Dr. Rohifort, of Edinburgh. 393 



ledge of mathematics to enter upon the fludy of natural phi- 

 loi »phv ? It becomes not me, perhaps, to anlwer thisquef- 

 tion ; but I may furely fay that, in converfation, no man 

 communicates knowledge more clearly than Dr. Robifon, 

 and that a more perfpiv\.:ms account of what pnilofoph'v can 

 attain, and how it mould be cultivated, will not readily be 

 found than what he has given in the Encyclopedia Britannica 

 under the titles Pnilofophy and Phynes. To underfiand the 

 demonftrations which he gives in the clafs, no higher know- 

 ledge is requifite than that of the molt elementary properties 

 of the conic (Sections ; and, for my part, I cannot conceive 

 how he, or any man, could demoniirate that the moon, for 

 inftance, is retained in her orbit round the earth by a gravi- 

 tation, fucli as Newton difcovered, to him who knows not 

 the nature of the elhpfe which ilie delcribes. 



Of the eftimation in which his talents and his virtues have 

 been held, not only by his colleagues in the univerfity of ; 

 Edinburgh, but by various other literary Societies, the fol- 

 lowing unfolicited honours conferred upon him by thofe fo- 

 cieties, afford ample evidence. 



In 1783, when the Royal Society of Edinburgh was incor- 

 porated by charter, he was unanimouily chofen general fe- 

 cretaxy; and difcharged the duties of the office to the fatis- 

 faction of the preudent, vice-prefidents, and council, till a 

 few years ago, that bad health obliged him to refign it. In 

 3798 he was complimented with the diploma of L\*.D. by 

 the academv of .New Jerfey. In 1799 he was created LL.D. 

 by the univerfity of Glafgow, which lent to him a diploma 

 conceived in terms the moil honourable, as well to the fenate 

 that decreed it, as to him in whole favour the decree was 

 paiTed. And in 1800 he was unanimouily elected foreign 

 member of the Imperial Academy ot Sciences of St. Peterf- 

 burgh, in the room of Dr. Black. To the fcientific public it 

 may not be unacceptable to add, that, at the particular requeft: 

 of the friends of that eminent chemift, he is now preparing - 

 his lectures for the preis. 



Though this detail muft not be considered as a fpecimen 

 of biography, but merely as correct annals of Dr. Kobifon's 

 life, it would be unpardonable to conclude it without noticing 

 his connection with the fraternity of Free-mafons, and his 

 attack on their higher mylieries. 



As I was privy to the competition of his Proofs of a Con- 

 spiracy, &c. I have his own authority to fay that he never 

 was in a mafon lodge in Great Britain. Once, indeed, when 

 a lad at college, he was carried into a barn by two or three of 

 bis companions, who, being themfelves free-mafons, mowed 



him, 



