into one, with the heroic Bruce at their head. But this painting, to which he clung to the last, and touched and retouched with a dying hand, he did not live to finish. He died at his house in Great King Street, Edinburgh, on February 23, 1850. As a painter, Sir William Allan will long be gratefully remembered in the annals of Scottish art, for the impulse which he gave to historical composition. For this department he was eminently fitted; for his excellence in painting did not so much consist in character and colour, as in his admirable power in telling a story and his general skill in composition, by which each of his productions is a striking poetical narrative. Sir Walter Scott, a congenial spirit, who highly prized and affectionately loved him, was wont to speak of him under the familiar endearing name of "Willie Allan." ALSTON, CHARLES, M.D., an eminent botanist, was born in 1683, in Lanarkshire, and spent his early years at Hamilton Palace, under the patronage of the Duchess of Hamilton. Her grace wished him to study the law, but he preferred botany and medicine, and accordingly, in 1716, set out for Leyden, where those sciences were at that time taught by the illustrious Boerhaave. Here he found a great number of young Scotsmen engaged in the same pursuit, and all inspired with an uncommon degree of enthusiasm in their studies, which they had caught from their master. Alston, after taking his degree as doctor of physic, returned to his native country, and began to practise in Edinburgh. He obtained the sinecure office of king's botanist, through the influence of the Duke of Hamilton, heritable keeper of Holyrood House, to which the garden was attached. This garden he enriched by large collections which he had made in Holland, where botanical science was then more highly cultivated than in any other country in Europe. In 1720, notwithstanding that a botanical class was taught in the college by a professor of eminence named Preston, he began a course of lectures in the king's garden. Preston at length waxing old, Alston was, in 1738, chosen to succeed him, as professor of botany and materia medica united. He was exceedingly laborious in his duties as a professor, giving a course on botany every summer, and one on materia medica every winter; and never sparing any pains which he thought could be conducive to the progress of his pupils. The celebrated Dr. Fothergill, in his character of Dr. Russell, bears ample testimony to the assiduity of Dr. Alston, who had been his master; and describes in glowing language the benefit which those who attended him had the means of reaping, his caution in speculation, and how laborious he was in experiment. For the assistance of his pupils, he published, about 1740, a list of the officinal plants cultivated in the Edinburgh medical garden. Of Linnæus's system, which was first promulgated in 1736, Dr. Alston, like many other philosophers of his day, was a steady opponent. He published a paper against it, on the sexes of plants, in the first volume of Physical and Literary Essays, a miscellany which was commenced at Edinburgh in 1751. The controversy which took place at that period amongst naturalists has now lost all its interest, seeing that the method of Linnæus, after serving a useful purpose, has been superseded by the natural system, to the foundation of which Linnæus in no small degree contributed, but which it was left to Jussieu and De Candolle to mature. Dr. Alston also contributed some articles to an Edinburgh miscellany entitled Medical Essays; the most important is one on opium. In 1753 he published an introduction to Dr. Patrick Blair's Index Materia Medica, a work which resembled his own index in a considerable degree. This introduction was a separate work, and was entitled Tyrocinium Botanicum Edinburgense. Dr. Alston, as the contemporary of the first Monro, and professor of a kindred branch of science, was by no means unworthy of either his time or his place. He must be considered as one of those who have contributed to the exaltation of the college of Edinburgh as a school of medical science. He died on the 22d of November, 1760, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. ANDERSON, ADAM, author of the largest British compilation upon commercial history, was a native of Scotland, born about the year 1692. Having removed to London, he was for forty years a clerk in the South Sea House, and at length was appointed chief clerk of the stock and new annuities in that establishment, in which situation he continued till his death. He was appointed one of the trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia, by charter dated June 9th, 5 Geo. II. He was also one of the court of assistants of the Scots corporation in London. In 1762 he published his work entitled A Historical and Chronological Deduction of the Origin of Commerce, from the earliest accounts to the present time; containing a history of the large commercial interests of the British Empire, &c., London, 2 vols. folio. The elaborate character of this work says much for the industry of the author. It was subsequently improved in a new edition by David Macpherson, 4 vols. quarto; and a manual abridgment of the work may still be considered a want in our literature. Mr. Anderson died soon after he had given it to the world, January 10th, 1765, at the age of seventy-three. ANDERSON, ALEXANDER, a very eminent mathematician, born at Aberdeen, near the close of the sixteenth century. How or where he acquired his mathematical education is not known; he probably studied belles-lettres and philosophy in his native university. He comes into notice at Paris, early in the seventeenth century, as a private teacher or professor of mathematics. In that city, between the years 1612 and 1619, he published or edited various geometrical and algebraical tracts, which are conspicuous for their ingenuity and elegance. It is doubtful whether he was ever acquainted with the famous Vieta, master of requests at Paris, who died in 1603; but his pure taste and skill in mathematical investigation pointed him out to the executors of that illustrious man-who had found leisure, in the intervals of a laborious profession, to cultivate and extend the ancient geometry, and by adopting a system of general symbols, to lay the foundation, and begin the superstructure of algebraical science-as the person most proper for revising and publishing his valuable manuscripts. Anderson, however, did not confine himself to the duty of a mere editor; he enriched the text with learned comments, and gave neat demonstrations of those propositions which had been left imperfect. He afterwards produced a specimen of the application of geometrical analysis, which is distinguished by its clearness and classic elegance. The works of this eminent person amount to six thin quarto volumes, now very scarce. These are1. Supplementum Apollonii Redivivi: sive analysis problematis hactenus desiderati ad Apollonii Pergai doctrinam Tepɩ vevσewv a Marino Ghetaldo Patritio Regusino hujusque non ita pridem institutam, &c.: Paris, 1612, 4to. This tract refers to the problem of inclinations, by which, in certain cases, the appli of dissenterism under the guidance of a popular preacher; and his congregation increased until the small chapel could not hold them, so that they were obliged to remove to a larger. And while thus successful, his labours were not confined to his own particular locality. He itinerated as an occasional missionary over several parts of the United Kingdom, bestowing not only his labours but his money in the and in 1810 he originated the Edinburgh Bible Society, an institution that combined the clergy of Scotland of almost every denomination into one body of religious action. cation of the curve called the conchoid is superseded. | 2. Atrioλoyia: Pro Zetetico Apolloniani problematis a se jam pridem edito in supplemento Apollonii Redivivi. Being an addition to the former work: Paris, 1615, 4to. 3. The edition of the works of Vieta: Paris, 1615, 4to. 4. Ad Angularum Sectionem Analytica Theoremata kabоλiкwтEрa, &c.: Paris, 1615, 4to. 5. Vindiciae Archimedis, &c.: Paris, 1616, 4to. 6. Alexandri Andersoni Scoti Exercitationum Mathe-establishment of a home mission in the Highlands; maticarum Decas Prima, &c.: Paris, 1619, 4to. All these pieces of this excellent geometrician are replete with the finest specimens of pure geometrical exercises that have ever perhaps been produced by any authors, ancient or modern. Besides these, literary history is not aware of any other publications by Anderson, though probably there may have been others. Indeed, from the last piece it fully appears that he had at least written, if not published, another, viz. A Treatise on the Mensuration of Solids, perhaps with a reference to gauging; as in several problems, where he critically examines the treatise of Kepler on cask-gauging, he often refers to his own work on stereometry. The Rev. Christopher Anderson had now become a man of considerable note in Edinburgh; and it speaks much for his diligence and zeal that, notwithstanding his scanty education, he had been able to make way among the learned and accomplished, and become a leader among them in the field of Christian enterprise. But his natural capacities were excellent, while his course of action seemed the fittest school for maturing and improving them. Thus successful as a minister, it was natural that such a man The subject of this memoir was cousin-german should attempt the work of authorship; and for this to Mr. David Anderson, of Finshaugh, a gentle- an occasion was soon presented. During his itinerman who also possessed a singular turn for mathe- ating missionary tours Ireland had fallen within his matical knowledge, and who could apply his ac- range; and from the experience which he acquired of quirements to so many useful purposes that he was that country during a considerable sojourn there in popularly known at Aberdeen by the name of Davie 1814, he was induced to publish A Memorial in behalf Do-a'-things. He acquired prodigious local fame by of the Native Irish, with a view to their Improvement removing a large rock which had formerly obstructed in Moral and Religious Knowledge through the medthe entrance to the harbour of Aberdeen. Mathe-ium of their own Language. At first it was only matical genius seems to have been in some degree inherent in the whole family; for, through a daughter of Mr. David Anderson, it reached the celebrated James Gregory, inventor of the reflecting telescope, | who was the son of that lady, and is said to have received from her the elements of mathematical knowledge. From the same lady was descended the late Dr. Reid of Glasgow, who was not less eminent for his acquaintance with the mathematics than for his metaphysical writings. ANDERSON, CHRISTOPHER. This excellent divine, whose whole life was an uninterrupted career of conscientious painstaking activity and usefulness, was born in the West Bow, Edinburgh, on the 19th of February, 1782. Being intended for business, he was entered as junior clerk in a friendly insurance office; but at the early age of seventeen, having joined the religious body called Independents, and two years afterwards that of the English Baptists, he relinquished his profitable clerkship that he might devote himself to the ministerial office over that small community in Edinburgh who held his own religious doctrines. For this purpose he underwent a hasty course of study in the university of Edinburgh, which he completed with almost equal speed at the Baptist colleges of Olney and Bristol, where a twelvemonth's study of theology was alternated with the practice of preaching as an itinerating missionary; and having in this way qualified himself for the work he originally contemplated, he returned to Edinburgh and devoted himself to the little community that had waited his arrival. His commencement in the Scottish metropolis, where learned and eloquent ministers are so abundant and so highly prized, was as unpromising as his educational training: his usual audience in the small chapel he had hired for the occasion consisted of from fifty to seventy hearers, while the regular members of his flock amounted to fourteen or fifteen persons, and his call to be their minister exhibited the signatures of not more than thirteen names. So small a beginning, however, is no measure of the capacity a small pamphlet, but he afterwards expanded it into a duodecimo volume. Another such attempt was occasioned by his laying before the Edinburgh Bible Society, in 1819, a MS. entitled A Memorial respecting the Diffusion of the Scriptures, particularly in the Celtic or Iberian Dialects. His statements on this subject were judged so important that the society requested him to publish them; and on complying with their desire, the effect of this production was to increase the exertions for the diffusion of Irish and Gaelic Bibles beyond all former example. This work he afterwards enlarged under the title of The Native Irish and their Descendants. But besides thus directing the public attention to the religious wants of Ireland and the Highlands, Mr. Anderson's author. ship was called to a subject of domestic and personal interest. His beloved wife had died: his family of two sons and three daughters had also passed successively away; and these afflictions, by which he was left alone in the world, had brought on not merely the appearance, but also the infirmities, of a premature old age. It was during these heavy successive calamities, and before the grave had finally closed upon every member of the family, that he sat down to console himself by the labours of his pen, and produced The Domestic Constitution; or the Family Circle the Source and Test of National Stability. At But the chief literary production of Mr. Anderson was The Annals of the English Bible; and, like his earlier attempts in authorship, it originated in accident, and was expanded by after-reflection. the third centenary of Coverdale's translation of the Bible in 1835 he preached a sermon on the subject; and as he had bestowed much attention on it, his facts were so new and his views so important to many of his audience, that they requested him to publish the discourse. It was accordingly published under the title of The English Scriptures, their first Reception and Effects, including Memorials of Tyndale, Frith, Coverdale, and Rogers. The production was so favourably received by the public that he was re quested to reproduce it in a more ample form; and on assenting, he soon found that the task would require the study not merely of weeks but of years. Undismayed, however, by such a prospect, he addressed himself to the task; and from the years 1837 to 1845 his researches were prosecuted in the library of the British Museum, the Bodleian at Oxford, the university library and others at Cambridge, the Baptist Museum at Bristol, besides numerous private sources, from all of which he culled such information as filled several bulky volumes of note-books. But when the Annals of the Bible was published the public curiosity had abated, or been directed into new channels; and even those who felt most interest in the subject were dismayed at the voluminous dimensions in which it was presented to their notice. So far therefore as immediate success was concerned, the work was a literary failure; and no occasion has since occurred to revive it into popularity. But it is not the less a valuable production, from which, as from a storehouse, the theologian can at once get those necessary materials which he would be compelled to seek over a wide and difficult field of investigation. After a life of such active usefulness as missionary, minister, founder and secretary of religious associations, correspondent with foreign missions, and author, the Rev. Christopher Anderson died at Edinburgh on the 18th of February, 1852, within a single day of completing the seventieth year of his age. ANDERSON, JAMES, an eminent antiquary, was the son of the Rev. Patrick Anderson, who had been ejected for nonconformity at the Restoration, and who afterwards suffered imprisonment in the Bass for preaching in a conventicle at Edinburgh. The subject of this memoir was born in Edinburgh, August 5th, 1662, and in 1677 is found studying philosophy in the university of that city, where, after finishing a scholastic education, he obtained the degree of Master of Arts on the 27th of May, 1680. He chose the law for his profession, and, after serving an apprenticeship under Sir Hugh Paterson of Bannockburn, was admitted a member of the society of writers to the signet in 1691. In this branch of the legal profession the study of written antiquities in some measure forces itself upon the practitioner; and it appears that Anderson, though a diligent and able man of business, became in time too fond of the accessory employment to care much for the principal. A circumstance which occurred in 1704 decided his fate by tempting him into the field of antiquarian controversy. The question of the union of the two countries was then very keenly agitated-on the one side with much jealous assertion of the national independency and on the other, with not only a contempt for the boasts of the Scots, but a revival of the old claims of England for a superiority or paramouncy over their country. A lawyer named Attwood in 1704 published a pamphlet in which all the exploded pretensions of Edward I. were brought prominently into view, and a direct dominion in the crown of England asserted over that of Scotland. For this work, Mr. Anderson, though altogether unknown to Mr. Attwood, was cited as an evidence and eye-witness to vouch some of the most important original charters and grants by the kings of Scotland, which Attwood maintained were in favour of the point he laboured to establish. Mr. Anderson, in consequence of such an appeal, thought himself bound in duty to his country to publish what he knew of the matter, and to vindicate some of the best of the Scottish kings, who were accused by Attwood of a base and voluntary surrender of their sovereignty. Accordingly, in 1705 he published An Essay, showing that the Crown of Scotland is Imperial and Independent, Edinburgh, 8vo, which was so acceptable to his country, that, besides a reward, thanks were voted to him by parliament, to be delivered by the lord-chancellor, in presence of her majesty's high commissioner and the estates, at the same time that Attwood's book, like others of the same nature, was ordered to be burned at the cross of Edinburgh by the hands of the common hangman. Mr. Anderson's publication is now of little value, except for the charters attached to it in the shape of an appendix. This affair was the crisis of Anderson's fate in life. He had, in the course of his researches for the essay, collected a large mass of national papers: the study of charters was just then beginning to be appreciated by antiquaries; the enthusiasm of the nation was favourable, for the moment, to any undertaking which would show the ancient respectability of its separate system of government. Under all these circumstances Anderson found it easy to secure the patronage of the Scottish estates towards a design for engraving and publishing a series of fac-similes of the royal charters previous to the reign of James I., and of seals, medals, and coins, from the earliest to the present time. In November, 1706, he had a parliamentary grant of £300 towards this object. He then proceeded vigorously with the work, and in March, 1707, had not only expended the £300 granted by parliament, but £590 besides, which he had drawn from his own funds. A committee reported the facts; and the estates, while they approved of his conduct, recommended to the queen to bestow upon him an additional contribution of £1050 sterling. Another parliamentary act of grace and one of the very last proceedings of the Scottish estates-was to recommend him to the queen "as a person meriting her gracious favour, in conferring any office or trust upon him, as her majesty, in her royal wisdom, shall think fit." Quite intoxicated with this success, Anderson now gave up his profession, and, resolving to devote himself entirely to the national service as an antiquary, removed to London, in order to superintend the progress of his work. The event only added another proof to what is already abundantly clear-that scarcely any prospects in the precarious fields of literature ought to tempt a man altogether to resign a professional means of subsistence. The money voted by the expiring parliament is said to have never been paid; the British senate perhaps considering itself not the proper heir of the Scottish estates. Apparently in lieu of money, he was favoured, in 1715, with the appointment of postmaster-general for Scotland; but of this he was deprived in little more than two years. What progress he now made with his great work is not very clearly known. He is found in 1718 advertising that those who might wish to encourage it "could see specimens at his house, above the post-office in Edinburgh.” As the expense of engraving must have borne hard upon his diminished resources, he would appear to have digressed for some years into an employment of a kindred nature, attended with greater facilities of publication. In 1727 he published the two first volumes of his well-known Collections relating to the History of Mary, Queen of Scotland, Edinburgh, 4to, which was speedily completed by the addition of two other volumes. This work contains a large mass of valuable original documents connected with the Marian controversy; but George Chalmers, who went over the same ground, insinuates that there is too much reason to suspect his honesty as a transcriber. If the prejudices of the two men are fairly balanced against the reputations which they respectively bear as antiquaries, we must acknowledge that the charge | may not be altogether groundless. Anderson died in 1728 of a stroke of apoplexy, leaving his great work unfinished. The plates were sold in 1729 by auction at £530, and it was not till 1737 that the work appeared, under the title of Selectus Diplomatum et Numismatum Scotia The saurus, the whole being under the care of the celebrated Thomas Ruddiman, who added a most elaborate preface. ANDERSON, JAMES, D.D., author of a large and useful work, entitled Royal Genealogies, was the brother of Adam Anderson, author of the Commercial History. He was for many years minister of the Scots Presbyterian church in Swallow Street, Piccadilly, and was well known among the people of that persuasion in London by the nickname of "Bishop Anderson." He was a learned but imprudent man, and lost a considerable part of his property by rash speculations in the South Sea scheme. His great work as an author was Royal Genealogies, or the Genealogical Tables of Emperors, Kings, and Princes, from Adam (!) to these Times, London, folio, 1732. The compilation of this huge work, in which he was aided by many eminent personages, whose families entered into its plan, cost him, according to his own account, the labour of seven years. It is certainly the completest work of the kind in existence, though with no pretensions to discrimination. The author says very frankly in his preface, that "he has avoided all terms and expressions that may give offence to any nation or family, to any person or party; having nothing to do with the national controversies of historians, nor with the ecclesiastical and religious debates of theologians, nor with the politics of statesmen, nor with the private jangles of the critics in a work of this kind, but only with facts and plain truth: so that he has let every nation enjoy its own faith; and if any find fault, he hopes they will readily excuse him, not having designed to offend them, and is willing to make satisfaction if he lives to publish a second edition." Dr. Anderson also wrote The Constitutions of the Free Masons, being the chaplain of that body in London. The dates of this worthy man's birth and death are not ascertained. He lived in a house opposite to St. James's Church, Piccadilly. | were speedily found to be of a most profitable nature. His first attempts in literature appeared in "Essays on Planting," in Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine for 1771. In 1777, having previously removed to a large farm in Aberdeenshire, he published these essays in a separate volume. In 1776 appeared his Essay on Chimneys, in which the principle afterwards acted on in the patent Bath stove was first explained. In the same year with his volume on Planting appeared various pamphlets connected with rural economy, all of which were more or less calculated to gratify the increasing desire of his countrymen for scientific knowledge upon such familiar subjects. The fame of these works procured him a very extensive acquaintance with persons of eminence, who wished to profit by the remarks of so able a practical farmer; and in 1780 the university of Aberdeen acknowledged his merit by conferring upon him the degree of LL.D. Anderson had been married in 1768; and a desire of educating a very numerous family, and enjoying literary society, induced him, in 1783, to remove to Edinburgh, leaving the management of his farm to persons properly qualified. A tract which he had written on the subject of the fisheries, though not printed, attracted the attention of the government, and he was requested, in 1784 to undertake a tour of the western coast of Scotland, for the purpose of obtaining information on this important subject. He performed the task to the high satisfaction of his employers, who, however, never offered him any remuneration. The result of his labours appeared in 1785 as An Account of the Present State of the Hebrides and Western Coasts of Scotland; being the substance of a Report to the Lords of the Treasury. Passing over some minor works of Dr. Anderson, we must make honourable mention of a literary and scientific miscellany which he commenced in 1791, under the title of The Bee. This work was published in weekly numbers at sixpence, and, by its delightful intermixture of useful information with lighter matters of the belles-lettres, was eminently calculated for the improvement of the young. It was occasionally embellished with portraits, views, and draughts of scientific objects-in, it is true, a very homely style, but still not much inferior to the taste of the age. The work ran from the 22d of December, 1790, to the 21st of January, 1794, when it was at length reluctantly abandoned, because such a large proportion of the subscribers were remiss in their payments as to induce an absolute loss to the conductor. The cessation of such a meritorious little publication was the more to be regretted, as Anderson had only been able, towards its close, to bring the assistance of his numerous and distant correspondents into full play. The numbers published form eighteen volumes duodecimo, and throughout the whole of that space, we believe there does not occur one morally reprehensible line. ANDERSON, JAMES, an agricultural and miscellaneous writer of great merit, was the son of a farmer at Hermiston, in the county of Mid-Lothian, where he was born in the year 1739. His father dying when he was very young, he was educated by his guardian to occupy the farm, which accordingly he began to manage at the early age of fifteen. It may be supposed that he could not have been intrusted with so important a charge if he had not already manifested symptoms of superior character and intellect; much less, without such qualifications, could he have discharged it, as he is said to have done, with approbation. In reading some agricultural works, to qualify himself for his duties, he had observed that it would be of advantage to study chemistry: he accordingly attended the lectures given in the university of Edinburgh by Dr. Cullen, who, although surprised that one so young should have formed this resolution, had Among other papers in The Bee was a series of soon reason to admire his pupil's laudable curiosity essays on the political progress of Britain. Though and good sense, and liberally afforded him every en- only written in what would now be considered a couragement. To chemistry he added the study of liberal strain, they appeared in the eyes of the sheriff certain collateral branches of science; so that, when as calculated to have an injurious tendency at that he entered upon his farm, he was not only able to inflamed period; and the learned doctor was accordkeep up with his more aged and experienced neigh-ingly summoned to give up the name of the author. bours, but to adopt a number of improvements, which | This Anderson refused, from peculiar notions as to About the year 1797, this ingenious person removed with his family to London, where he undertook various works connected with his favourite study of agriculture. For several years he wrote the articles on this subject in the Monthly Review; and from 1799 to 1802 he conducted a separate miscellany, under the title of Recreations in Agriculture. From the last-mentioned date, he devoted himself almost entirely to the relaxation which advanced years and severe studies had rendered necessary, and particularly to the cultivation of his garden, which became a miniature of all his past labours. In 1801 he married a second wife, who survived him. He died on the 15th of October, 1808, at the age of sixty-nine. | Το literary secrecy; he desired to be himself considered | became known as an author. The earliest of his as the author. After a second and a third applica- productions that has been discovered is entitled A tion, he still refused; and when the printers were sent Dialogue between a Curat and a Countreyman concernfor, and similarly interrogated, he charged them, in ing the English Service, or Common-Prayer Book of the face of the magistrates, to preserve his secret. England, which was printed in quarto at Glasgow, All this was the more singular, as his own principles about 1710. The question relative to the form of were known to be eminently loyal. Respect for his prayer used in Scotland immediately after the Retalents and character induced the magistrates to let formation, was at this time keenly canvassed by the the matter drop. The real author, a worthless Scottish Episcopalians and Presbyterians, and the person named Callender, being afterwards about to clergy of the former persuasion had very shortly quit his country for America, waited upon the before introduced the liturgy into their church service. authorities, and insinuated that the papers were (Carstares' State Papers.) Mr., afterwards Bishop, written by Lord Gardenstone, a man to whom he Sage endeavoured, in his Fundamental Charter of owed many obligations. Immediately on hearing of Presbytery Examined, to show that the English liturgy this infamous conduct, Anderson came forward, and had been used in Scotland for at least seven years refuted the charge by avowing Callender himself to after the establishment of the Protestant religion. be the real author. The whole of this affair reflects In this he was opposed by Mr. Anderson, who great credit upon the character of Dr. Anderson. adduced many arguments to prove that it was not the English liturgy that is spoken of by the Scottish historians, but that used by the English church at Geneva. Soon afterwards Anderson published a Second Dialogue (dated 1711), in which, says he, "there is hardly anything of importance which is not said in the very words of the writers of the other side," and in which South, Beveridge, Hammond, and Burnet are the curates whose sentiments are opposed. A Letter from a Countreyman to a Curat followed the dialogues, and received several answers, of which we shall only mention one, written by Robert Calder, an Episcopalian clergyman, the friend of Dr. Archibald Pitcairn, and printed in his Miscellany Numbers relating to the Controversies about the Book of Common Prayer, &c., folio, 1713. this attack Anderson replied in a pamphlet entitled Curat Calder Whipt. He soon after published A Sermon preached in the Church of Ayr at the Opening of the Synod, on Tuesday the 1st of April, 1712, printed at the desire of the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr (quarto, price sixpence); and in 1714 the work by which he is best known appeared. It has for its title, A Defence of the Church Government, Faith, Worship, and Spirit of the Presbyterians, in answer to a Book entitled An Apology for Mr. Thomas Rhind, &c., 4to, and is dedicated to Archibald, Earl of Islay. About the beginning of the year 1717, Anderson informs us, "The people of Glasgow were pleased to move that I should be called to be one of the ministers of that place" (Letter to Stewart of Pardovan, p. 1), but the proceedings relative to this transaction strikingly illustrate the truth of Wodrow's remark in a letter to Dr. Cotton Mather. "We are biting and devouring one another," says the venerable historian, "and like to be consumed one of another." After a course of opposition and debate with which it is unnecessary to trouble the reader, Mr. Anderson was at length settled in Glasgow in 1720, although it appears from M'Ure's History that the North-west Church, to which he was ap pointed, was not founded till 1721, nor finished for "a year or two thereafter." Mr. Anderson did not long survive his call to Glasgow, the date of his death has not been ascertained, but his successor was appointed in 1723. His controversial writings are full of valuable historical information, and show him to have been thoroughly versed in theological literature, but it cannot be too much regretted that he so far indulged in intemperate language. We have not alluded to some of his smaller pamphlets, which refer merely to subjects of a temporary or local nature. He In his younger days, Dr. Anderson was remarkably handsome in his person, of middle stature, and robust make; but the overstrained exertion of his mental powers afterwards shook his constitution, and hurried him into old age. Of his abilities, his works exhibit so many proofs that they may be appealed to with perfect confidence. Although a voluminous writer, there is no subject connected with his favourite pursuit on which he has not thrown new light. But his knowledge was not confined to one science. exhibited, to give only one instance, very considerable powers of research, when, in 1773, he published, in the first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, an article under the head "Monsoon." In this he clearly predicted the result of Captain Cook's first voyage; namely, that there did not exist, nor ever would be found, any continent or large island in the southern hemisphere except New Holland alone; and this was completely verified on Captain Cook's return seven months afterwards. Upon the whole, though the name of Dr. Anderson is associated with no scientific or literary triumphs of great splendour, his exertions, by their eminent and uniform usefulness, have given him very considerable claims to respect. A minute specification of his works is to be found in the Scots Magazine for 1809. ANDERSON, JOHN, M.A. An eminent Presbyterian clergyman of last century, grandfather of Professor Anderson, the subject of the next article. Of his early history very little is known, except that he received a university education, and took his degree in arts. He was afterwards preceptor to the great John, Duke of Argyle, and he mentions in his Letters upon the Overtures concerning Kirk Sessions and Presbyteries, that he had resided in Edinburgh for twenty-five years in early life. He seems also to have taught a school, and he is upbraided by "Curat Calder" with having been "an old pedantic dominie, teaching hæc dat a." It was not, however, till after his settlement as minister of Dumbarton, that he Upon the family tombstone, erected by the will of Professor Anderson, over the grave of his grand Wodrow's History, new edition, vol. i. p. xxv. |