Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/103

 effects of which may raise blushes, but no blackness will appear after the blow. He laughs as jovially as an attendant upon Bacchus, but continues as sober and considerate as a disciple of Socrates. He is seldom serious except in his attacks upon vice; and then his spirit rises with a manly strength, and a noble indignation. His epitaph upon Charteris (allowing one small alteration, the word permitted, instead of connived at,) is a complete and a masterly composition in its kind. No man exceeded him in the moral duties of life; a merit still more to his honour, as the ambitious powers of wit and genius are seldom submissive enough to confine themselves within the limitations of morality. In his letter to Mr Pope, written as it were upon his death-bed, he discovers such a noble fortitude of mind at the approach of his dissolution, as could be inspired only by a clear conscience, and the calm retrospect of an uninterrupted series of virtue. The Dean [Swift] laments the loss of him with a pathetic sincerity. 'The deaths of Mr Gay and Doctor,' says he to Mr Pope, 'have been terrible wounds near my heart. Their living would have been a great comfort to me, although I should never have seen them: like a sum of money in a bank, from which I should receive at least annual interest, as I do from you, and have done from Lord Bolingbroke.'"

The wit, to which Swift's was only allowed the second place, was accompanied by a guileless heart, and the most perfect simplicity of character. It is related of its possessor, that he used to write a humorous account of almost every remarkable event which fell under his observation, in a folio book, which lay in his parlour; but so careless was he about his writings after he was done with them, that, while he was writing towards one end of this work, he would permit his children to tear out the leaves from the other, for their paper kites. This carelessness has prevented many of the works of Dr Arbuthnot from being preserved, and no correct list has ever been given. A publication in two volumes, 8vo, at Glasgow, in 1751, professing to be his "Miscellaneous Works," was said by his son to consist chiefly of the compositions of other people. He was so much in the habit of writing occasional pieces anonymously, that many fugitive articles were erroneously attributed to him: he was at first supposed to be the author of Robinson Crusoe. He scarcely ever spoke of his writings, or seemed to take the least interest in them. He was also somewhat indolent. Swift said of him, that he seemed at first sight to have no fault, but that he could not walk. In addition to this, he had too much simplicity and worth to profit by the expedients of life: in Swift's words,

"He knew his art, but not his trade."

Swift also must be considered as insinuating a certain levity of feeling, with all his goodness, when he says, in anticipation of his own death,

though the habitual cheerfulness of his disposition may have been all that the poet had in his eye. The only other work ascertained as Arbuthnot's, besides those mentioned, is the celebrated History of John Bull, a political allegory, which has had many imitations, but no equal. He also attempted poetry, though without any particular effort. A philosophical poem of his composition, entitled, "," [Know Yourself] is printed in Dodsley's Miscellanies. He left a son, George, who was an executor in Pope's will, and who died in the enjoyment of a lucrative situation in the Exchequer office towards the end of the last century; and a daughter, Anne, who was honoured with a legacy by Pope. His second son, Charles, who died before himself, had been educated in Christ church college, Oxford, and entered into holy orders.