ABSTRACT
The first indication of Robert Burns's connection with Dugald Stewart is found in a letter to Dr John Mackenzie of Mauchline in which Burns expresses his pleasure at having shared an afternoon dining with him and the young Lord Daer, Basil Douglas-Hamilton, the second son of the fourth Earl of Selkirk, at the Professor's home. The second sign of Stewart's cautious radicalism is pointed out by Macintyre in a reference to a passage in Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. Burns was familiar with Reid's philosophy of common sense and had read his major work, An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense. At that dinner, Burns was to find himself in company that was congenial to his own political and philosophical outlook. In the realm of philosophy, he had learned much from Stewart in terms of a greater understanding of the nature of his own humanity.
