George Campbell (minister)

George Campbell FRSE (25 December 1719 – 6 April 1796) was, during the era of the Scottish Enlightenment, a philosopher, minister of the Church of Scotland, professor of divinity, and writer on lheology, language, and rhetoric.

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Quotes

No arguments unaccompanied by the influences of the Holy Spirit, can convert the soul from sin to God; though even to such conversion, arguments are, by the agency of the Spirit, rendered subservient.
- "Introduction". A Dissertation on Miracles: Containing an Examination of the Principles Advanced by David Hume, Esq. in an Essay on Miracles (4th ed.). Mundell, Doig, & Stevenson. 1807. pp. 1–6. (quote from p. 1; 1st edition 1762)

All art is founded in science, and the science is of little value which does not serve as a foundation to some beneficial art. On the most sublime of all sciences, theology and ethics, is built the most important of all arts, the art of living. The abstract mathematical sciences serve as a groundwork to the arts of the land-measurer and the accountant; and in conjunction with natural philosophy, including geography and astronomy, to those of the architect, the navigator, the dialist, and many others. Of what consequence anatomy is to surgery, and that part of physiology which teaches the laws of gravitation and of motion, is to the artificer, is a matter too obvious to need illustration. The general remark might, if necessary, be exemplified throughout the whole circle of arts, both useful and elegant. Valuable knowledge, therefore, always leads to some practical skill, and is perfected in it. On the other hand, the practical skill loses much of its beauty and extensive utility which does not originate in knowledge. There is, by consequence, a natural relation between the sciences and the arts, like that which subsists between the parent and the offspring.
- "Introduction". The Philosophy of Rhetoric. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable & Company. 1816. pp. 1–20. (quote from pp. 1–2; 1st edition, 1776, William Creech, Edinburgh)

Dr. Campbell, writing in the middle of the last century, held that a word which had not appeared in any book written since 1688, or which was to be found in the works of living authors only, should not be deemed in present use; but in these days of change words go and come more rapidly.
- Adams Sherman Hill, The principles of rhetoric. Harper & Brothers. 1895. p. 8.