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EDUCATION FOR LIFE
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NATURAL LAW AND ENLIGHTENMENT CLASSICS
Knud Haakonssen
General Editor
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Map of Aberdeen
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This book is published by Liberty Fund, Inc., a foundation established to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.
The cuneiform inscription that serves as our logo and as a design element in Liberty Fund books is the earliest-known written appearance of the word “freedom” (amagi), or “liberty.” It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 B.C. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash.
Translations, introduction, editorial matter, bibliography, index © 2014 by Liberty Fund, Inc.
Cover art is the Aberdeen detail of the William Roy Map, created from 1747–1755, and is used by permission of the British Library (Shelfmark Maps C.9.b.21 sheet 1/2).
Margin notes have been moved from the margin of the paragraph in the print edition to precede the paragraph in this eBook, in a smaller font.
This eBook edition published in 2019.
eBook ISBNs:
978-1-61487-264-1
978-1-61487-640-3
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CONTENTS
Introduction
Editorial Principles
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Correspondence, 1718–1741
Graduation Theses
Philosophical Theses: On the Association of Natural Science with Moral Philosophy
Academical Theses: On the Most Beautiful Structure of the Material and the Rational World
The Religion of the State
A Philosophical Enquiry concerning the Connexion between the Miracles and Doctrines of Jesus Christ
Christianity Neither False nor Useless, Tho’ Not as Old as the Creation
An Impartial Enquiry into the Moral Character of Jesus Christ
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From Three Dissertations
Dedication to Richard Mead
Preface to the Reader
From The History of the World Translated from the Latin of Justin
A Prefatory Discourse, concerning the Advantages Masters ought chiefly to have in view, in reading any ancient Historian, Justin in particular, with young scholars
From A Treatise on Ancient Painting
An Epistle to the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Lonsdale, Upon Education, and the Design of this Essay on Painting, &c.
A Preface, concerning Education, Travelling, and the Fine Arts
CHAPTER VII. Observations on the Sameness of good Taste in all the Arts, and in Life and Manners; on the Sources and Foundations of rational Pleasures in our Natures, and the Usefulness of the fine Arts in a liberal Education
Bibliography
Index
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Although George Turnbull was a recognized member of the European republic of letters in the second quarter of the eighteenth century, his reputation as an exponent of the moderate Enlightenment was eclipsed soon after his death in 1748. By the turn of the nineteenth century, he had come to be regarded as a figure of little intellectual significance. In 1802, for example, Dugald Stewart indicated that, at most, Turnbull deserved mention as the teacher of Thomas Reid but was otherwise of no interest.1 Moreover, Stewart’s later assertion that the “rise and progress of the Metaphysical Philosophy of Scotland” originated in “the lectures of Dr. Francis Hutcheson, in the University of Glasgow” meant that Turnbull’s role in the formation of the Scottish Enlightenment was overlooked by those nineteenth-century writers who championed the merits of the Scottish “school” of philosophy, with the notable exception of James McCosh. McCosh cast Turnbull alongside Hutcheson as a founder of the Scottish “school,” yet his positive assessment of Turnbull was largely ignored.2 Consequently, Turnbull slipped from view until the latter part of the twentieth century, when David Fate Norton stimulated interest in Turnbull’s philosophical writings by situating them in the context of Scottish responses to moral and cognitive scepticism. Turnbull’s writings on art theory, education, and natural law also began to receive the attention they deserve, as did his teaching at Marischal College Aberdeen.3 Nevertheless, Turnbull remained a shadowy
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figure because a number of basic biographical facts had not been established and important facets of his thought had not been explored.
The Travels and Travails of a Man of Letters
James McCosh was the first scholar to research the details of Turnbull’s life and writings. But his biography is flawed because he did not have access to some of the most valuable sources of information regarding Turnbull’s life, including the surviving correspondence published below. These sources enable us to construct a richer narrative of his life and the context of his work.
George Turnbull was born on 11 July 1698 in Alloa, near Stirling, the son of the clergyman George Turnbull the elder. The younger Turnbull was probably expected to enter the ministry and was sent to the University of Edinburgh in 1711, where he likely finished his courses in the spring of 1716.4 He did not graduate formally with his Master of Arts degree after completing his course work and in 1717 entered Edinburgh’s divinity school. While studying divinity, he may have been one of the founding members of the Rankenian Club.5 In the Club, he was close to his fellow divinity student Robert Wallace, the preacher and later minister William Wishart, the surgeon George Young, and the Edinburgh Professor of Universal History Charles Mackie, although each of these friendships later cooled.6 Apparently disillusioned with a career in the Church of Scotland, Turnbull instead sought employment in the Scottish universities and was elected on 14 April 1721 as a regent at Marischal College Aberdeen.7
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At Marischal, Turnbull joined a phalanx of young, innovative colleagues, including the distinguished mathematician and leading Newtonian, Colin Maclaurin (1698–1746). Maclaurin was, however, unhappy at Marischal and Turnbull shared his friend’s disaffection with academic life at the college. His correspondence shows that in May 1723 he ventured to ask Lord Molesworth to help him find a post as a travelling tutor but without success. In 1724–25 a political battle within the college,