BIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT

OF

JOHN ROBISON, LL. D. *

THE HE distinguished person who is the subject of this memoir was born at Boghall, in the parish of Baldernock, near Glasgow, in the year 1739. His father, John Robison, had been early engaged in commerce in Glasgow, where, with a character of great probity and worth, he had acquired considerable wealth, and, before the birth of his son, had retired to the country, and lived at his estate of Boghall.

His son was educated at the grammar school of Glasgow. We have no accounts of his earliest acquirements, but must suppose them to have been sufficiently rapid, as he entered a student of Humanity, in the University of Glasgow, in November 1750, and in April 1756 took his degree in Arts.

Several Professors of great celebrity adorned that

From the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. VII. (1815.)-ED.

University about this period. Dr Simson was one of the first geometers of the age; and Mr Adam Smith had just begun to explain in his lectures those principles which have since been delivered with such effect in the Theory of Moral Sentiments, and in the Wealth of Nations. Dr Moore was a great master of the Greek language, and added to extensive learning a knowledge of the ancient geometry, much beyond the acquirement of an ordinary scholar.

Under such instructors, a young man of far inferior talents to those which Mr Robison possessed, could not fail to make great advancement. He used, nevertheless, to speak lightly of his early proficiency, and to accuse himself of want of application, but from what I have learnt, his abilities and attainments were highly respected by his contemporaries, and he was remarked at a very early period for the ingenuity of his reasonings as well as the boldness of his opinions. According to his own account, his taste for the accurate sciences was not much excited by the pure Mathematics, and he only began to attend to them, after he discovered their use in Natural Philosophy.

In the year following that in which he took his degree, Dr Dick, who was joint Professor of Natural Philosophy with his father, died, and Mr Robison offered himself to the old gentleman as a temporary assistant. He was recommended, as I

have been told, by Mr Smith, but was nevertheless judged too young by Mr Dick, as he was not yet nineteen. The object to which his father, a man of exemplary piety, wished to direct his future prospects, was the Church, to which, however, he was at this time greatly averse, from motives which do not appear; but certainly not from any dislike to the objects or duties of the Clerical Profession. It was very natural for him to wish for some active scene, where his turn for Physical, and particularly Mechanical Science, might be exercised, and the influence of those indefinite and untried objects, which act so powerfully on the imagination of youth, directed his attention toward London. Professor Dick and Dr Simson joined in recommending him to Dr Blair, Prebendary of Westminster, who was then in search of a person to go to sea with Edward, Duke of York, and to assist his Royal Highness in the study of Mathematics and Navigation. When Mr Robison reached London in 1758, he learnt that the proposed voyage was by no means fixed, and after passing some time in expectation and anxiety, he found that the arrangement was entirely abandoned. This first disappointment in a favourite object could not fail to be severely felt, and had almost made him resolve on returning to Scotland.

He had been introduced, however, to Admiral Knowles, whose son was to have accompanied the

Duke of York, and the Admiral was too conversant with Nautical Science, not to discover in him a genius strongly directed to the same objects. Though the scheme of the Prince's nautical education was abandoned, the Admiral's views with respect to his son remained unaltered, and he engaged Mr Robison to go to sea with him, and to take charge of his instruction. From this point it is, that we are to date his nautical as well as scientific attainments.

About the middle of February 1759, a fleet sailed from Spithead under the command of Admiral Saunders, intended to co-operate with a military force which was to be employed, during the ensuing summer, in the reduction of Quebec. Young Knowles, whom Mr Robison had agreed to accompany, was a midshipman on board the Admiral's ship, the Neptune of 90 guns; but in the course of the voyage, being promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the Royal William of SO guns, Mr Robison went with him on board that ship, and was there rated as a midshipman.

The fleet arrived on the coast of America in April; but it was not till the beginning of May that the entire dissolution of the ice permitted it to ascend the River St Lawrence, and that the active scene of naval and military operations commenced, which terminated so much to the credit of the Bri

tish arms. A person whose seafaring life was to