Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 57.djvu/458

 no kindness in insinuating that he was a man of genius, and of public or even social influence, or in describing Woodhouselee as Tusculum.’



TYTLER, HENRY WILLIAM (1752–1808), physician and translator, born at Fearn, Forfarshire, in 1752, was the younger brother of [q. v.], and the son of George Tytler (d. 1785), minister of Fearn, by his wife, Janet Robertson. In 1793 he published the ‘Works of Callimachus translated into English Verse; the Hymns and Epigrams from the Greek, with the Coma Berenices from the Latin of Catullus,’ which is said to be the first translation of a Greek poet by a native of Scotland. They were reprinted in ‘Bohn's Classical Library’ (1856). In 1797, Tytler, who had graduated M.D., published ‘Pædotrophia, or the Art of Nursing and Rearing Children: a Poem in three books,’ translated from the Latin of Scévole de Sainte-Marthe, with medical and historical notes. He published in 1804 a ‘Voyage from the Cape of Good Hope.’ He also completed a translation of the seventeen books of the ‘Poem of Silius Italicus on the Punic War,’ which was not published. Tytler died at Edinburgh on 22 July 1808.



TYTLER, JAMES (1747?–1805), miscellaneous writer, commonly known as ‘Balloon Tytler,’ born about 1747, was son of George Tytler, minister of Fearn in the presbytery of Brechin, by his wife, Janet Robertson. [q. v.] was his younger brother. After receiving a good education under the direction of his father, James became apprentice to a surgeon in Forfar. He then succeeded in attending medical classes at the university of Edinburgh, defraying his expenses by voyages as a surgeon to Greenland during the vacations. But, having married during his medical course, he resolved to commence practice as a surgeon in Edinburgh. Failing in this, he opened an apothecary's shop in Leith, trusting mainly to the custom of the religious sect the Glassites, which he had joined through the persuasion of his wife; she was a daughter of James Young, writer to the signet, a prominent member of the sect. A quarrel with his wife, who deserted him, and his severance from the sect, had, however, such a ruinous effect on his business that an accumulation of debts compelled him to remove, first to Berwick, and then to Newcastle. At Newcastle he opened a laboratory, but here also fortune failed to shine on him, and, driven by debt from England, he in 1772 resolved to venture back to Edinburgh, where he took refuge from his creditors within the privileged precincts of Holyrood House.

From this time properly begins the peculiar career of Tytler as literary hack and scientific dabbler, in which he showed abilities that under favourable auspices might have brought him fame and fortune, but as a matter of fact never did more than barely save him from destitution; so that he was described by Burns as ‘a mortal who drudges about Edinburgh as a common printer, with leaky shoes, a sky-lighted hat, and knee-breeches as unlike as George-by-the-grace-of-God and Solomon-the-son-of-David.’ While in the debtors' refuge at Holyrood he succeeded, by means of a press of his own construction, in printing in 1772 a volume of ‘Essays on the most important subjects of Natural and Revealed Religion.’ It was followed by ‘A Letter to Mr. John Barclay on the Doctrine of Assurance,’ directed against a religious sect called the Bereans. Next appeared the ‘Gentleman's and Lady's Magazine,’ published monthly, but soon discontinued. He also commenced an abridgment of ‘Universal History,’ of which, however, only one volume appeared. These efforts having attracted the attention of the booksellers, he soon obtained a variety of literary work at the current hack pay. In 1776 he was engaged to edit the second edition of ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ at the astounding salary of seventeen shillings a week, and at this rate of pay he not only edited it, but wrote about three-fourths of the whole work. He was also engaged (according to Stenhouse, on more liberal terms) ‘to conduct the third edition of that work, and wrote a larger share in the earlier volumes than is ascribed to him in the general preface.’

In 1780 Tytler commenced a periodical, ‘The Weekly Mirror,’ but it was soon discontinued. Some time afterwards he was employed in constructing a manufactory of magnesia, but, after having placed it in full working order, he was dismissed by the pro-