CHAP. IV., 2.] 



MECHANICS. ROBISON. 



73 



(330.) 

 lis emi- 

 lent ser- 

 ices as an 

 xpositor 

 >f science. 



(331.) 

 lis early 

 fe and 

 ri'endship 

 ith Watt. 



pose or scientific contemplation. He was thirty-five 

 years old when he began to lecture in Edinburgh ; 

 and though an excellent working age, it is rare indeed 

 to find that the talent of discovering new truths has 

 been fonned and developed so late in life. A major 

 part of the great steps in science have been taken at 

 even a much earlier period. 



That Robison possessed all the elements of an 

 original thinker we shall presently endeavour to 

 show ; but had his excellences consisted alone in 

 those we have specified, he would have been a per- 

 son eminently useful in forwarding the march of 

 science. In fact, a few more such authors in every 

 generation would be cheaply purchased by the post- 

 ponement of some second-rate discoveries. Men and 

 we include men of science are in too great a hurry 

 to push on (actuated often by a morbid love of praise) 

 to acquire something they may call their own, whilst 

 they are little acquainted with the important contri- 

 butions of their rivals in the race of fame, and of the 

 predecessors to whom they really owe so much of 

 what they may choose to consider their peculiar 

 property. To methodize knowledge from time to time 

 to present discoveries in a form different from that 

 in which they were first published, and thus con- 

 nect them with what is already known and what re- 

 mains to be clearly proved these are real services 

 to science which contribute in a very essential 

 manner to its progress. Robison was a teacher, not 

 only to the youth of his native country, but to the 

 men of science and of practice of all countries, and 

 of many succeeding years. 



JOHN ROBISON was born in 1739, entered the Uni- 

 versity of Glasgow at the early age of eleven, and gra- 

 duated at seventeen. His early tastes were directed 

 towards Natural Philosophy. He studied Mathema- 

 tics (as in after life) chiefly with reference to its appli- 

 cations. Whilst at Glasgow he formed the intimate 

 acquaintance of James Watt, then a practical instru- 

 ment maker. In a passage of a private paper, pub- 

 lished first in Arago's Eloge of Watt, 1 Robison, with 

 his characteristic generosity, describes his mortifica- 

 tion when "yet a young student" at finding him 

 much his superior in mathematical and mechanical 

 knowledge ; but M. Arago has omitted to state that 

 Watt was, at least, three years the senior, which at 

 such an age, and on such subjects, might make all 

 the difference between a beginner and a proficient. 

 But the truth is, that with a rarely generous rivalry 

 in excellence, each esteemed the other most ; for we 

 find Watt bearing a similar testimony to the supe- 



tures ; 



riority of his friend and junior : " I was happy to 

 find in him [Robison] a person who was so much 

 better informed on mathematical and philosophical 

 subjects than I was." 2 It was by Robison that 

 Watt had his attention first directed to the steam- 

 engine ; their correspondence appears to have been 

 frequent during their joint lives ; and near the close 

 of his life Watt acknowledged " his obligations to 

 him for very much information and occasional assist- 

 ance in his pursuits ;" and in the Edinburgh professor 

 he found not only the zealous defender before a court 

 of law of his rights as an inventor, but also the first 

 who expounded methodically the principles and de- 

 tails of the steam-engine in a manner which, at least 

 until lately, had not been superseded. 



In 1758 he left Glasgow, and the following year (332.) 

 he went to sea as tutor to a son of Admiral Knowles. i ., 1 _ 8 Jf . ve 

 His life in a man-of-war, during which he saw some 

 active service in Canada, was favourable to the de- 

 velopment of his practical turn of mind, and doubt- 

 less gave him an interest in seamanship, naval archi- 

 tecture, and other subjects, which he afterwards 

 turned to good account ; and a subsequent expedi- 

 tion to Jamaica, for the trial of Harrison's Time- 

 keeper, exercised him in some of the practical parts 

 of astronomy. He returned, however, to Glasgow 

 in 1761, and attached himself with such success 

 to the study of Chemistry Tinder Dr Black that he 

 taught the Chemical Class in the university for seve- 

 ral sessions. 3 But his active life was not at an end. 

 In 1770 he accompanied his first patron, Admiral 

 Knowles, to Russia, and for some years was em- 

 ployed, first as his secretary, superintending im- 

 provements in the marine establishment, and after- 

 wards as professor of Mathematics in the naval 

 school of Cronstadt. He spoke and wrote the 

 Russian language with facility,* and performed his 

 duties to the satisfaction of all. But in 1774 he and his ap- 

 could not resist the honourable invitation which he P 01 " 1 ^ 

 received to fill the chair of Natural Philosophy in ve rsity of 

 the University of Edinburgh, where he spent the Edin- 

 remainder of his life, which terminated in January bur g n - 

 1805, amidst incessant literary occupation, even 

 when repeated attacks of a painful disorder had pre- 

 vented him from personally continuing his lectures. 



This brief sketch 5 of a career rather unusual for (333.) 

 a man of science throws light upon Robison's pecu- Character 

 liar merits. He had extensive, and then uncommon, t icle g S in r t ~h e 

 opportunities of acquiring information, of seeing vari- Encydo' 

 ous countries, and of noticing their physical peculiari- pcedia Br%- 

 ties; of being introduced to their societyand literature; tanntca - 



1 And since, in extenso, in Muirhead's Mechanical Inventions of James Watt, vol. i., p. xli. 



2 Ibid., vol. ii., p. 293. 



3 The MS. of these lectures, written with curious care, but with the use of continual abbreviations of the larger words for 

 the sake of compression, is now in my possession, having been given to me by his son, the late Sir John Robison. 1 have also 

 many others of his MSS., which for the most part seem to have been printed in some form or other. Dr Robison was an indefa- 

 tigable penman, and wrote and re-wrote his lectures with great labour. He also made elaborate analyses of his reading, but the 

 tad habit of contracting words remained with him through life. 



* The private marks on his MSS. are often in the Kussian character. 

 6 A much fuller one will be found in Playfair's Works, vol. iv. 



