dictionary of National Biography biographies of George Grote, the historian, and his wife, and two of the historian’s brothers​—John and Arthur. His contributions to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica extended to eight articles, two of which were historical. One of these dealt with Abelard, the famous lecturer and teacher of the twelfth century, a very able and interesting article. Another article was on the remarkable philosopher, Hobbes, a subject to which he had given much attention, and subsequently treated in a book. The remaining articles were philosophical, and treated on Analogy, Analysis, Analytic Judgments, Autonomy, Association, and Axion. All these are admirable specimens of method, clear thought, polished style, and lucid exposition of difficult mental processes.

At an early stage of his life he intended to write a large work on Hobbes, and to treat the subject on comprehensive historic lines. He rightly formed the conception that Hobbes was an important historic character, as he lived and wrote in one of the stirring and revolutionary periods of the history of the Island. He had made some progress in research and had prepared much material for such a work, but untoward circumstances of health prevented him from realising his original conception. He, however, as mentioned before, contributed an article on Hobbes to the Encyclopædia; and in 1886 a volume on Hobbes appeared as one of the series, entitled Philosophical Classics for English Readers. It is not written on a large scale, yet it is a compact and excellent treatise. He shows a fine historic insight into the social and political conflicts of the period, with reference to their influence upon Hobbes’s views and opinions. Robertson’s remarkable historic faculty is clearly manifested in this volume. His appreciation and criticism of Hobbes’ works, and his influence on subsequent writers, is marked by thoroughness, candour, and accuracy. The treatise is a model of its kind, and is recognised as the best existing monograph on the subject.

To conclude, the preceding account of Scottish Philosophy covers nearly two centuries. The Scottish Philosophers mainly concentrated their efforts on mental philosophy​—the explication of the human mind, psychology, moral and political science. Their works present a body of doctrines and reflective thought which are well worth careful study. For the mind alone constitutes the distinctive glory and dignity of man. Insomuch, that it is only by the culture of the mind and the moral sentiments that mankind can hope to attain a more elevated and higher stage of civilisation.