Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/631

Rh R O B R O B 607 able ; their value is great, but it is in other respects. There is, however, real vigour and force in this fragment on the hero's death. The earliest " Garland " was printed in 1670. ( J. W. H. ) ROBIN REDBREAST. See REDBREAST. ROBINS, BENJAMIN (1707-1751), an English natural philosopher, was born at Bath in 1707. His parents were Quakers in poor circumstances, and gave him very little education. Aided solely by his own talent for exact science, he made considerable progress, and attracted so much notice that he was introduced to Pemberton, who befriended and encouraged him. For a time he maintained himself by teaching mathematics, but soon devoted him- self to more congenial work. In particular he carried out an extensive series of experiments in gunnery, the results of which were afterwards embodied in his famous treatise on New Principles in Gunnery (8vo, London, 1742). In this treatise is described the ballistic pendulum, an instru- ment which has become classical in the history of dynamics, and which bears the name of its inventor. Robins also made a number of very important experiments on the resistance of the air to the motion of projectiles, and on the force of gunpowder, with computation of the velocities thereby communicated to military projectiles. He com- pared the results of his theory with experimental deter- minations of the ranges of mortars and cannon, and gave practical maxims for the management of artillery. He also made observations on the flight of rockets and wrote on the advantages of rifled barrels. So great was his fame as a scientific artillerist that Euler translated his work on gunnery into German and added to it a critical comment- ary of his own. Of less interest nowadays are Robins's more purely mathematical writings, such as his Discourse concerning the Nature and Certainty of Sir Isaac Neivtoris Methods of Fluxions and of Prime and Ultimate Ratios (8vo, London, 1735), "A Demonstration of the Eleventh Proposition of Sir Isaac Newton's Treatise of Quadratures " (Phil. Trans., 1727), and similar works. Besides his scien- tific labours Robins took an active part in politics. He wrote pamphlets in support of the opposition to Sir Robert "Walpole, and was secretary of a committee appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into the conduct of that minister. He also wrote a preface to the Report on the Proceedings of the Board of General Officers on their Exa- mination into the Conduct of Lieutenant-General Sir John Cope, in which he gave an apology for the affair at Preston- pans. In 1750 he was appointed engineer-general to the East India Company, and went out to superintend the re- construction of their forts. The climate, however, dis- agreed with him, and he died en 29th July 1751. His works were published in two volumes 8vo in 1761. ROBINSON, EDWARD (1794-1863), author of the Biblical Researches, a son of the Rev. William Robinson, of Puritan ancestry, was born at Southington, Connecticut, United States, on 10th April 1794. He was educated at Hamilton College, New York, where he graduated in 1816. He served as a tutor at the college during 1817-18, and then engaged in private study of the Greek classics until 1821, when he went to Andover, Massachusetts, in order to publish an edition of the Iliad. There he became a pupil of Moses Stuart, the enthusiastic professor of Biblical studies in the theological seminary, and was made in- structor of Hebrew there in 1823. In 1826 he resigned his position at Andover and went to Europe, where he studied Hebrew under Gesenius at Halle, and also history at Berlin under Neander, remaining in Europe until 1830. In 1828 he married Therese Albertine Luise von Jakob, daughter of an eminent professor of philosophy at Halle. This highly cultured lady was already well known as an authoress under the pseudonym of " Talvj." She became of great assistance to her husband in his learned pur- suits. In 1830 he was again called to Andover as pro- fessor extraordinary of Biblical literature, and entered with enthusiasm upon the work of instruction and the publication of scholarly works upon the Bible. In 1831 he founded the Biblical Repository, a theological review which introduced a new era in theological periodicals in America, and which subsequently passed over into the Bibliotheca Sacra. In the same year he received the degree of D.D. from Dartmouth College. In 1832 he published a revised edition of Taylor's translation of Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible, and in the ensuing year a popular Dictionary of the Bible and a translation of Buttmann's Greek Grammar (3d ed., 1851). Such severe literary work deprived him of his health and he was compelled to resign his professorship. He now devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits for some years. In 1834 he published a revised edition of Newcome's Greek Harmony of the Gospels. In 1836 he issued a translation of Gesenius's Hebrew Lexicon and in the same year a Greek and English Lexicon of the Neiv Testament. These lexicons have been the companions of Biblical students until the present time, having passed through a series of revisions. The Hebrew Lexicon reached a fifth edition in 1854, the Greek Lexicon a second edition in 1847. They are both now (1885) passing through another revision by his pupils. In 1837 Robinson was called to the professorship of Biblical literature in the Union Theo- logical Seminary, New York, in which position he re- mained until his death, giving it the reputation of his scholarship and the benefits of his great experience in Biblical study and practical skill in instruction. In his letter of acceptance he gave an outline of the field of Biblical study which showed his mastery of the subject and his forecast of its future in America. He accepted this position with the understanding that he should receive leave of absence for some years in order to explore the lands of the Bible. He spent a considerable portion of the year 1838 in these explorations and became the pioneer and father of modern Biblical geography. He published his Biblical Researches in 1841 in three volumes, simultaneously in Berlin and Boston. His services were recognized by a gold medal from the Royal Geographical Society of London in 1842, the degree of D.D. from the university of Halle in 1842, and the degree of LL.D. from Yale College in 1844. In 1852 he made a second visit to Palestine and published its results in the supplemental volume to the second edition of his Biblical Researches in 1856. The third edition of the whole work appeared in 1867 in three volumes. Robinson regarded these researches as preliminary to a systematic work on the geography of the Bible; but he was spared only to complete a mere fragment, which was published posthumously under the title of Physical Geography of the Holy Land in 1865. In 1845 Robinson also issued a Greek Harmony of the Gospels and in 1846 an English Harmony, both of which have passed through many editions and have remained the standard text-books in America until the present day. The Greek Harmony has renewed its life in a revised edition by Professor Riddle in 1885. Besides these more important works he published from time to time a vast number of articles in periodicals, and in 1859 a Memoir of the Rev. William Robinson, his father. Robinson was an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church, but his voice was seldom heard in the pulpit or in ecclesiastical bodies. In his declining years he was afflicted with an incurable disease of the eyes and other maladies. He died in New York City on 27th January 1863. Robinson's work in Biblical geography was both fundamental and monumental. Dean Stanley once said, " Dr Robinson was the first man who saw Palestine with his eyes open to what he ought