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ELPHINSTONE, JAMES, a
miscellaneous writer, was born at Edinburgh, November 25th, O. S., 1721. He
appears to have descended from a race of non-jurant episcopalians, and to
have had some distinguished connections among that body. His father was the
Rev. William Elphinstone, an episcopal minister. His mother was daughter to
the Rev. Mr Honeyman, minister of Kineff and niece to Honeyman, bishop of
Orkney, a prelate very obnoxious to the presbyterian party in the reign of
Charles II., and who died in consequence of a pistol-wound which he received
while entering archbishop’s Sharpe’s coach, and which was intended for
the primate. Mr Elphinstone was educated at the high school and university
of Edinburgh; and before the age of seventeen, was deemed fit to act as
tutor to the son of lord Blantyre. When about twenty-one years of age, he
became acquainted at London with the Jacobite historian, Thomas Carte, whom
he accompanied on a tour through Holland, the Netherlands, and France. In
Paris the two travellers spent a considerable time; and here Mr Elphinstone
perfected his acquaintance with the French language. After the death of
Carte, Mr Elphinstone returned to his native country, and became tutor in
the family of Mr Moray of Abercairney, also a keen jacobite. In 1750, he is
found resident at Edinburgh, where he superintended an edition of the
Rambler. The law of copyright at that time permitted the Scottish and Irish
booksellers to reprint whatever works appeared in England, without
compensation; and this was taken advantage of in the case of Dr Johnson’s
celebrated paper, each number of which appeared at Edinburgh as soon as it
could be obtained from London. To this reprint, the subject of the present
memoir supplied English translations of the classical mottoes, and with
these Dr Johnson was so much pleased, as to extend his friendship to their
author, and to adopt them in all the subsequent editions of his work. In a
letter to Mr Elphinstone, published in Boswell’s Life of Johnson, the
author of the Rambler begs of his friend, to "write soon, to write
often, and to write long letters;" a compliment of which any man
existing at that time might well have been proud. During the progress of the
Rambler, Mr Elphinstone lost his mother, of whose death he gave a very
affecting account, in a letter to his sister, Mrs Strahan, wife of Mr
William Strahan, the celebrated printer. This being shown to Dr Johnson,
affected him so much, with a reflection upon his own mother, then in extreme
old age, that he shed tears. He also sent a consolatory letter to Mr
Elphinstone, which is printed by Boswell, and is full of warm and benignant
feeling. The Scottish edition of the Rambler was ultimately completed, in
eight duodecimo volumes, of most elegant appearance, and, as the impression
was limited, it is now very scarce.
In 1751, Mr Elphinstone
married Miss Gordon, daughter of a brother of General Gordon of Auchintool,
and grand-daughter of lord Auchintool, one of the judges of the court of
session before the revolution. Two years afterwards, he removed to London,
and established a seminary upon an extensive scale, first at Brompton, and
afterwards at Kensington. As a teacher, he was zealous and intelligent, and
never failed to fix the affections and retain the friendship of his pupils.
In 1753, he published a poetical version of the younger Racine’s poem of
"Religion," which, we are told, obtained the approbation of Dr
Young, author of the "Night Thoughts." About the same time,
finding no grammar of the English language which he altogether approved of,
he composed one for the use of his pupils, and published it in two duodecimo
volumes. This was the most useful, and also the most successful of all his
works, though it is now antiquated; it received the warm approbation of Mr
John Walker, author of the Pronouncing Dictionary. In 1763, Mr Elphinstone
published a poem, entitled "Education," which met with no success.
In the year 1776, Mr
Elphinstone retired from his school with a competency, and seemed destined
to spend the remainder of a useful life in tranquillity and happiness. In
consequence, however, of certain peculiarities of his own mind, his peace
was greatly disturbed, and his name covered with a ridicule which would not
otherwise have belonged to it. It was the impression of everybody but Mr
Elphinstone himself, that he possessed no particular talent for poetry, but
simply resembled many other men of good education, who possess the art of
constructing verse, without the power of inspiring it with ideas. Tempted,
perhaps, by the compliments he had received on account of his mottoes to the
Rambler, he resolved to execute a poetical translation of Martial. As he had
a most extensive acquaintance, his contemplated work was honoured with a
large subscription-list; and the work appeared in 1782, in one volume
quarto, but was met on all hands with ridicule and contempt "Elphinstone’s
Martial," says Dr Beattie, in a letter to Sir William Forbes, "is
just come to hand. It is truly a unique. The specimens formerly
published did very well to laugh at; but a whole quarto of nonsense and
gibberish is too much. It is strange that a man not wholly illiterate should
have lived so long in England without learning the language." The work,
in fact, both in the poetry and the notes, displayed a total absence of
judgment; and, accordingly, it has sunk into utter neglect.
In 1778, Elphinstone lost his
wife, an event which is supposed to have somewhat unhinged his mind. To
beguile his grief, he travelled into Scotland, where he was received with
great civility by the most distinguished men of the day. It was even
purposed to erect a new chair—one for English literature—in the
university of Edinburgh, in order that he might fill it. Though this design
misgave, he delivered a series of lectures on the English language, first at
Edinburgh, and then in the public hall of the university of Glasgow. In the
autumn of 1779, he returned to Edinburgh.
In his translation of
Martial, Mr Elphinstone had given some specimens of a new plan of
orthography, projected by himself, and of which the principal feature was
the spelling of the words according to their sounds. In church and in state,
he was a high tory; but he was the most determined jacobin in language. The
whole system of derivation he set at defiance; analogy was his solvent; and
he wished to create a complete revolution in favour of pronunciation. In
1786, he published a full explanation of his system, in two volumes quarto,
under the extraordinary title of "Propriety ascertained in her
Picture." Though the work produced not a single convert, he persisted
in his desperate attempt, and followed up his first work by two others,
entitled "English Orthograhy Epitomized," and" Propriety’s
Pocket Dictionary." In order, further to give the world an
example of an ordinary book printed according to his ideas, he published, in
1794, a selection of his letters to his friends, with their answers,
entirely spelt in the new way; the appearance of which was so unnatural, and
the reading so difficult and tiresome, that it never was sold to any extent,
and produced a heavy loss to the editor. If Mr Elphinstone had
applied his political principles to this subject, he would have soon
convinced himself that there is more mischief, generally, in the change than
good in the result. His pupil, Mr R. C. Dallas, thus accounts for his
obstinacy in error. "He was," says this gentleman, "a Quixote
in whatever he judged right; in religion, in virtue, in benevolent
interferences; the force of custom or a host of foes made no impression upon
him; the only question with him was, should it be, or should it not be? Such
a man might be foiled in an attempt, but was not likely to be diverted from
one in which he thought right was to be supported against wrong. The
worst that can be said of his perseverance in so hopeless a pursuit is, that
it was a foible by which he injured no one but himself."
Having seriously impaired his
fortune by these publications, the latter days of this worthy man would have
probably been spent in poverty, if he had not been rescued from that state
by his brother-in-law and sister, Mr and Mrs Strahan. the former of these
individuals, at his death, in 1785, left him an annuity of a hundred a-year,
a hundred pounds in ready money, and twenty pounds for mournings. Mrs
Strahan, who only survived her husband a month, left him two hundred pounds
a-year more, and thus secured his permanent comfort. In the same year, he
married, for his second wife, Miss Falconer, a niece of bishop Falconer of
the Scottish episcopal church, who proved to him a most faithful and
attentive partner till the close of his life. Mr Elphinstone lived on his
humble competency, in the enjoyment of good health, till October 8th,
1809, when he suddenly expired, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. He was
buried at Kensington, where, upon the east wall of the church, there is a
marble slab, with an inscription setting forth his virtues.
Though, as a follower of
literature, Elphinstone did little to secure the approbation of mankind, he
was, nevertheless, a man of considerable mental abilities; and it is even
said that he possessed the power of writing with force and simplicity, if it
had not been obscured by his eccentricities. "After all," says Mr.
Dallas, "it is as a man and a christian that he excelled; as a son, a
brother, a husband, and a father to many, though be never had any children
of his own, as a friend, an enlightened patriot, and a loyal subject.
His manners were simple, his rectitude undeviating. His piety, though
exemplary, was devoid of show; the sincerity of it was self-evident; but,
though unobtrusive, it became impatient on the least attempt at profaneness;
and an oath he could not endure. On such occasions he never failed boldly to
correct the vice, whencesoever it proceeded. Mr Elphinstone was
middle-sized, and slender in his person; he had a peculiar countenance,
which, perhaps, would have been considered an ordinary one, but for the
spirit and intellectual emanation which it possessed. He never complied with
fashion in the alteration of his clothes. In a letter to a friend in 1782,
he says: ‘time has no more changed my heart than my dress;’ and he might
have said it again in 1809. The colour of his suit of clothes was
invariably, except when in mourning, what is called a drab; his coat was
made in the fashion that reigned when he returned from France, in the
beginning of the last century, with flaps and buttons to the pockets and
sleeves, and without a cape: he always wore a powdered bag-wig, with a high
toupee, and walked with a cocked-hat and an amber-beaded cane; his
shoe-buckles had seldom been changed, and were always of the same size; and
he never put on boots. It must be observed, that he latterly, more than
once, offered to make any change Mrs Elphinstone might deem proper; but in
her eyes his virtues and worth had so sanctified his appearance, that she
would have thought the alteration a sacrilege." |
