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8I6 Dr. Waugh's Memoirs.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Memoir Of The Rev. Alexander Waugh, D. D...
We knew fk > m the portrait that all this lived in bis spiri ^ - ifs Ui ^ later days ; and so we find from the following anecdote : Mr , . Jf- ^ rr r ^^ a . ^ gf n ^^ -. man of eminent talents and acquirements , settled at the Cape 3 once ^ s ^ l , & q a frieiKl , •« : ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ; ¦ . , ¦ . , ... . ., _ .,., i'r-* ' I never saw Dr . Wa ^ gh but qjice , and I sliall never lose £ he lrjftpir ^ ssion which , that Interview made upon my mind . On delivering * " ( at in ^ li ^ A < Ion residence ) ss an Introductory letter to Mm which I had received ' fre ^' a mutual friend , his first question was , Where do ye come frae * lad ? >( I replied like a Scotchman , in the same interrogatory style , D ' ye ken Easfstoun and JLeacler-water ?* * Ken Earlstoun and Leader-water I he < exelaltned f ken Earlstoun and JLeader-water ! O ! my dear laddie , the \®§ t tiffi © I ; , $ wft § in Scotland , I went alone to the top of Earlstoun lull , and looked along" the
valley ; and there wasna a bend o' the water , nor a hillock , nor a gre-jr ^ tane , nor a cottage , nor a farrn-onstead on Leader-water that I didna ke ^ ti aBWieel as my ain Ihearth-stane . And I looked down the side of Earlstoun till 1 > and I saw there a bit green sward inclosed wi a grey stane dyke , and ther ^ vvUsna ane o' a' I had ance keimeci o' the inhabitants of that valley that wasna lying cauld there /'—F . 398 .
These scenes furnished a good foundatioa for a moral and intellectual structure , and we cannot but think the next materials sound ; though iti tfius thinking we differ from our two biographers . Young Waugh entered the Edinburgh University at seventeen ; and there 3 among other things ., he studied Moral Philosophy under Dr 0 Ferguson , ft is objected in this work that Dra F . ' s system was not grounded on Divine revelation , and that the students * were thus led to think too favourably of the capabilities of human nature , and less deeply to feel their obligations to that atoning Wood which
hath appeased the wrath of God for man ' s transgression , " & c . This objection is made in the face of Dre F »' s own explanation that reason and natural religion being the foundation of every superstructure \ n morality and religion , and therefore the department which it was his duly to treat of , it did not fall within his province to enlarge on other institutions which may improve , but cannot supersede what the Almighty has revealed in his works , and in the suggestions of reason to man . It appears wonderful to our writers that such -a man as Dr . Ferguson could have satisfied himself with such
reasoning ; as wonderful as it would probably have appeared ! to Dre F . that there could be any danger of thinking too highly of " the capabilities of human nature . " Dr . Waygh 9 however , suffered from the conflict bet wee in the liberality of Dr » F » and the narrow bigotry of his subsequent teacher ., He studied Divinity for some years under the Rev . John Brown , the Wellknown author of the Annotations on the Bible . Waugh's first discourse , a homily on Rom . viii . 2 , was , we are told 5 iC a mere p hilosophical essay , at which the professor and students were extremely grieved- " Mr , Brown said , with much concern , * I hope I shall never hear such a discourse again
in ibis place . ' * Now , not having seen this homily , we cannot pronounce upon its merits ; but we can pronounce upon the impossibility ( if the text be rightly referred to ) of its being a " mere philosophical essay . ' * " For the tew ^ f ' the spirit 9 $ life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from tfye law of su ^ ftHd . -dc ^ th *' There is rocrm for much philosophy here , it is true j so much the better ; but that there should be 4 S mere philosophy ' is iticonceiv ^ ble ^ ynlesa pur informants should , contrary to their wont , allow religion and philosophy to be the same thing . The young student was deeply agitated by this reception of his first effort in professional composition , and
8i6 Dr. Waugh's Memoirs.
8 I 6 Dr . Waugh ' s Memoirs .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1830, page 816, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02121830/page/16/
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