j,i MOSBODDO. JAMES BURNBTT, LORD. 



MONQE, GASPARD. 



the many persons of literary eminence with whom h* 

 ndanrt. Lock* was held by him in particular 

 . and in the Uat year of hU life h* cam* to England for the 

 purpose of visiting that philosopher. H* died in Dublin, on the 

 iltftof October. 1M6. 



n papers on miscellaneous 

 ' between the 



e. . 



bit ' Dioptrics ' and twenty -w 

 asirtlit w the 'Phuosophloal 



year. 1M4 and 1716. h* publiabed 'Translation of th* Six Metaphy- 

 aieal rsssatsltimi of Deacartea, together with the objections against 

 tb*o by Thomas Hobb**,' London, 1671; 'Seiothericum Telesco- 

 piounx or New Contrivance for adapting a Teloaoop* to an Horixontal 

 INaL' 4to, Dublin. I86 ; 'Journal of th* Three Months' Campaign 

 of Hi* Majesty in Ireland, with a Diary of the Siege of Limerick,' 4to, 

 1690 ; Th* Oat* of Ireland being bound by Acts of Parliament 

 stated.' 8vo, Dublin. 169S-l70-70-76. 



(..craws' of At Family and Dttctda*tt of Sir Tkamai Ifolyiuux, 

 AW.. Evesham. 1820, 4to; Hutton, Mathematical Dictionary; Bioyra- 



MONBODDO, JAMES BURNETT, styled'LOUl) (in bis quality 

 of on* of th* judge* of th* Court of Session), was bom in 1714, at the 

 family s*at of Monboddo, in Kincurdineshire, and after studying at 

 Aberdeen, was sent to the University of Groniugen, according to a 

 imtutii than' common in Scotland, where an education cither at a 

 Dutch or French university was considered indispensable for young 

 men intended either for the profession of law or for that of physic. 

 Lord Monboddo has himself mentioned that bis father, whose eldest 

 son he was, sold part of his estate in order to afford him this advan- 

 tage. H* returned home in 1738, and from that time practised as on 

 advocate at th* Scottish bar, till bis elevation to the bench in 1767. 

 H* i* known in the literary world by two learned but paradoxical 

 works : the first entitled ' A Dissertation on the Origin and Progress 

 of Language,' in 6 Tola, 8vo, 1774-92; the second entitled 'Ancient 

 Metaphysics,' in 6 vols. 4to, 1778, Ac. An exclusive and somewhat 

 intolerant admiration of the language, literature, and philosophy of 

 the ancient Greeks, some singular notions about men being only a 

 civilised species of monkeys, a preference for the virtues and happi- 

 ne*s of the savage nt,it<% and a general credulity in favour of the 

 marvellous, are, in addition to considerable erudition, among the most 

 remarkable peculiarities of these performances now perhaps chiefly 

 remembered on account of these peculiarities. Lord Monboddo how- 

 ever was also esteemed a good lawyer and judge, and his character in 

 all other relations was of the highest respectability. A description of 

 hi* person and conversation has been given by Boswell iu his ' Tour 

 to the Hebride*,' in an account of a visit paid to him by Dr. Johnson 

 at Monboddo (pp. 73-85). In a note Boswell says, " There were several 

 points of similarity between them ; learning, clearness of head, pre- 

 cision of speech, and a love of research on many subjects which 

 people in general do not investigate. Foote paid Lord Monboddo the 

 compliment of saying that be was an Elzevir edition of Johnson." 

 Some further account of him may be found in Kerr's ' Memoirs of 

 SmeUw,' the Edinburgh printer (vol. L, pp. 409-15). Smellie, we are 

 told, used to be a frequent visitor at what his lordship called his 

 learn sd supper*. " In imitation of the ancients," says Smellie's 

 biographer, " for whom b* professed an enthusiastic admiration, 

 Lord Munboddo always made rapper bis principal meal, and his 

 regular time of entertaining his friends. These learned suppers used 

 to take place once a fortnight during the sitting of the courts ; and 

 among th* usual guests were the late Dr. Black, Dr. Hutton, Dr. 

 Hope, Dr. Walker, Mr. Smellie, and other men of science and learning, 

 of whom Edinburgh at that time furnished an ample store." Lord 

 Monboddo died at Edinburgh, in consequence of a paralytic stroke, 

 on the 2th of May 1799. 



MUXCAI.Vo. [CACCIA GCULIKLMO.] 



MONCKKIKF, SIR HENRY, a divine, and ecclesiastical leader in 

 the Church of Scotland, was born at BUckford, in Perthshire, on the 

 Cth of February 1750. His father, Sir William Moncreiff, though a 

 eadet of th- family, succeeded to the baronetcy by the failure of the 

 elder line, whin be was minister of Illackford, in 1744. Sir Henry 

 was tb* sixth of his family that bad belonged to the clerical profession. 

 In the latter part of his life he assume.! the name of Wellwood. 

 He studied at Glasgow and Edinburgh, and waa ordained a minister 

 on th. lith of August 1771. Though he was probably the only man 



i strongly 

 >y far the 

 profession was the 



i of raising from the more humble grade* of society. He had a 

 " r appearance, was gifted with a powerful argumentative 

 1 was swalons and learned. With such advantage*, personal 

 and social, b* naturally occupied the first rank in the church. He was 

 for MMM Urn* his father's successor as minister of BUckford, and in 

 1775 b* was appointed to the charge of St. Cuthbert's in Edinburgh, 

 where be remained till his death, on the 14th of June 1827. He waa 

 fr|iMody moderator of the Orneral Assembly, and hi. name was 

 caosyjououe in nearly all tb* ecclesiastical discussions connected with 

 th* Church of Scotland during his ministry in Edinburgh. He was 

 tb* author of many pamphlet* connected with thes* questions. In 

 IBIS b* published 'DUcounsj* on th* Evidence of tb* Jewish and 

 Christian B*v*UUon, with Notes and Illustrates ; ' and in 1818 an 



am we i.>w 01 August mi. i nougn ne was prouamy tne oni 

 of rank who ministered in the Church of Sootland.be was as st 

 imbued with th* spirit of the Presbyterian policy as those, by I 

 Mil numerous class in that church, whom th* profession w 



Account of the Life and Writings of Dr. John Krskine.' 

 JOHN.] His sermons, of which there had been some separata publica- 

 tions during his life, were collectively published after bin death , 

 1831) in 3 Tola. b'vo, with a short memoir of the author, by bis sou 

 Lord Moncreiff. 



MOXUAULT. NICOLAS-HUBERT DK. born at Paris in 1674, 

 studied under the fathers of the congregation of the Oratory, and 

 afterwards became preceptor to the Duke of Cbartres, son of the 

 Duko of Orleans the regent, by whoso interest be obtained several 

 offices under government. Ho became a member of the French Aca- 

 demy in 1718. Mongault died at Paris in 1746. He made a French 

 translation of Herodiau (Paris, 1745), and also a very good transla- 

 tion of Cicero's letters to Atticus (Paris, 1738), with numerous and useful 

 notes. Both these works, and the last especially, are among the best 

 translations from the classics which the French language possesses. 



MONOE, QASPARD, was born at Beaune, in 1746. The 

 father of Monge wag, we suppose, a thriving inn or hotel-keeper, 

 " posseeseur d'une opuleute hotellerie," and Madame Roland styles 

 him " macon parvenu." Of his education little U said, nor is much to 

 be expected, when we find him " employed at the age of sixteen, in the 

 college of Lyon, to teach the natural philosophy which he hod coine 

 there to learn the year before." The clergy who superintended the 

 establishment used all means of persuasion to induce their young 

 pupil to enter the church, but the construction of a plan of his native 

 town brought him at this time under the notice of a colonel of 

 engineers, who procured for him and persuaded him to accept on 

 appointment in the college of engineers at Meziftres, where he remained 

 till 17SO, when he was appointed professor-adjoint with Bosaut, iu 

 teaching hydrodynamics at the Louvre. During his stay at Mezieres, 

 observing that aU the operations connected with the construction of 

 plans of fortification (such as the French call ' ddfUcmens ' were con- 

 ducted by long arithmetical processes, he substituted a geometrical 

 method, which the commandant at first refused even to look at, so 

 short was the time in which it could be practised: it was liu ..<- \rr 

 received with avidity when further inspected, uud Mouge, continuing 

 his investigations, soon generalised the methods employed into that 

 great alphabet of the application of geometry to the arts which is now 

 called descriptive geometry. Such however was the system of the 

 French schools before the revolution, that the officers who had been 

 trained in this application were strictly forbidden to communicate its 

 methods even to those who were engaged in other branches of the 

 public service. Monge himself, in 1780, conversing with his pupils 

 Lacroix and Qayveruon, was obliged to say, " All that I have here doue 

 by calculation, I could have done with the ruler and compass, but I am 

 not allowed to reveal these secrets to you." But M. Lacroix, whose 

 name is now too well known to require further mention, set himself 

 to examine how this could be, detected the processes employed, and 

 published them in 1795, under the title of ' Coinpldmens de Qeomctrie.' 

 The method was published by Monge himself, first iu the form in 

 which the shorthand writers took them down from the instruct; ms 

 given at the Normal school (an 11 1., or 1794-95), and ag.iin (in Vll., 

 1798-99), also in the collected edition of the ' Lecpns de I'Kcolu Nor- 

 male,' 1800; and finally in the well-known work, ' Ge'oiue'trio Descrip- 

 tive' (fourth edition, 1820), which, in simplicity, style, and choice 

 of details, in a subject which might have easily been over! 

 with them, stands second to no elementary work whatever. Kongo 

 was unrivalled in the communication of instruction, and in the interest 

 which ho could excite iu the minds of his pupils : M. Dupin i 

 that in his walks with them in the neighbourhood of Mezieres, both 

 professor and pupils would walk through the brooks without the 

 least attention to where they wore going, all intent on the subject 

 upon which he was conversing. 



In 1780 he was elected of tho Academy of Sciences, and in 1783 he 

 succeeded Bezout as examiner of the naval aspirants : he then quitted 

 Meziores entirely, at which place, since his partial removal to Paris, 

 he had hitherto boon occupied during half of the year. For his new 

 pupils ho wrote his treatise on Statics (' Traitc dldiucutairo de 

 Statique,' first edition, 1786 ; fifth edition, 1810) ; a short and pur<-ly 

 synthetical treatise, which is even yet, we think, tho boat introduction 

 from geometry to that subject. He was forbidden (in instructions 

 from iiorda) to employ any other method ; and though Dupiu cites 

 this iu excuse, we must take tho liberty of thinking that tho mathe- 

 matical taste for which Monge was so conspicuous would secure his 

 ready acquiescence in the restriction, considering the class of pupils 

 for whom he was to write ; if indeed, which is very likely, it was not 

 suggested by himself. 



When the wars occasioned by the revolution were on the point of 

 breaking out, Monge was appointed minister of marine. If we were 

 writing his political life, we should have to look for information else- 

 where than from M. Dupiu, who simply states tho appointment, 

 touches on the misfortune which happened at sea during his adminis- 

 tration, commencing the whole with an indignant denial of Monge having 

 been concerned iu any of tho cruelties of the period. He quitted this 

 post without mnainiug long in it, and became busily engaged in the 

 operations for the equipment of the army. The enormous exertions 

 which were made, and the singularity of the crisis, are well known : 

 war bad been declared, twelve hundred thousand soldiers were to bo 

 called into the field, and the steel which was to form their bayonets 



