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XVII. Biographical Account of the late John Robison, LL.D. F.R.S. Edin. and Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2013

John Playfair
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Extract

The distinguished person who is the subject of this memoir, was born at Boghall, in the parish of Baldernock, near Glasgow, in the year 1739. His father, John Robison, had been early engaged in commerce in Glasgow, where, with a character of great probity and worth, he had acquired considerable wealth, and, before the birth of his son, had retired to the country, and lived at his estate of Boghall.

Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , 1815 , pp. 495 - 539
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1815

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References

page 506 note * It is, however, true, that the place of Purser was afterwards offered to Mr Robison, but such a one as he could have no temptation to accept. In 1763, when Lord Sandwich was First Lord of the Admiralty, his solicitations were so far listened to, that he was appointed to the Aurora, of 40 guns, then on the stocks. As the ship must be long of being in commission, and the pay of the Purser, in the mean time, very inconsiderable, Mr Robison declined accepting this appointment.

page 518 note * Edinburgh Transactions, vol. ii. p. 83.

page 519 note * Boscovich, Opera Math. tom. II. opusc. 3.

page 527 note * Proofs of a Conspiracy, &c. 4th Edit. Note, p. 584.

page 530 note * Ferguson's Essay on Civil Society, Part III. Sect. 4.

page 534 note * The high opinion which Mr Robison elsewhere expresses of Lavoisier, is very remarkable. In his Astronomy, published a year after Lectures, in stating Hook's anticipation of the Principles of Gravitation, he concludes thus: “It is worthy of remark, that in this clear and candid and modest. “exposition of a rational theory, Hook anticipated the discoveries of Newton, as he anticipated with equal distinctness and precision, the discoveries of Lavoisier, a Philosopher inferior perhaps only to Newton.” (Elements of Mechanical Philosophy, p. 285.)