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Having finished this great work, he was desirous of enjoying the remainder of his days free from laborious pursuits, and refused, though earnestly solicited, to undertake a similar work with regard to the Acts of the apostles. In a very short time after, the decline of his faculties became manifest, and about the close of 1799 he caught a violent cold, the forerunner of other complaints that put an end to his life in January 1800. Having early acquired a taste for classical literature, he studied the writers of antiquity with critical skill, and was well acquainted with metaphysical, moral, and mathematical science. As a preacher, without possessing the graces of elocution, he was much admired for his earnestness of manner, which rendered his discourses highly interesting and useful.'

MACLAINE (ARCHIBALD), a pious and learned clergyman, and for fifty years minister of the English church at the Hague, was born at Monachan in Ireland, in 1722, and educated at Glasgow under the celebrated Mr. Hutcheson, for the presbyterian ministry. His youth was spent in Belfast, where he was long remembered with delight by a numerous circle of friends, now nearly extinct. About the time of the rebellion in 1745, when in his twentysecond year, he was invited to Holland, and succeeded his venerable uncle Dr. Milling, as pastor of the English church at the Hague, and remained in that situation until the invasion of the country by the French, in 1794, compelled him to take refuge in England. He had not been here long when an only sister, whom he had not seen for fifty years, joined him in consequence of the rebellion in Ireland. During his residence at the Hague he was known and highly respected by all English travellers, and not unfrequently consulted, on account of his extensive erudition and knowledge of political history, by official men of the highest rank. On his arrival in England he fixed his residence at Bath, as affording the best opportunities of union with many of those numerous friends he had known on the continent, and here he died, Nov. 25, 1804, aged eighty-two.

During this long course, Dr. Maclaine's superior endowments of mind and heart, his genius, learning, and industry, constantly directed by a love of virtue and truth, by piety and charity, diffused a beneficial influence over the

Life by his Son, prefixed to the " Epistles."

whole of his professional and domestic sphere. As a scholar, a gentleman, and a divine, uniformly displaying a judicious taste, an amiable deportment, and instructive example, he was admired and loved by all who courted and enjoyed his society; especially those of whom he was a distinguished archetype-the man of education, the rolished companion, the benevolent friend, and pious Christian.

Dr. Maclaine published in 1752 a sermon on the death of the prince of Orange. In 1765 his masterly translation of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History made its first appearance, in 2 vols. 4to, dedicated to William Prince of Orange*. It experienced a most favourable reception, and was reprinted, 1758, in six vols. 8vo, in which form it has had several subsequent editions, particularly one published in 181, with valuable additions by Dr. Coote, the editor, and the Rev. Dr. Gleig, of Stirling. Few publications, on their first appearance, having been more generally read than Mr. Soame Jenyns's "View of the internal Evidence of the Christian Religion," Dr. Maclaine addressed to that gentleman a series of letters, 1777, in 12mo, written to serve the best purposes of Christianity, on a due consideration of the distinguished eminence of Mr. Jenyns as a writer, of the singular mixture of piety, wit, error, wisdom, and paradox, exhibited in his publication, and of his defence of Christianity on principles which would lead men to enthusiasm or to scepticism, according to their different dispositions. His only publications since were two fast sermons, 1793 and 1797, and a volume of sermons preached at the Hague. He was interred in the abbey church of Bath, where a monument has been since erected to his memory by his friend Henry Hope, esq.'

MACLAURIN (COLIN), an eminent mathematician and philosopher, was the son of a clergyman, and born at Kilmodan, near Inverary, in Scotland, Feb. 1698. His family was originally from Tirey, one of the western islands. He was sent to the university of Glasgow in 1709, where he continued five years, and applied himself to study in a most intense manner, particularly to the mathematics. His great genius for this science discovered itself so early as at

For this work, by which thousands have been realized, Dr. Maclajne received only the small sum of 1301.

1 From materials obligingly furnished by his son, a merchant in London. Funeral Sermon, by Dr. Gardiner, Bath, 1805, 8vo.

twelve years of age; when, having accidentally met with a copy of Euclid's Elements in a friend's chamber, he became in a few days master of the first six books without any assistance and it is certain, that in his sixteenth year he had invented many of the propositions, which were afterwards published as part of his work entitled "Geometria Organica." In his fifteenth year, he took the degree of master of arts; on which occasion he composed and publicly defended a thesis "On the power of gravity," with great applause. After this he quitted the university, and retired to a country-seat of his uncle, who had the care of his education, his parents being dead some time. Here he spent two or three years in pursuing his favourite studies; and such was his acknowledged merit, that having in 1717 offered himself a candidate for the professorship of mathematics in the Marischal college of Aberdeen, he obtained it after a ten days trial against a very able competitor. In 1719 he went to London, where he left his "Geometria Organica" in the press, and where he became acquainted with Dr. Hoadly, bishop of Bangor, Dr. Clarke, sir Isaac Newton, and other eminent men. At the same time he was admitted a member of the royal society; and in another journey in 1721, he contracted au intimacy with Martin Folkes, esq. the president of it, which lasted to his death.

In 1722, lord Polwarth, plenipotentiary of the king of Great Britain at the congress of Cambray, engaged him to go as tutor and companion to his eldest son, who was then to set out on his travels. After a short stay at Paris, and visiting other cities in France, they fixed in Lorrain ; where Maclaurin wrote his treatise "On the percussion of Bodies," which gained the prize of the royal academy of sciences, for 1724; but his pupil dying soon after at Montpelier, he returned immediately to his professorship at Aberdeen. He was hardly settled here when he received an invitation to Edinburgh; the patrons of that university being desirous that he should supply the place of Mr. James Gregory, whose great age and infirmities had rendered him incapable of teaching. On this occasion he had some difficulties to encounter, arising from competitors, who had great interest with the patrons of the university, and also from the want of an additional fund for the new professor; all which, however, at length were surmounted, in consequence of two letters from sir Isaac Newton. In one, addressed to himself, with allowance to shew it to

the patrons of the university, sir Isaac expresses himself thus: "I am very glad to hear that you have a prospect of being joined to Mr. James Gregory, in the professorship of the mathematics at Edinburgh, not only because you. are my friend, but principally because of your abilities; you being acquainted as well with the new improvements of mathematics, as with the former state of those sciences. I heartily wish you good success, and shall be very glad to hear of your being elected." In a second letter to the lord provost of Edinburgh, he writes thus: "I am glad to understand that Mr. Maclaurin is in good repute amongst you for his skill in mathematics, for I think he deserves it very well; and to satisfy you that I do not flatter him, and also to encourage him to accept the place of assisting Mr. Gregory, in order to succeed him, I am ready, if you please to give me leave, to contribute 20l. per annum towards a provision for him, till Mr. Gregory's place becomes void, if I live so long, and I will pay it to his order in London.' ""

In Nov. 1725, he was introduced into the university at the same time with his learned colleague and intimate friend, Dr. Alexander Monro, professor of anatomy. After this, the mathematical classes soon became very numerous, there being generally upwards of 100 students attending his lectures every year. These being of different standing and proficiency, he was obliged to divide them into four or five classes, in each of which he employed a full hour every day, from the first of Nov. to the first of June. In the first class he taught the first six books of "Euclid's Elements," plain trigonometry, practical geometry, the elements of fortification, and an introduction to algebra. The second studied algebra, the 11th and 12th books of Euclid, spherical trigonometry, conic sections, and the general principles of astronomy. The third went on in astronomy and perspective, read a part of sir Isaac Newton's "Principia," and saw a course of experiments for illustrating them performed: he afterwards read and demonstrated the elements of fluxions. Those in the fourth class read a system of fluxions, the doctrine of chances, and the rest of Newton's "Principia." Besides these labours belonging to his professorship, he had frequently other employments and avocations. If an uncommon ex

periment was said to have been made any where, the curious were desirous of having it repeated by him; and if

an eclipse or comet was to be observed, his telescopes were always in readiness.

He lived a bachelor to the year 1733; but being formed for society, as well as contemplation, he then married Anne, the daughter of Mr. Walter Stewart, solicitor-general to his late majesty for Scotland. By this lady he had seven children, of which, two sons and three daughters, together with his wife, survived him. In 1734, Berkeley, bishop of Cloyne, published a piece called "The Analyst;" in which he took occasion, from some disputes that had arisen concerning the grounds of the fluxionary method, to explode the method itself, and also to charge mathematicians in general with infidelity in religion. Maclaurin thought himself included in this charge, and began an answer to Berkeley's book: but, as he proceeded, so many discoveries, so many new theories and problems occurred to him, that, instead of a vindicatory pamphlet, it increased to "A complete system of Fluxions, with their application to the most considerable problems in geometry and natural philosophy." This work, which was published at Edinburgh in 1742, 2 vols. 4to, cost him infinite. pains, and will do him immortal honour, being indeed the most complete treatise on that science that has yet appeared *. In the mean time, he was continually gratifying the public with some performance or observation of his own, many of which were published in the fifth and sixth volumes of the "Medical Essays," at Edinburgh. Some of them appeared likewise in "The Philosophical Transactions;" as the following: 1. "Of the construction aud measure of Curves." 2. "A new method of describing all kinds of Curves." 3. "A letter to Martin Folkes, esq. on Equations with impossible Roots, May 1726." 4. "Continuation of the same, March 1729." 5. "December the 21st, 1732, On the description of Curves; with an account of farther improvements, and a paper dated at Nancy,

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