OF THE LATE PROFESSOR ROBXSON. 521 



title of Encyclopedia Britannica, undertaken at Edinburgh se- 

 veral years before this period, was now undergoing a third edi- 

 tion, in which it was to advance from three to eighteen volumes. 

 Twelve of these had been already published, under the direc- 

 tion of the original editor, Mr Colin Macfarquhar, when, on 

 his death, the task of continuing the work was committed to 

 the care of the Reverend Dr Gleig, and about the same time 

 Professor Robison became a contributor to it. He was the 

 first contributor who was professedly and really a man of sci- 

 ence, and from that time the Encyclopedia Britannica ceased 

 to be a mere compilation. Dictionaries of Arts and Sciences, 

 in this island, had hitherto been little else than compilations ; 

 and though in France, the co-operation of some of the most 

 profound and enlightened men of the age, had produced a 

 work of great merit and celebrity, with us compositions of the 

 same class had been committed to the hands of very inferior 

 artists. The accession of Professor Robison was an event of 

 great importance in the history of the above publication. 



It was in the year 1793 that he began to write in this book, 

 and it was at the article Optics, with him a very favourite sci- 

 ence, that his labours commenced. From that time he conti- 

 nued to enrich the Encyclopaedia with a variety of valuable 

 treatises, till its completion in 1801. 



The general merit of the articles thus composed, makes it 

 difficult to point out particulars. Those in which theoretical 

 and practical knowledge are combined, are of distinguished 

 merit ; such are Seamanship, Telescope, Roof, Water-works, 

 Resistance of Fluids, Running of Rivers. To these I must 

 add the articles Electricity and Magnetism in the Supplement, 

 where the theories of ^Epinus are laid down with great clear- 

 ness and precision, as well as with very considerable improve- 

 ments. In ascertaining the law of the electric attraction, his 



experiments 



