MACKLIN MACROBIUS. 



607 



inal law, the liberty of the press, religious toleration, 

 the slave trade, the settlement of Greece, reform in 

 parliament, and on the right of our colonies to self- 

 government. In politics lie was a whig, and all his 

 votes and speeches in parliament were in favour of 

 the opinions and sentiments of that party ; but he 

 was, perhaps, one of the most moderate and tolerant 

 politicians that ever existed, as the natural mildness 

 and benevolence of his disposition never failed to 

 mingle largely in whatever character he assumed, 

 whether author, statesman, or judge. 



In private life, he displayed all the domestic vir- 

 tues, and all the better qualities of human nature, 

 lie was mild, benevolent, generous, humane, and 

 unaffected. His conversational powers were of the 

 first order, and never failed to delight all who had 

 the good fortune to enjoy his society. His person 

 was well formed, and above the middle stature. His 

 countenance was intelligent, and exhibited a pleasing 

 compound of grave and gay expression, indicative of 

 a readiness to sympathize with either of these feel- 

 ings, as chance might direct their appeals to him. 

 Sir James died in May, 1832, and was buried at 

 Hampstead. As an author, his most finished pro- 

 duction is his Dissertation on the progress of philo- 

 sophy in the Encyclopedia Britannica. He also 

 published a life of Sir Thomas More in Lardner's 

 Cyclopedia, and two volumes of an abridged history 

 of England. These two little volumes contain some 

 striking passages and disquisitions; but in the opin- 

 ion of Mr Campbell, they were merely the expansion 

 of the prefatory matter which he intended for a great 

 historical work on the affairs of England since the 

 Revolution, and which he had contemplated for sev- 

 eral years, and in part written, but was too much 

 impeded in his progress, both by his parliamentary 

 duties and the infirm state of his health, to bring to 

 a conclusion. His labours were, nevertheless, given 

 to the world in 1834, as a History of the British 

 Revolution. It was the opinion of Sir James that 

 history ought to be written with feeling, but without 

 passion ; and to this excellent dogma he has himself 

 rigidly adhered. He also contributed various ex- 

 cellent articles to the Edinburgh Review. 



Sir James was twice married ; first in 1789, to 

 Miss Catharine Stewart of Gerrard Street, Soho, 

 sister to the Messieurs Stewart, formerly proprietors 

 of the Morning Post, by whom he had issue, a son, 

 who died in infancy, and three daughters viz., Mary 

 married to Claudius James Rich, Esq., of Bombay 

 Maitland, married to W. Erskine, Esq. and Cathar- 

 ine, married to Sir W. Wiseman, Bart. Mrs Mack- 

 intosh died in 1797. He was afterwards married to 

 Catharine, daughter of J. B. Allen, Esq. of Cressella, 

 in Pembrokeshire. By this lady, who died atChesne, 

 near Genoa, on the 6th May, 1830, he had one son 

 and a daughter ; viz., Robert Mackintosh, Esq., 

 B. A., fellow of New College, Oxford ; and Frances, 

 married to H. Wedgewood, Esq. Staffordshire. 



MACKLIN, CHARLES, an actor and dramatist of 

 some celebrity, was born in Ireland, 1690, and 

 was employed in Dublin, as a bargeman, until his 

 twenty-first year, when he went to England, and 

 joined a company of strolling comedians. In 1716, 

 he appeared as an actor in the theatre at Lincoln's- 

 Inn-fields. It was not, however, until 1741, that he 

 established his fame as an actor, by his admirable 

 performance of Shylock, that being, indeed, the only 

 character in which he stood pre-eminent. He con- 

 tinued on the stage until 1789, which long interval 

 was marked by the usual vicissitudes of theatrical 

 life, rendered still greater by the temper of the 

 individual. During the last years of his life, his 

 understanding became impaired, and in this state he 

 died, July 1 1, 1797, at the age of 107. His Man of 



the World, a comedy, discovers a keen knowledge of 

 life and manners, and exposes meanness, sycophancy, 

 and political servility, with considerable skill. His 

 Love A-la-mode also possesses kindred merit. Mack- 

 lin was an entertaining companion, although dicta- 

 torial, and very irascible. 



MACKNIGHT, JAMES, a learned Scottish divine, 

 born in 1721, was educated at Glasgow and Leyden, 

 and, on his return, was ordained minister of Maybole, 

 where he remained sixteen years, and composed his 

 Harmony of the Gospels, and his New Translation of 

 the Epistles. In 1763, he published his Truth of the 

 Gospel History. In 1772, he became one of the 

 ministers of Edinburgh. Dr Macknight employed 

 nearly thirty years in the execution of his last and 

 greatest work, on the apostolical epistles a New 

 literal Translation from the Greek of all the Apos- 

 tolical Epistles, with Commentaries and Notes, philo- 

 logical, critical, explanatory and practical (1795, 4 

 vols., 4to). He died in 1800. 



MACLAURIN, COLIN ; a celebrated mathema- 

 tician and philosopher, born at Kilmoddan, in Scot- 

 land, in 1698. He studied at Glasgow, where he 

 took the degree of M. A. at the age of fifteen, and 

 defended a thesis on the Power of Gravitation. In 

 1717, he obtained the mathematical chair in the 

 Marischal college at Aberdeen, and, two years after, 

 was chosen a fellow of the .royal society. In 1725, 

 he was elected professor of mathematics at Edin- 

 burgh, where his lectures contributed much to raise 

 the character of that university as a school of science. 

 A controversy with bishop Berkeley led to the pub- 

 lication of Maclaurin's great work, his Treatise on 

 Fluxions (Edinburgh, 1742, 2 vols., 4to). He dted 

 June 14, 1746. He was the author of a Treatise on 

 Algebra ; an Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philo- 

 sophical Discoveries ; papers in the Transactions of 

 the Royal Society ; and other works. 



MACPHERSON, JAMES ; distinguished in liter- 

 ary history for his translations or imitations of Gaelic 

 poems, said to have been composed in the third cen- 

 tury. He was born, in Inverness-shire, in 1738, and 

 studied at Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Having pub- 

 lished Fragments of Ancient Poetry, translated from 

 the Gaelic or Erse Language, a subscription was 

 raised to enable him to collect additional specimens 

 of national poetry. He produced, as the fruit of his 

 researches, Fingal, an ancient Epic Poem, translated 

 from the Gaelic (1762, 4to) ; Temora, and other 

 Poems (1763, 4to) ; professedly translated from 

 originals by Ossian, the son of Fingal, a Gaelic 

 prince of the third century, and his contemporaries. 

 (For an account of the controversy on this subject, 

 see Ossian.) From the evidence of the contending 

 parties, it may be concluded, that Macpherson's 

 prose epics were founded on traditional narratives 

 current among the Highlanders ; but the date of the 

 oldest of their lays is comparatively modern ; and it 

 is now difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the 

 precise extent of his obligations to the Gaelic bards 

 of former ages. Mr Macpherson was afterwards 

 agent to the nabob of Arcot, in consequence of which 

 he had a seat in the house of commons from 1780 to 

 1790. He died in 1796, and was interred in West- 

 minster abbey. He was also the author of a prose 

 translation of Homer's Iliad, and of some other 

 works. 



MACRABIOTICS (from pax^s, long, and &<*, 

 life); the science of prolonging life. Hufeland 

 called his well known work Makrabiotik, or the Art 

 of prolonging human Life. See Longevity. 



MACROBIUS, AURELIUS AMBROSIUS THEODO- 

 sins ; a Latin author, in the reign of the emperor 

 Theodosius, to whom he officiated as an officer of 

 the wardrobe, and enjoyed a considerable share of 



