(330.) 
His emi- 
nent ser- 
vices as an 
expositor 
of science. 
(331.) 
His early 
life and 
friendship 
with Watt. 
Cuapr. IV., § 2.] 
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 formed 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. 
Joun Rosison was born in 17389, 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,’ 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- 
MECHANiCS.—ROBISON. 
871 
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,”? 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 
he went to sea as tutor to a son of Admiral Knowles. 
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 under Dr Black that he 
taught the Chemical Class in the university for seve- 
ral sessions. 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 Ine Baas 
received to fill the chair of Natural Philosophy in versity 74 
the University of Edinburgh, where he spent the Edin- 
remainder of his life, which terminated in January «gh. 
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® 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, “ ec 
opportunities of acquiring information, of seeing vari- Zncycio- 
ous countries, and of noticing their physical peculiari- pedia Bri- 
ties; of being introduced to their society and literature; ‘”"""°* 
(332.) 
His adven- 
tures ; 
1 And since, in extenso, in Muirhead’s Mechanical Inventions of James Watt, vol. i., p. xli. 
2 Tbid., vol. ii., p. 293. 
% 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. I 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 
bad habit of contracting words remained with him through life. 
4 The private marks on his MSS. are often in the Russian character. 
6 A much fuller one will be found in Playfair’s Works, vol. iv. 
