Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/110

 Indolence he is appropriately connected, both as a figure in the piece and as a contributor to the verse. The following is his portraiture:—

His contributions consist of four stanzas descriptive of the diseases to which the votaries of indolence finally become martyrs.

The rank of Dr Armstrong as a poet is fixed by his Art of Preserving Health, which is allowed to be among the best didactic poems in the language. It is true, this species of poetry was never considered among the highest, nor has it been able to retain its place among the tastes of a modern and more refined age. Armstrong, however, in having improved upon a mode of composition fashionable in his own time, must still be allowed considerable praise. "His style," according to the judgment of Dr Aikin, "is distinguished by its simplicity—by a free use of words which owe their strength to their plainness—by the rejection of ambitious ornaments, and a near approach to common phraseology. His sentences are generally short and easy; his sense clear and obvious. The full extent of his conceptions is taken in at the first glance; and there are no lofty mysteries to be unravelled by a repeated perusal. What keeps his language from being prosaic, is the vigour of his sentiments. He thinks boldly, feels strongly, and therefore expresses himself poetically. When the subject sinks, his style sinks with it; but he has for the most part excluded topics incapable either of vivid description, or of the oratory of sentiment. He had from nature a musical ear, whence his lines are scarcely ever harsh, though apparently without much study to render them smooth. On the whole, it may not be too much to assert, that no writer in blank verse can be found more free from stiffness and affectation, more energetic without harshness, and more dignified without formality."  , a historical and antiquarian writer of the eighteenth century, was the son of a merchant and ship-proprietor at Leith, where he was born, December 8th, 1749. His name originally was Pollock, which he changed in early life for Arnot, on falling heir, through his mother, to the estate of Balcormo in Fife. As "Hugo Arnot of Balcormo, Esq.," he is entered as a member of the Faculty of Advocates, December 5, 1772, when just about to complete his twenty-third year. Previous to this period, he had had the misfortune to lose his father. Another evil which befell him in early life was a settled asthma, the result of a severe cold which he caught in his fifteenth year. As this disorder was always aggravated by exertion of any kind, it became a serious obstruction to his progress at the bar: some of his pleadings, nevertheless, were much admired, and obtained for him the applause of the bench. Perhaps it was this interruption of his professional career which caused him to turn his attention to literature. In 1779, appeared his "History of Edinburgh," 1 vol., 4to. a work of much research, and greatly superior in a literary point of view to the generality of local works. The style of the historical part is elegant and epigrammatic, with a vein of causticity highly characteristic of the author. From this elaborate work the author is said to have only realized a few pounds of profit; a piratical impression, at less than half the price, was published almost simul-