AD AM9ON ADDISON, 



some places very steep. l'|.on tin- top, (lie priests 

 show a footstep which Buddha is said to have made. 

 The place is surrounded by vein-ruble old trees, 

 tuirticuliirly rhododendra. 



ADA MM >x, Patrick, a Scottish divine niul Latin 

 poet, was lioni in Perth, 1543. After ha\ ing studied 

 :u St Andrews, he visited Paris, Podun, and other 

 places distinguished for their universities and at (Je- 

 ne\a imbilw-d tlie C'alvinistic doctrines from the ce- 

 lebrated Beza. On his return, he escaped from the 

 massacre of St Bartholomew by flight, and lay con- 

 cealed a long time at Bourses, where he composed 

 his paraphrase of J.ob, and some other works. On 

 liis return to Scotland, he was appointed minister of 

 1'ai-ley, and afterwards, by the favour and interest 

 of the regent Morton, was raised to the archbishop- 

 ric of St Andrews. In this elevated situation, he was 

 surrounded with dangers and difficulties, and the vi- 

 rulence of the presbyterians was successfully directed 

 against him, as the firmest pillar of episcopacy. 

 James VI., however, patronized him, and sent him 

 as his aniltassador to England, where his eloquence 

 and address gained him admirers, and raised such a 

 tide of popularity in favour of the young king, his 

 master, that the jealousy of Elizabeth forbade him 

 again to ascend the pulpit while at her court. His 



iirincipal objects in England were to gain friends for 

 lis master among the nobles, and to support the 

 cause of episcopacy in Scotland. In 1584, he was 

 recalled, and so violent was the irritation of the 

 presbyterians against him, that, at a provincial synod, 

 he was accused and excommunicated ; and neither 

 appeals to the king and to the states, nor protesta- 

 lions of innocence, would have saved him from the 

 disgraceful sentence, if he had not yielded to the 

 storm, and implored pardon in the most abject terms. 

 I IK life continued a scene of persecution ; even the 

 monarch grew deaf to his petitions, and alienated the 

 revenues of his see in favour of the duke of Lennox, 

 so that A., in addition to the indignities offered to 

 his office, had to endure the pangs of indigence, in 

 the midst of a forlorn and starving family. He died 

 in 1591. A 4to volume of his works has been pub- 

 lished, containing translations of some of the books 

 of the Bible in Latin verse, frequently composed to 

 alleviate his griefs and disarm the terrors of persecu- 

 tion. He also wrote a history of his own times, and 

 various other works, which were never published. 



ADAHSON, Michael, an eminent French naturalist, 

 was born at Aix, in Provence, of Scottish extraction, 

 in 1727. His parents intended him for the church, 

 and had even procured him a prebend, but his thirst 

 for natural science induced him to resign it. He 

 made natural history his favourite study, and chose 

 Reaumur and Bernard de Jussieu for his guides. His 

 emulation was roused by the brilliant success of the 

 system of Linnaeus. In the prosecution of his fa- 

 vourite pursuits, he made several journeys to regions 

 never yet visited by man. In 1748, at the age of 21, 

 he went to the river Senegal, in the belief that the 

 nnhealthiness of the climate would, for a long time, 

 prevent naturalists from visiting that country. He 

 collected, with all the zeal of an enthusiast, invalu- 

 able treasures in the three kingdoms of nature ; and, 

 perceiving the defects in the established classification 

 of plants, endeavoured to substitute another more 

 comprehensive. He also prepared exact maps of 

 the countries through which he travelled, and com- 

 piled dictionaries of the languages of the different 

 tribes, with whose manners and customs he had be- 

 come acquainted. After a residence of five years in 

 an unhealthy climate, he returned to his country, in 

 the possession of very valuable collections, and pub- 

 lished, in 1757, Histoire Naturelledu Senegal. Some 

 masterly essays of his were printed in the memoirs 



of the French academy, and procured him the honour 

 of iM'ing elutsen a member of the institute. These, 

 were onl\ preludes to liis learned and com- 

 prehensive botanical work, I'unnllca i//x J'/niitcs, 2 

 vols., 1763. This work, however, did not effect the 

 object for which it was written, tin- establishment 

 of a new system of botany, in opposition to that of 

 Linnaeus. He was preparing a new edition, with 

 numerous alterations and imporiant additions, when 

 he formed the plan of publishing a complete encyclo- 

 paedia. In hopes of receiving support from Louis 

 XV., he began to collect materials which, in a short 

 time, increased to an immense mass; and, in 1775, 

 he laid before the academy a prospectus of a work, 

 on so large a scale as to excite general astonishment. 

 It was carefully examined, but the result did not 

 answer the expectations of the author. A.'s plan 

 was good, but he was wrong in insisting upon the 

 immediate publication of the whole. This obstinacy 

 prevented the appearance of the work at all. He 

 continued, however, to increase his materials with 

 unwearied diligence. Some valual>!< minted 



in the memoirs of the academy, are all of his writings 

 that subsequently came before the public. The idea 

 of executing his great work continually occupied his 

 mind, and he employed all his means for this pur- 

 pose. But the revolution reduced him to extreme 

 poverty, and when the national institute chose him 

 one of its members, he declined the invitation 

 because he had no shoes. A pension was then con - 

 ferred upon him, which he enjoyed till his death, in 

 1806, continually employed in preparing his great 

 work. The number of his printed books is small, 

 in comparison with the mass of manuscripts which he 

 has left. 



ADDISON, Joseph, a distinguished English essayist, 

 was born at Milston, Wiltshire, where his father was 

 rector, in 1672. He received the first part of his edu- 

 cation in his native place : at the age of eleven, his 

 father having been appointed dean of Litchfield, he 

 became a pupil of Mr Shaw. But we Irnve no ac- 

 count of his early character, except that he distin- 

 guished himself in a barring out. At the age of fifteen, 

 he was entered at Queen's college, Oxford, where 

 his Latin poem on the inauguration of William and 

 Mary obtained his election into Magdalen college, 

 on the founder's benefaction. His other Latin poems 

 may be found with this in the Mutat dngelieanee, col- 

 lected by himself. In 1693, having taken the degree 

 of master of arts, he published nis first attempt in 

 English, some verses inscribed to Uryden, with a 

 translation of part of the fourth Georgic of Virgil, 

 and other pieces in prose and verse. In 1695, he 

 wrote a poem " To King William," and obtained the 

 patronage of lord Somers, keeper of the great seal, 

 by addressing it to him. Having declined entering 

 into holy orders, he obtained a pension of 300 by 

 the influence of Somers, and Montague, chancellor 

 of the exchequer, to enable him to travel ; and in 

 1701, he wrote the Poetical epistle from Italy, to 

 Montague, now lord Halifax, of which Dr Johnson 

 says, " It is the most elegant, if not the most sublime, 

 of his poetical compositions."' During his travels, lie 

 began his tragedy of Cato, and composed the Dia- 

 logues on Medals, and, after his return, which was 

 hastened by the loss of his pension, he published 

 his Travels. In Johnson's opinion, this work might 

 have been written at home. In 1704," at the re- 

 quest of lord Godolphin, he celebrated the victory 

 of Hochstadt, or Blenheim, in a poem called the 

 Campaign. Before it was finished, it procured for 

 him the office of commissioner of appeals, in which 

 he was the successor of Locke. About this time, 

 he wrote also the opera of Rosamond, which was 

 hissed from the stage, but was published with sue- 



