ANNALS 
oF 
PHILOSOPHY. 
1 : 
MARCH, 1816. 
ArticLe [, 
Biographical Account of the late John Rolison, LL. D. F.R.S. E. 
and Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edin- 
burgh. By John Playfair, F.R.S. L. & E. &c.* 
THE distinguished person who is the subject of this memoir was 
born at Boghall, in the parish of Baldernock, near Glasgow, in the 
- year 1739. His father, John Robison, had been early engaged in 
commerce in Glasgow, where, with a character of great probity 
and worth, he had acquired considerable wealth, and, before the 
birth of his son, had retired to the country, and lived at his estate 
of Boghall. 
His son was educated at the grammar school of Glasgow. We 
have no accounts of his earliest acquirements, but must suppose 
them to have been sufficiently rapid, as he entered a student of 
Humanity in the University of Glasgow in November, 1750, and 
in April, 1756, took his degree in Arts. 
Several Professors of great celebrity adorned that University 
about this period. Dr. Simson was one of the first geometers of 
the age; and Mr. Adam Smith had just begun to explain in his 
lectures those principles which have since been delivered with such 
effect in the Theory of Moral Sentiments, and in, the Wealth of 
Nations. Dr. Moore was a great master of the Greek language, 
and added to extensive learning a knowledge of the ancient geo- 
metry much beyond the acquirement of an ordinary scholar. 
Under such instructors, a young man of far inferior talents to 
‘these which Mr. Robison possessed could not fail to make great 
* From the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. vii, part ii, 
Vou, VII. N° II. M 
