Page images
PDF
EPUB

ployed with such indefatigable assiduity, that he impregnated his mind with the true principles of painting. He then attentively studied the works of the old masters, and finally resolved to conclude his labours in the grand school of nature.

The progress of his genius was rapid, and his fame increased in the same proportion. At length his representations of landscapes and figures, which appeared in the Royal Academy, procured him the notice of the first connoisseurs, as well as of many persons of distinction, and he had the honour of being admitted to a private introduction to THEIR MAJESTIES, from whom he received the most gratifying marks of gracious condescension and encouragement.

His works were composed with such abundant fertility, that they became very numerous, and many of them were admitted into the most celebrated cabinets on the continent.

The late estimable and unfortunate KING of POLAND, in the year 1791, conferred on him the honour of Knighthood of the ORDER of MERIT, and his title has been duly recognised by the British Monarch. Lord HAWKE presented Sir Francis to HIS MAJESTY on this occasion, and the Earl of AYLESBURY to the QUEEN, and he was received with the most engaging affability.

The Royal Academy elected him a member in 1792, and he was appointed landscape painter to HIS MAJESTY in the following year.

It would be difficult, indeed, for us to enumerate all the works which have raised the name of this artist into its present high degree of repute; nor is such an enumeration at all necessary, because those works have been generally seen and admired. Truth, gran* deur, taste, and simplicity, are the chief characteristics of his vari ous productions, and he is excelled by no artist of the present day, in the spirit, variety, and beauty of his compositions.

Sir Francis has, from an early period of his life, enjoyed the friendship of Mr. Desenfans, a gentleman whose name will long be dear to the arts, whose taste and judgment are held in the highest respect, and who has manifested that taste and judgment in one of the first collections of pictures in this country.

We ought not to conclude this brief tribute to distinguished talents, without paying due homage to the personal merits of the gentleman who possesses them. Sir FRANCIS BOURGEOIs, by his good sense, varied information, polished manners, dignified spirit, and liberal countenance of contemporary talents, has acquired the best connexions in this country, with whom he is admitted to the most friendly and familiar intercourse.

Opie Pino

Ridley sc

SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH

Recorder of Bengale

Pub by Vernor & Hood 31, Poultry 1.Feb., 1804.

"BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.

(With a Portrait.)

WE are fully sensible how difficult it is to comprise, within the narrow limits usually allotted to our biographical sketches, any thing like a satisfactory account of the life and writings of men distinguished for genius, and eminent for learning; but we are equally sensible how curious the public must feel to learn whatever particulars may be collected of persons, who, like the gentleman of whom we are now proceeding to speak, are enabled, by the direction of their talents, so powerfully to influence the opinions and the taste of the nation. Respecting such men, we think it better to say even a little, rather than remain wholly silent, always anxious to exert our best endeavours to gratify the laudable curiosity of our readers, while we are equally anxious to advance nothing, which we do on the present occasion, but what we derive from faithful and authentic sources.

James Mackintosh (now Sir James) is descended of an ancient and respectable family, in the Highlands of Scotland, who possessed a small estate of about 5001. a year. He was born on the 24th of October, 1765, in the parish of Dores, in the county of Inverness, and the care of his infant years was entrusted to his grandmother. At the age of seven he was relieved from female tuition, and removed to the school of Fortrose, where his juvenile studies were ably superintended, first by a Mr. Smith, and afterwards by a Mr. Stalker. His proficiency was such as announced the dawn of extraordinary talents, and he was particularly remarkable for quickness of conception and retentiveness of memory, the power of the mind, which is generally the earliest to expand itself, and in which to excel is the first intellectual struggle of puerile emulation. When he had scarcely reached the age of thirteen, he had already acquired all that the school of Fortrose was competent to teach, and, by the advice of his master, he was sent to King's College, Aberdeen. Here he applied, with equal diligence and success, to a more critical study of the classics, under Mr. Ogilvie, and was afterwards initiated in the elements of philosophy, under Dr. Dunbar. In the one he evinced the elegance of his taste-in the other, the acuteness of his understanding, and in both he afforded an instance of rapid improvement as had seldom been observed in that or any other university. To whatever department of science the propensities of his

own mind inclined him, he was now intended by his friends for the profession of physic, and with that view he removed to Edinburgh. The literary fame which the superiority of his talents had acquired at Aberdeen, travelled before him to Edinburgh, and, on his arrival, his acquaintance and company were eagerly courted by those students who aspired to equal eminence, or who embarked in similar pursuits. If Edinburgh afforded him more various facilities of improvement, it also held out opportunities of pleasure and dissipation, in which even the most cautious youth is often but too prone to indulgence. Young Mackintosh was not altogether proof against the frailties of his age, and he indulged pretty freely in all those enjoyments in which its ardour and impetuosity are wont to revel. The character, however, of his dissipation was very different from that of the generality of young men. Whatever might be the inconstancy of his other amours, the love of knowledge never once deserted him; for whether he sighed in the Idalian groves, or joined in the roar of the convivial board, he had constantly a book in his hand, and most commonly an ancient or a modern poet, upon whose sentiments or diction he frequently interposed some observations, and to which he endeavoured to direct the attention and remarks of others. He was thus unremittingly active in the exercise of his mind, and thus happily contrived to imbibe instruction with his wine. But the particular bias of his mind soon began to declare itself: his attendance at the medical lectures became daily less frequent, and he was jocosely styled, by his fellow students, an honorary member of the classes. Notwithstanding, however, this apparent inattention, his medical knowledge was astonishingly extensive, and he was observed to collect it from conversing with those who were known to be most sedulous and successful in such pursuits. He was likewise a distinguished member of the Medical Society, in which he made his first essay in public speaking, and in which he was admired not only for eloquence and acuteness, but also for (what more astonished) the profoundness of his medical researches. His favourite society, however, was the speculative, in which literary, metaphysical, and political subjects were discussed, and which afforded him happier opportunities of displaying the versatility of his genius, and the variety of his acquirements.

In the year 1787, the career of his medical studies drew near to a close, and, previous to taking his degree of doctor, he was, in conformity with the rules of the university, obliged to write a Latin Thesis, which is submitted to the professors as a probationary essay, His habitual indolence (for no man was ever, with such mental ac

« PreviousContinue »