Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/280

228 About the same period Galt, while thus busied with literature, attempted to form a new American Land Company, but was unsuccessful; and to aggravate his misfortunes, two attacks of paralysis warned him that his day of enterprise had ended—that he was now chained to the oar. He retired to his native country, there to await his time, so doubly uncertain; and to close his eyes, when his hour came, amidst the scenery and society which he had loved so well. Yet he still continued to linger on from year to year, although repeated shocks of the malady inflicted at each visitation the "bitterness of death;" and while his memory was impaired and his mind enfeebled, he was still obliged to toil for the support of a life that seemed scarcely worth having. And yet he could still be happy, for his was that healthful state of feeling that looked habitually upon the bright side of things, and could find itself occupation as long as a single faculty remained in exercise. With an amanuensis, or a chance friend to transcribe from his dictation, he continued to pour forth volume after volume, "to wrench life from famine," as he mournfully expressed it; and although these productions could scarcely bear comparison with those of his happier years, they still retained the impress of his former vivacity and inventiveness, as well as much of his vigorous talent and reach of thought. In this way he produced, among other publications, the "Autobiography of John Galt," in two volumes 8vo, and the "Literary Life and Miscellanies of John Galt," in three volumes 12mo, from which the materials of the foregoing sketch have been mainly derived. At length, after the fourteenth stroke of paralysis, he died at Greenock, on the 11th of April, 1839.

The works of Galt were very numerous, comprising about fifty volumes of novels, and more than a score of dramas, independently of his biographical and miscellaneous works. Of these, however, only a tithe of his tales will continue to be read and valued, not only for their intrinsic excellence, but as the transcripts of a state of society that is rapidly passing away. In this department the name of John Galt will be perpetuated as a national remembrance, and his descriptions be prized when the living reality has departed.

, an eminent botanist, was born, in 1810, at Ardentinny, where his father, a native of Aberdeen, acted as gardener to the Earl of Dunmore. He was the second son. In 1816 his father became gardener to the Earl of Eglinton at Ardrossan, and there the subject of our sketch attended the parish school till 1822, when his parents removed to Glasgow. Here he was placed at the grammar-school, and, in the course of his studies, acquired a good knowledge of the Latin language. He had early imbibed, probably from his father's occupation, a taste for botany; but it was perhaps as much by accident as design that he subsequently devoted his life to the science.

He commenced the study of medicine in the Andersonian university of Glasgow, and continued, during the winter and summer sessions of 1829, '30, '31, and '32, to pursue his studies with a degree of zeal and persevering industry which won for him high distinction in college honours. He also, in 1829, '30, and '31, attended the classes of anatomy, surgery, chemistry, materia medica, &c., in the university, where he likewise distinguished himself in the prize list. In 1830 he joined the Glasgow Medical Society, and during that year, and 1831 and '32, his attendance at the Royal Infirmary was unremitting. Still, amidst these severer studies, he found leisure to indulge his early bias for botany. His first rudiments of the science were obtained from Dr. Rattray, and he continued to improve himself by botanizing rambles in