MURRAY MUSIC. 



677 



different periods of his school attendance, added to- 

 gether, make about thirteen months, scattered over 

 the space of nearly eight years. About this time, 

 he made himself acquainted with the Abyssinian 

 alphabet, from an inaccurate copy of it which he 

 found in an odd volume of the Universal History. 

 The Arabic letters he had learned before, from 

 Robertson's Hebrew Grammar. 



In 1794, he was induced to visit Edinburgh, and, 

 chiefly through the instrumentality of Mr James 

 Kinnear, printer in the king's printing-office, he 

 was introduced to the late principal Baird. He 

 was examined by the principal and several profes- 

 sors of the university, and so surprised them by 

 the extent and accuracy of his acquaintance with 

 French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, that measures 

 were immediately taken for having the classes 

 thrown open to him, and his maintenance secured 

 while attending them. For the next ten or 

 twelve years of his life he resided principally in 

 Edinburgh. During that time, beside passing 

 through the course of education necessary to 

 qualify him for the ministry of the Scottish 

 church, he continued to devote himself with all 

 his old enthusiasm to the study of languages, in 

 which he was so admirably qualified to excel. No 

 man that ever lived, probably, not excepting Sir 

 William Jones himself, prosecuted this branch of 

 learning to such an extent as Murray. By the end 

 of his short life, scarcely one of either the oriental 

 or the northern tongues remained uninvestigated 

 by him, in so far as it was possible to acquire the 

 knowledge of it from sources then accessible in 

 this country. Of the six or seven dialects of the 

 Abyssinian or Ethiopic language in particular, he 

 had made himself certainly much more completely 

 muster than any European had ever been before ; 

 and this led to his being selected by the booksellers 

 in 1802 to prepare a new edition of Bruce's Travels, 

 which appeared in seven volumes octavo three 

 years after, and at once placed him in the first rank 

 of the oriental scholars of the age. In 1806 he 

 left Edinburgh, in order to officiate as clergyman 

 in the parish of Urr in Dumfriesshire. And here 

 he remained pursuing his favourite studies for six 

 years. In 1812 the professorship of oriental lan- 

 guages in the university of Edinburgh became 

 vacant; and Mr Murray's friends immediately 

 seized the opportunity of endeavouring to obtain 

 for him the situation of all others which he seemed 

 especially formed and endowed to fill. A multi- 

 tude of testimonials of his qualifications for the 

 vacant chair, were published, as honourable as ever 

 were given to any candidate, whether we look to 

 the decided terms in which they were expressed, 

 or to the authority of the writers. One was from 

 the late Mr Salt, one of the most distinguished of 

 modern orientalists. " My acquaintance with Mr 

 Murray," says he, " originated in my admiration of 

 the deep erudition and extensive research dis- 

 played in his edition of Mr Bruce's travels in 

 Abyssinia. Having twice visited that country, I 

 was led to pay particular attention to its history 

 and literature, and in these pursuits I received so 

 much assistance from Mr Murray's labours that I 

 took an early opportunity, on my return to Eng- 

 land in February, 1811, from the mission to Abys- 

 sinia in which I had been engaged, to recommend 

 him to the marquis Wellesley as the only person in 

 the British dominions, in my opinion, adequate to 

 translate an Ethiopic letter which I bad brought 

 from Ras Willida Selase, addressed to the king. 



My recommendation was attended to, and Mr Mur- 

 ray finished the translation in the most satisfactory 

 way.''* He was elected on the 8th of July by a 

 majority of two votes; and a few days after, the 

 senate of the university unanimously passed a vote 

 of thanks to Dr Baird for bringing his pretensions 

 before the patrons, conferring, at the same time, 

 the degree of doctor of divinity upon their new 

 associate. But all these honours came only to 

 make the setting of the luminary more bright. 

 On the 31st of October, Dr Murray entered upon 

 the discharge of his public duties, in a weak state 

 of health, but with an ardour in which a., weak- 

 ness was forgotten. Although declining in strength 

 every day, he continued to teach his classes during 

 the winter, persevering in the preparation and de- 

 livery of a course of most learned lectures on oriental 

 literature, which were attended by crowded and ad- 

 miring audiences ; and even carrying an elementary 

 work through the press for the use of his students. 

 A new impression of his edition of Bruce's Travels 

 also appeared in the beginning of February. En- 

 gaged in these labours, he could not be persuaded 

 that he was so ill as he really was ; and when Mrs 

 Murray, who had been left behind him at Urr, 

 urged him to permit her to come to town, it was 

 with difficulty that he was at last brought to con- 

 sent to her joining him on the 16th of April. 

 Fortunately, her affection and her fears impelled 

 her to set out on her journey a few days earlier 

 than the appointed time, and she arrived in Edin- 

 burgh on the 13th. She found her husband sur- 

 rounded by his books and papers, and even engaged 

 in dictating to an amanuensis. But life was now 

 ebbing rapidly. He retired that evening to the 

 bed from which he never rose ; and before the close 

 of another day he was among the dead. He died 

 on the 15th April, 1813, in his thirty-eighth year, 

 If he had lived longer, he would probably have 

 reared for himself many trophies, and extended the 

 bounds of human learning. His ambition had al- 

 ways been to perform in the field to which he more 

 especially dedicated his powers, something worthy 

 of remembrance; and his latter years had been 

 given to the composition of a work (his History 

 of European Languages) which, if time had 

 been allowed to finish it, would unquestionably 

 have formed a splendid monument of his in- 

 genuity and learning. It was published after his 

 death, in so far as it could be recovered from his 

 manuscripts, (1823, 2 vols. 8vo) under the auspices 

 of Sir Henry Moncrieff and Dr Scot of Corstor- 

 phine; and although, probably, very far from what 

 it would have been had he lived to arrange and 

 complete it, is still a wonderful display of erudi- 

 tion, and an important contribution to philological 

 literature. 



MUSIC, (a.) The earliest music on record is 

 the song of Moses and the Israelites after the pas- 

 sage of the Red sea, when Miriam took a timbrel 

 in her hand, and answered them. " And all the 

 women went out after her with 'timbrels and 

 dances." Here it may be observed, that the in- 

 strument, whatever it was, that is called timbrel, 

 was used merely as an accompaniment to the voice, 

 or, it may be, to the dance. And this is true of 

 nearly all the instrumental music of those times 

 called ancient. It was, for the most part, little 

 more than an accompaniment to the voice, generally 



* After Dr Murray's death, a pension of 80 a year was 

 bestowed upon his widow by the king', in remembrance of nig 

 services on this occasion. 



