1809.) 
in the neighbourhood. of his farm are still 
highly sensitle; and many of them own, 
that a great proportion of the agricultural im- 
Proyements, so conspicuous in that. part of 
the country, originated in him. Failings of 
a nature which too often accompany genius, 
however, deprived him of most of the bene-. 
fits of bis labours. He was deficient in that 
plodding perseverance which wasnecessary to 
‘mature the works he had begun; and he 
often neglected one object to adopt another. 
Burt above all, his utter negligence of pecu- 
niery matters brought him into difficulties 
whica embittered the best of his days; for 
to those affairs he could never be induced by 
_ @ny preseot necessity, or ‘prospect of future 
gain, to pay common attention; and he 
Was consequently always suffering great losses 
‘through his own inattention and the imposi- 
tion of others. Of his industry and abilities, 
the best account-we can give is, to refer to 
his own writings, a list of which we subjoin. 
Various as the subjects are, their tendency 
seems only one, that of making mankind 
better and happier. In his political tracts he 
pays less antdhtieg to the object of power for 
which governments usually contend, than to 
the improvement of society; and he depre- 
cates the aggrandisement of the state at the 
expence of justice and morality. In ‘his 
Style, it will be observed, he attends more 
to perspicuity and force than to elegance or 
grammatical correctness. Sis language 
flows with natural ease, and never fails to 
convey his meaning without the least obscu- 
tity or ambiguity, though it-frequently 
abounds with provincial idioms, prolix sen- 
tences, over charged with relatives and tau- 
tology; yet the clearness of the sense; and 
the unconstrained simplicity ofthediction, be- 
guile the reader and lead him to pass over the 
faults without noticing them. That these 
faults proceeded more from carelessness than 
from any -deficiency in grammatical know- 
ledge, is evident from his writings on lan- 
guage and grammar. Impatient of interfe- 
rence, he rarely admitted of advice, but pro- 
secuted his labours by himself. Of-a lively 
fancy, he was warm in his friendships, and 
warm, sometimes bitter, in his resentments ; 
but, if the ardour of his sentiments octasion- 
ally led him into error, his own candovur soon 
corrected it ; and when he thought he had re- 
ceived an injury, he made a maxim of avoid- 
ing to mention the author of it, lest his re- 
sentment should lead hin: to unjust accusa- 
tions. The sense he entertained ‘of the ge- 
neral meanness of avaricious characters, 
caused him to hold in rather too great con- 
tempt those who devote the whole of their 
attention totheimprovement of their fortunes. 
In‘ his younger days he was handsome in his 
person, of middle stature, and rocust consti- 
“tution, “Extreniely moderate in his living, 
thé country exercise animated his countenance 
~ with the glow of ‘health 3. but the overstrain- 
‘ed exertion of his mental powers afté#wards 
Montrury Mag. No. 183. 
Account of the late Dr. James Anderson. 301 
~ Ld : . 
impaired his health, ultimately wasted -his 
faculties, and brought on the premature 
effegts of old age. Many instances-of inven- 
tive, powers appear in. his works: we shall 
here only notice a mode of draining swampy 
grounds by tapping, first invented by him, 
and published in 1776 in his Essays on Agri- 
culture. Mr. Elkington having discovered 
the same method twenty years afterwards, a 
reward of 10001. was voted to him by Par- 
liament forthat invention. Inthe knowledge 
of the fine arts he bore a respectable rank, 
as also appears by his writings, one of the 
most remarkable of which, is an Essay on 
Grecian and Gothic Architecture, &c. He 
had a fine taste for gardening and rural sce- 
nery. An early example of this appeared in 
the daying out of the grounds about his resi- 
dence, wherein he combined elegance with 
utility; a thing till of late seldom thought 
of in the contrivance of farm homesteads, 
especially in the north of Scotland. He had, 
as might be supposed from the general tenor 
of his pursuits, a particular turn for natural 
philosophy, or the investigation of physical 
causes and effects. As an example of his 
reasoning on this head, we may peint outa 
paper in the first edition of the Encyclopedia 
Britannica, published in July 1773, before 
the return of ook from his first voyage, 
wherein he predicts the result of one of that 
Navigator’s enquiries, by pointing out frém 
what was known of the trade-winds and mon-= 
soons, that there could not exist an extensive 
tract of land besides those already known in 
any other part of the southern hemisphere 
than that wherein New Holland was after- 
waras found to be situated. Of Dr. Ander- 
son’s numerous family only five. sons have | 
survived him, three of whom are settledin. — 
this metropolis, and two in India, and.one ~ 
daughter, already a widow, yith. five child-. 
ren, She was magried in 1800 to the date’ 
Mr. Benjamin Outram, of Detbyshite,’ whe 
died-in 1805,'in the prime of his life—a man 
of uncommon worth and talents, whose works 
as an engineer will remain lasting testimonies 
of his great and inventive genius. Wr. An- 
derson published a. great number of eminent 
works. He was also the author of several 
atticles for the Encyclop. Brit. 1st vol. Edin. 
among which are, under the heads Diction- - 
ary. winds and monsoons, language, sound, 
He contributed numerous essays, under-a 
variety of signatures, in che early part of the 
Edin. Weekly Maz. the principal of which 
were, Agricola, Timoleon, Germanicus, 
Cimon, Scoto. Britannus, E. Aberdeen, 
Henry Plain, impartial, a Scot. He review- 
ed the subject of agriculture for the Monthly 
Review for»several years. .We understand 
whe: has left behind him several unpublished 
manuscripts, one in particular, An, Address 
to the People of Scotland: this was incended 
to be the last tring he should ever publish: 
there are only 17 pages of this work written, 
-whucht argon the subject of the poor laws, 
Rr 3 . PROVINCIAL 
