180 Biographical Account of [Marcu, 
quisite for explaining the elements of natural philosophy. His 
views in the latter were sound, often original, and'always explained 
with great clearness and simplicity. ‘The mathematical and expe- 
rimental parts were se happily combined, that his lectures commu- 
nicated not only. an exeelient view of the principles of the science, 
but much practical knowledge concerning the means by which those 
principles are embodied in matter, and made palpable tosense. 
Mr. Robison, who now succeeded to this chair, had also talents 
and acquirements of a very high order. ‘The scenes of active life 
in which he had been early engaged, and in which he had seen the 
great operations of the nautical and the military art, had been fol- 
lowed or accompanied with much study, so that a thorough know- 
ledge of the principles, as well as the practice, of those arts had 
been acquired. His knowledge of the mathematics was accurate 
and extensive, and included, what was at that time rare in this 
country, a considerable familiarity with the discoveries and inven- 
tions of the foreign mathematicians. 
In the general outline of his course he did not, however, deviate 
materially from that which had been sketched by his predecessors, 
except, I think, in one point of arrangement, by which he passed 
from dynamics immediately to physical astronomy. The sciences 
of mechanics, hydrodynamics, astronomy, and optics, together with 
electricity and magnetism, were the subjects which his lectures 
embraced. ‘These were given with great fluency and precision of 
language, and with the introduction of a good deal of mathematical 
demonstration. His manner was grave and dignified ; his views, 
always ingenious and comprehensive, were full of information, and 
never more interesting and instructive than when they touched on 
the history of science. His lectures, however, were often com- 
plained of, as difficult and hard to be followed; and this did not, in 
my opinion, arise from the depth of the mathematical demonstra- 
tions, as was sometimes said, but rather from the rapidity of his 
discourse, which was in general beyond the rate at which accu ate 
reasoning can be easily followed. The singular facility of his own 
apprehension made him judge too favourably of the same power in 
others. ‘To understand his lectures completely was, on account of 
the rapidity and the uniform flow of his discourse, not a very easy 
task, even for men tolerably familiar with the subject. On this 
account his lectures were less popular than might have been ex- 
pected from such a combination of rare talents as the author of 
them possessed. ‘This was assisted by the small number of experi- 
ments he introduced, and a view that he took of natural philosophy 
which left but a very subordinate place for them to occupy. An 
experiment, he would very truly observe, does not establish a 
general proposition, and never can do more than prove a particular 
fact. Hence he inferred, or seemed to infer, that they are of no 
great use in establishing the principles of science. This seems an 
erroneous view. An experiment does but prove a particular fact ; 
but by doing so in a great number of cases it affords the means of 
