MACLAURIN, COLIN. 



MACLISE, DANIEL, B.A. 



So 



Epistles,' with a large apparatus of Commentary and Notes, and a Life 

 of the Apoatlc Paul. He died iu 1800. There is an account of the 

 life of Dr. Macknight by his son. 



MACLAUHIN, COLIN, one of the moat eminent of Scottish 

 mathematicians, was descended of an ancient family in Argyllshire, 

 and was born at Kilmoddan, in that county, in February 1698. His 

 father was a minister of the kirk, and died shortly after the birth of 

 his third son Colin : his mother also died when he was very young, 

 and the care of his education devolved upon an uncle, who sent him 

 to the university of Glasgow at the age of eleven. It is said that in the 

 following year, meeting accidentally with a copy of Euclid, he made 

 himself master of the first six books in a few days, a story utterly 

 incredible upon the mere statement. It is said also, and with much 

 more likelihood, that at the age of sixteen he had invented many of 

 the propositions afterwards published in his ' Qeometria Organica.' 

 However tbia may be, he took his degree of Master of Arts with dis- 

 tinction in the fifteenth year of his age (1713), and afterwards lived in 

 studious retirement till the autumn of 1717, when, after a severe 

 competition and ten days' examination, he obtained the professorship 

 of mathematics at the Marischal College, Aberdeen. In 1719 and 1721 

 he visited London, and formed the acquaintance of many eminent 

 men, particularly of Newton. In 1722 he travelled on the Continent 

 as tutor to a son of Lord Polwarth ; but the death of his pupil during 

 their tour occasioned his return to Aberdeen. 



In 1725 he was appointed to assist James Gregory, whose strength 

 was declining, in the duties of his chair at Edinburgh. The want of 

 funds to pay an assistant placed difficulties in the way of this arrange- 

 ment, which were removed, but how is not clearly stated. We 

 mention them here to record, in honour of Maclaurin, that Newton, 

 on hearing of the obstacles, offered to pay 202. a year, till Gregory's 

 death, towards the assistant's salary, if Maclaurin were to be appointed. 

 At Edinburgh he remained almost all the remainder of his life. When 

 the Rebellion broke out in 1745, he exerted himself vigorously for the 

 existing government, and the hasty works which were thrown up for 

 the defence of Edinburgh were planned and superintended by him : 

 fatigue and exposure laid the foundation of a mortal disorder. When 

 the pretender entered Edinburgh, Maclaurin withdrew, to avoid making 

 the submission which was demanded of all who bad volunteered to 

 defend the town ; but he had previously managed to introduce a good 

 telescope into the castle, and to contrive a method of supplying the 

 garrison with provisions. He accepted the invitation of Dr. Herring, 

 archbishop of York, with whom he remained till it was safe to return 

 to Edinburgh. Shortly after his return he died of dropsy, June 14, 

 1746, ag'd forty-eight years and four months. 



Maclaurin married in 1733, and hia wife, with two sons and three 

 daughters, survived him. Of his character it can only be stated, from 

 the general eulugy, that it was such as secured him the highest 

 regard of his contemporaries. 



The writings of Maclaurin are not numerous, but they have exercised 

 considerable influence upon the mathematical studies of this country ; 

 more however we think, in what has been taken from them, or on 

 their model, by others, than in the exteneiveness of their own circula- 

 tion. There is both originality and depth in all of them, and we shall 

 proceed to notice them separately. 



1. The various papers which he published in the ' Philosophical 

 Transactions ' are on subjects intimately connected with his separate 

 works. The numbers of the ' Transactions ' in which they occur are 

 356, 359, 364, 377, 394, 408, 439, 461, 467, 469, 471. 



2. ' Ueometria Organica, sive descriptio linearum curvarum univer- 

 salis,' London, 1720. This is an elaborate treatise ou the description 

 of curves by the intersections of moving straight lines. 



3. In 1724 he gained the prize of the Academy of Sciences for an 

 essay, proposed by that body, on the Leibnitzian method of measuring 

 the force of bodies in motion. In 1740 he divided with Daniel Ber- 

 noulli, Euler, and Cavallieri, the prize of the same academy for an essay 

 on the tides. This work is printed in what is called the Jesuits' 

 edition of Newton. 



4. 'A Treatise of Fluxions,' Edinburgh, 1742 (2 vols. 4to; a second 

 edition about 1801, 8vo). The immediate cause of this work was the 

 attack of Berkeley upon the first principles of Fluxions, in his ' Analyst:' 

 it is of great prolixity, aa might be expected in an elementary treatise 

 which is written entirely on the defensive: but it must always be 

 remarkable as having been the first work in which the principles ol 

 fluxions were placed in logical connection with each other. The details 

 are very extensive, forming a great body of applications, several o! 

 tnem quite new at the time. Among others in the theorem now known 

 by the name of Maclaurin, but which had been previously noticed by 

 Stirling. Of all the treatises which have been organised upon the 

 fluxional principle, thia is undoubtedly the moat sound as well as 

 complete. 



:,. 'A Treatise on Algebra,' 1748 (sixth edition, 1796). This work 

 certainly surpassed all its predecessors in clearness, though far from 

 being as logical a work as ttao ' Fluxions.' It contains two appendices 

 on the general properties of curves. It WM left not quite complete 

 and was finished by an editor. 



6. ' An Account of Sir Iiaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries, 

 London, 1748. Thia work alto was publi-hed from the author' 

 papers ; the editor was Patrick Murdoch. After the death of Newton 



is nephew Mr. Conduitt proposed to publish his life, and applied to 

 laclauriu for assistance. The latter immediately prepared an account of 

 be philosophical systems which preceded that of Newton. But Mr. Con- 

 uitt's death frustrated the plan, and Maclaurin, extending his design 

 o the length of explaining all Newton's mechanical and cosmical 

 iscoveries, left this work in the state in which it was printed. The 

 ptical discoveries were omitted, and the editor states that the author's 

 utention seems to have been the explanation of those parts only of 

 Newton's discoveries which had been and were controverted. In the 

 resent day, when popular explanation of scientific points has been 

 veil studied, it would be easy to name works which are preferable to 

 liat of Maclaurin in matter and form; but in style it would be 

 ifficult to do the same. At a time when the theory of gravitation 

 was hardly admitted by many at home, not yet received by any of 

 ote abroad, and really understood by very few, such a work was of 

 cculiar value. 



Besides the preceding, Maclaurin edited in 1745 an edition of David 

 Sregory's ' Practical Geometry.' He was also actively engaged in. 

 many matters closely connected with scientific publications. We need 

 o no more than mention his exertions to found an observatory at 

 Edinburgh, which did not succeed, and a medical society : to the 

 atter he contributed several papers. Ho was engaged at one time 

 n promoting the survey of part of the north of Scotland ; at another 

 a examining and reporting on the manner of gauging vessels ; and he 

 Tganised and computed tables for a provident society for tLe widows 

 ud orphans of the Scottish clergy, in a manner which secured the 

 lability and usefulness of the scheme. 



* MACLISE, DANIEL, R.A., was born on the 25th of January 1811 

 ,t Cork, Ireland, where his father, a native of Scotland, having retired 

 rom the army, had established himself in business. While a child 

 4aclise showed a great aptitude for drawing, and he was very desirous 

 if becoming a painter ; but, his friends being unwilling, or unable, to 

 :omply with liis wish, he was placed in a banking bouse at Cork, 

 .'his he left however at the age of sixteen, and gave himself up to the 

 lursuit of art, managing to maintain himself by the sale of sketches 

 and the drawing of likenesses. He had entered himself a student in 

 he Cork Society of Arts, where he made rapid progress, studied 

 anatomy under an eminent surgeon, and made a sketching tour through 

 he Wicklow mountain district, which supplied a valuable fund of 

 nctorial materials. In 1828 he came to London, and was admitted a 

 itudent in the Royal Academy. Here his course was unusually brilliant, 

 ["he year of his entry he won the medal in the antique ; the medal for 

 he best drawing from the life followed ; and the series of his triumphs 

 was crowned by his carrying off the gold medal for the best historical 

 composition. The summer of 1830 he spent in studying in the galledes 

 and ateliers of Paris. During the three or four years between his 

 entering the schools of the Academy and his winning the gold medal, 

 klr. Maclise laboured hard in making designs and sketches for book- 

 sellers and others, and in painting portraits : his caricature portraits 

 which appeared about this time in ' Eraser's Magazine ' will probably 

 >e remembered by Fome of our readers. 



The first oil-paintings which he publicly exhibited, were, we believe, 

 Mokanna Unveiling her Features to Zelica,' at the British Institutiou 

 n 1833, and 'Allhallow Eve,' and 'A Love Adventure of Francis I. 

 with Diana of Poictiers,' at the Royal Academy in the same year. 

 They attracted a good deal of attention, and as works of a young man 

 of two-and-twenty were by all admitted to be of very unusual promise. 

 ' The Installation of Captain Rock' in a vein he would have done 

 well to have followed farther exhibited in the following year, increased 

 the general admiration ; and the ' Chivalrous Vow of the Ladies and 

 the Peacock,' 1835, amply established the young artist's position as 

 one of the most original of our semi-historical painters. He was the 

 game year elected A.R.A. and enrolled as a lion of the season. With 

 some slight oscillations, partly arising from the fluctuations of public 

 taste, partly from little wilfulnesses on his own side, he has ever since 

 retained his place among the first of our painters in popularity, though 

 from the very extent of bis success, and the widely different character 

 of his style Iroin that of other temporary or permanent favourites, 

 he has had to endure at least bis fair share of adverse criticism. 



Mr. Maclise has been a prolific painter, the character of his works 

 being considered which are generally of rather large size, yet in 

 every part full of detail and carefully finished, and contain mostly 

 numerous figures painted with an attention to costume and accessories 

 which often evinces considerable research. The titles of the more 

 important of them will sufficiently indicate his range of subjects : 

 ' Robin Hood and Richard Cceur de Lion in the Greenwood ; ' 

 ' Salvator Rosa painting his friend Masaniello,' ' Olivia and Sophia 

 fitting out Moses for the Fair,' and ' Merry Christmas in the Baron's 

 Hall' (1838) a picture of even greater power and at least as great 

 popularity aa his ' Vow of the Ladies and the Peacock,' it secured 

 his election (February 1840) as R.A. His great picture in the exhi- 

 bition of 1840 was ' The Banquet-Scene in Macbeth,' but along with 

 it he sent two of those smaller and less ambitious pictures which 

 used in these hia earlier years always to bo regarded as among his 

 pleaeantest works, as well as foremost among the minor attractions 

 of the Academy exhibitions, ' Gil Bias dresses en Cavalier,' and a 

 'Scene from Twelfth Night,' now in the Vernon Gallery. In 1841 

 he had ' The Sleeping Beauty,' and ' Hunt the Slipper at Neighbour 



