Natural Religion.' This work was occasioned by the appearance of his friend David Hume's Philosophical Essays. Hume had assigned utility as the foundation of morals. This appeared to Home a very dangerous doctrine, as tending to annihilate all distinction of right and wrong in human actions, and to make good and evil depend on the fluctuating opinions of men with respect to the general good. In the Essays he has, therefore, subjected this theory to examination, and succeeded in pointing out its defects though certainly not in erecting a sounder system in its place. Hume's doctrine of cause and effect is also subjected to a rigid scrutiny in the Essays. The conclusion come to by Home on this point is,-that although the connexion between cause and effect is not demonstrable, yet are we assured of its reality: our conviction with respect to it resting on the same ground as that of the fact of our own existence, and the existence of the material world, the evidence, namely, of intuitive perception, creating a belief that is irresistible, constant, and universal. Some of the doctrines advanced in the Essays, however, proved highly offensive to many, and Home was included with Hume in the proposed vote of censure meditated in the general assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Amidst his

In the month of February, 1752, Mr Home was elevated to the bench, and took his seat as a lord of session, by the title of Lord Kames. The promotion gave great and universal satisfaction and he acquitted himself, as a judge, in a manner which commanded the highest approbation of intelligent men. He has been censured by some for severity as a criminal judge, but without just grounds, we think. various judicial and public duties, he found means to publish several useful professional works. In 1761 he published a small volume entitled An Introduction to the Art of Thinking;' and, in the following year, his most celebrated work, the Elements of Criticism.' appeared in three volumes 8vo. "In this elaborate work," says his biographer, "the author proceeds on this fundamental proposition, that the impressious made on the mind by the productions of the Fine Arts, are a subject of reasoning as well as feeling; and that, although the agreeable emotion arising from what is beautiful or excellent in those productions may be a gift of nature, and, like all other endowments, very unequally distributed among mankind, yet it depends on certain principles or laws of the human constitution which are common to the whole species. Whence it follows, that, as a good taste consists in the consonance of our feelings with these fixed laws, our judgments on all the works of genius are only to be esteemed just and perfect when they are warranted by the conclusions of sound understanding, after trying and comparing them by this standard." These principles are doubtless sound, and Lord Kames deserves to be regarded as the first who reduced the rules of philosophical criticism to the form of a science. We are doubtful, however, of his right to being considered as the discoverer of these principles, which appear to us to have been known from the days of

Aristotle.

Lord Kames's next great work is his Sketches of the History of Man,' first published in 1774, in two volumes 4to. The leading doctrine of this singular work appears to be, that man originally existed in a state of utter savageism, and that all his subsequent advancement has been the mere result of the progressive development of his natural

powers by natural means. In these Sketches,' notwithstanding, there is an affected deference paid to the Mosaic history.

The latter part of his lordship's active life was still crowded with official, public, and literary business. Amidst the overwhelming multiplicity of details to which his attention was perpetually called, he contrived to devote some of his time to rural pursuits and the improvement of the agriculture of his country. He conceived and partly executed the magnificent idea of draining the great moss of Kincardine; and executed very extensive and tasteful improvements on his estate of Blair-Drummond. His constitution was an admirable one, and did not show any signs of breaking up until he had long passed his threescore years and ten.' So late as the winter session of 1782 he took his seat on the bench with his brother-judges; but he soon became sensible that he was now tasking nature beyond her feeble strength. After a few days' attendance he took a separate and affectionate farewell of each of his brethren, and, in eight days thereafter, was gently released from the evils of mortality by the friendly hand of death.

Lord Kames's memoirs have been ably drawn up by his friend Lord Woodhouselee, in two volumes 4to. These volumes, besides a very full and acute delineation of their principal subject, contain many interesting sketches of the literary history of Scotland during the greater part of last century.

James Nares.

BORN A. D. 1715.-DIED A. D. 1783.

THIS eminent musical composer was born at Stanwell in Middlesex. His father was steward to the earl of Abingdon. His musical education was begun under Gates, then master of the royal choristers, and completed under Pepusch.

He officiated for some time as deputy to Pigott, the organist at Windsor; but on the resignation of Salisbury, organist of York, in 1734, was chosen to succeed him. It is related that when the old musician first saw his intended successor, he exclaimed, rather angrily, "What! is that child to succeed me?" The child, however, took an early opportunity of playing one of the most difficult services throughout half-a-note below the pitch, which brought it into a key with seven sharps. He went through this difficult task without the slightest error; and on being questioned why he chose to attempt such a thing, he replied, that he only wished to show Mr Salisbury what a child could do.'

On the death of Dr Greene, Nares was appointed organist and composer to his majesty, and created doctor in music at Cambridge. In 1757 he succeeded Gates as master of the royal choristers. He died, generally respected, and highly esteemed for professional attainments. in the beginning of the year 1783.

His published works are numerous, and a large portion of his productions still exist only in MS. He did much to introduce expressive melody into the church-service in place of that uniform chaunt in which some of its finest portions, such as the Te Deum, used to be sung.

Henry Brooke.

BORN A. D. 1706.-died a. d. 1783.

THIS ingenious writer was a native of Ireland. After passing hastily through Trinity college, Dublin, he came to London, where he was introduced to Swift and Pope as a young man of promising talents. His first publication was a philosophical poem entitled Universal Beauty,' which does not appear to have attracted much notice. In 1737 he published a translation of the first three books of Tasso's epic. His next essay was a political squib directed against Walpole, in the shape of a tragedy, entitled 'Gustavus Vasa.' This performance was prohibited by injunction, but its sale was so great that the author is said to have cleared nearly £1000 by it.

His wife now prevailed upon him to return to Dublin, where he obtained the situation of barrack-master from the earl of Chesterfield. In 1745 he published a spirited series of letters to his countrymen, in imitation of Drapier's Letters, with the view of rousing them to put down rebellion and resist threatened invasion. After publishing a variety of pieces, chiefly dramatic, he appeared, in 1766, in the character of a novel writer. In that year he published the first volume of the Fool of Quality, or the History of the Earl of Moreland,' which was well-received, and completed in five volumes in 1770. This was long a popular novel; but is now little heard of. It exhibits great knowledge of life, and much acuteness in detecting the secret springs of action; but, in many places, borders on the verge of religious mysticism. His last work was entitled 'Juliet Grenville,' a novel in three volumes. It has not maintained the popularity of the Fool of Quality.' Brooke died in 1783. His poetical works were collected in 1778, in four volumes 8vo

John Scott.

BORN A. D. 1730.—died A. D. 1783.

THIS amiable man and pleasing poet was the son of quaker parents. He received his education at the village of Amwell in Hertfordshire, to which place his father had retired from the metropolis. About the age of seventeen young Scott began to write verses. His first essays were published in the Gentleman's Magazine,' that great cradle of infant genius. His father's circumstances enabled him to pursue the cultivation of his mind with such facilities as the place afforded him; but these were very limited. The youthful bard's most discerning friend was a humble bricklayer, who had taste enough to perceive some merit in his verses, and to encourage him to further efforts of his muse. In 1760 he published four Descriptive elegies, which were favourably received, and introduced the poet to the notice of Dr Young, and two ladies of much consequence in the literary world at that period,—Mrs Talbot and Mrs Carter. In 1767 Scott married the daughter of his

humble friend and adviser, the bricklayer. She died in childbed in the following year, and her husband honoured her memory with a very pathetic elegy. He married again, however, in 1770. In 1776 he published his Amwell,' a descriptive poem, which was much admired in the feeble era of English poetical literature in which it appeared, but is now almost unknown. Besides the publications we have enumerated, Scott was the author of several little useful tracts on parish economy, rural laws, &c. He died in 1783. His life was written by Hoole, the translator of Tasso.

William Hunter.

BORN A. D. 1718.-DIED A.D. 1783.

THE annals of medical science do not present two more splendid names than those of the two brothers, William and John Hunter. William, the elder, was born on the 23d of May, 1718, near Kilbride, in the county of Lanark. He was at first intended for the church, and, with this view, studied divinity at the college of Glasgow for about five years. In 1737 he changed the direction of his studies, and placed himself under the tuition of the afterwards celebrated Dr Cullen, then practising surgery in the small county-town of Hamilton, about eleven miles from Glasgow. After having attended several courses of lectures at Edinburgh, and amongst others those of the elder Monro, he proceeded to London, where he obtained employment from Dr Douglas, who was then engaged in preparing a treatise on the bones, and to whom young Hunter proved a valuable acquisition, in his skill as a dissector and demonstrator.

In 1743 William Hunter contributed a paper to the Philosophical Transactions,' on the structure and diseases of the Cartilages. In 1746 he delivered a course of lectures on surgery to a society of naval surgeons. Next year he became a member of the college of surgeons, and visited the anatomical preparations of Albinus in the university of Leyden. In 1750 he obtained the degree of M.D. from the university of Glasgow.

He commenced practice in London soon after his return from Leyden. Like many of his brethren, he found his earliest and most lucrative practice in the obstetrical branch of the profession; but this department was cultivated by him with such distinguished success that he became the first physician-accoucheur in the kingdom, and was appointed physician extraordinary to the queen. How profoundly and successfully he had studied this important branch of the science appears from his splendid work entitled The History of the Human Gravid Uterus,' first published in 1775.

In 1756 he became a licentiate of the Royal college of physicians; and, on the death of Dr Fothergill, in 1781, was elected president of that learned body. In 1767 he was chosen a fellow of the Royal society, and in 1782 a foreign associate of the French academy of sciences. He pursued his laborious avocations, as a general practitioner and lecturer, with great diligence, throughout the whole course of his profes

sional life, and till within a few days of his death, which took place on the 30th of March, 1783.

William Hunter was a man of great acuteness and high original genius in his profession; a profound and sagacious observer, and laborious inquirer. He greatly enriched every department of his profession to which he more especially devoted himself. All his contributions to medical science bear the stamp of original genius, and some of his papers may be regarded as models of philosophical investigation and generalization. He entered on the study of medicine with a determination to aim at a leading place in his profession. It is related of him, that, while on a visit to his native place, after having spent some years in London, he was riding one day with his old preceptor and friend Cullen, who remarked how conspicuous an object in the landscape Long Calderwood, the birth-place of William Hunter, appeared from the point of road which they had just attained: "Yes!" exclaimed Hunter. "But, if I live, it shall be still more conspicuous!"—a prediction amply verified in the sequel of his life. In 1762 he got engaged in a sharp controversy with Dr Alexander Monro (secundus) of Edinburgh, as to the precedence of some of their respective discoveries in anatomy. The dispute divided the medical world at the time, and we shall not now attempt to determine it. On the institution of the Royal academy, the king appointed Hunter professor of anatomy in that institution; his prelections in this character were much esteemed by the students, and contributed not a little to advance the arts of painting and design in this country. In 1765 he offered to expend £7000 in the erection of an anatomical theatre; and to found a perpetual professorship of anatomy in connexion with the building, provided government would grant a site for this purpose. This liberal and patriotic offer was neglected by the ministry of the day; but Hunter purchased a piece of ground himself, and erected a spacious amphitheatre and museum upon it, at an expense which ultimately amounted to above £70,000. This museum was bequeathed to the university of Glasgow, and now forms one of the principal points of attraction in that city to literary and scientific

men.

Dr Hunter was slender in person, and rather below the middle size, but handsomely formed, and graceful in his deportment. None ever more effectually possessed the power of gaining the confidence of his patients that prime secret in the curative art.

Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

BORN A. D. 1709.-DIED A. D. 1784.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, the brightest ornament of the 18th century, was born in the city of Litchfield, in Staffordshire, on the 18th of September, 1709. His father, Michael Johnson, was a bookseller, and must have had some reputation in the city, as he more than once bore the office of chief-magistrate. By what casuistry he reconciled his conscience to the oaths required in such stations is not known; but it is certain that he was zealously attached to the exiled family, and that he instilled the same principles into the youthful mind of his son. When