pies. Accordingly, he would go over the most difficult subjects, and bring out the most profound remarks, with an ease and readiness which was quite singular. The depth of his observations seemed to cost him nothing: and when he said any thing particularly striking, you never could discover any appearance of the self-satisfaction so common on such occasions. He was disposed to pass quite readily from one subject to another: the transition was a matter of course, and he had perfectly, and apparently without seeking after it, that light and easy turn of conversation, even on scientific and profound subjects, in which we of this island are charged by our neighbours with being so extremely deficient. The same facility, and the same general tone, were to be seen in his lectures and his writings. He composed with singular facility and correctness, but was sometimes, when he had leisure to be so, very fastidious about his own compositions. In the intercourse of his life, he was benevolent, disinterested, and friendly, and of sincere and unaffected piety. In his interpretation of the conduct of others, he was fair and liberal, while his mind retained its natural tone, and had not yielded to the alarms of the French Revolution, and to the bias which it produced."
Mr Robison's various works, printed and unprinted, were, after his death, put into the hands of professor Playfair; but that gentleman finding that he could not devote his time sufficiently to them, they were afterwards published, with notes, by Dr Bre water, in four volumes octavo, 1 822. This work consists of some manuscript papers on Projectiles and Corpuscular Action, and the papers which the author prepared for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, abridged of some of their digressions.
ROLLOCK, Robert, an early and zealous promoter of Scottish literature, was born in the year 1555. He was nearly related through his mother to the noble family of Livingston. Discovering an early aptitude for letters, he was sent by his father, Mr David Rollock, to the grammar school of Stirling, at that time taught by Mr Thomas Buchanan, nephew to the author of the History of Scotland. Under the care of this teacher he continued till he was fit for entering the university, when he was sent to the college of St Salvador, St Andrews. By his docility, modesty, and sweetness of disposition, young Rollock had already engaged the affections of his preceptor, and laid the foundation of a friendship which continued till his death. The possession of these virtues also procured him, in a short time, the particular and favourable notice of the whole university. Having gone through the regular course of four years' study, which was at that time the prescribed period in all the Scottish colleges, and taken out his degree, he was immediately elected professor of philosophy, being then only in the twenty-third year of his age. Here he continued for four years, discharging the duties of his office with singular diligence, and with a success almost without example in Scottish colleges. It was at this time, and long after this, the practice in the Scottish universities, for the same professor to conduct the studies of the same set of students through the whole course; and the remarkable progress of his pupils, with the public applause he received at their laureation, induced the magistrates of Edinburgh to fix upon Mr Rollock as a fit person to open their university, for which they had obtained a charter from king James the previous year. This invitation Mr Rollock was persuaded to accept, and in the beginning of winter 1583, he entered, with all his accustomed zeal upon his laborious office, being the sole teacher, and in his own person comprising the character of principal and professors to the infant establishment. The fame, however, of so celebrated a teacher as Mr Rollock opening a class for philosophy in the newly erected seminary, operated as a charm, and multitudes from all corners of the kingdom hastened to the capital to
