Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/51

Rh the subjects which his lectures embraced. These were given with great fluency and precision of language, and with the introduction of a good deal of mathematical demonstration. His manner was grave and dignified. His views, always ingenious and comprehensive, were full of information, and never more interesting and instructive than when they touched upon the history of science. His lectures, however, were often complained of as difficult and hard to be followed; and this did not, in my opinion, arise from the depth of the mathematical demonstrations, as was sometimes said, but rather from the rapidity of his discourse, which was generally beyond the rate at which accurate reasoning can be easily followed. The singular facility of his own apprehension, made him judge too favourably of the same power in others. To understand his lectures completely, was, on account of the rapidity and the uniform flow of his discourse, not a very easy task, even for men tolerably familiar with the subject. On this account, his lectures were less popular than might have been expected from such a combination of rare talents as the author of them possessed." Mr Robison had exerted himself with zeal in the revival of that association of philosophers, which merged itself into the Royal Society of Edinburgh; and on its being incorporated by royal charter in 1783, he was appointed secretary; an office in which he signalized himself, by attention to the interests of the society. In March, 1786, he read to the society a paper, entitled "Determination of the Orbit and Motion of the Georgium Sidus, directly from Observations." In this paper, he is generally understood by scientific men to have with some haste drawn conclusions for which the limited time during which Herschel's newly discovered planet had been observed by philosophers, did not afford data. His next paper to the society, "On the Motion of Light, as affected by Refracting and Reflecting Substances, which are themselves in Motion," was of more utility to science. In December, 1785, he began to be attacked by a chronic disease, which gradually undermined his health, but did not for some time interrupt his ordinary labours. Twelve volumes of the third and much enlarged edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica had been published, when the editor turned his eyes on Mr Robison, as a person likely to give it lustre from his scientific knowledge. He commenced his contributions with the article "Optics," in 1793, and contributed a variety of useful treatises, till the completion of the work in 1801. His biographer remarks, that " he was the first contributor who was professedly a man of science ; and from that time the Encyclopedia Britannica ceased to be a mere compilation." The observation must be received with limitations in both its branches. To the Supplement, he contributed the articles "Electricity" and "Magnetism." At the period while he was acquiring fame by his physical researches, he chose to stretch his studies into a branch of knowledge, which he handled with scarcely so much effect Along with many people, among whom a philosopher is always to be found with regret, a panic that the whole "system," as it was termed, of society, was in progress of demolition by the French revolution, seized on his mind. He strayed from more accordant subjects, to look for the causes of all the confusion, and had the merit of attracting some of the maddened attention of the period, by finding an untrodden path, which led him farther from the highway than any other speculator had ventured. In 1797, he published "Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe." This work is now forgotten ; and it will serve for little more than amusement to know, that the crimes, so evidently prompted by forcibly carrying the usages and exclusions of a dark age, when the people respected them, into an age when they were not respected, were traced to the machinations of the illuminati and free masons. Professor Robison had the merit of quoting authorities not much read, and in the