FOR 
559 
FOR 
of age, he quitted this feminary and was entered of the 
Greek clafs in the Marifchal college. During the next 
three years, betides Attending the leCtures of the Greek 
clafs, lie went through a coiirfe of philofophy, and was 
alfo inftruCted in the mathematics. In 1742, he was ad¬ 
mitted one of the profeftbrs of philofophy in the Marif- 
chal college at Aberdeen. The departments of fcience 
aftlgned to Mr. Fordyce were natural hiftory, chronology, 
Greek and Roman antiquities, mechanics, optics, and 
aftronomy. Occafionally he read and explained fame of 
the Greek and Latin chillies, and leCtured on the dif¬ 
ferent branches of moral philofophy. Of his admirable 
qualifications for fuch an appointment, a fufficient judg¬ 
ment may be formed from the literary productions of 
which he was the author. In 174^ he publifiied a volume 
of Dialogues concerning Education, 8vo. which was fol¬ 
lowed by a fecond in 1748 . This work is not a fyHematic 
treatife on the fubjeCt, but is written in a mifcellaneous 
manner. It contains, however, difeufiions of the principal 
points relative to education, as well as of various queftions 
on fubjeCts of tafie and polite literature, drawn up with 
much ingenuity, in a pleafing form, and in elegant lan¬ 
guage. On the whole, it may be confidered as one of 
the mod diftinguifhed productions of the Shaftefburian 
fchool of fentimental philofophy. He next publifiied, 
The Elements of Moral Philofophy, nmo. which has 
fince gone through various editions. In 1750 he went 
abroad on a tour through France, Italy, and feveral other 
parts of Europe, with a particular view to examine the 
remains of ancient art at Rome. On his return, in the 
following year, when he was almoft at home, and his 
friends flood ready with open arms and joyful hearts to 
receive him, he loft his life in a dreadful ftorm on the 
coaft of Holland. He had only reached the forty-firft year 
of his age. He was the author of Theodorus ; a Dia¬ 
logue concerning the Art of Preaching, nmo. This is 
an excellent performance, which richly merits the high 
encomium palfed upon it: “ that the piety of the writer 
appears to have been manly and rational; his fentiments 
of the divine perfections exalted and amiable ; his know¬ 
ledge of human nature, and of various ways of touching 
the human heart, very extenfive ; and his eloquence na¬ 
tural and affeCting.” It has been repeatedly printed, and 
fince the firft impreffion has always been joined with Dr. 
James Fordyce’s fermon “ On the eloquence and aCtion 
proper for the pulpit.” Another pofthumous produc¬ 
tion of this amiable writer, is entitled The Temple of 
Virtue; a Dream. It was publifiied in 1757, by Dr. 
James Fordyce, who added to the deferiptive part of the 
Temple twelve characters that had a claim to a place in 
it. The whole is a pleafing and elegant performance, 
and is well adapted to infpire young perfons with an ad¬ 
miration and love of moral excellence. 
FORDYCE (James), an ingenious Scotch divine, 
younger brother of the preceding, born at Aberdeen in 
1720. Having acquired the rudiments of claflical learn¬ 
ing at the public grammar-fehool, he w'as entered at the 
Marifchal college, where he went through the regular 
courfe of ftudies neceffary to qualify him for the Chriftian 
miniftry. 1 As he poftefled excellent natural abilities, and 
ftudioufiy improved the advantages which he derived 
from his fituation in the univerfity, he was, when very 
young, deemed well prepared for the office of a preacher 
of the gofpel, and obtained his licence according to the 
forms of the church of Scotland. His firft appointment 
was to the place of fecond minifter in the collegiate church 
of Brechin, in the county of Angus. After continuing 
there fome years, he received a prefentation to the parifti 
of Alloa, near Stirling. During Mr. Fordyce’s refidence 
at Alloa, he attracted the notice of the public by printing 
three (ermons, all good in their kind : one On the Elo¬ 
quence of the Pulpit, and annexed to his brother David’s 
Theodorus ; another On the Method of promoting Edifi¬ 
cation by public Inftitutions, preached at an ordination in 
J 754» and a third, entitled The delufive fpirit of Popery, 
preached before the fynod of Perth and Stirling, in the 
year laft-mentioned. But fiill greater attention was 
drawn to another fermon, On the Folly, Infamy, and 
Mifery, tjjf unlawful Pleafure, which he preached be- 
'fore tlie general aftembly of the church of Scotland, and 
publifiied in 1760. Dr. Fordyce’s neareft relations were 
now all fettled in London, and were very prefiing in 
their folicitations that he would come and live amongft 
them. While he was upon a vifit in the metropolis, he 
was invited to become co-paftor with Dr. Lawrence, mi¬ 
nifter of a refpeCtable diftenting congregation, meeting in 
Monkwell-ftreet. With this invitation he complied; 
and for feveral years Dr. Fordyce maintained a high 
fliare of popularity, generally preaching to crowded and 
overflowing audiences. Such popularity was certainly 
due to the excellence of his pulpit fervices, w hether con¬ 
fidered in relation to the elegance which they difplayed as 
compofitions, or their happy adaptation to imprefs the 
heart, and their uniform practical and ufeful tendency. 
Dr. Fordyce difeharged the duty at Monkwell-ftreet until 
about Chriftmas, 1782, when his health, which had been 
long declining, rendered it neceftary, in the opinion of his 
medical friends, to difeontinue his public fervices. He 
therefore withdrew to a retirement in Hampftiire, in the 
neighbourhood of the earl of Bute, with whom he lived 
in great intimacy, and to whole valuable library he had 
free accefs. He removed afterwards to Bath, where he 
died on the ift of October, 1796, in the feventy-fixth 
year of his age. Befides the pieces already mentioned j 
he was the author of, 1. Sermons to Young Women, in 
2 vols. nmo. 1765, which met with a very favourable re¬ 
ception from the public, and have been tranflated into 
feveral European languages. 2. A Sermon on the Cha¬ 
racter and Conduft of tlie Female Sex, 1776. 3. Ad- 
dreftes to Young Men, in 2 vols. 12010.1777. 4. Ad- 
dreftes to the Deity, 1785. 5. A volume of Poems, 
1786. 6. A Difcourfe on Pain, 1791 ; and additions, as 
we have noticed in the preceding article, to his brother’s 
Temple of Virtue. 
FOR'DYCE (George), an eminent medical writer, 
pofthumous fon of the elder brother of the Fordyces 
above-mentioned, who p ode fled a fmall eftate near Aber¬ 
deen. He was born in 1736, and lent to ftudy at the uni¬ 
verfity of Aberdeen, where he was made M. A. at the 
age of fourteen. Thence he removed to Edinburgh, 
where his alfiduity in literature attracted the particular 
notice of Dr. Cullen, then chemical profeftbr, who took 
pains to promote his improvement. He took his degree 
of doCtor there in 1758, and afterwards ftudied in the uni¬ 
verfity of Leyden. Notwithftanding his fmall patrimony 
had been nearly expended in his education, he refolved 
to try his fortune in the metropolis, where he fettled in 
the autumn of 1759. At that period no other private 
leCtutes of the medical kind were given in London than 
thofe on anatomy, parturition, and lurgery. He therefore 
thought he faw an opening for the introduction of a plan 
of more enlarged medical inftruCtion, conformably to the 
principles of the Edinburgh fchool ; and he commenced 
with a courfe of chemiftry. Though his encouragement 
in the beginning was fmall, he proceeded with fteadinefs 
and diligence, and added to his lefions the branches of 
materia-medica and the practice of phyfic. His reputation 
gradually fpread ; and a great number of the young men 
who came to London for the fake of its advantages in ana¬ 
tomy and furgery, alfo took the benefit of his leCtures. 
His Elements of the Practice of Phyfic, publifiied in 1768, 
were the text-book of his leCtures on this topic, and were 
much read as an ufeful compendium of medicine. He ac¬ 
quired a refpeCtable fhare of private practice ; and 1 o efta- 
blilhed was his character in 1770, that he was cholen phy- 
fician to Stj Thomas’s hofpital againft a competitor of 
great intereft. His (cientific merit defervedly gained him 
admiftion to the Royal Society in 1776. In 1787 he was 
e\e(.\eii fpeciatigratia a fellow of the college of phyficians. 
As he had been a warm oppoler, when a licentiate, of the 
c-xelufive* 
