and statues, and heathen deities? And who, in the present knowing age, would purchase a Chillaby, and stake thousands on the progeny of an unknown and untried Arabian?

In his person Mr. Jennings was rather under the middle size. Of late years he was bent like a bow; but even amidst the vigour of youth he must have been accounted somewhat diminutive. His complexion was fair; his features were small, and perhaps a little effeminate, and he still retained some faint remains of colour in those cheeks where the roses had formerly bloomed. On the whole, he appears to have been once sprightly, agreeable, and genteel.

His eyes were weak, and when agitated by any subject, not unfrequently suffused with tears. Yet his sight was strong, and that, too, in no ordinary degree, for he preserved the power of reading, unassisted with any aid, to a very extended old age. When near ninety, he scorned to recur to glasses, and two hours in the morning were constantly consumed in perusing a newspaper, not at all conspicuous, either for the largeness or the excellence of the type.

To the contemplation of natural history he was greatly addicted; and in more than once instance his fame is connected both with it and the fine arts. On a rare shell in his collection his name has been conferred *; and both his horse and his mastiff have each in their turn, afforded a cognomen for himself.

We shall conclude the life of this extraordinary man, by observing, that among his other peculiarities, he respected medicine, but hated physicians, he admired the ancient common law of England, but held all the modern practitioners in abhorrence; and, finally, that while he deemed religion necessary for a state, he affected to detest priests of all orders, classes, and denominations whatsoever.

THE HE city of Edinburgh, which is justly entitled to be denominated the "Northern Capital," is said also of late years to aspire to the appellation of the "Modern Athens." That she has made rapid strides in the career of science is evident to all; and it is only sufficient to peruse the long and splendid list of her poets, philosophers, and historians to form a high opinion of their various and almost unrivalled excellence. It ought not to be forgotten, too, that all this is a new creation. Under the name of " the gude town" she formerly displayed a fiery and intolerant zeal, such as the more prudent persecution of the church of Rome would not have been disposed openly to avow. Had Servetus escaped from Geneva he would have been burnt at the Market-cross of Edinburgh!

To this spirit of intolerance were superadded high feudal notions; the doctrine of hereditary indefeasible right was maintained with a rigorous hand; and the same laws of descent that regulated a cow-house or a pig-stye were supposed equally applicable to a whole nation. This engendered and kept up an attachment to the house of Stuart. Scotland always received the fugitive princes with open arms, and spent her best blood, and forfeited her largest estates in support of a dynasty unworthy to reign. The projected union of the crowns and kingdoms under Anne proved but the signal of a new rebellion; and the northern side of the Tweed for a long time profited but little by the event that gave rise to it. Adumbrated by an alliance with a greater and richer kingdom, the people remained for more than half a century in a torpid state; neither commerce nor agriculture, nor any of the arts that embellish human life, flourished; the sciences were not as yet cultivated; and polite literature was not only neglected, but almost unknown.

At length, towards the middle of the last century, a new epoch arose; and the field of Culloden, where was obtained the maiden victory of a prince unused to conquest, put an end to chieftainship, hereditary jurisdiction, and personal slavery. Civilisation now made rapid strides; property was augmented, commerce and manufactures encouraged; the fisheries promoted; luxury began to be known for the first time, and every thing appertaining to social life, was rendered more useful and more elegant. The schools and universities partook of the genius of the age, and sent forth better and more enlightened scholars. The capital, so long the seat of intolerance and superstition, began to take the lead in the encouragement of learning; the arts and sciences were cultivated with enthusiasm; and a new race of men arose. A Hume, a Robertson, à Ferguson, Adam Smith, Black, Blair, &c. &c. at last appeared upon the scene. More liberal notions respecting law, religion, and liberty, prevailed; the fine arts began to rear their heads; and Edinburgh might then indeed boast, that in respect to great names she emulated almost any of the states

of Greece; not in arms, indeed, but in arts; not in warriors, but in men of letters and men of science.

John Playfair, who is so justly entitled to be considered as one of these, was the eldest son of the Rev. James Playfair, a clergyman of the established church of Scotland. He was born in 1749, at the manse, or parsonage-house of - Benvie, a small and obscure village in the vicinity of Dundee. His father, who was an excellent scholar, appears to have qualified him for the university; and he was accordingly sent to St. Andrew's, where he obtained a bursary, at the early age of fourteen. His genius immediately pointed towards the exact sciences; and Dr. Wilkie, the author of the "Epigoniad," then professor of mathematics, and a man remarkable for unaffected candour, became first his friend, and then his companion. The good-natured and kind-hearted Earl of Kinnoul, whom we have already mentioned with respect, in the life of Dr. William Thomson, who then happened to be chancellor of his university, acted the part of a patron. At this nobleman's seat at Duplin he was a frequent guest, and there he saw and conversed with good company during the vacation.

At the early age of nineteen he earned his first honorarium, by making calculations for the Edinburgh Almanack *; such even now was the opinion of his talents, that when surveyors differed as to the admeasurement of land, he was generally chosen arbitrator: in short, his decision was final and conclusive.

Meanwhile he proceeded in his studies at St. Andrew's, where he now attended the Divinity class, and at length obtained a licence to preach. This empowered him to perform an act of filial piety: for he was thus enabled occasionally to assist his father, who, although not old, yet was frequently disabled by disease from fulfilling the duties of his station.

Amidst his various avocations, young Playfair found time to visit Edinburgh, which then, as now, truly merited the praise of being a "hot-bed of genius!" He even became a

* This work was then published by the widow Chapman.

member of the "Speculative Society," which had then been but a few years in existence; notwithstanding which it was rapidly advancing into célebrity. At this period, too, he formed many friendships with men of merit and eminence, some of which proved highly beneficial to him in his future prospects in life.

In 1772 he lost his father, who left behind him a numerous family, consisting of seven children, of whom the three youngest sons, and two daughters, were under fifteen years of age. Towards the latter Mr. Playfair henceforth exercised all the paternal duties, and is even supposed to have declined marriage* with a view to be the better enabled to educate and support them.

The living of Benvie being now vacant, Lord Gray, of Gray, who had the alternate presentation, nominated the subject of this memoir to be minister. It was contended, however, that the gift pro hac vice appertained to the king; and this produced a contest that lasted a year. At length the General Assembly, through the influence of Dr. Robertson, the historian, by whom he was known and beloved, decided in his favour. On this he retained and supported at the manse a part of that family which he had adopted as his own. The latter part of his mother's life, too, was at once cheered and blessed by finding an asylum under the roof of such a son. She enjoyed this happiness in common with two of her daughters, until a few years since, when she died, at the age of 80.

Soon after his settlement in an obscure country parish, as a member of the established church of Scotland, an event occurred in the life of Mr. Playfair that contributed not a little to confer novelty, variety, and even affluence, during the latter part of his existence. Mr. Ferguson, of Raith, a gentleman of considerable landed property and influence, made a liberal offer to the subject of the present memoir, to educate his two sons,

* See Dr. Johnson's Travels to the Hebrides. Mr. Playfair was not insensible to the charms of female society; and in after-life took great delight in and was nor a little flattered by the attentions of a lady, now the wife of the greatest chemist of this

age.