ROB 



Robifon had been defigned, by his father, for the clerical 

 profeflion, but it appears he became difiatisfied with it or. 

 account of fome of the tenets in the eltablifhed creed. Ac- 

 cordingly, in 1757, he was candidate for the office of 

 affiitant to Dr. Dick, in the profefforfhip of natural phi- 

 lofophy, but, being then only 19 years of age, he was 

 deemed too young for the duties attached to that fituation, 

 and in the following year he went to fea as mathematical 

 tutor to Mr. Knowles, the eldeft fon of admiral Knowles. 

 He embarked, with his pup'1, on board the Neptune, of 

 90 guns, bound to Quebec ; and, in the courfe of the voyage, 

 Mr. Knowles being appointed lieutenant on board the 

 Royal William, Mr. Robifon accompanied him into that 

 fhip, and, at his own requeft, was rated as midlhipm?n. In 

 this fhip he fper.t three years, which lie thought the hap- 

 pielt part of his life, and during this period he acquired that 

 knowledge of the art of feamanfhip which qualified him to 

 draw up the article on that fubject in the Encyclopxdia Bri- 

 tannica, which was underftood to be his. While on board 

 this vell'el, in the river St. Lawrence, he noticed a con- 

 nection between the aurora borealis and the direction of the 

 magnetic needle, which he pointed out to the gentlemen on 

 the quarter-deck. During the liege of Quebec, Mr. Ro- 

 bifon was fent, with a party of feamen and petty officers, 

 to reinforce the crew of the Sterling-Caftle, which was 

 lying before the city, and was thus enabled to fee much fer- 

 vice both on board and on fhore. He was hkewile not un- 

 frequently employed in taking furveys of different parts of 

 the river. Upon the furrender of Quebec he returned to 

 the Royal William, and fpent the whole of the following 

 year in the Bay of Bifcay, and on the coafts of Spain and 

 Portugal. In the year 1762, upon the expectation of 

 future preferment from lord Anfon, then firlt commiffioner 

 of the admiralty, he went to Jamaica, for the purpofe of 

 trying Harrifon's time- keeper, and on his return to England 

 he received the painful intelligence that his beloved pupil had, 

 with the whole crew of the Peregrine, of which he was 

 commander, perilhed, by the veffel's foundering at fea. 

 He now felt that his proipeCts of advancement in the navy 

 were very flender, and determined to return to college. 

 Very foon after, admiral fir Charles Knowles confided to 

 him the inflruCtion of his younger fon. At Glafgnw he re- 

 newed his ftudies with great ardour, and in the year 1767, 

 when Dr. Black was called to Edinburgh, the fenate of the 

 univerfity of Glafgow, on his recommendation, appointed 

 Mr. Robifon his fuccefibr, as lecturer in chemiflry. In the 

 year 1770, fir Charles Knowles appointed him his official 

 fecretary to the court of Peterfburgh, whither the gallant 

 admiral was going to affift in improving the Ruffian navy. 

 They fet out upon their journey over land, and paffing 

 through Liege, they were invited to dine with the prince- 

 bifhop : Mr. Robifon obferved, with fome degree of fur- 

 prife, that all the guells, and even the principal attendants, 

 had about them the badges of free-mafonry ; upon fome en- 

 quiries he was induced to become a member, and during his 

 ftay in that city he paffed through all the degrees, till he at- 

 tained the rank of Scotch mafter. At Peterfburgh he was 

 appointed infpeftor-general of the corps of marine-cadets ; 

 an academy confiding of above four hundred young gentle- 

 men and fcholars, under the tuition of about forty tpachers. 

 ' His duty, in this office, confided in vifiting daily every clafs 

 of the academy ; in receiving weekly reports from each 

 mafter, concerning the diligence and progrefs of every 

 perfon in his clafs ; and in advancing, twice in every year, 

 the young gentlemen into higher clafles, according to their 

 refpedtive merits. Of thefe he was conilituted the fole 

 judge, and againft. his decifion there was no appeal. At 



II C) B 



this period general Kutuzoff was military-head of the 

 academy, and held the third place in the admiralty-college. 

 This general approved all Mr. Robifon's plans, adopted ali 

 his meafures, and fupported his authority. While in this 

 fituation, Mr. Robifon prefented to the admiralty-college a 

 plan for rendering the magnificent docks at Cionitadt of 

 fome life by means of a fteam-engine, which was adopted 

 and executed with fuccefs after he had left Ruffia. Being- 

 attached, by his office, to that ifland, he found it, particu- 

 larly in winter, to be a difmal folitude, where he was nearly- 

 cut off from all fociety. On this account, having held the 

 appointment about four years, he determined to reiign it, 

 and to accept of an invitation from the magiltrates and 

 town-council of Edinburgh, to be profeffor of natural phi- 

 lofophy- in their univerfity. This fituation he filled with 

 great honour to himfelf, as well as benefit to the ltudents of 

 the univerfity, till his death, which happened in 1805. 



Although Dr. Robilon laboured under a very diitreffing 

 and painful diforder during the Lit eighteen years of his 

 life, ftill in general his mind was active. He is well known 

 to be author, not only of the article Seamanfhip, already 

 mentioned, but of all the molt important mathematical and 

 philofophical articles in the third edition of the Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica, and the fupplement to that work. They were 

 probably the fubftance of his lectures delivered at college, 

 and feveral of them were afterwards thrown into a different 

 form, and publifhed under the title of " Elements of Me- 

 chanical Philofophy." In 1797 this gentleman publifhed a 

 work, entitled " Proofs of a Confpiracy againll all the Re- 

 ligions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the 

 Secret Meetings of Free-Mafons, llluminati, and Reading 

 Societies," a work full of declamation and abfurdity, but 

 which, owing to the furor of the times, made a great imprel- 

 fion, and rapidly paffed through feveral editions, but which, 

 when reafon returned to the great mafs of the people, fell 

 into deferved contempt. In 1803 Mr. Robifon performed 

 a very acceptable fervice to the public, by giving them an 

 edition of Dr. Black's lectures on the " Elements of Che- 

 miflry," in two vols. 4to. 



ROBLEDA, in Geography, a town of Spain, in the 

 province of Leon ; 22 miles S. of Civdad Rodrigo. 



ROBLINTON, a townfhip of Wafhington county, in 

 Pennfylvania, containing 770 inhabitants. 



ROBO, a town of Arabia, in the province of Yemen ; 

 12 miles E.N.E. of Zebid. 



ROBOAN. See Rubin. 



ROBORANTIA, in Medicine, Jhrtngtbaiers } or fuch 

 medicines as (Lengthen the parts, and give new vigour to 

 the conflitution. 



ROBORTELLO, Francesco, in Biography, an Italian 

 man of letters, born at Udine in 15 16, was the fon of a 

 notary and noble of that city. He was educated at Bologna, 

 and about 1538 was invited to occupy the chair of eloquence 

 at Lucca. In 1543 he removed to Pifa, where he held a 

 fimilar profeflorfhip. In 1552 he was called to Padua to 

 fill the chair of Greek and Latin eloquence, vacant by the 

 death of Lazzaro Buonamici. He quitted Padua for 

 Bologna in 1557 ; whence, in 1560, he was recalled by the 

 fenate of Venice to his chair at Padua. He died in 1567, 

 in his 51ft year. The univerfity gave him a fplendid funeral, 

 and the German nation erected a handfome monument to his 

 memory in the church of St. Antonio. At moil of the 

 places of his refidence he was involved in quarrels with his 

 colleagues, and his writings are full of attacks upon his 

 contemporaries. He publifhed numerous works, among 

 which were, " Annotations on various Authors, Greek 

 and Latin," 1543, republilhed in 1548, with feveral fmall 



treatifes ; 



