12 Biographical Memoir nf Sir John Leslie. 



pression, which so often mar its reasonings and obscure its sense. 

 More than ten years before the appearance of this work, Mr 

 Leslie wrote an essay on Heat and Climate, which contains some 

 of its theoretical opinions, as well as the germs of some of its 

 discoveries. It was read at two successive meetings of the Royal 

 Society of London in the spring of 179'"^ ; but it was not ad- 

 mitted into the Transactions of that body. Its author was 

 not of a disj)osition to be checked in the career of inquiry by 

 this repulse ; and he did not shrink from bringing his paper 

 forth, in 1819, from its long ol)livion of twenty-six years; he 

 having then published it, for the first time, in Dr Thomson's 

 Annals of Philosophy.'* 



T^vice before that period of his life at which we are now ar- 

 rived, Mr Leslie had appeared as a candidate for an Acade- 

 mical Chair; — first in the University of St Andrews, after- 

 wards in that of Glasgow, and on both occasions without suc- 

 cess. He was again to try his fortune in the same line in the 

 Metropolitan University. Early in the year 1805, a vacancy 

 occurred in its Mathematical Chair, owing to the removal of 

 Professor Playfair, on the death of Dr John Kobison, to that of 

 Natural Philosophy. This afforded a new opening to his aca- 

 demical ambition ; and he was particularly desirous to occupy 

 a Chair upon which the names of the Gregoi-ies, of Maclaurin, 

 of Matthew Stewart, and of Playfair, had shed so much lustre. 

 He accordingly presented himself as a candidate ; and, with 

 his now high reputation as a discoverer and original thinker, 

 and his acknowledged eminence in mathematical science, it was 

 not to be expected that he could have any formidable competition 

 to surmount. Nor did there occur any, in as far as fame or 

 talents were concerned. His principal competitor, though a 

 man of amiable character, and respectable attainments, was 

 wholly unknown in the scientific world, and as inferior to him 

 in abilities as in renown. But he was one of the Ministers of 

 the City, and supported with all the influence of that body ; 

 then pretty generally suspected of a wish to secure a monopoly 

 of the Philosophical Chairs of the University. It soon, how- 

 ever, became known, that the Patrons were determined to de- 



• See vol. xiv. p. 5-27, and vol. xvi. p. 7? f<Ji" some just observations by 

 the able Editor. 



