may forget to notice even the existence of the man, who earned a certain portion both of fame and fortune by traducing and vilifying him.

The following attack on the celebrated biographer of Johnson, is at once graphic and characteristical:

PROFESSOR PLAYFAIR was the eldest son of the Reverend James Playfair, Minister of Benvie in Forfarshire, at which place he was born on the 10th of March 1748. He received the rudiments of his education in his paternal mansion, and at the age of fourteen was sent to the University of St Andrew's, where his genius and industry soon attracted the notice, and gained him the friendship of his teachers. For the mathematical sciences, in which he was afterwards destined to attain such consummate proficiency, he had shown an early and decided predilection; and so distinguished had been his progress in his favourite study, even at College, that Profes

sor Wilkie, when confined by illness, selected him as the person best qua. lified to read his Lectures on Natural Philosophy; and notwithstanding the great disparity of years between the Professor and the Student, they became intimate friends. At the early age of eighteen, he presented himself as a candidate for the Professorship of Mathematics in the Marischal College of Aberdeen; and after a comparative trial, which lasted eleven days, only two out of six candidates who had appeared, the Reverend Dr Trail, who was appointed to the chair, and Dr Hamilton, who now fills it, were found to be his superiors *. In 1769 he completed his studies, and having left the Uni

versity, spent much of his time for some years in the society of Dr Robertson the historian, Dr Adam Smith, Dr Matthew Stewart, Dr Black, and Dr Hutton. In 1772 he became a candidate for the Professorship of Natural Philosophy in St Andrew's, vacant by the death of his friend Dr Wilkie; but he was disappointed in his views of this situation, for which he was so eminently qualified, by the patrons being, as it should seem, pledged to confer it on another gentleman, a member of the University.

This disappointment was the more severely felt by Mr Playfair, owing to the death of his father, which took place in the course of the same year, and devolved on him the charge of his mother and family, of whom one brother only was sufficiently advanced to provide for himself. For although Lord Gray immediately presented him to his father's living, that nobleman's right of presentation was in this instance disputed by the Crown lawyers: and it was not till August 1773, that he obtained possession, by a resolution of the General Assembly of the Church, for which he was chiefly indebted to the strenu ous support of his illustrious friend Dr Robertson. The legal question continued long dependent before the Court of Session, but was finally decided in Lord Gray's favour, by which his nomination was confirmed. Mr Playfair now became resident at Liff, where he devoted himself chiefly to the discharge of his professional duties, devoting his leisure hours to the superintendence of the educa

tion of his brothers, and the prosecution of his studies. The sermons he delivered during his incumbency we have heard eulogized, in the warmest terms, by very competent judges, who described them as finished pieces of composition, and distinguished by that beautiful simplicity, yet severe logic, by which all his writings are so strongly characterized.

Besides occasional visits to Edinburgh, he made an excursion in 1774 to the Highlands of Perthshire, where Dr Maskelyne was then employed in performing a set of experiments on the force of gravity and the effect of mountains in disturbing the plumb-line; and during a short stay on the side of Schehaillien, a friendship was formed, which terminated only with the life of the Astronomer Royal. Under the auspices of this celebrated man, Mr Playfair's first Mathematical Essay, on the Arithmetic of Impossible Quantities, was, four years after, presented to the Royal Society of London, and published in 1779 in the 68th volume of the Philosophical Transactions.

In 1782, he resigned his living, for the purpose of superintending the education of the present Mr Ferguson of Raith, and his brother Sir Ronald; and in 1785, an exchange having taken place between Dr Adam Ferguson, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, and Mr Dugald Stewart, who then filled the Mathematical Chair, and the delicate health of the former having unfitted him for discharging the duties of his labori

rous office, Mr Playfair was elected joint Professor of Mathematics,-a situation which he held for twenty years. He now wrote and published successively in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a variety of papers on mathematical subjects, the most remarkable of which is his "Remarks on the Astronomy of the Brahmins;" a paper which indicates the most profound acquaintance with science, and has thrown much light on a subject hitherto little cultivated or understood. His Elements of Geometry appeared in 1795, and is too well known to require any particular mention. It is worthy of notice, however, that this work has gone through five editions, four of which were called for before it was introduced as a class-book into the University.

In the spring of 1797, a new direction was given to Mr Playfair's studies, by the death of his ingenious friend Dr James Hutton, of whose works he began to draw up an abstract, with a view to the composition of a biographical memoir; an occupation which eventually gave birth to the "Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth," one of the most classical and profound works on Science of which any language can boast. This task was, in some degree, imposed upon Mr Playfair, no less by reverence for the memory of his friend, than by the real merits of the theory itself, which Dr Hutton's inelegant composition and defective arrangement prevented from being thoroughly understood or correctly appreciated; and it is superfluous to add, that it has been mainly indebted for the celebrity it has since acquired, to the inimitable skill, profound knowledge, and admirable perspicuity and elegance with which it was il

lustrated. As an evidence of the care with which this celebrated work was elaborated, we may mention that five years, from 1797 to 1802, were employed in its composition; another proof, in addition to that furnished by Rousseau and others, that great excellence, and especially a severe simplicity and purity of style, are only to be attained by a happy combination of consummate art and unwearied industry.

In 1805, Mr Playfair quitted the Mathematical Chair to succeed the celebrated Professor Robison in that of Natural Philosophy. known disputes that took place concerning the appointment of a successor to Mr Playfair induced him to address a letter to the Lord Provost, in which he vindicated the cause of science against the narrow views of a party, and thus involved himself as a principal in the violent controversy which ensued. His reply to the personal attack made upon him is still remembered as remarkable for beauty of style, keenness of sarcasm, and force of reasoning. But science triumphed over party views, and Mr Playfair soon resumed his favourite pursuits, and prepared his Essays on the Solids of greatest Attraction, and on the Pro gress of Heat in Spherical Bodies, which afterwards appeared in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1814, he publish ed his Outlines of Natural Philosophy in two volumes octavo ; and in the following year a Memoir of the Life of Professor Robison. But besides the various publications just mentioned, and numerous contributions to the Edinburgh Review, two works of great importance had for some time occupied Mr Playfair's most serious attention. One of these was the exquisite "Dissertation on the Progress of Mathematical and

Physical Science since the Revival of Letters in Europe," written for the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, and published in that work in 1816; and the other, which was interrupted by the Dissertation, was a new edition of his "Illustra tions of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth," of greater magnitude than the former, and upon a diffe rent principle of arrangement. That he did not live to complete his design, must be viewed by every one at unfortunate for the theory itself, which his accumulated treasures of geological knowledge would perhaps have still more satisfactorily eluci dated, and as a great and irreparable loss to science in general.

In the prosecution of his geological inquiries, Mr Playfair spent a portion of almost every summer vacation in a personal examination of the more interesting districts of Scotland, England, and Wales; and being anxious to extend his resear ches to the Continent, for which the re-establishment of peace, in 1815, presented every facility, he made arrangements for undertaking a tour through France and Switzerland, to be extended, if leave of absence could be procured for a winter, to the southern extremity of Italy. This plan was carried into effect, and Mr Playfair was every where received with the distinction due to his high character and his great eminence in science. In Paris, particularly, the persons most illustrious for science or rank vied with each other in showing him every flattering distinction and kind attention, and appear to have been equally struck with the extent of his acquirements and the refined simplicity of his manners. Some memo⚫ rials of this journey, of which it is to be regretted that he himself did not live to publish any detailed ac

count, will be found in the memoir prefixed to the late edition of his works, published at Edinburgh, by Constable and Company, and from which this brief notice is taken.

From this tour, which occupied seventeen months, during which he had travelled over no less than 4000 miles, Mr Playfair returned to resume his academical labours; but in the course of the ensuing summer experienced a severe attack of a disease in the bladder, which interrupted both his lectures and his studies during a great portion of the winter. He was however able to resume and finish the course of lectures; but in June, the disease recurred with increased violence, and after an illness of a month, terminated his existence on the 19th of July 1819.

A paper having appeared in the Edinburgh Magazine, for August 1819, from the masterly pen of Mr Jeffrey, in which the character of Professor Playfair is felicitously drawn and skilfully discriminated, we shall conclude this notice by ap propriating the greater part of this very able composition.

No event of the kind certainly ever excited more general sympathy than the death of Mr Playfair; and no individual, we are persuaded, will be longer or more affectionately remembered by all classes of his fellow-citizens: and yet it is to those very circumstances that we must look for an explanation of the apparent neglect by which his memory has been followed. His humble admirers had been deterred from expressing their sentiments by a natural feeling of unwillingness to encroach on the privilege of those whom a nearer approach to his person and talents rendered more worthy to speak of them; while the learned and eloquent among his friends have trusted to each other

for the performance of a task which they could not but feel to be painful in itself, and not a little difficult to perform as it ought to be; or, perhaps, have reserved for some more solemn occasion that tribute for which the public impatience is already at its height.

"We beg leave to assure our readers, that it is merely from anxiety to do something to gratify this natural impatience, that we presume to enter at all upon a subject to which we are perfectly aware that we are incapable of doing justice; for of Mr Playfair's scientific attainments, of his proficiency in those studies to which he was peculiarly devoted, we are but slenderly qualified to judge; but, we believe, we hazard nothing in saying that he was one of the most learned mathematicians of his age, and among the first, if not the very first, who introduced the beautiful discoveries of the latter continental geometers to the knowledge of his countrymen, and gave their just value and true place in the scheme of European knowledge to those important improvements by which the whole as pect of the abstract sciences has been renovated since the days of our illustrious Newton. If he did not signalize himself by any brilliant or original invention, he must at least be allow ed to have been a most generous and intelligent judge of the achievements of others, as well as the most eloquent expounder of that great and magnificent system of knowledge which has been gradually evolved by the successive labours of so many gifted individuals. He possessed, indeed, in the highest degree, all the characteristics both of a fine and powerful understanding, at once penetrating and vigilant, but more distinguished, perhaps, for the caution and sureness of its march, than for the brilliancy or rapidity

of its movements, and guided and adorned through all its progress by the most genuine enthusiasm for all that is grand, and the justest taste for all that is beautiful in the truth or the intellectual energy with which he was habitually conversant.

"To what account these rare qualities might have been turned, and what more brilliant or lasting fruits they might have produced, if his whole life had been dedicated to the solitary cultivation of science, it is not for us to conjecture; but it cannot be doubted that they added incalculably to his eminence and utility as a teacher; both by enabling him to direct his pupils to the most simple and luminous methods of inquiry, and to imbue their minds, from the very commencement of the study, with that fine relish for the truths it disclosed, and that high sense of the majesty with which they were invested, that predominated in his own bosom. While he left nothing unexplained or unreduced to its proper place in the system, he took care that they should never be perplexed by petty difficulties, or bewildered in useless details, and formed them betimes to that clear, masculine, and direct me. thod of investigation, by which, with the least labour, the greatest advan tages might be accomplished.

"Mr Playfair, however, was not merely a teacher; and has fortunately left behind him a variety of works, from which other generations may be enabled to judge of some of those qualifications which so powerfully recommended and endeared him to his contemporaries. It is perhaps to be regretted that so much of his time, and so large a proportion of his publications, should have been devoted to the subjects of the Indian astronomy, and the Huttonian theory of the earth. For though no