PROFESSOR SIR JOHN LESLIE.
The death of Sir John Leslie is an event that is not to be passed over without notice. Last week we were not able, at the moment, to collect all the facts that were required to do justice to the memory of this eminent man. Our labour in that respect has been rendered un- necessary, by the interesting biographical memoir which we subjoin. It proceeds, we believe, from the pen of an old friend and colleague of Sir John's ; and appeared originally in the Caledonian Mercury. The able author writes with so perfect a knowledge of his subject, nod with so nice a discrimination of the literary and personal character of the deceased philosopher, that it would be a piece of idle presumption to add to his remarks.
" This eminent philosopher breathed his last on the night of Saturday the 3d instant, at his seat of Coates, situate within two miles of Largo, in Fifeshire, the place of his birth. We are not in a temper to make invidious comparisons, and cannot, we think, be accused of any such in saying, that our University Las lost the only European name' on the roll of its present Professorships, by this melancholy and unexpected event. Death's ruthless hand has this year fallen heavily on Scottish talent and genius. Under it have been prostrated, within that short period, three of Scotland's most illustrious sons—Mackintosh, Scott, and Leslie. Men very different in many respects they certainly were, but resembling each other in this, that they all possessed powers to engage the atten- tion and call forth the applause of the literary world, throughout all its realms. We grieve to think, that the fate of the last was too probably hastened by one of those foibles which sometimes curiously protruded themselves amidst the better powers and habitudes of his original and vigorous mind—a contempt of medicine, and an unwillingness to think that be could be seriously ill. A neglected cold, and exposure to wet in superintending some improvements on his much-loved place, followed by erysipelas in one of his legs, not much heeded by himself at first, brought on his death. He was out on his grounds on Wed- nesday sennight ; but the disorder from that day increased so rapidly as to finish its sad work, as already mentioned, on the following Saturday night. "We have neither time, nor materials at baud, nor qualifications for the task of fully delineating the inventions and discoveries, and the scientific attainments and character, of this very remarkable man ; nor would the columns of a news- paper be the proper place for such a task, even though we possessed all the requisites necessary to its execution. But having long lived in habits of inti- mate friendship with him, we cannot allow the grave to close on his mortal re- mains without expressing our heartfelt sorrow for his loss, and attempting, how- ever hastily and imperfectly, to sketch some of the principal facts and features of his scientific career and personal character. "He was born in Apri11766, and destined, we believe, by- his parents to follow the humble, though respectable occupations connected with a small farm and mill. But before he reached his twelfth year, he had attracted considerable notice by his proneness to calculation, and geometrical exercises ; and be was, in consequence, early mentioned to the late Professor John Robinson, and by him to Professors Playfair and Stewart. They saw him, we think in his boyhood, and were much struck by the extraordinary powers which he then displayed. After some previous education, his parents were induced, in consequence of strong recommendations, and of obtaining for him the patronage of the late Earl of Kinnoull, to enter him a student at the University of St. Andrew's. Having-passed some time in that ancient seminary, he removed to Edinburgh, is company with another youth, destined like himself to obtain a high niche in the temple of scientific fame—James Ivory. Whilst a student in our University, he was introduced to, and employed by Dr. Adam Smith, to assist the studies of his nephew, Mr. Douglas, afterwards Lord Reston. Disliking the Church, for which, we believe, lie had been intended by his parents, he proceeded to Lon- don, after completing the usual course of study in Edinburgh. He carried with him some recommendatory letters from Dr. Smith; and we recollect to have heard him mention, that one of the most pressing injunctions with which he was honoured by this illustrious philosopher, was to be sure, if the person to Whom he was to present himself was an author, to read his book before approach- mg him, so as to be able to speak of it, if there should be a fit opportunity. His earliest employment in the capital, as a literary adventurer, was derived from the ;ate Dr. William Thomson, the author of many and various works, all of which, with the exception of his Life of Philip the Third, have fallen into oblivion. Dr. Thomson's reedy pen was often used for others, who took or got the merit of his labours ; and if we recollect rightly, he employed Mr. Leslie in writing or correcting notes for an edition of the Bible with notes, then publish- ing in numbers, under some popular theological name. But Mr. Leslie's first Important undertaking was a Translation of Buffon's Natural History of Birds, which was published in 1793, in nine octavo volumes. The sum he received for it, laid the foundation of that pecuniary independence which, unlike many other men of genius, his prudent habits fortunately enabled him early to attain. The preface to this work, which was published anonymously, is characterized by all the peculiarities of his-later style ; but it also bespeaks a mind of great native vigour and lofty conceptions, strongly touched with admiration for the sublime and. the grand in nature and science. Some time afterwards he proceeded to the United States of America, as a tutor to one of the distinguished family of the Randolphs; and after his return to Britain, he engaged with the late Mr. Thom
as Wedgewood to accompany him to the Continent, various parts of which
l visited sited with that accomplished person, whose early death he ever lamented as a loss to science and to his country. "At what period Mr. Leslie first struck into that brilliant field of inquiry where e became so conspicuous for his masterly experiments and striking discoveries re- garding radiant heat, and the connexion between light and heat, we are unable to say. But his Differential Thermometer—one of the most beautiful and deli- cate iustrutuents that inductive genius ever contrived as a help to experimental
. .
inquiry, and which rewarded its author by its happy ministry to the success of some of his finest experiments—must have been invented before the year
1800 ; as it was described, we think, in Nicholson's Philosophical Journal
some time during that year. The results of those fine inquiries, in which he was so much aided by this exquisite instrument, were published to the world is
1804, in his celebrated Essay on the Nature and Propagation of Heat. The
experimental devices and remarkable discoveries which distinguish this publica- tion, far more than atone for its great defects of method, its very questionabler theories, and its transgressions against that simplicity of style which its aspiring author rather spurned than was unable to exemplify, but Which must be allowed to be a quality peculiarly indispensable to the communication of scientific knowledge. The work was honoured, in the following year, by the unanimous adjudication to its author, by the Council of the Royal Society, of the Rum- ford Medals, appropriated to reward discoveries in that province whose nature and limits be had so much illustrated and extended.
" The year just alluded to (1805) must, on other accounts, be ever viewed as memurable in the history of Mr. Leslie's life, and, we fear we must add, in the history of ecclesiastical persecution of the followers of science. It was in this year that he was elected to the Mathematical Chair in our University, and that our Church Courts were disturbed and contaminated by an unwarrantable at- tempt to annul that election. But we gladly pass from this humiliating exhibi- tion to pursue the more grateful theme furnished by that course of experimental discovery by which Mr. Leslie conferred new lustre on that celebrated seminary, from which some misguided sons of the Church would have cast him forth as as unworthy intruder. It was in 1810, we think, that he arrived, through the assistance of another of his ingenious contrivances—his Hyg,rometer—at the dis- covery of that singularly beautiful process of Artificial Congelation, which enabled him to convert water and mercury into ice. We happened to witness the consummation of the discovery—at least of the performance of one of the first successful repetitions of the process by which it was effected ; and we shall never forget the joy sad elation which beamed on the face of the discoverer, as, with his characteristic good-nature, he patiently explained the steps by which he had been led to it. We felt, on lookiug at, and listening to him, albeit not happy in the verbal exposition even of his own discoveries, how noble and ele- vating nmst be the satisfaction derived from thus acquiring a mastery over the powers of Nature, and enabling man, weak and finite as he is, to reproduce some of her wondrous works. "Mr. Leslie was removed to the Chair of Natural Philosophy in 1819, on the death of Professor Playfair. He lead previously published his Elements of Geometry, and an Account of Eaperiments on Instruments Depending on the Relation of Air to Heat and Moisture. Of his _Elements of _Natural Philo- sophy, afterwards compiled for the use of his class, only one volume has bcea published. He wrote, besides the works-mentioned, some admirable articles in the Edinburgh Review and several very valuable treatises on different branches of physics, in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica. His last, and certainly one of his best and most interesting compositions, was a Discourse on the Hittory of Mathematical and Pleystcal Science, during the eighteenth minim., prefixed to the seventh edition, now publishing of that national Euey- chnetfia. He received the honour of knighthood in the present year, on the suggestion, we believe, of the Lord Chancellor. " It would be impossible, we think, for any intelligent and well-constituted mind to review the labours of this distinguished man without a strong feeling of admiration for his inventive genius and vigorous powers, and of respect for that extensive knowledge which his active curiosity, his various reading, and his happy memory had enabled hint to attain. Stone few of his contemporaries in the same walks of science may have excelled him in profundity of understand- ing, in philosophical caution, and in logical accuracy ; but we. doubt if any sur- passed hint, whilst he must be allowed to have surpassed many, in that creative faculty--one of the highest and rarest of nature's gifts—which leads, and is ne- cessary to discovery, though not all-sufficient of itself for the formation of safe conclusieas ; or in that subtilty and reach of discernment which seizes the finest and least obvious relations among the objects of science—which elicits the hidden secrets of Nature, and ministers to new combinations of her powers. There were some flaws, it must be allowed, in the mind of this memorable person. He strangely undervalued saute branches of philosophical inquiry of high import- ance in the circle of human knowledge. His credulity in matters of ordinary life was, to say the least of it as conspicuous as his tendency to scepticism in science. It has been profoundly remarked by Mr. Dugaid Stewart, that ` though the mathematician may be prevented. in his own pursuits, from going far astray, by the absurdities to which his errors lead him, he is seldom apt to be revolted by absurd conclesious in other matters.' Thus, even in physics, he adds, 'mathematicians have been led to acquiesce in conclusions which appear ludicrous to men of difierent habits.' Something of the same kind was obser- vable in the mind of distinguished nmthematician, for such also he was. He was apt, too, to run into some startling hypotheses, from an unwarrantable application of mathematical principles to subjects altogether foreign to them ; as when he finds an analogy betwr an Circulating Decimals, and the lengthened Cycles of the Seasons. In all Ins writings, with the exception, perhaps, of his last considerable performance—even in the sober field of pure mathematics— there is a constant straining after `thoughts that breathe and words that burn,' and a love of abstract, and figurative, and novel modes of expression, which has exposed them to just criticism, by impartial judges, and to some puny fault-finding, by others, more willing to carp at defects Ian to point out the merits which redeem them. But when even severe criticism has said its worst, it must be allowed that genius has struck its captivating impress, deep and wide, over all his works. His more airy speculations may be thrown aside or condemned ; but his exquisite instruments, and his original and beautiful ex- perimental combinations, will ever attest the fruitfulness of his mind, and con- tinue to act as helps to further discovery. We have already alluded to the ex- tent and excursiveness of his reading. It is rare, indeed, to find a man of so much invention, and who himself valued the inventive above all the other powers, possessing so vast a store of learned and curious information. His read- nag extended to every nook and corner, however obscure, that books have touched upon. He was a lover, too, and that in no ordinary degree, of what is commonly called anecdote. Though he did not shine in mixed society, and was latterly unfitted by a considerable degree of deafness for enjoying it, his conver- sation, when seated with one or two, was highly entertaining. It had no wit, little repartee, and no fine turns of any kind ; but it had a strongly-original and racy cast, and was replete with striking remarks and curious information. Our readers will have perceived, that much as we admire the genius and talents of the subject of this hasty sketch, we are not writing an indiscriminate eulogy upon his mind and character. His memory requires nothing such to insure due concern for his loss, or to assuage the feelings of surviving friends. He had faults, no doubt, as all ' of woman born' have; and we have heard enough of them in our time from some who, it may be, have more. He had prejudices, of which it would have been better to be rid ; he was not over cha- ritable in his views of human virtue; and he was not quite so ready, on all occasions, to do justice to kindred merit as was to be expected in so ardent a worshipper of genius. But his faults were far more than compensated by his many good qualities,—by his constant equanimity, his cheerfulness, his simpli- city of character, almost mfantine, his straightforwardness, his perfect freedom from affectation, and, above all, his unconquerable good-nature. He was, in- deed, one of the most placable of human beings; and if, as has been thought, he generally had a steady eye, in his worldly course, to his own interest, it cannot be denied that he was, notwithstanding, a warm and good friend, and a relation on whose affectionate assistance asfirm reliance could ever be placed."
On the late Professor's private character, the following just remark occurred in a brief notice, also evidently written by in old and intimate: friend, that appeared in the Globe of Monday.
"In private life, no man was ever more thoroughly sincere, simple, and Un- affected. There was not a shade of hypocrisy or assumption in his character : he said at all times exactly what he thought, and never dreamed of disguising or modifying any opinion. Hence be was supposed by some; who only knew him imperfectly, to have foibles of which he was quite as free as Most other men ; the only thing which he lacked being the art to conceal and varnish." • Mention is made above of the opposition to Sir John's election in 1805. It is amusiru to observe the charge and the accusers : the charge was Atheism, the accusers were the Tories. These people are consistent in something.
Among the proposed successors to Sir John Leslie, two names only appear in the newspapers, that merit special remark,—Sir F. Herschel,' and Sir David Brewster. Sir F. Herschel, it is' understood, has other pursuits in view, and would decline the appointment. To one of his independent fortune, a university chair oilers no temptation. Sir David seems, therefore, the only candidate. He is emni exceptions major, in whatever view we choose to regard him.
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