363 



SCORESBY, WILLIAM AND REV. WILLIAM. 



SCOTT, DAVID. 



304 



always distinguished by their discipline and respectability, and the 

 lasting effect of his command upon the characters of some of those 

 who sailed with him was a proof of the soundness of his judgment, 

 temper and heart. " His success in whaling was remarkable ; but ho 

 never, under any circumstances, allowed a whale to be pursued upon 

 Sunday, and ho succeeded in convincing his men that upon the whole 

 they did not lose by keeping the appointed day of rest. Upon his 

 later voyages he adopted tfie temperance principle on board his vessel, 

 finding that hot coffee was a very much stronger preservative than 

 spirits against the intense cold of Arctic regions." 



Some years after his retirement from the whale-fishing the religious 

 impressions which he had first received from his father and had always 

 entertained, impelled him to desire a more formal and authorised 

 position as a teacher of religion. He entered the University of Cam- 

 bridge as a student of Queen's College, took his degree of B.D. in 1834, 

 and Holy Orders in due course, taking the superior degree of D.D. in 

 process of time. The Mariner's Church at Liverpool having been 

 then just established, he accepted the chaplaincy. Private circum- 

 stances occasioned his removal to Exeter, but he afterwards be- 

 came Vicar of Bradford, a very large parish in Yorkshire. After some 

 years however he resigned this office, and retired to Torquay in 

 Devonshire. 



As a clergyman, Dr. Scoresby is stated to have " combined what 

 may perhaps be considered extreme evangelical views with the most 

 abounding charity and liberality to those who differed from him. His 

 1 Discourses to Seamen ' evince the earnestness with which he laboured 

 for the good of the service in which he had passed his earlier years." 

 He took also enlightened and enlarged views of public education, which 

 while vicar of Bradford he laboured zealously to realise. 



But of all the very various subjects to which Dr. Scoresby directed his 

 attention, practical magnetism and its relation to navigation appear to 

 have been most actively pursued by him through his life. The increasing 

 quantity of iron introduced into the equipment and construction of 

 ships, and the recent construction of the entire hull of that metal, 

 were watched by him with unceasing care ; and all the resources of 

 his cultivated mind were at length applied to the most important of 

 all subjects of this class the influence of the iron of ships upon their 

 compasses, and the requisite correction, of the indications of the latter. 

 He had published various papers on magnetism in the ' Philosophical 

 Transactions,' the ' Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,' 

 the ' Reports of the British Association,' the ' Edinburgh Philosophical 

 Journal,' and the two journals which succeeded it. The substance 

 of these, or of many of them, he now made public, in an improved 

 form, in his ' Magnetical Investigations.' Part i. ' Comprising investi- 

 gations on the principles affecting the capacity and retentiveness of 

 steel for the magnetic condition ; with the development of processes 

 for determining the quality and degree of hardness of steel.' London, 

 1839 ; 92 pages, 2 plates. Part ii. ' Comprising investigations con- 

 cerning the laws or principles affecting the power of magnetic steel- 

 plates or bars in combination, as well as singly, under various conditions 

 as to mass, hardness, quality, form, etc., as also concerning the com- 

 parative powers of cast-iron.' London, 1843 ; 280 pages, 2 plates. 

 Vol. ii., part iii., ' Investigations, with illustrative experiments, on the 

 nature and phenomena of magnetic induction, and the mutual influences 

 of magnetical bodies.' London, 1852 ; 463 pages. 



To the section of Mathematics and Physics of the meeting of the 

 British Association at Glasgow in 1855, he communicated a summary 

 of his matured views, and of the evidence in their favour which had 

 occurred since their original promulgation, entitled ' Elucidations, by 

 Facts and Experiments, of the Magnetism of Iron ships and its 

 changes.' In this he recalled attention to his plan of a compass aloft, 

 as affording a simple and effective mode of ascertaining the direction 

 of a ship's course, stating that it had not only been extensively 

 adopted by some of our first firms interested in the building and 

 property of iron ships, but had received the particular sanction and 

 commendation of Mr. Airy, the astronomer-royal, and of Lieut. M. F. 

 Maury, the American hydrographer ; " that is, as being recommended 

 by both these gentlemen for adoption for determining safe compass 

 guidance, or the correction of adjusted compasses whenever they 

 might be found to be in error." In the further prosecution of his 

 researches on this subject, and with a view to determine various 

 questions in magnetic science, Dr. Scoresby undertook in his age a 

 voyage to Australia in the Royal Charter. He was received at Mel- 

 bourne with great distinction, almost with enthusiasm, and was 

 granted the honorary degree of M.A. by the new university of that 

 city. He returned last year (1856), but with his constitution much 

 enfeebled by the arduous labours to which he had subjected himself 

 during the voyage ; and after a lingering illness he died at Torquay, 

 on the 21st of March 1857, aged sixty-seven, and leaving a widow. 



Three principal scientific works of Dr. Scoresby have been described 

 above. The following enumeration will render the account of his 

 separate publications nearly complete. ' Memorial of an Affectionate 

 and Dutiful Son, Frederic R. H. S., who fell asleep in Jesus, Decem- 

 ber 31, 1834, aged 16 jears.' 'Discourses to Seamen: consisting of 

 Fifteen Sermons, preached in the Mariners' Church, Liverpool, treating 

 for the most part generally on subjects of Christian Practice and 

 Doctrine.' 'Jehovah glorified in his Works : a Sermon preached in 

 St. James' Episcopal Chapel, Edinburgh, August 4, 1850, on occasion 



of the Meeting of the British Association.' ' Memorials of the Sea : * 

 1, ' Sabbaths hi the Arctic Regions ; ' 2, ' The Mary Russel.' Of both 

 these two editions have appeared. 3, ' My Father : being Records of 

 the Adventurous Life of the late William Scoresby, Esq., of Whitby,' 

 12mo, Lond., 1851, pp. viii. and 232. 4, ' The Franklin Expedition ;' 

 stating his views on its probable course and fate, and on the measures 

 of search for it. 



'Zoistic Magnetism.' The contents of this work on a peculiar 

 subject are thus stated by the author himself : " Original Researches 

 hi Mesmeric Phenomena, with the view of eliciting the scientific 

 principles of this mysterious agency, and in which experiments are 

 described, eliciting strong electric or magno-electric conditions, with 

 the intercepting of the mesmeric influence by electrics, and the 

 neutralising of the effects of substances having an ungenial influence 

 on the subject, by the same process as was found to neutralise the 

 electricity of sealing-wax, &c., as acting on the electroscope." 



It is understood that a work is in the press which Dr. Scoresby had 

 prepared for publication prior to his decease, fully detailing the results 

 of his most recent investigations in nautical magnetism. As he con- 

 templated, while commemorating his father, a continuation of the 

 series of ' Memorials of the Sea,' in which the story of his own life 

 should be told, it is not improbable that this also may find a place hi 

 the coming work. 



SCOT, REGINALD. This learned and extraordinary man was born 

 early in the sixteenth century, in which he was the most distinguished 

 opposer of the then almost universal belief ' witchcraft.' He was the 

 son of an English gentleman of family, and educated at Oxford. 

 (Wood, ' Athen. Oxon.,' vol. i.) He took no degree there ; but return- 

 ing to Smeeth in Kent, devoted himself to study, and more particu- 

 larly to the perusal of old and obscure authors ; occupying his hours 

 of relaxation in gardening. The fruits of this learned leisure were, 

 ' A perfect platform of a Hopgarden,' and ' The Discoverie of Witch- 

 craft,' 1584. In both of these we see the mixture of sagacity and 

 absurdity, extensive learning and puerile paradoxes, and ostentatious 

 quoting of Greek and Latin authors, so common to writers of that 

 period, when the writing a book, being an event in a man's life, he 

 seized upon that opportunity to thrust in all he knew. The following 

 is the title of the latter work : ' Discoverie of Witchcraft, proving 

 the common opinion of witches contracting with devils, spirits, fami- 

 liars, and their power to kill, torture, and consume the bodies of men, 

 women, and children, or other creatures, by diseases or otherwise, 

 their flying in the air, &c., to be but imaginary, erroneous conceptions, 

 and novelties. Wherein also the practices of witchmongera, conjurors, 

 enchanters, soothsayers, also the delusions of astrology, alchemy, leger- 

 demaine, and many other things are opened that have long lain hidden, 

 though very necessary to be known for the undeceiving of judges, 

 justices, and juries, and for the preservation of poor people; ' and its 

 boldness and humanity would alone entitle it to consideration. A 

 striking passage in the preface is to this effect : this work is composed, 

 that, " first, the glory of God be not so abridged and abased as to be 

 thrust into the hand or lips of a lewd old woman, whereby the work 

 of the Creator should be attributed to the creature ; secondly, that the 

 religion of the Gospel may be seen to stand without such peevish 

 trumpery; thirdly, that favour and Christian compassion be used 

 towards these poor souls, rather than rigour and extremity." Such a 

 work, with such a purpose, and such a common-sense straightforward- 

 ness mingled with its humanity, could not fail to draw down on the 

 author's head every possible ridicule, obloquy, and confutation. And 

 when Scot laughed at the difficult tricks of legerdemaine, and ex- 

 plained how they were performed, we cannot wonder at his book being 

 burnt by the common hangman, and at ' refuters ' appearing on all 

 sides. He was attacked by Meric Casaubon, Glanvil (author of the 

 'Scepsis Scientifica '), and finally, by the sapient King James him- 

 self, who wrote his ' Demonologie,' as he informs us, " chiefly against 

 the damnable opinions of Wierus and Scot , the latter of whom is 

 not ashamed in public print to deny there can be such a thing as 

 witchcraft." 



Scot's boldness could not at once succeed, when opposed by a reign- 

 ing king and the statute law of the land. \Vhen human reason was so 

 blinded by superstition that it was a common practice to throw a 

 woman, suspected, into a pond, and if she escaped drowning she was 

 burnt as a witch ; it is not to be expected that common sense could 

 gain many converts ; and yet, from its having had three editions, and 

 being translated into French and German, it would appear to have 

 met with great success. It is now extremely rare : as an evidence of 

 the peculiar phases which the human mind historically exhibits, this 

 work, as well as the superstition which it combats, merits attention. 

 This "solid and learned person," as Hallam calls him, "for such he 

 was beyond almost all the English of that age," died in 1599, and was 

 buried with his ancestors in the church at Smeeth. 



SCOTT, DANIEL. [STEPHENS, H.] 



SCOTT, DAVID, was born in Edinburgh, October 10, 180G. The 

 son of a landscape-engraver, he was brought up to his father's profession ; 

 but from childhood he had sketched and drawn incessantly, and at 

 length his father yielded to his desire to become a painter. From the 

 first his ambition was to paint in the ' grand style.' His early pictures 

 were of themes such as the ' Hopes of Early Genius dispelled by Death,' 

 ' Fingal and the Spirit of Lodi,' and ' Lot and his Daughters flying 



