Edinburgh. He studied at Glasgow (1771-72) where he became Reid's
favourite pupil and devoted friend. In 1772 he became the assistant, and
in 1775 the colleague, of his father, and he appears to have had a
considerable knowledge of mathematics. In 1785 he succeeded Adam
Ferguson as professor of moral philosophy and lectured continuously
until 1810. He then gave up his active duties to Thomas Brown, devoting
himself to the completion and publication of the substance of his
lectures. Upon Brown's death in 1820, he resigned a post to which he was
no longer equal. A paralytic stroke in 1822 weakened him, though he was
still able to write. He died in 1828.

If Stewart now makes no great mark in histories of philosophy, his
personal influence was conspicuous. Cockburn describes him as of
delicate appearance, with a massive head, bushy eyebrows, gray
intelligent eyes, flexible mouth and expressive countenance. His voice
was sweet and his ear exquisite. Cockburn never heard a better reader,
and his manners, though rather formal, were graceful and dignified.
James Mill, after hearing Pitt and Fox, declared that Stewart was their
superior in eloquence. At Edinburgh, then at the height of its
intellectual activity, he held his own among the ablest men and
attracted the loyalty of the younger. Students came not only from
Scotland but from England, the United States, France and Germany.[158]
Scott won the professor's approval by an essay on the 'Customs of the
Northern Nations.' Jeffrey, Horner, Cockburn and Mackintosh were among
his disciples. His lectures upon Political Economy were attended by
Sydney Smith, Jeffrey and Brougham, and one of his last hearers was Lord
Palmerston. Parr looked up to him as a great philosopher, and
contributed to his works an essay upon the etymology of the word
'sublime,' too vast to be printed whole. Stewart was an upholder of Whig
principles, when the Scottish government was in the hands of the
staunchest Tories. The irreverent young Edinburgh Reviewers treated him
with respect, and to some extent applied his theory to politics.
Stewart was the philosophical heir of Reid; and, one may say, was a Whig
both in philosophy and in politics. He was a rationalist, but within the
limits fixed by respectability; and he dreaded the revolution in
politics, and believed in the surpassing merits of the British
Constitution as interpreted by the respectable Whigs.

Stewart represents the 'common sense' doctrine