growth and decay of vegetables, grasses, herbs, plants, and trees, and the habits and economy of animals, reptiles, insects, fishes, birds, and beasts, ever present to the view of a youth of sensibility and genius, solicit his mind to mount up from such various and interesting effects, to causes, and. to the grand first Cause from nature to the God of nature: an eternal and all. ruling Mind. His soul is roused, harmonized, and disposed to contemplation, and a pursuit of knowledge. Such a youth was William Wil. kie; and such the circumstances in which he received the rudiments of his education, and his mind was formed. Having learned the Latin tongue at the parish-school of Dalmeny in West Lothian, in which parish he was born in 1721; he was, at the age of fourteen, sent to the university of Edinburgh: where, in the usual space of three years, he went through the accustomed course of philosophy; and, in the year thereafter, entered his name in the hall, as a student in divinity. During the recess, or vacation of the philosophy college, which took up from five to six months in the year, and 'the still longer vacation of the divinity college, he lived, of course, in the family of his father, who was a respectable farmer, and was 'much employed in superintending agricultural concerns; which at length devolved on him wholly on the death of his father: which happened nearly at the time when Wilkie, having attended for the usual time the divinity-hall, was ordained by the presbytery of Linlithgow a preacher of the Gospel. Preachers of the Gospel, otherwise called probationers, are not attach. ed to any particular kirk or congregation, nor yet do they admi nister the sacraments. They are employed, occasionally, in preaching, catechising, visiting and exhorting families, and frequently retained by ministers of parishes as their assistants. Mr. Wilkie had remained for ten years in this situation; in which it was that he composed the Epigoniad, carefully attending at the same time to the business of the farm, on which his mother and sisters, as well as himself, depended for support; when it was his good fortune to be called to perform divine service one Sunday, the kirk being vacant through the death of the minister, at Ratho. In this parish lies Hatton, the seat of the late earl of Lauderdale, who, with his family, was in the habit of attending the church regularly. This noble and truly respectable family, had waited a long time in the gallery appropriated to their use in the church, of which they were the patrons, and still there was no appearance of any clergyman. The earl at last said to the countess, "My dear, I think we had better go home." But the beadle, who had learned what his lordship was thinking of, came up to him, and said, "O my lord, I see the minister coming. There he is! your lordship may see him from the window." Here it is necessary to observe, that Wilkie was a very great sloven in his dress. His wig sat always awry. His coat was any thing, at that time, but fashion. able. He wore large coarse stock. ings instead of boots. He had a stick in his hand instead of a whip. He rode on an old cart-horse, with a long draggling tail, and his appearance was altogether grotesque and ludicrous." It is not possible," said lord Lauderdale," that that cheeld can be a minister!" "O, yes!" the beadle replied, "it is Mr. Wilkie." After psalms and a prayer, the preacher read a por tion of the New Testament; and, according to the custom of the church of Scotland, explained it by a comment and paraphrase. Lord Lauderdale was equally surprised and delighted with the extent of his knowledge applied not ostentatiously, (for Wilkie was simplicity itself,) but in the most apt and natural manner, the originality of his sentiments and observations, and the copious flow of his varied eloquence. It was fortunate for Mr. Wilkie that he had among his hear ers a man of such sound taste and judgment, as lord Lauderdale, and as much disposed to reward, as he was capable of appreciating merit. After the service of the day was over, the earl, as is usual with families of distinction in Scotland, invited Mr. Wilkie to dine with him, and to stay all night at Hatton. If he was delighted with both his lecture and sermon, he was still more charmed with his conversation. He presented him to the kirk of Ratho, of which he was ordained minister in 1753, where he re. mained till 1759, when he was chosen professor of philosophy in the university of St. Andrews. He took a moderate farm in the parish, and was accounted by all the farmers around, of which there was a monthly club, in which Wilkie was a member, the most judicious and successful cultivator in the country. His attention was par. ticularly drawn to the advantages to be derived from the culture of potatoes, of which he raised immense quantities. The common people in the neighbouring parishes, who have a great detestation of ministers becoming farmers, called him the "Potatoe minister.” He was a frequent visitor at Hatton, but never so frequent as lord Lauderdale, and all the family wished him to be No man could possibly be freer from all whimsies, or the affectation of singularity, than Wilkie. Yet it will generally be considered as a strange conceit, that he should prefer the use of soiled, to that of clean linen. When lady Lauder. dale would kindly press him to stay all night, he would, after some hesitation, say, "Yes, my lady, if you will give me foul sheets to my bed." The earl of Lauderdale, who, with the most excellent qualities of both head and heart, united a degree of humour, would sometimes amuse himself with a little gentle teazing of Wilkie. One day, after dinner, the earl led on the conversation to the subject of the most proper pursuits in life; the best or most worthy objects of ambition; of which a capital one, in his lordship's judgment, was the establishment of a family in independent and affluent circumstances. And, he observed, that the great reward held out in the Old Testament, to * Cheeld, in the Scottish dialect, is nearly of the same import with fellow, used in its best sense, that is, when it is meant to express rather kindness than contempt; but certainly not to express any degree of contempt or aversion. the the people of God, was, that "they should see their children's children, and that their seed should inherit the carth." As to authorship, or the making of books, he had observed, he said, that it was generally light-headed, or hair-brained people that gave themselves up to writing. Men of sound sense, and a right way of thinking, he said, sought after something more sub stantially good than the reputation of authorship. In order to enter into the humour of the observations made to Wilkie, about the reward held out in the Old Testament, to the people of God, it is necessary to know, that he was not only a bachelor, but that though a poet, passionately fond of music, and no bad performer on the violin, he was never known to betray the smallest symptom of being in love. Mr. Wilkie did not make any reply to what had been said of the blessing of seeing one's children's children, and the assurance of his seed's being multiplied and inheriting the earth, bat fixed on the allegation, that it was only hair-brained peo ple that became writers of books. "Ca' [call] ye lord Bacon a light headed, or hair-brained man, my lord?" He then went on expatia. ting on the glorious and successful pursuits of that great ornament and benefactor of human nature; and contrasted his literary and philosophical labours with the pursuits of vulgar ambition, in a strain of irony worthy of Socrates*. Though Wilkie was never known to be in love, he liked to converse with sensible and accom plished women; and was very far from being backward or niggardly in his praises of female beauty, and other attractions. He was very happy when any of the ladies who visited his sisters, who lived with him in his house till his death, ex. pressed any satisfaction with his performances on the violin; and would very readily give a tune on the fiddle, in exchange for a song. The Baconian, or in other words, the just and legitimate mode of philosophizing on all subjects, was not perhaps first introduced into the university of St. Andrews in 1759, but it was then that it was first seriously attended to. The principles of that philosophy had never been so well understood in that seminary, and so well explained and inculcated as they were by Dr. Wilkie, who so worthily filled the chair of natural philosophy. At the same time, Dr. Watson, afterwards principal, through whose means chiefly Wilkie was introduced into the university, in his course of logic, applied with great ability as well as zeal, the just laws of investigation to the operations of the human mind, and the nature of the evidence of truth or knowledge. A very shining part of Dr. Wilkie's character, as above hinted, was his talent for conversation. To this, all who were acquainted with him looked back, and of these, they who survived him still look back with admiration. Of this they all talked, or still talk, in terms of the highest praise. It is well known, that there are men who, on the strength of their These, and many other anecdotes of Wilkie, the writer of this article heard from lord Lauderdale himself. being authors, conceive that every one is gaping to hear what will fall from them in conversation; in which, therefore, they labour to make a figure. They study a topic beforehand, come primed and loaded with as much as they can carry of what has been said by others, to their club or dinner, force the subject of their lesson into conversation, and disgorge all they know on the company. It is thus easy, by taking the lead in conversation, to appear very learned, very clever, and very eloquent. The true, the agreeable, and most accomplished companion, is he who does not lead but follow the course of conversation. Dr. Wilkie had no need to study a discourse beforehand, in order to make a brilliant fi gure in the most learned, ingenious, and refined society: nor would such a stratagem have occurred to a mind like his, if he had needed it. He was as well pleased to listen to others as to speak his own sentiments. He had even a curiosity to know the sentiments of those with whom he conversed even the way of thinking of the very lowest classes-on all subjects. His own conversation was a series of the most original thought, and most ingenious reasoning, clothed in the most nervous and poetical language. Every object was paint, ed to the life, and placed before you in the most striking attitude; and all this was accompanied with great wit. Very seldom, it is presumed, has there been found so much wit, poetry, and philosophy, blended together in any individual. He was not only, both a natural and moral philosopher of the first class, but a man of wit, a poet of great powers, singularly eloquent, and a lover of all the arts. His elo. quence, however, was different from what professors of rhetoric and most critics would applaud. No studied rotundity of periods; no pomp of words. At the same time that it was very poetical, and full of the noblest images, it was perfectly simple and perspicuous. Dr. Wilkie was particularly happy in transferring into his literary or philosophical conversation, the terms and phrases of common life, and of the arts, particularly of agriculture. The habit of conversing with his parishioners and neighbours, while he lived in the country, had enabled him to adapt his conversation to their comprehension; at the same time that it had furnished him with many strong and figurative, though, perhaps, not always elegant expressions. He lived, during the earlier part of his life, alternately with the literary men about the university of Edinburgh, and the farmers in his own neighbourhood. There was, therefore, a versatility, as it were, in his cloquence, which would have enabled him to shine amidst a company of peasants, of poets, or philosophers. His observations on human nature were profound; and he excelled in unfolding the motives of action, and in exposing the ridicule and absurdity of vice or folly.. Another subject on which his conversation was always very enter-A taining and instructive, was criti cism. He was furnished with the most frequent subjects of his re marks, from having read both the Latin and Greek classics, as already observed, repeatedly, with the utmost attention. But the favourite subject of his literary conversation was, the philosophy of lord lord Bacon. The great and sub. lime ideas of that philosophy were wonderfully congenial with his mind; and he had penetrated deeply into those branches of metaphysics which serve as the basis of mathematics and natural philo. sophy. The maxims laid down by lord Bacon, in the Novum Organum, and the scale or appreciation of experiments, which form the second part of that work, he used to illustrate with great powers of eloquence and ingeniousness. It was here, more than any where, that he was thought to rise above the level of even his own conversation. A very favourite author with Dr. Wilkie, was Cervantes. Accustomed to take the most extensive view of every object, he saw in Don Quixote the most perfect picture of enthusiasm of every denomination." It was a bo, (he said,) written with a learned insight into enthusiasm of every kind.”— Here, too, he seems to have had an eye to his great guide in philosophy, who, among the subjects of investigation which he recommends, for illustrating the connexion between mind and matter, (i. e. the laws which regulate this connexion) enumerates the history of the power and influence of the imagination; and that also of the several species of enthusiasm. On the philosophical productions of lord Bacon, he was wont to dwell with peculiar pleasure. And he would often repeat with rapture the following, which has been so fully verified: "That when physics shall be grounded on experiment, their effects will as far excel the pretended powers of magic, as the actions of Cæsar or Alexander surpassed the fabulous achievements of Arthur, of Bri. tain, or Amadis, of Gaul.” In the particular doctrines of natural philosophy, he was most delighted with that of gravitation, And he used to say, "That human reason had seldom been so well employed as when it inquired. into the effects, and seldom so ill as when it inquired into the cause, of gravitation: No part of pure mathematics gave him so much pleasure as the doctrine of fluxious. Having never applied very seriously to the deeper parts of mathematics, till his appointment to the natural philosophy chair at St. Andrews, he never acquired great facility in the fluxionary calculus. But there was never any man who understood the principles of that calculus more thoroughly. He used to say, that the advantage of fluxions consists in giving at once the result of an infinite series of approximations." He was the first, and probably the only poet, that has been initiated in the mysteries of this difficult science. As a teacher of natural philoso phy, Dr. Wilkie has rarely been excelled. He carried along with him into his school, the same clearness, simplicity, and force of expression, which accompanied him on all other occasions. His course, was very happily arranged, and contained many uncommon views of nature, and many new and excellent demonstrations. He was, withal, very close or strict in his reasoning; and, on that account, by those who came to his lectures, without a sufficient preparation of geometry, and a sufficient command of their attention, was sometimes supposed to be obscure. From that absence of mind, fron |