Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/222

516 tied, "Reasons why the Tragedy of Douglas should be burnt by the hands of the Common Hangman ;" and, afterwards, he wrote another, calculated for the lower ranks, and which was hawked about the streets, under the title, "History of the Bloody Tragedy of Douglas, as it is now performed at the Theatre in the Canongate." Mr Mackenzie informs us, in his life of Home, that the latter pasquinade had the effect of adding two more nights to the already unprecedented run of the play. For this conduct Dr Carlyle was visited by his presbytery, with a censure and admonition. A person of right feeling in the present day is only apt to be astonished that the punishment was not more severe; for assuredly, it would be difficult to conceive any conduct so apt to be injurious to the usefulness of a clergyman as his thus mixing himself up with the impurities and buffooneries of the stage. The era of 1757 was perhaps somewhat different from the present. The serious party in the church were inconsiderately zealous in their peculiar mode of procedure, while the moderate party, on the principle of antagonism, erred as much on the side of what they called liberality. Hence, although the church would not now, perhaps, go to such a length in condemning the tragedy of Douglas, its author, and his abettors, neither would the provocation be now given. No clergyman could now be found to act like Home and Carlyle; and therefore the church could not be called upon to act in so ungracious a manner as it did towards those gentlemen. Dr Carlyle was a fond lover of his country, of his profession, and, it might be said, of all mankind. He was instrumental in procuring an exemption for his brethren from the severe pressure of the house and window tax, for which purpose he visited London and was introduced at court, where the elegance and dignity of his appearance are said to have excited both admiration and surprise. It was generally remarked that his noble countenance bore a striking resemblance to the Jupiter Tonans in the capitol. Smollett mentions in his Humphrey Clinker, a work in which fact and fancy are curiously blended, that he owed to Dr Carlyle his introduction to the literary circles of Edinburgh. After mentioning a list of celebrated names, he says, "These acquaintances I owe to the friendship of Dr Carlyle, who wants nothing but inclination to figure with the rest upon paper." It may be further mentioned, that the world owes the preservation of Collins' fine ode on the superstitions of the Highlands, to Dr Carlyle. The author, on his death-bed, had mentioned it to Dr Johnson as the best of his poems; but it was not in his possession, and no search had been able to discover a copy. At last, Dr Carlyle found it accidentally among his papers, and presented it to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in the first volume of whose transactions it was published.

Dr Carlyle died, August 25, 1805, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and the fifty-eighth of his ministry. By his wife, who was a woman of superior understanding and accomplishments, he had had several children, all of whom died many years before himself. Dr Carlyle published nothing but a few sennons and jeux d'esprit, and the statistical account of the parish of Inveresk in Sir John Sinclair's large compilation ; but he left behind him a very valuable memoir of his own time, which, to the surprise of the literary world, is still condemned by his relations to manuscript obscurity.

CARSTAIRS,, an eminent political and ecclesiastical character, was born at the village of Cathcart in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, on the llth of February, 1649. His father was Mr John Carstaira, descended of a very ancient family in Fife, and minister in the high church of Glasgow, where he had for his colleague the Rev. James Durham, well known for his commentary on the Revelation and other learned and pious works. His mother's name was Jane Muir, of the family of Glanderston in the county of Renfrew. Giving early indications of an uncommon genius, young Carstairs was by his father