348 Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Robifoft. 



purple colour for a bright rofe red, and of fo beautiful a fhade, 

 that on feeing the liquid become turbid, the hope of obtain- 

 ing a precipitate fufceptible of becoming ufeful to the arts 

 does not enter into the domain of illufions, till the filter and 

 the want of a fenfible depofit obliges the artift to acknow- 

 ledge his error. 



LVII. Memoirs of the Life of John Rob i son, LL.D. 

 Vrofejfor of Natural Pbilofopby in the Univerjity of Edifi- 

 burgby &?c t 



JL HIS eminent mathematician and philofopher is a na- 

 tive of the South of Scotland, the fon of worthy parents, in 

 the middle condition of life. 



He had, as foon as he was at an age capable of literary 

 inftru&ion, the advantage of attending one of thofe parifh- 

 fchools, which are fo much celebrated as the fources of the 

 general and extraordinary intelligence of the Scots, acquiring, 

 with great eagernefs and facility, that knowledge of Englifh, 

 Latin, Greek, writing, and arithmetic, which ufually 

 forms at fuch fchools the complete courfe. He was conft- 

 dered as a genius that ought to be devoted to one of the 

 learned profefiions; and his parents refolved to bring him 

 up to be a clergyman. 



He went to purfue his ftudies at the univerftty of Glafgow, 

 in which fome of the moft eminent philosophers of the age 

 were then teaching with great reputation and fuccefs. In 

 every branch of ftudy he made ditiinguifhed proficiency, 

 but mathematics foon became his favourite. Dr. Ro- 

 bert Simpson was his mafter in this fcience ; and it is 

 well known how much that great man contributed to the 

 reftoration of antient mathematics, and to the general dirTu- 

 fion of a tafte for mathematical knowledge, among his con- 

 temporaries. The fciences which are employed upon pure 

 truth and reafoning, if, at a firft trial, harder and lefs in- 

 viting than moft other parts of ftudy, yet, when their firft 

 difficulties are, by an ingenuous mind furmounted, rarely 

 fail to delight and captivate, and abforb the whole foul, more 

 than any thing elfe that can become the fubjecl: of invefti- 

 gation or continued thought. With Dr. Robison it 

 was perfectly fo. His firft progrefs in mathematics was 

 eafy and rapid ; and, as he advanced, his paffion for invefl> 

 igating mathematical truth became continually more ardent, 

 ills intuition keener and more vivid, his perfeverance in un» 



ravelling 



