Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/37

Rh ing injured wood. It may be sufficient here to mention, that his composition, or medicament, was formed according to the following receipt: "Take one bushel of fresh cow-dung, half a bushel of lime-rubbish of old buildings, (that from the ceilings of rooms is preferable,) half a bushel of wood-ashes, and a sixteenth part of a bushel of pit or river sand; the three last articles are to be sifted tine before they are mixed; then work them well together with a spade, and afterwards with a wooden beater, until the stuff is very smooth, like fine plaster used for the ceilings of rooms."

Mr Forsyth, who was a member of the Antiquarian, Linnæan, and other societies, died July 25, 1804. He enjoyed the honours paid to him for his useful invention, with an unaffected modesty, which gave them a higher grace; and his benevolence and private worth were warmly attested by his friends. A particular genus of plants has been named Forsythia, in honour of his name.

FOULIS, and, eminent printers in the eighteenth century, were natives of Glasgow, and were born, the elder brother on the 20th of April, 1707, and the younger on the 23d of November, 1712. Their mother, who seems to have possessed shrewdness and intelligence beyond her station, educated them at first under her own care, and had not Robert's talents attracted attention, they would probably never have proceeded farther in the acquisition of knowledge. At an early age Robert was sent an apprentice to a barber; it would even seem that he afterwards practised the art on his own account for some time. While thus humbly employed, he came under the notice of the celebrated Dr Francis Hutcheson, then professor of moral philosophy in Glasgow university. This acute observer discovered his talents,—inflamed his desire for knowledge,—and suggested to him the idea of becoming a bookseller and printer. Foulis did not, however, receive a complete university education, although he attended his patron's lectures for several years, and his name is so enrolled in the matriculation book. Andrew, who seems to have been designed for the church, entered the university in 1727, and probably went through a regular course of study.

For some years after they had determined to follow a literary life, the brothers were engaged in teaching the languages during the winter, and in making short tours into England and to the continent in summer. These excursions were of great advantage to them; they brought them into contact with eminent men, enabled them to form connexions in their business, and extended their knowledge of books. On some of these occasions they made considerable collections, which they sold at home to good account. Thus prepared, the elder brother began business in Glasgow as a bookseller about the end of 1739, and in the following year published several works. Three years afterwards his connexion with the university commenced. In March, 1743, he was appointed their printer, under condition "that he shall not use the designation of university printer without allowance from the university meeting in any books excepting those of ancient authors." The first productions of his press, which were issued in 1742, were almost exclusively of a religious nature, many of them relating to the well known George Whitefield. In 1742, he published Demetrius Phalereus de Elocutione, apparently the first Greek work printed in Glasgow, although we are certain that there existed a fount of Greek letters there nearly a century before. It would be tedious to notice each work as it appeared: the immaculate edition of Horace, an edition of Cicero's works in twenty volumes, Cæsar's Commentaries in folio, Callimachus in the same size, with engravings executed at their academy, form but a small part of the splendid catalogue of their classics.