(86) HIS TORT of the SOCIETr. 



DrRMb^'k. claffical and political knowledge, rendered him an agreeable 

 companion to the learned, almoft of every department, and pro- 

 cured him the attachment and friendihip of many of the firfl; 

 literary charaders in Britain. With his friend Dr Black he 

 lived, till his death, in clofe habits of intimacy ; and he often 

 acknowledged, v^^ith much franknefs, the advantages which he 

 derived, in his various purfuits, from a free and unreferved 

 communication with that eminent chemift. 



Th e amiable difpofitions of fenfibility, humanity, and gene- 

 rofity, which ftrongly marked his character, in the general in- 

 tercourfe of fociety, were peculiarly preferved and exercifed in 

 the bofomof his family, and in the circle of his friends. In the 

 various relations of hufband, father, friend, or mafter, and in 

 the difcharge of the refpeflive dvities arifing from them, it 

 would not be eafy to do juftice to his charader, or to determine 

 in which of them he moft excelled ; nor muft it be forgot, for it 

 refleded much honour on his benovelent heart, that his work- 

 men not only found him at all times a kind and indulgent ma- 

 fter, but many of them, when their circumftances required it, 

 a fkilful and compaflionate phyfician, who cheerfully vifited the 

 humblefl recefles of poverty, and who attached them to his fer- 

 vice by multiplied ads of generofity and kindnefs. 



We cannot conclude this narrative, without expreffing our 

 regret, that talents fo great, and fervices fo ufeful to his coun- 

 try, as were thofe of Dr Roebuck, fliould have turned out of fo 

 Httle account to himfelf and his family. But this is, in fad, no 

 uncommon cafe. The great benefadors of fociety have never 

 been men aduated by gain or interefl, but thofe whofe ambition 

 was fixed on promoting the convenience and happinefs of men. 

 The Dodor had in fad too little regard for money, and was ge- 

 nerous in the extreme. It mud be confefled, too, that his con- 

 fidence and ardour prevented him from forefeeing fome of the 

 difficulties and obftacles he met with, and frecjuently tempted 



him 



