REGOR, the fourth son of Gregor M'Anecham, No. XIV

^-^ and last in the preceding table, f was the allodial

proprietor of Glenlyon, a district in Perthshire adjacent to Glen-

urquhay, and had two sons : —

i. John, called "John Dhu nan Lann," or " Black John of

the Spears," who died in his 99th year without leaving

any surviving issue, but having disposed of any right

he had to Glenlyon in favour of one of the Campbells

of Glenurquhay.J

2. Duncan, of whom below.

Daughter of Sir

daughter of the Laird

Macnaughten of Dundaramh.

Gregor Duncanson is said to have married a daughter of Sir

Robert Menzies of Weem

He is the hero of an ancient Gaelic ballad, in which '

reference is made to his " right to Glenlyon," of which he was

settled

on the Boyne, a district; near the town of Banff, about 1510. He

married a lady who was daughter of the Laird of Findlater (Ogilvie),

GREGORY, DAVID, of Kinnairdie, an elder brother of the inventor of the reflecting telescope, and who himself possessed a remarkable turn for mathematical and mechanical knowledge, was born in 1627 or 1628. He was the son of the Rev. John Gregory, minister of Drumoak, in Aberdeenshire, by his wife, the daughter of Mr. David Anderson of Finshaugh, commonly called, at Aberdeen, “Davie Do a’ Thing,” from his multifarious attainments, whose brother, Alexander Anderson, was, abut the beginning of the seventeenth century, professor of mathematics in the university of Paris. He was educated by his father for trade, and served an apprenticeship to a mercantile house in Holland. In 1655, having relinquished all commercial pursuits, he returned to Scotland, and succeeded, on the death of an elder brother, to the estate of Kinnairdie, situated about forty miles north of Aberdeen, where he lived many years, and where thirty-two children were born to him by two wives. Three of his sons were professors of mathematics at the same time in three of the British universities, namely, David at Oxford, James at Edinburgh, and Charles at St. Andrews; and one of his daughters was mother of the celebrated Dr. Thomas Reid of Glasgow. Devoting himself, in his retirement, to the cultivation of science and the study of medicine, which he practised gratuitously among his neighbours, and being, moreover, the only one in that part of the country who possessed a barometer, by which he obtained a knowledge of the weather, he incurred the suspicion of the ignorant and superstitious as a dealer in the ‘black art,’ and narrowly escaped being formally tried by the presbytery of the bounds for witchcraft or conjuration. A deputation of that reverend body waited upon him to inquire into the ground of certain reports that were in circulation concerning him; but he was able to give them the most ample and satisfactory explanation, whereby a prosecution was averted.

      About the beginning of the eighteenth century he removed to Aberdeen with his family, and having invented an engine to make the shot of great guns more destructive to the enemy, he sent a model of it to his son, the Savilian professor at Oxford, that he might obtain his and Sir Isaac Newton’s opinion of it. The latter at once condemned this improvement in artillery as calculated to increase the horrors of war, and recommended that it should be destroyed. As the machine was never afterwards found, it is supposed that the professor followed Newton’s advice. On the breaking out of the rebellion in 1715, Mr. Gregory went a second time to Holland, but returned when it was over to Aberdeen, where he died about 1720, aged ninety-three. He left behind him a history of his own time and country, which was never published.

Another summary:

Mr David Gregory, brother of the inventor of the reflecting telescope, had been educated as a merchant, and spent a considerable time in Holland; but by the death of his elder brother he became heir to the estate of Kinnairdie, and from a predilection for the mathematics and experimental philosophy, he soon afterwards renounced all commercial employments, devoting himself entirely to the cultivation of science. The peculiarity of Mr Gregory’s pursuits, caused him to be noted through the whole country, and he being the first person in Scotland who possessed a barometer, from which he derived an extensive knowledge of the weather, it was universally believed that he held intercourse with the beings of another world. So extensive had this belief been circulated, that a deputation from the presbytery waited on him, and it was only one fortunate circumstance that prevented him from undergoing a formal trial for witchcraft. He had from choice obtained an extensive knowledge of the healing art, his opinion was held in the highest estimation, and as he practiced in all cases without fee, he was of great use in the district where he lived. It was this circumstance alone that prevented the reverend members of the presbytery from calling him to account for his superior intelligence.

An anecdote is told of David Gregory of Kinnairdie, Dr Gregory’s father, which it would not perhaps, be altogether proper to omit. He had, as was remarked at the beginning, a turn for mathematical and mechanical subjects, and during queen Anne’s wars had contrived a method to increase the effect of field ordnance. He sent it to the Savilian professor, his son, wishing his opinion, together with Sir I. Newton’s. Gregory showed it to Newton, who advised him earnestly to destroy it, as said Newton, "Any invention of that kind, if it even were effectual, would soon become known to the enemy, so that it would only increase the horrors of war." There is every reason to think that the professor followed Newton’s advice, as the machine was never afterwards to be found.

It is a more singular circumstance, and indeed without parallel in the scientific history of Scotland, that this old gentleman lived to see three of his sons professors at the same time, viz. David, the subject of the preceding sketch; James, who succeeded his brother in the chair of mathematics at Edinburgh; and Charles, professor of mathematics in the university of St Andrews.

GREGORY, JOHN, M.D., an eminent medical and moral writer, and one of the most distinguished members of his illustrious family, which has furnished such a number of gifted professors to the British universities, was born at Aberdeen, June 3, 1724. He was the youngest of three children of James Gregory, professor of medicine in King’s college, Old Aberdeen, and the grandson of the celebrated inventor of the reflecting telescope. He received his academical education at King’s college, and in 1742 he removed with his mother to Edinburgh, where he studied medicine for three years under Professors Monro, Sinclair, and Rutherford. In 1745 he went to the university of Leyden, and during his residence there he received from King’s college, Old Aberdeen, the degree of M.D. In 1747 he returned home, and was elected professor of philosophy in that university, where he lectured on mathematics, and moral and natural philosophy; and in 1749 resigned his chair from a desire to devote himself to the practice of medicine. In 1752 he married the daughter of Lord Forbes. In 1754 he repaired to London to practise, where he became acquainted with Lord Lyttleton, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, and other eminent persons, and was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1755, on the death of his brother, Dr. James Gregory, he was elected his successor in the chair of medicine at Old Aberdeen, when he returned to his native city, and entered on the duties of his professorship in 1756. His first publication, entitled ‘A Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man with those of the Animal World,’ appeared in 1764, under the patronage of his friend, Lord Lyttleton. This work he had at first composed as essays for ‘The Wise Club,’ a society projected by Drs. Reid and Gregory, and consisting of the professors of both Marischal and King’s college, and other literary and scientific gentlemen of Aberdeen, who met weekly in a tavern in that city, for the purpose of hearing essays on literary and philosophical subjects read by its members.

[portrait of Dr. John Gregory]

      About the beginning of 1765 Dr. Gregory removed to Edinburgh, with a view to the increase of his practice; and two years afterwards he was appointed professor of the practice of physic in the university there, in the room of Dr. Rutherford, who resigned in his favour. In 1766, upon the death of Dr. Whytt, he was nominated first physician to his majesty for Scotland. In consequence of an arrangement with his colleague, Dr. Cullen, they lectured for many years alternately on the theory and practice of medicine, to the great benefit of the young men attending their classes. One of Dr. Gregory’s students having taken notes of his preliminary lectures on the practice of physic, an extended copy of which he offered to a bookseller for publication, he was induced to bring out a correct edition of these lectures himself, which he did in 1770, under the title of ‘Observations on the Duties and Office of a Physician, and on the Method of prosecuting Inquiries in Philosophy,’ the profits of which he generously gave to a poor and deserving student. The same year he published his ‘Elements of the Practice of Physic,’ intended as a syllabus to his lectures, but from want of leisure the work was never completed. Dr. Gregory, who had from the age of eighteen been subject to repeated attacks of hereditary gout, died suddenly n his bed on the night of February 9, 1773. He left in manuscript an invaluable little treatise, entitled ‘A Father’s Legacy t his Daughters,’ written after the death of his wife, who died in 1761, and designed for the private instruction of his own family. It was published soon after his death by his eldest son, James, the subject of the following notice, who succeeded Dr. Cullen as professor of the practice of physic in the university of Edinburgh. Besides Dr. James Gregory, he had another son and two daughters, namely, the Rev. William Gregory, rector of St. Mary’s, Bentham; Dorothea, the wife of the Rev. W. Allison of Baliol college, Oxford; and Margaret, wife of John Forbes, Esq. of Blackford, Aberdeenshire.

Professor of Math

GREGORY, DAVID, the able commentator on Newton’s Principia, and Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, was born at Aberdeen on the 24th of June, 1661. David, the subject of this sketch, studied for a considerable time at Aberdeen, but completed his education at Edinburgh. In 1684, when he was only twenty-three years of age, he made his first appearance as an author, in a Latin work concerning the dimensions of figures, printed in Edinburgh, and entitled, "Exercitationes Geometricae." The same year in which this work was published, he was called to the mathematical chair in Edinburgh college, which he held with the greatest honour for seven years. Here he delivered some lectures on optics, which formed the substance of a work on that science, of acknowledged excellence. Here also Gregory had first been convinced of the infinite superiority of Newton’s philosophy, and was the first who dared openly to teach the doctrines of the Principia, in a public seminary. This circumstance will ever attach honour to the name of Gregory; for let it be remembered, that in those days this was a daring innovation; and Cambridge university, in which Newton had been educated, was the very last in the kingdom to admit the truth of what is now regarded by all as the true system of the world. Whiston, in his Memoirs of his Own Time, bewails this in "the very anguish of his heart," calling those at Oxford and Cambridge poor wretches, when compared with those at the Scottish universities. In the year 1691 Gregory went to London, as there had been circulated a report that Dr Edmond Bernard, Savilian professor at Oxford, was about to resign, which formed a very desirable opening for the young mathematician. On his arrival in London he was kindly received by Newton, who had formed a very high opinion of him, as we learn from a letter written by Sir Isaac to Mr Flamstead, the astronomer royal. Newton had intended to make Flamstead a visit at Greenwich observatory, with a view to introduce Gregory, but was prevented by indisposition, and sent a letter with Gregory by way of introduction. "The bearer hereof is Mr Gregory, mathematical professor at Edinburgh college, Scotland. I intended to have given you a visit along with him, but cannot; you will find him a very ingenious person, a good mathematician, worthy of your acquaintance." Gregory could not fail to be highly gratified by the friendship of two of the greatest men of the age, and most particularly eminent in that department of science, which he cultivated with so much zeal and success. Such a mind as Newton’s was not likely to form an opinion of any individual, on a vague conjecture of their ability, and the opinion once established would not be liable to change; accordingly we find that his attachment to the interests of the young mathematician, were only terminated by death. In a letter addressed a considerable time afterwards to the same amiable individual, he writes thus, "But I had rather have them (talking of Flamstead’s observations upon Saturn, for five years, which Newton wished from him) for the next twelve or fifteen years—if you and I live not long enough, Mr Gregory and Mr Halley are young men."

Gregory’s visit to London was important to his future fame as a mathematician. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and afterwards contributed many valuable papers to their transactions. At the head of these must be mentioned that which he delivered on his first introduction to their meetings, a solution of the famous Florentine problem, which had been sent as a challenge to the British mathematicians. Gregory’s solution, which is extremely beautiful, will be found in the number of the Philosophical Transactions for January, 1694. On the 8th of February, 1692, David Gregory was made master of arts, of Baliol college, Oxford; and on the eighteenth of the same month he received the degree of doctor of physic. At this time he stood candidate with Dr Halley for the Savilian professorship of astronomy at Oxford. Gregory had a formidable rival to contend with, as great interest was used for Halley at court, and he had besides rendered himself eminent by his numerous and important discoveries. Gregory in all likelihood would not have obtained this situation, notwithstanding the zealous intercession of Newton and Flamstead, had it not been for a circumstance which is stated by Whiston in his Memoirs of his Own Time, as follows: "Halley being thought of as successor to the mathematical chair at Oxford, bishop Stillingfleet was desired to recommend him at court; but hearing that he was a sceptic and a contemner of religion, the bishop scrupled to be concerned till his chaplain Mr Bentley should tally with him about it; which he did, but Halley was so sincere in his infidelity, that he would not so much as pretend to believe the Christian religion, though he was likely to lose a professorship by it—which he did, and it was given to Dr Gregory." To the honour of science let it be mentioned, that this circumstance, which opposed the interest of these two mathematicians so directly to each other, instead of becoming the cause of those petty jealousies or animosities, which in such cases, so commonly occur, was in the present instance the foundation on which was raised a firm and lasting friendship. Nor is it perhaps too bold to suspect, that the liberality displayed in this instance by these two eminent men, proceeded not so much from themselves as from the science which they cultivated in common. The scruples of Stillingfleet in time lost their efficacy, and Gregory had soon after the pleasure of having Dr Halley as his colleague, he having succeeded Dr Wallis in the Savilian chair of Geometry.

In 1695, he published at Oxford a very valuable work on the reflection and refraction of spherical surfaces. This work is valuable as it contains the first hint for a practical method of improving the refracting telescope and destroying the chromatic defect of these instruments. The difficulty to be avoided in those telescopes which operate by glasses instead of mirrors, lies in procuring a large field of view, and at the same time retaining distinctness of vision. Gregory drew an analogy from the construction of the eye, and by referring to the method by which this was effected in nature, gave the hint that the same principle might be applied in practice. This, perhaps, paved the way for the achromatic glasses, one of the finest triumphs of modern science. A simplicity pervades the whole work truly characteristic of the author’s mind. But the work on which the fame of David Gregory must ultimately depend, was published in 1702, entitled "Elements of Physical and Geometrical Astronomy." This work was a sort of digest of Newton’s Principia. Great originality was shown in the illustrations, and the arrangement was so adapted as to show the progress the science had made in its various gradations towards perfection; and it was allowed by Newton himself that Gregory’s work was an excellent view of his system.

Sir Henry Savile had projected a design of printing a uniform series of the ancient mathematicians; in pursuance of which Gregory published an edition of Euclid, and in conjunction with Dr Halley, he commenced the Conics of Appollonius; but scarcely had he entered upon this interesting undertaking, when death put a period to his existence. He departed this life in 1701, at Maidenhead in Berkshire, where it is believed his body is interred. His wife erected a monument at Oxford to his memory, with a very simple and elegant inscription. Of the talents of Dr Gregory ample testimony is borne by the works which he bequeathed to posterity, and of his worth as a private individual by the respect in which he was held by his contemporaries, Flamstead, Keil, Halley, and above all, Sir Isaac Newton, who held him in the highest estimation. Of Newton’s respect for him we shall add one other instance: Sir Isaac had intrusted Gregory with a copy of his Principia in manuscript, on which Gregory wrote commentary; of the benefit of which the great author availed himself in the second edition. Dr John Gregory presented a manuscript copy of this to the university of Edinburgh, in the library of which it is carefully preserved. Of his posthumous works, two deserve particularly to be noticed; one on practical geometry, published by Mr Colin Maclaurin, and a small treatise on the nature and arithmetic of Logarithms, subjoined to Keil’s Euclid, which contains a simple and comprehensive view of the subject.

Thomas Reid (April 26, 1710 – October 7, 1796), Scottish philosopher, and a contemporary of David Hume, was a founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense, and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment. His work is sometimes described as constituting one of the two great responses to the skeptical challenges of David Hume (the other being the work of Immanuel Kant). Reid advanced a set of views that hinged on what today is called 'default justification.' We are wrong, Reid claimed, to think that we need some philosophical argument in order to be justified in relying on our senses, on certain moral principles, or on the fundamental principles of reasoning. Rather, we are automatically justified in such reliance. The chief error of Hume and many of his predecessors, Reid believed, was to think that if some tenet of common sense could not be justified by argument, then it was not justified at all. Such attempts were then not only unnecessary, but pernicious. This approach surfaces in most of the many topics on which he wrote, including perception, epistemology, free will and ethics. Though Reid's views have generally been overshadowed by those of his contemporary Kant, his work influenced a number of twentieth-century philosophers, including G. E. Moore's work on skepticism and R. M. Chisholm's work on sensations, and more recent years have seen a significant increase in interest in his theory of perception.

Life

Thomas Reid was born in Kincardinshire, Scotland on April 26, 1710, (exactly one year before David Hume, who would begin his philosophical career much earlier in life). Reid's father, Lewis Reid, came from a family of clergymen and government official of moderate importance. His mother's family, the Gregorys, were a well-respected intellectual family (Reid's uncle David, an astronomy professor at Oxford, was a close acquaintance of Isaac Newton).

Reid studied at the University of Aberdeen, in the Marischal College. While there, and while serving as a librarian after graduating, Reid studied mathematics, and closely studied Newton's Principia. He left Marischal in 1736, and the following year entered the ministry at New Machar. Three years later, he married his cousin Elizabeth. Reid did not write his own sermons, instead beginning to work on developing his philosophical views (having read the work of Bishop George Berkeley, as well as Hume's masterwork, the Treatise on Human Nature when it was published in 1739). Reid's first publication, in 1748, was entitled, "An Essay on Quantity, Occasioned by Reading a Treatise in Which Simple and Compound Ratios Are Applied to Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue." Indicating the direction his later philosophy would take, the aim of this essay was to argue against the application of mathematical methods to aesthetics and ethics.

Despite having only one publication, Reid developed a reputation that led to an appointment as Professor of Philosophy at King's College at the University of Aberdeen in 1752. He lectured in mathematics, physics, logic and ethics, and founded the Aberdeen Philosophical Society. The Society served as a focal point for various proponents of common-sense philosophy (including James Beattie). The papers that Reid presented to the Society were eventually published in 1764 as his first major philosophical publication, An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense. Hume was shown a copy of the manuscript of the Inquiry, and wrote to Reid that he found the work impressive and challenging.

That same year, Reid took up the position of Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, a position formerly occupied by Adam Smith. There, his philosophical productivity increased, and Reid eventually resigned the position so as to focus on his work. In 1785, he published the Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, followed in 1788 by the Essays on the Active Powers of Man. With the publication of the latter, Reid's activity slowly began to wane. He died peacefully in 1796.

Philosophy

Reid's approach to the traditional philosophical problems stems from a specific view of the nature of philosophical inquiry. As Reid saw it, all human inquiry have a starting place, and the natural starting place is a set of principles, implanted by God, that make up 'common sense'. Because philosophy, like any other branch of knowledge, is dependent on those principles, any attempts it makes to find foundations for them, or challenge them, will be incoherent. The failure to realize this, Reid claimed, was responsible for many of the debates and absurd conclusions reached by his predecessors. In Essay One of Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man he writes that,

very ingenious men, such as Des Cartes, Malebranche, Arnauld, Locke, and many others, have lost much labour, by not distinguishing things which require proof, from things which, though they may admit of illustration, yet, being self-evident, do not admit of proof. When men attempt to deduce such self-evident principles from others more evident, they always fall into inconclusive reasoning: and the consequence of this has been, that others, such as Berkeley and Hume, finding the arguments brought to prove such first principles to be weak and inconclusive, have been tempted first to doubt of them, and afterwards to deny them.

Today, Reid's best-known application of this approach concerns perception, but he extended to it a wide variety of other issues as well. In every case, Reid resists any philosophical attempt to undermine something common-sensical. Given the scope of Reid's writings, it is not possible to review all of his claims. Instead, we can focus on three of the topics for which Reid is best known: perception, causation, and the foundations of morality.

Perception

As Reid understood it, many of his seventeenth and eighteenth-century predecessors (the clearest case may be Locke) had accepted a view along the following lines: in perception, external objects such as rocks and cats causally affect our sense organs. The sense organs in turn affect the (probably, non-material) mind, and their effect is to produce a certain type of entity in the mind, an 'idea.' These ideas, and not external objects, are what we immediately perceive when we look out at the world. The ideas may or may not resemble the objects that caused them in us, but their causal relation to the objects makes it the case that we can immediately perceive the objects by perceiving the ideas.

Reid noted that, as soon as this picture is in place, the question naturally arises as to just how far our ideas might diverge from their causes. Indeed, it begins to seem that we are completely cut off from reality, stuck behind a veil of ideas. This is a counter-intuitive conclusion, and Reid thinks it indicates that the original positing of ideas, as things we perceive that are distinct from the objects was misguided (here, the view echoes that of Antoine Arnauld in his debate with Nicolas Malebranche). Common sense, he argues, dictates that what we perceive just are objects and their qualities. Ideas, then, are a philosopher's fabrication.

Reid's picture, however, is more complex than such general statements of it may suggest. For Reid continues to accept Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities of objects. Locke held that, among our ideas of objects, some (such as shape) do resemble qualities of the objects that produce them, while others (such as color) do not. Of course, Reid cannot accept the distinction in those terms, so he does so in terms of 'sensations.' When we perceive objects, Reid claims, we find in ourselves certain sensations. Sensations are the effects of the causal influence of objects on us, and these are what lead the mind to perceive the object. Yet sensations themselves, being feelings, cannot resemble their objects (in this, Reid echoes Berkeley's famous claim that nothing can be like an idea except another idea). When, for instance, we perceive though touch that some object is hot, we feel a certain sensation. We know that feature of the object caused us to have that sensation, but we may not know anything about the feature other than that (unlike the case of the extension of the object, which we perceive directly). The feature of the object which produces the sensation of heat is a secondary quality, and all other secondary qualities are individuated in the same manner: via some sensation we have.

Causation and Action

One of Hume's most famous claims (argued for both in the Treatise and in the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding) was his assertion that our only conception of causation was of the constant conjunction of two types of event, accompanied by some feeling of expectation on our part. In particular, we have no true conception of the sort of objective quality Locke called 'power'—a feature of an object in virtue of which it necessarily produced certain effects.

Reid replied that it is a principle of common sense that each of us is a genuine cause of our actions. That is, for any given action, we have the power to originate it, or to not originate it, and this is not the result of our being causally determined to do so (in which case, Reid thinks, we wouldn't truly be causes at all). It is just in virtue of this contingency that we are responsible for willing the actions we do, and this capacity is what Reid called an 'active power.' When we deliberate, we are do not necessarily act in accordance with our strongest motive—unless we trivially stipulate that 'strongest motive' just means 'whatever motive we end up acting on.'

Ethics

The starting point for Reid's moral views, unsurprisingly, is again the powerful theories of Hume. Hume staunchly defended the empiricist claim that all of our concepts originate in either external sensory impressions, or else in the awareness of our own minds and sentiments. He traced moral concepts to certain feelings of approbation and disapproval that we feel when we perceive when we see others acting in certain ways. As Reid interprets him, Hume's position is what is today is called 'emotivism'—the position a moral judgment like "That action was wrong" does nothing more than express our disapproval of the action (and so might be equivalent to "Boo!").

Reid held that Hume was right in thinking that there certain feelings of approval and disapproval that accompany our moral judgments. But Reid denied that these feelings were the source of our moral thinking. Rather, common sense provides us with a wealth of fundamental moral principles (some as specific as, "unmerited beneficence to those who are at ease should yield to compassion to the miserable" and "unmerited generosity should yield to gratitude, and both to justice" - see Essay five of Active Powers). When, in judgment, we apply these principles to particular cases, those judgments are typically accompanied by the feelings Hume described, but Hume had the causal explanation backwards. The feelings do not cause the judgments, rather, the judgments cause the feelings. Reid takes this to be supported by introspection, where we often find ourselves judging that something was wrong before disapproval starts welling up inside of us.

In addition, Reid specifically attacked the suggestion that what is meant by moral judgments is that the judger is having a certain feeling. For one, he noted that when we morally condemn or approve of some action, we take ourselves to be ascribing some property (badness or goodness) to the action, not to our selves. For another, if the emotivist position were correct, then most moral disagreements would become absurd. When one person asserts that some action is good, and another asserts that it is bad, they would be wrong if they take themselves to be disagreeing. All that is going on in such a case, according to the emotivist, is that each is simply expressing his or her own feelings about the matter. It would then be absurd for one to claim that the other is wrong, for who could be more authoritative about what a given person is feeling than the person having the feeling? These consequences, Reid argues, show that emotivism is far too implausible to be accepted.

References

Primary sources

The complete works:

• The Works of Thomas Reid, Sir William Hamilton (ed.), Edinburgh, 1846. Reprinted by G. Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, Hildescheim, 1983.

Recent editions of Reid's major works:

• Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, Derek Brookes (ed.), Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, 2002.
• Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind, Baruch A. Brody (ed.), Cambridge: MIT Press, 1969.
• An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense, Derek R. Brookes (ed.), University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.

A very useful introductory selection:

• Inquiry and Essays, Ronald E. Beanblossom and Keith Lehrer (eds.), Indianapolis: Hackett, 1983.

Selected secondary sources

• Barker, Stephen F. and Tom L. Beauchamp (eds.). Thomas Reid: Critical Interpretations, Philosophical Monographs. 1976.
• Daniels, N. Thomas Reid’s Inquiry: The Geometry of Visibles and the Case for Realism. Franklin, New York, 1974.
• Ellos, William J. Thomas Reid's Newtonian Realism. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 198.
• Gallie, Roger D. Thomas Reid and 'the Way of Ideas. Kluwer, 1989.
• Lehrer, Keith. Thomas Reid. Routledge, 1989.
• Rowe, W.L. Thomas Reid on Freedom and Morality. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1991.

External links

All Links Retrieved January 23, 2008.

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Reid
• Jonathan Bennett's highly readable 'translations' of selections from the Inquiry and both Essays

General Philosophy Sources

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Philosophy Sources on Internet EpistemeLinks
• Guide to Philosophy on the Internet
• Paideia Project Online
• Project Gutenberg

Professor Of mathematics

GREGORY, JAMES, a distinguished mathematician, and, excepting Newton, the greatest philosopher of his age, was born at Drumoak, in Aberdeenshire, in 1638. He was a younger brother of Mr. David Gregory of Kinnairdie (see above). He was educated in Marischal college, Aberdeen, where he became well versed in classical learning. The works of Galileo, Des Cartes, and Kepler, were, however, his principal study, and he began early to make improvements on their discoveries in optics, the most important of which was his invention of the reflecting telescope, which still bears his name. In 1663 he published at London a description of this instrument, in a quarto work, entitled ‘Optica promota, seu abdita radiorum reflexorum ex refractorum mysteria Geometricae enucleata.’ In 1664 he visited London for the purpose of perfecting the mechanical construction of the instrument, but not being able to obtain a speculum ground and polished, of a proper figure, he abandoned the design for a time, and set out on a tour for Italy. He staid some time at Padua, the university of which was at that time famed for mathematical science; and while there he published, in 1667, a treatise on the Quadrature of the Circle and Hyperbola, which was reprinted at Venice in 1668, with an appendix on the transmutation of curves.

      On his return to England, Mr. Gregory was elected a member of the Royal Society, whose Transactions he enriched with some valuable papers. His treatise on the Quadrature of the Circle involved him in a discussion with Mr. Huygens, who attacked his method in a scientific journal of that period, and Gregory replied in the Philosophical Transactions. Both controversialists, but particularly Gregory, conducted the dispute with much unnecessary warmth and asperity. In 1668 he was elected professor of mathematics in the university of St. Andrews; and in 1669 he married Mary, the daughter of George Jamesone, the celebrated painter, styled by Walpole the Scottish Vandyke. By this lady he had a son and two daughters.

      In 1672 Mr. Gregory published a small satirical tract, under an assumed name, the object of which was to expose the ignorance displayed in his hydrostatical writings by Mr. George Sinclair, formerly professor of natural philosophy in Glasgow. Some objections made by Sir Isaac Newton to the construction of the telescope invented by Gregory, gave rise, in 1672, to a controversy between these two illustrious men, which was conducted for two years with praiseworthy courtesy and good faith on both sides. In 1674 Mr. Gregory was invited to fill the mathematical chair at Edinburgh, and accordingly removed thither with his family. In October 1675, after being engaged one evening in pointing out to some of his pupils the satellites of Jupiter, he was suddenly struck with total blindness, and died three days thereafter, in the 37^th year of his age.

      His works are:

      Optica promota seu abdita radiorum reflexorum ex refractorum mysteria Geometricae enucleata, cum Appendice subtillissimorum Astronomiae problematum resolutionem exhibente. Lond. 1663, 4to.

      Vera Circuli et Hyperbolae Quadratura. Patav. 1667, 4to. Et cui accedit Geometria pars universalis, inserviens quantitatum curvarum transmutationi et mensurae. Patav. 1668

      Exercitationes Geometricae. Lond. 1668, 1678, 4to.

      The great and new art of weighing Vanity; or a Discovery of the Ignorance and Arrogance of the great and new Artist, in his pseudo-Philosophical writings. By M. Patrick Mathers, Arch-bedel to the University of St. Andrew’s. To which are annexed, Tentamina quaedam Geometrica de motu penduli, projectorum, &c. Glas. 1672, 8vo.

      Astronomiae Physicae et Geometriae Elementa. Oxon. 1702, fol.

      Answer to the Animadversions of Mr. Huygens upon his Book, De Vera Circuli, &c.; as they were published in the Journal des Scavans of July 2, 1668. Phil. Trans. 1668. Abr. i. P. 268.

      Extract of a Letter of Mr. James Gregory to the Publisher; containing some Observations on M. Huygens’ Letter, printed in vindication of his Examen of the Book entit. Vera Circuli et Hyperbolae Quadratura. Ib. 1669, Abr. i. P. 319.

Professor of Medicine

GREGORY, JAMES, M.D., an eminent physician and medical professor, eldest son of the preceding, by his wife, the Hon. Elizabeth Forbes, daughter of the thirteenth Lord Forbes, was born at Aberdeen in 1753. He received his education partly at the grammar school instituted by Dr. Patrick Dunn in his native city, and after his father’s removal to Edinburgh, at the university there. In 1774 he took his degree as M.D., his thesis being ‘De Morbis Caeli Mutatione Medendis.’ Repairing to Leyden, he attended the lectures of the celebrated Gobius, the favourite student and immediate successor of the great Boerhaave. In 1776, when only twenty-three years of age, he was appointed professor of the theory of physic in the university of Edinburgh, and as a text-book for his lectures, he published in 1780-2 his ‘Conspectus Medicinae Theoreticae,’ in 2 vols., which soon became a standard work. In 1790, on the death of Dr. Cullen, Dr. Gregory was appointed to the chair of the practice of physic in the same university; the duties f which he discharged for thirty-one years with a lustre equal, if not superior to that conferred on the university by his immediate predecessor. He was distinguished for his classical attainments, and early directed his attention to the study of metaphysics. In his ‘Philosophical and Literary Essays,’ published in 1792, in two volumes, 8vo, he opposed the doctrine of fatalism maintained in Dr. Priestley’s work entitled ‘Philosophical Necessity.’ It is said that previous to publication he forwarded the manuscripts of his Essays to Dr. Priestley for perusal, but that the latter declined to read them, on the ground that his mind was made up, and that he had ceased to think of the subject.

      In controversies of a professional and temporary nature Dr. Gregory had an active share. In 1793 an anonymous work, reflecting on some of the professors of the university, having appeared, under the title of ‘A Guide for Gentlemen studying Medicine at the University of Edinburgh,’ he issued a pamphlet, in which he endeavoured to prove, by internal evidence, that it was the production of Dr. Hamilton, professor of midwifery, and his son who was afterwards his assistant. A paper warfare was the consequence, Dr. Hamilton, junior, having replied in a well-written pamphlet, in which he showed the groundlessness of the charge, as well as the unprovoked asperity of his accuser. To discover the author of the ‘Guide,’ law proceedings were instituted against the publisher, while Dr. Hamilton, on his part, raised an action against Dr. Gregory, for traducing his character. In 1800 he published a ‘Memorial addressed to the Managers of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, complaining of the younger members of the College of Surgeons being allowed to perform operations there.’ this was replied to by Mr. John Bell, surgeon; and the question engrossed for some time the whole attention of the medical profession of Edinburgh, In 1806 he entered into a warm discussion with the college of Physicians, in consequence of some proceedings on the part of that body which he considered derogatory to the profession.

      As a physician Dr. Gregory enjoyed an extensive and lucrative practice. His great eminence, and his high literary and scientific reputation, caused him to be elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and a member of the French Institute. Whilst returning from visiting a patient, his carriage was accidentally overturned, his arm broken, and his constitution severely injured. After being repeatedly attacked with inflammation of the lungs, he died at Edinburgh April 2, 1821, in his 68^th year. The following is his portrait, in the uniform of the Edinburgh volunteers, taken by Kay in 1795:

[portrait of Dr. James Gregory]

      Dr. Gregory was twice married, and by his second wife, a daughter of Donald Macleod, Esq. of Geanies, he had a large family. His eldest son, John, having been educated for the bar, was admitted a member of the faculty of advocates in 1820. Another son, Dr. William Gregory, was elected in 1839, professor of medicine and chemistry in King’s college, Old Aberdeen, where he remained till 1844, when he was appointed by the town council of Edinburgh to the chair of chemistry and chemical pharmacy in the university of that city. A younger son, Donald Gregory, was for several years joint secretary to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. He was also secretary to the Iona Club, founded in 1833, the objects of which were to investigate and illustrate the history, antiquities, and early literature of the Highlands of Scotland; honorary member of the Ossianic Society of Glasgow, and of the Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle on Tyne, and member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of the North at Copenhagen. In 1836 he published a valuable work in one volume, entitled ‘History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland from 1493 to 1625; with a brief Introductory Sketch from 80 to 1493;’ dedicated to Lord Macdonald of the Isles. This work is important as forming one of the first attempts to investigate the history of the West Highlands and Isles, by the most careful examination of original documents, and the various public records, and it must prove essentially useful to every future writer on the history of the Highlands. He intended to have followed it up with another volume relating to the Central Highlands; he had also collected materials for a dissertation ‘On the Manners, Customs, and Laws of the Highlanders,’ but his death the same year put a stop to his designs. Mr. Gregory died in October 1836, in the prime of life. His valuable and extensive collection of documents came into the possession of the Iona Club, and several valuable communications by him were inserted n the ‘Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis,’ edited by that Club, and issued to the members in 1839.

      Dr. George Gregory, a nephew of the celebrated Dr. James Gregory, died at London in January 1853. He had been a distinguished member of the medical profession for upwards of forty years, and as long as thirty-five years physician to the Small-pox and Vaccination Hospital in London. He was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1839. He was also a physician to the Adult Orphan Asylum. He was the author of several valuable medical treatises on small-pox and vaccination, lectures on eruptive fevers, and the elements of medicine, &c.

      Dr. James Gregory’s works are:

      Dissertatio Medica de Morbis Coeli Mutatione Medendis. Edin. 1774, 8vo. 1776, 12mo.

      Conspectus Mecidinae Theoreticae in usum Academicum. Edin. 1780-2, 2 vols, 8vo. 3d edit. Enlarged and improved. Edin. 1788-90, 2 vols, 8vo. 4^th ed. 1812, 8vo. 6^th ed. 1818.

      Philosophical and Literary Essays. Edin. 1792, 2 vols. 8vo.

      Select parts of the Introduction to Dr Gregory’s Philosophical and Literary Essays; methodically arranged, and illustrated with Remarks by an Annotator. Lond. 1793, 8vo.

      Memorial to the Managers of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Edin. 1800, 4to.

      Cullen’s first Lines of the Practice of Physic; with Notes. 7^th edit. 2 vols. 8vo.

      The Theory of the Moods of Verbs. Trans. Soc. Edin. 1790. Vol. Ii. 193.

• Archives of Ontario. Registrations of Births and Stillbirths – 1869-1913. MS 929, reels 1-245. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario.
 

• Vermont. Vermont Death Records, 1909-2003. Vermont State Archives and Records Administration, Montpelier, Vermont.
• Vermont. Vermont Death Records, 2004-2008. Vital Records Office, Vermont Department of Health, Burlington, Vermont.

• Vermont. Vermont Marriage Records, 1909-2003. Vermont State Archives and Records Administration, Montpelier, Vermont.
• Vermont. Vermont Marriage Records, 2004-2008. Vital Records Office, Vermont Department of Health, Burlington, Vermont.