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JACK, or JACHAEUS,
GILBERT, an eminent metaphysician and medical writer, and professor of
philosophy at Leyden, was born at Aberdeen, as has been asserted,
(although there seems but slight ground for fixing the date so
precisely,) in the year 1578. Early in life, and apparently before he
had commenced a regular series of literary study, he lost his father,
and was committed by his mother to the private tuition of a person named
Thomas Cargill. He afterwards studied under Robert Howie: and as that
individual was made principal of Marischal college, on its erection into
a university, in 1593, it is probably that Jack obtained a portion of
his university education at Aberdeen, although he is mentioned by Freher
as having studied philosophy at St Andrews where he was under the
tuition of Robert Hay, an eminent theologist. By the advice of his
tutor, who probably detected in his mind the dawnings of high talent,
Jack continued his studies in the universities on the continent. He
remained for some time at the colleges of Herborn and Helmstadt; when,
incited by the high fame of the university of Leyden, he removed
thither, and sought employment as a private teacher, in expectation of
eventually obtaining a professorship. His ambition was at length
gratified, by his appointment, in 1604, to what has been in general
terms called the philosophical chair of that celebrated institution.
Scotland, which seems to have acquired a permanent celebrity from the
numerous persevering and ambitious men it has dispersed through the
world, was at no time so fruitful in its supply of eminent men as during
the life-time of the subject of our memoir. Adolphus Vorstius, a person
known to fame chiefly from his tributes to the memory of some eminent
friends, and colleague of Jack in the university of Leyden, in a funeral
oration to his memory, from which the materials for a memoir of Jack are
chiefly derived, mentions that at the period we allude to, there was
scarcely a college in Europe of any celebrity, which did not number a
Scotsman among its professors: and whether from the meagre tuition in
our own universities, or other causes, most of the Scotsmen celebrated
for learning at that period—and they were not a few--began their career
of fame abroad. In the works, or correspondence of the continental
scholars of the seventeenth century, we frequently meet with names of
Scotsmen now forgotten in their native country, and that of Jack
frequently occurs, accompanied with many indications of respect. He is
said to have been the first who taught metaphysics at Leyden, a
statement from which we may at least presume, that he opened new
branches of inquiry, and was celebrated for the originality of the
system he inculcated. During his professorship at Leyden he studied
medicine, and took his degree in that science in 1611.
In 1612, appeared his
first work, "Institutiones Physicae, Juventutis Lugdunensis Studiis
potissimum dicatae," republished with notes in 1616. This treatise is
dedicated to Matthew Overbeguius (Overbeke), and is in the usual manner
prefaced by laudatory addresses, which are from the pens of men of
celebrity—Daniel Heinsius, Greek professor of Leyden, (who appropriately
uses his professional language,) Gaspard Bariaeus, the professor of
logic at Leyden, and Theodore Schrevelius (probably father to the
Lexicographer Cornelius). This work, notwithstanding its title, will be
readily understood to be generally metaphysical, and the portion tending
to that species of discussion is that from which a modern student
will derive most satisfaction. It consists of nine books. The first is
introductory, containing definitions, &c., the second is De Natura, the
third De Motu, the fourth De Tempore, the fifth De Caelo, the sixth De
Corpore Misto, the seventh De Meteoris, the eighth De Anima, and the
ninth De Anima Rationali. Apart from the doctrines now called vulgar
errors, for an adherence to which the limited bounds of our own
knowledge must teach us to excuse our forefathers, this work may be
perused with interest and even profit. To have departed from the text of
Aristotle might have been considered equal in heresy to a denial of any
of the evident laws of nature; but if Jack was like others, a mere
commentator on the great lawgiver of philosophers, he frequently clothes
original views in correct, clear, and logical language; his discussions
on time and motion might not be ungrateful to a student of Hutcheson or
Reid; and though almost unknown to his country, and forgotten in his
native city, he is no contemptible member of the class of common-sense
philosophers of whom Scotland has boasted. In 1724, Jack published
another work, entitled "Institutiones Medicae," republished in 1631.
About this period his celebrity had reached the British isles; and, like
his illustrious friend and comrade Vossius, the author of the History of
Pelagianism, he was invited to fill the chair of civil history at
Oxford, a proffer he declined. This eminent man died on the 17th day of
April, 1628, leaving behind him a widow and ten children. He seems to
have been on terms of intimate and friendly familiarity with the
greatest men of the age. He is said to have been a hard student, to have
possessed vast powers of memory, and to have been more attentive to the
elegancies of life, and to his personal appearance, than scholars then
generally were. |
