QUESTIONS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF STUDENTS,
BY JOHN FROST, LL.D.

Complete in One Volume.

NEW YORK:

DERBY & JACKSON, 119 NASSAU STREET.

CINCINNATI :~H. W. DERBY.

1856.

THE

LIFE OF DR. WM. ROBERTSON.

WILLIAM ROBERTSON, the eldest son of the Reverend William Robertson, was born on the 8th of September, 1721, at Borthwick, in the shire of Mid Lothian, of which parish his father was the minister. By the paternal line he descended from a respectable family in the county of Fife, a branch of that which, for many generations, possessed the estate of Struan, in Perthshire. His mother was the daughter of David Pitcairn, esq. of Dreghorn. He had one brother and six sisters; all of whom were well settled in life, and most of whom lived to an advanced age.

It was at the parochial school of Borthwick that Robertson received the initiatory part of his education; but as soon as he was sufficiently forward to enter on the study of the learned languages, he was removed to the school of Dalkeith. The latter seminary was then under the superintendence of Mr. Leslie, whose eminence as a teacher was such as to attract pupils from all parts of Scotland; and the father of Robertson was consequently induced to send him to Dalkeith rather than to the Scottish metropolis.

When the future historian was twelve years old, his father was transferred from Borthwick to one of the churches of Edinburgh. In the autumn of 1733 he joined his parents; and, in October, he was admitted into the college and university of the northern capital.

Whatever were his first attempts at composition, and it is probable they were many, nothing has been preserved to show how early he began to exercise his talents, or with what degree of rapidity those talents were expanded. It is certain, however, that in the pursuit of knowledge he displayed that ardour and perseverance without which nothing great will ever be accomplished. A strong proof of this is afforded by some of his early commonplace books, which bear the dates of 1735, 1736, and 1737. The motto, vita sine literis mors est, which he prefixed to these books, sufficiently indicates by what an honourable ambition and love of literature he was inspired at a very tender and generally thoughtless age. The boy of fourteen, who can cherish the feeling which is implied by this motto, gives promise that his manhood will reflect lustre on himself and on the country of his birth.

Among the men of eminence, by whose instructions he profited at the university, were sir John Pringle, afterwards president of the Royal Society, but then professor of moral philosophy; Maclaurin, justly cele brated for the extent of his mathematical skill and the purity of his style and Dr. Stevenson, the learned and indefatigable professor of logic. To the masterly prelections of the latter, especially to his illustrations of the poetics of Aristotle, and of Longinus on the Sublime, Robertson often declared that he considered himself to be more deeply indebted than to any circumstance in the course of his academical career. It was indeed not towards the abstract sciences that the bent of his genius was directed. To mathematical and mechanical speculations he seems to have been at least cold, perhaps averse. Neither was he remarkable for metaphysical acuteness. His delight was to trace and elucidate moral and religious truths, to apply the process of reasoning to subjects more immediately con

nected with the every-day business of existence, to search into the causes and effects of historical events, to expatiate amidst the perennial beauties of classic lore, and, by meditating on the great models of oratorical art, to render himself master of all the powerful resources of a ready and persuasive eloquence.

With respect to eloquence, the possession of it was in fact indispensable to one who, as in all probability was the case with Robertson, had determined to assure a prominent station among the pastors and leaders of the Scottish church. The mere knowledge of rules, however, or even a thorough acquaintance with the rich stores of ancient and modern oratory, will not suffice to form an orator. It is by use alone that facility of speech and promptitude of reply can be acquired. It is the collision of minds which strikes out the "thoughts that breathe, and words that burn." During the last years, therefore, of his residing at college, he joined with some of his contemporaries in establishing a society, the avowed purpose of which, as we are told by Mr. Stewart, was "to cultivate the study of elocution, and to prepare themselves, by the habits of extemporary discussion and debate, for conducting the business of popular assemblies."

Of the colleagues of Robertson in this society many ultimately rose, like himself, to high reputation. Among them were Cleghorn, subsequently professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh, Dr. John Blair, who became a member of the Royal Society, and a prebendary of Westminster, and who gave to the public "The Chronology and History of the World," Wilkie, the author of the Epigoniad, a faulty poem, but above contempt, Home, the author of Douglas, and Dr. Erskine, who, in after life, was at once the coadjutor, rival, opponent, and friend of Robertson.

This society continued in existence, and, no doubt, was beneficial to its members, till it was broken up by a quarrel, which had its rise from a religious source, and which, consequently, was of more than common bitterness. In 1741 that extraordinary man Whitefield, who was then in the zenith of his fame, paid a visit to Scotland, and his preaching excited in that country a feeling equally as strong as it had excited in England. On the subject of his merit violent parties immediately sprang up, especially among the clergy. By the one side he was considered as a clerical wonder, a kind of apostle, from whose evangelical labours the happiest result might be expected; by the other side he was calumniated as an impostor, and a worthless private character, while some, in the excess of their holy zeal, did not scruple to stigmatize him, even from the pulpit, as an agent of the devil." It was natural that this question should be debated by Robertson and his associates; and it was, perhaps, not less natural that it should be argued with so much heat and asperity as not only to cause the dissolution of the society, but even, it is said, to interrupt, for some time, the intercourse of the members as private individuals. Of those who entertained doubts with regard to the personal conduct of Whitefield, and the utility of his efforts, Robertson was one. From his acknowledged moderation and evenness of temper we may, however, infer that his hostility to the preacher was carried on in a liberal spirit, and that he did not think it either necessary or decorous to brand him as an agent of the prince of darkness.

To excel in his written style as much as in his oral was one object of his ambition. The practice of clothing in an English dress the standard works of the ancients has been often recommended, as conducive to the improvement of style; and he seems to have believed it to be so, for it was adopted by him. He carried it so far as to entertain serious thoughts of preparing for the press a version of Marcus Antoninus. His scheme was, however, frustrated by the appearance of an anonymous translation at Glasgow. "In making choice of this author," says Mr. Stewart, "he was probably not a little influenced by that partiality with which (among the

writers of heathen moralists) he always regarded the remains of the stoical philosophy.'

Having completed his academic course, and richly stored his mind, he quitted the university, and, in 1741, before he had quite attamed the age of twenty, a license to preach the gospel was given to him by the presbytery of Dalkeith. This kind of license, which does not authorize to administer the sacraments or to undertake the cure of souls, is granted to laymen; and the person who receives it may be considered as being placed by it in a state of probation.

After the lapse of two years, from the period of his leaving the univer sity, when he was yet little more than twenty-two, he was, in 1743, pre sented, by the Earl of Hopetoun, to the living of Gladsmuir. Of this preferment the yearly value was not more than one hundred pounds. Scanty, however, as were its emoluments, it was most opportunely bestowed. He had not long resided at Gladsmuir when an unexpected and melancholy event occurred, which put to the trial at once his firmness and his benevolence. His father and mother expired within a few hours of each other, leaving behind them a family of six daughters and one son, without the means of providing for their education and maintenance. On this occasion Robertson acted in a manner which bore irrefragable testimony to the goodness of his heart, and which was also, as Mr. Stewart justly observes, "strongly marked with that manly decision in his plans, and that persevering steadiness in their execution, which were the characteristic features of his mind." Regardless of the privations to which he must necessarily submit, and the interruption which his literary and other projects must experience, he received his father's family into his house at Gladsmuir, educated his sisters under his own roof, and retained them there till opportunities arose of settling them respectably in the world. His merit is enhanced by the circumstance of his fraternal affection having imposed on him a sacrifice far more painful than that of riches or fame. He was tenderly attached to his cousin Miss Mary Nesbit, daughter of the Reverend Mr. Nesbit, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, and his attachment was returned; but it was not till 1751, when his family had ceased to stand in need of his protecting care, that he thought himself at liberty to complete a union which had, for several years, been the object of his ardent wishes. It is pleasant to know that the wife whom he so tardily obtained was every way worthy of such a husband, and that he suffered no interruption of his domestic happiness.

While he was laudably occupied in promoting the welfare of his orphan relatives, the rebellion broke out in Scotland. "It afforded him," says Mr. Stewart, 66 an opportunity of evincing the sincerity of that zeal for the civil and religious liberties of his country, which he had imbibed with the first principles of his education; and which afterwards, at the distance of more than forty years, when he was called on to employ his eloquence in the national commemoration of the revolution, seemed to rekindle the fires of his youth. His situation as a country clergyman confined indeed his patriotic exertions within a narrow sphere; but even here his conduct was guided by a mind superior to the scene in which he acted. On one occa sion (when the capital was in danger of falling into the hands of the rebels) the present state of public affairs appeared so critical that he thought him self justified in laying aside for a time the pacific habits of his profession, and in quitting his parochial residence at Gladsmuir to join the volunteers of Edinburgh. And when, at last, it was determined that the city should be surrendered, he was one of the small band who repaired to Haddington, and offered their services to the commander of His Majesty's forces." With the exception of this one troubled interval he continued, for many years, in the tranquil performance of his pastoral duties. The hours of his leisure were devoted to literary researches and to laying the solid foun