ROB 
during his residence on the continent. His lectures were 
considered by most of his pupils as somewhat too difficult 
to be followed; a complaint which, if it did not depend 
on their own want of preparatory information, arose perhaps 
rather more from the hasty manner of his enunciation, than 
from the abstruseness of his matter. “ The singular facility 
of his own apprehensions,” says Professor Playfair, “ made 
him judge too favourably of the same power in others. 
To understand his lectures completely was, on account of the 
rapidity, and the uniform flow of his discourse, not a very 
easy task, even for men tolerably familiar with the subject. 
On this account, his lectures were less popular than might 
have been expected from such a combination of talents as the 
author of them possessed.” This inconvenience was in¬ 
creased “ by the small number of experiments he introduced, 
and a view that he took of natural philosophy, which left but 
a very subordinate place for them to occupy. An experiment 
he would very truly observe, does not establish a general 
proposition, and never can do more than prove a particular 
factbut he seems to have carried this principle to some 
little excess : it is, in fact, the illustration, and not the proof, 
of general principles that is the object of a public exhibition 
of experiments. With respect, however, to “ accuracy of de¬ 
finition, to clearness, brevity, and elegance of demonstration, 
and even to neatness and precision in experiments,” Profes¬ 
sor Robison was very successful; his course extended “ to 
every branch of physics and of mixed mathematics,” and en¬ 
tered so fully into the detail of each particular division of the 
subjects, that “ a more perfect system of academical instruc¬ 
tion is not easily to be imagined:” nothing, in short, was want¬ 
ing, but so much previous knowledge of mathematics in his 
pupils, as he thought he had a right to expect, though his ex¬ 
pectations were too rarely fulfilled. 
The Philosophical Society of Edinburgh had been almost 
suffered to sink into oblivion after the publication of the third 
volume of its Essays, in 1756. Professor Robison became a 
member of it soon after his return from Russia, and was cho¬ 
sen secretary of the new society, upon its formation by royal 
charter in 1783, when it incorporated with itself the whole 
of the surviving members of the former society. In 1798 he 
received the compliment of a degree of Doctor of Laws from 
the university of New Jersey; and a similar honour was paid 
him at Glasgow the year after. In 1800 he was elected, as 
successor to Dr. Black, on the list of the foreign members of 
the Royal Academy, of Sciences of St. Petersburgh. 
He was attacked, in 1785, by a severe disorder, from 
which he was never afterwards wholly free, though it pro¬ 
duced little inconvenience besides pain, with some depression 
of spirits, which was, however, attributed rather to the close¬ 
ness of his application, than to the immediate effect of the 
disease, which was a glandular induration. He complained 
of a slight cold, after giving a lecture, on the 28th of Janu¬ 
ary 1805, and died on the 30th. 
Robison’s works consist of a paper, in 1785, on the “ De¬ 
termination of the Orbit and Motion of the Georgium Sidus,” 
which was published in the Edinburgh Transactions, Vol. I. 
He had observed the opposition of the planet, with an 
equatorial telescope only, and he had computed the elements 
of its orbit with greater accuracy than any other astronomer 
had then done; although his suspicion of the effect of such a 
planet on the motions of Jupiter and Saturn, has not been 
confirmed by later investigations; the irregularities of these 
planets, on the coutrary, having been otherwise explained. 
A second paper, published in the same collection, Vol. II. 
p. 82, relates to the “ Motion of Light,” as affected by re¬ 
fracting or reflecting substances, which are themselves in 
motion. He communicated various articles to the third 
edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and to its supplement; 
namely, Optics (though he probably only revised and en¬ 
larged that article), Philosophy, which he wrote jointly with 
Dr. Gleig; Physics, Pneumatics, Precession, Projec¬ 
tiles, Pumps, Resistance, Rivers, Roof, Ropemak¬ 
ing, Rotation, Seamanship, Signal, Sound, Specific 
Gravity, Statics, Steam, Steam-Engine, Steelyard, 
Strength, Telescope, Tide, Trumpet, Variation, 
Vol. XXII. No. 1490. 
ROB 149 
and Waterworks, in the dictionary; and in the supple¬ 
ment, Arch, Astronomy, Boscovich, Carpentry, 
Centre, Dynamics, Electricity, Impulsion, Involu¬ 
tion, Machinery, Magnetism, Mechanics, Percus¬ 
sion, Piano-forte,Position, Temperament,Thunder, 
Trumpet, Tschirnfiaus, and Watciiwork. Notwith¬ 
standing some degree of prolixity and want of arrangement, 
which it was difficult to avoid in the preparation of original 
articles for such a mode of publication, the whole of them, 
taken together, undeniably exhibit a more complete view of 
the modern improvements of physical science, than had ever 
before been in the possession of the British public. 
He began a work, on a large scale, that was intended to 
form a complete system, and was to be, necessarily, an am¬ 
plification and improvement of his contributions to the En¬ 
cyclopaedia. It was entitled, “ Elements of Mechanical Phi¬ 
losophy;” but it was never popular, and never advanced 
beyond the first volume. After his death, however, Dr. 
Brewster collected his chief writings into a « System of Me¬ 
chanical Philosophy,” and furnished it with notes. These 
are valuable, as every thing is which has flowed from Dr. 
Brewster’s pen, but they are very few in number. In his 
preface to this work, he says of Robison, that although his 
name cannot be associated with the great discoveries of the 
century which he adorned, yet the memory of his talents and 
his virtues will be long cherished by his country. Imbued 
with the genuine spirit of the philosophy which he taught, 
he was one of the warmest patrons of genius wherever it was 
found. His mind was nobly elevated above the mean jea¬ 
lousies of rival ambition, and his love of science and of justice 
was too ardent to allow him either to depreciate the labours 
of others, or to transfer them to himself. To these great qua 
lities as a philosopher. Dr. Robison added all the more esti- 
mable endowments of domestic and 0 f social life. His friend 
ship was at all times generous and sincere. His pietv was 
ardent and unostentatious. His patriotism was of the "most 
pure and exalted character; and, like the immortal Newton 
whose memory he cherished with a peculiar reverence h’ 
was pre-eminently entitled to the high distinction of a Chris¬ 
tian, patriot, and philosopher." His person was handsome 
and his physiognomy prepossessing; and he appears to have 
been endowed with an extraordinary combination of talents 
even exclusively of those which were called into immediate’ 
activity m his professional pursuits; for he was a good lin¬ 
guist, an excellent draughtsman, and an accomplished musi¬ 
cian. This man, so distinguished in natural science, render¬ 
ed himself ridiculous by marching into the more difficult 
field of politics. He wrote, in 1797, a work entitled 
“ Pr° ofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Go¬ 
vernments of Europe, which exhibits a simple credulity in 
the author, only to be equalled by his illiberality. 
There appears to have been some slight differences of opi¬ 
nion among Robison’s friends, as to the extent of his attain¬ 
ments m thepuremathematics. On this subject Dr. Youno-re¬ 
marks, (Supplement to Ency. Brit. Art. Robison), that “ Pro¬ 
fessor Robison seems rarely to have cultivated the higher ma¬ 
thematics for their own sake only, or any farther than as they 
could be applied to the study of the phenomena of nature, or 
to the practice of the combinations of art; in fact, without 
such limitation, there would be no tract to guide us in the 
pathless regions of quantity and number, and their endless 
relations and functions. But besides the utility of the pure 
mathematics, as a branch of early education, in exercisin°' 
and fortifying the powers of the mind, it is impossible to see 
with certainty, how much of mathematics may be wanted 
by the natural philosopher in any given investigation; and 
Piolessor Robison, as well as many others of his countrymen 
would certainly have been the better for the possession of a 
little more, as the author of the criticisms in the Imperial Re¬ 
view has already had occasion to remark.” r 
ROBLEDO, a town of the interior of Spain, in New 
Castile, province of La Mancha. It contains 6400 inhabi¬ 
tants, who are owners of large flocks of Merino sheep, and 
carry on a brisk traffic in their wool: 33 miles south-by- 
east of Ciudad Real, and 57 north-by-east of Jaen. 
2 Q ROBLES, 
