Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/300

42 spirit of a philosophical biographer, has drawn of him the following character: "Although Hepburn's attainments in language were worthy of great admiration, I find no reason to believe that his mind was enlarged, or his understanding remarkably vigorous. He does not appear to have possessed that quick sense of remote but kindred objects, that active faculty of combining and felicity of expressing related ideas, or that intuitive discernment betwixt heterogeneous ones; those creative powers, in short, of thought or expression, by which original works of whatever kind are produced; those works in the contemplation of which alone, taste ever recognizes the fascination of genius." Did we possess the power of creating opinions out of nothing, which the Dr possessed, and to which he seems to refer, we should have tried his canons of criticism, on a minute review of all Hepburn's works, but in the meantime, we can only say, we can scarcely agree with him in thinking that the linguist had not a quick sense of "remote but kindred objects," or that he had any defect in his discernment of heterogeneous ideas; nor do we conceive that his biographer has allowed him too narrow an allowance of "creative power."

HEPBURN,, of Bearford, a fugitive writer, who at a very early age distinguished himself by the exhibition of strong talents, and an original genius, which the briefness of his life did not permit to rise to maturity, was born about 1690 or 1691. He studied civil law in Holland, with the intention of becoming a member of the legal profession in his native country. He returned home in 1711, and in his twenty-first year attempted to imitate in Scotland the fugitive literature which the Tatler had introduced to England. Hepburn's work was an avowed imitation of that periodical. He named it "The Tatler, by Donald Macstaff of the North." This work was carried through thirty weekly numbers; it is, we believe, extremely rare, and we have been unable to obtain a perusal of it. Lord Woodhouselee, who appears to have been acquainted with it, says, in his Life of Kames, "These papers are evidently the production of a man of vigorous native powers, and of a mind not meanly stored with ancient learning, and familiar with the best writings of the moderns. The author might have shone in the treatment of general topics of moral discussion, or of criticism; but from a propensity not unnatural, where talents are combined with an ardent temperament, and sarcastic turn of mind, his compositions were fitted to give much offence, by the description of known characters, arid by the personal satire which he employed, with -no gentle or delicate hand, on some men of note, both in the ecclesiastical and civil departments, among his countrymen." In 1712, Mr Hepburn became a member of the faculty of advocates, but death quenched his fiery and ambitious spirit, before he had an opportunity of exercising his professional talents. He left behind him two opuscula, " Demonstratio quod Deus sit," published at Edinburgh in 1714, and "Dissertatio De Scriptis Pitcarnianis," 1715. In the concluding number of the Tatler, he announced for publication a translation of Sir George M'Kenzie's curious tract " Idea Eloquentiae Forensis;" a project he appears to have been prevented from fulfilling. There is extant a curious pamphlet, "A Discourse concerning the character of a Man of Genius, by Mr Hepburn," Edinburgh, 1715. We have no doubt that this is from the hand of Mr Hepburn of Bearford; it is the production of no ordinary mind. This small work is divided into sections, each of which contains a condensed moral precept, or aphorism: the quotation of one or two of these will give the best idea of the author's talents, which can be now furnished. The reader will be surprised to find in our extracts, reflections which have now become common-place, but which strikingly resemble many of those on which some of the moral and polite philosophers of the last century raised their renown.