Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 6.djvu/171

Rh ticularly the intimacy of Mrs Hamilton, authoress of "The Cottagers of Glenburnie" and other esteemed works of fancy. He was then a tall, fine-looking old man, with a very sallow complexion, and a dignified and somewhat austere expression of countenance. His conversation was graceful and agreeable, seasoned with a somewhat lively and poignant satire. Having probably found in his own case, that devotion to the muses did not tend to promote his success in life, he gave no encouragement to it in others, and earnestly exhorted all who wrote poetry that appeared to him at all middling, to betake themselves to some more substantial occupation. In 1800, he published, anonymously, a novel, or the first part of one, entitled "The Memoirs of Charles Macpherson," which is understood to contain a pretty accurate account of the early part of his own life. In 1801, his poetical works were collected into two volumes, foolscap 8vo, and passed through several editions. In 1809, he published "The Pastoral, or Lyric Muse of Scotland," in 4to, a work which did not draw much attention. About the same time, he published, anonymously, " Town Fashions, or Modern Manners Delineated;" and also, "By-gone Times, and Late-come Changes." These pieces, like almost every thing he wrote, had a moral object; but the present one was tinctured with his feelings as an old man. It appeared to him, that all the changes which had taken place in society, the increase of luxury, even the diffusion of knowledge, were manifest corruptions; and all his anxiety was to inspire a taste for the old style of living. Wishing to suit the style to the matter, he affected a very homely phraseology ; and as this was not natural to him, he overdid it, and disgusted rather than persuaded. Yet he clung very fondly to these bantlings of his old age, and even rated them higher than the more elegant productions of his former pen. Their only real beauty, though he was insensible of it, consisted in a few pathetic passages. Our author also wrote, with the same views, and too much in the same style, a novel, entitled "The Scottish Adventurers, or the Way to Rise," 2 vols. 8vo, 1812. Throughout the earlier years of the century, he contributed many minor pieces, in prose and verse, to the Scots Magazine, of which he was at one time editor.

After a long life of penury, aggravated by ill health, Mr Macneil died of jaundice, March 15, 1818, not leaving behind him wherewithal to defray his funeral expenses.

MACPHERSON,, a literary character of celebrity, was born at Ruthven, in the county of Inverness, in the latter end of the year 1738. His family was one of the most ancient in that part of the country, and of high respectability. The earlier rudiments of education he received at home, and was afterwards sent to the grammar school of Inverness. At this period he began to discover a degree of talent which induced his family, contrary to their original intention, to bring him up to a learned profession. With this view he was sent, after completing an initiatory course at Inverness, to the university of Aberdeen, and afterwards to that of Edinburgh, where he finished his studies.

Young Macpherson had already begun to exercise his poetical talents; and, while at the university, gave some specimens of his powers in that department of literature, but with very indifferent success. Hitherto, however, he had confined his muse to such short and desultory flights, as young men of poetical temperament usually begin with; but, in 1758, he made a bolder essay, by producing a poem in six cantos, entitled the " Highlander." This work was printed at Edinburgh, in 12mo, in the year above named. Though not without some excellences, the "Highlander," as a whole, is an exceedingly poor production, and must be considered so, even with every allowance for the youth of its author, who was yet only in the twentieth year of his age. The public was of a similar opinion with regard to its merits,