ARMS ARMY. 



271 



of the Arms of the Middle -<4ges, by Sam. Rush Mey- 

 rick, 3 vols. large 4to., London, 1824 ; a work in- 

 teresting to the student of the politics, arts, manners, 

 and wars of the ancients and the middle ages. There 

 are, in Europe, many collections of arms used in both 

 these periods (e. g., one of the arms of the ancients, 

 at Naples), which, with the collections of the arms of 

 the Indians, strikingly manifest the progress of civili- 

 zation. 



ARSIS, COAT OF. See Heraldry. 



ARMSTRONG, John, a poet and physician was born 

 at Castleton, in Liddesdale, Roxburghshire, where his 

 father was a minister, about 1709. He was educated 

 for the medical profession at the university of Edin- 

 burgh, under the elder Munro. In 1732, he took 

 Kis degrees as M. D. with much reputation, the sub- 

 ject of his treatise being Tabes Purulenta. He had 

 ere this period addicted himself to the composition of 

 verses. We are informed, that, to relieve the tedium 

 of a winter spent in " a wild romantic country," 

 probably Liddesdale, the place of his birth he wrote 

 what he intended for an imitation of Shakspeare, but 

 which turned out to resemble rather the poem of 

 " Winter," then just published by Thomson. The 

 bard of the Seasons, hearing of this composition 

 which so strangely and so accidentally resembled his 

 own, procured a sight of it by means of a mutual 

 friend, and, being much pleased with it, brought it 

 under the notice of Mr David Mallet, Mr Aaron 

 Hill, and Dr Young, all of whom joined with him in 

 thinking it a work of genius. Mallet even requested 

 the consent of the author to its publication, and 

 undertook that duty, though he afterwards gave up 

 the design. Armstrong was probably led by this 

 flattering circumstance to try his fortune in London , 

 where his countrymen Thomson and Mallet had 

 already gained literary distinction. In 1735, he is 

 found publishing, in that capital, a humorous attack 

 upon empirics, in the manner of Lucian, entitled, 

 " An Essay for abridging the study of physic, to 

 which is added, A Dialogue betwixt Hygeia, Mer- 

 cury, and Pluto, relating to the Practice or Physic, as 

 it is managed by a certain illustrious Society ; and an 

 Epistle from Usbeck the Persian to Joshua Ward, 

 Ksq." The essay, besides its sarcastic remarks on 

 quacks and quackery, contains many allusions to the 

 neglect of medical education among the practising 

 apothecaries ; but the author had exhausted his wit 

 in it, and the dialogue and epistle are consequently 

 flat and insipid. In 1737, he published a serious 

 professional piece, styled, " A Synopsis of the History 

 and Cure of the Venereal Disease," 8vo. He pro- 

 bably designed the work as an introduction to practice 

 in this branch of the medical profession ; but it was 

 unfortunately followed by his poem, entitled, " The 

 Economy of Love," which, though said to have 

 been designed as merely a burlesque upon certain 

 didactic writers, was justly condemned for its warm 

 and alluring pictures, and its tendency to inflame the 

 passions of youth. It appears by one of the " Cases 

 of Literary Property/' that Andrew Millar, the book- 

 seller, paid fifty pounds for the copy-right of this 

 poem ; a sum ill-gained, for the work greatly 

 diminished the reputation of the author. After it 

 had passed through many editions, he published one 

 in 1768, in which the youthful luxuriances that had 

 given offence to better minds, were carefully pruned. 

 In 1744, Dr Armstrong made some amends for this 

 indiscretion, by publishing his " The Art of Preserving 

 Health," a didactic poem in blank verse, extending 

 through four books, each of which contains a particu- 

 lar branch of the subject. This very meritorious work 

 raised his reputation to a height which his subsequent 

 efforts scarcely sustained. " There is a classical cor- 

 rectness and closeness of style in this poem," says Dr 



Warton, " that are truly admiraUe, and the subject 

 is raised and adorned by numberless poetical images." 

 Dr Mackenzie, in his History of Health, bestowed 

 similar praises on this poem, which was, indeed, every 

 where read and admired. In 1746, he was appointed 

 physician to an hospital for soldiers, and, hi the 

 course of a few years, published his Poem on 

 Benevolence, Epistle on Taste, and his prose Sketches 

 by Lancelot Temple, Esq. In 1760, he was appoint' 

 ed physician to the forces which went to Germany. 

 This appointment was obtained for him by Wilkes, 

 with whom he was then on friendly terms ; but their 

 friendship did not stand the tug of political warfare. 

 After his return to London, he published a collec- 

 tion of his Miscellanies, containing the Universal 

 Almanac, a new prose piece, and the Forced 

 Marriage, a tragedy, which had been refused by 

 Garrick. This collection contains nothing valuable. 

 He afterwards visited France and Italy, and publish- 

 ed an account of his. tour under the name of Lancelot 

 Temple. His last production was a volume of Medi- 

 cal Essays. He died in 1779, of an accidental hurt. 

 The conversation of A. is said to have been rich 

 and entertaining, though he is painted in the Castle 

 of Indolence (to which he contributed the stanzas de- 

 scribing the diseases produced by sloth), as 



One shyer still, who quite detested talk. 



The Art of Preserving Health, is a successful attempt 

 to incorporate science with poetry. By giving it a 

 moral as well as a medical interest, A. raised the 

 dignity of the poem. It is distinguished by judicious 

 thoughts, correct expression and lucid management, 

 rather than by originality of genius, harmony of 

 versification, or poetic ardour of thought. 



ARMY. In the history of armies we must dis- 

 tinguish those of three different periods; 1, the 

 ancient armies, which arrived at their perfection un- 

 der the Romans ; 2, those of the middle ages, the 

 offspring of the feudal system, ill-organized bodies, 

 created only for a short time, and undoubtedly the 

 worst which history makes known to us ; 3, such as 

 have existed since the invention of gunpowder and 

 the establishment of standing armies. (See the 

 succeeding article.) By the invention of gunpowder, 

 the whole character of armies has been changed, 

 from the organization and equipment of the whole 

 mass to the very point d'/tonneur of the individual. 

 As long as personal courage, strength, and dexterity 

 decided the fate of a battle, war had great charms for 

 noble-minded characters. At this period, too, 

 science had not become incorporated with the very 

 life-blood of society; and the want of intellectual 

 occupation contributed its share in making war the 

 favourite occupation of the higher classes. They 

 fought on horseback, every one at his own expense. 

 None but the poorer class, the vassals, fought on 

 foot. Under such circumstances, the art of war 

 could never attain a high degree of perfection, nor 

 could the organization of an army be very complete. 

 It was not till the wars between Charles V. and 

 Francis I. of France, that the great importance ot 

 regular infantry was seen, and the Swiss, then the 

 best foot-soldiers in Europe, often determined the 

 fate of the battle. By the introduction of fire-arms, 

 particularly of artillery, courage and bodily strength 

 lost their exclusive importance, and the advantages 

 of regular tactics began to be felt, by which generals 

 were enabled to direct the movements of armies with 

 greater exactness. Now that war was reduced to a sys- 

 tem, it lost much of its charms in the eyes of an idle 

 and ambitious nobility. The estimation of infantry 

 continually increased ; volunteers became more rare. 

 It became necessary to take mercenaries from the 

 lowest classes of the people, and, at the same time, 



