WILLIAM

See also:

• STEWART, ALEXANDER TURNEY (1803-1876)
• STEWART, BALFOUR (1828-1887)
• STEWART, CHARLES (1778–1869)
• STEWART, DUGALD (1753-1828)
• STEWART, J
• STEWART, JOHN (1749—1822)
• STEWART, JULIUS L
• STEWART, SIR DONALD MARTIN (1824–19o0)
• STEWART, SIR HERBERT (1843—1885)
• STEWART, SIR WILLIAM (c. 1540—c. 1605)
• STEWART, STUART
• WILLIAM STEWART (c. 1480-c. 1550)

STEWART (c. 1480-c. 1550)  , Scottish poet and translator, descendant of one of the illegitimate sons of Alexander Stewart, earl of Buchan, the " Wolf of Badenoch," was a member of the university of St Andrews . He was in orders, and a hanger-on at the court of James V . The last entry of the payment of a pension of £40 appears in the accounts of 1541 . He was known as a poet in his own day: Lyndsay and Rolland refer to him . Portions of his minor verse are preserved in the Bannatyne and Maitland Folio MSS . His chief work is a metrical translation of Hector Boece's History, in obedience to the command of James V., who entrusted Bellenden with its translation into Scots prose . Stewart's version remained in MS. till 1858, when it was edited by W . Turnbull for the " Rolls Series (3 vols.) . The MS. is now in the library of the university of Cambridge . Ethical, and Political Philosophy since the Revival of Letters." In 1822 he was struck with paralysis, but recovered a fair degree of health, sufficient to enable him to resume his studies . In 1827 he published the third volume of the Elements, and in 1828, a few weeks before his death, The Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers . He died in Edinburgh on the 11th of June 1828 .

A

monument to his memory was erected on Calton Hill . Stewart's philosophical views are mainly the reproduction of his master Reid (for his ethical views see ETHICS) . He upheld Reid's psychological method and expounded the " common-sense" doctrine, which was attacked by the two Mills . Unconsciously, however, he fell away from the pure Scottish tradition and made concessions both to moderate empiricism and to the French ideologists (Laromiguiere, Cabanis and Destutt de Tracy) . It is important to notice the energy of his declaration against the argument of ontology, and also against Condillac's sensationalism . Kant, he confessed, he could not understand . Perhaps his most valuable and original work is his theory of taste in the Philosophical Essays . But his reputation rests rather on his inspiring eloquence and the beauty of his style than on original work . Stewart's works were edited in 11 vols . (1854—1858) by Sir William Hamilton and completed with a memoir by John Veitch . Matthew Stewart (his eldest son) wrote a life in Annual Biography and Obituary (1829), republished privately in 1838 . For his philosophy see McCosh, Scottish Philosophy (1875), pp .

162—173; A .

Bain, Mental Science, pp . 208, 313 and app . 29, 65, 88, 89; Moral Science, pp . 639 seq.; Sir L . Stephen, English Thought in the XVIIIth Century .