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BURNET, JAMES, better
known by his judicial designation of Lord Monboddo, was born at Monboddo,
in Kincardineshire, in the year 1714. He was eldest surviving son of
James Burnet, by Elizabeth Forbes, only sister to Sir Arthur Forbes of
Craigievar, Baronet. For what reason is not known, but, instead of being
sent to a public school, he was educated at home, under the care of Dr
Francis Skene, afterwards professor of philosophy at the Marischal
College, Aberdeen. This gentleman discharged his duty to his pupil with
the utmost faithfulness, and succeeded in inspiring him with a taste for
ancient literature. He was the first that introduced him to an
acquaintance with the philosophy of the ancients, of which Mr Burnet
became so enthusiastic an admirer. Dr Skene, being promoted to a
professorship, was the more immediate cause of his pupil accompanying
him to Aberdeen, and of his being educated at the Marischal College in
that city. It is probable that he lodged with his preceptor, who of
course would direct and superintend his studies. Dr Skene was a
professor in that seminary for the long period of forty-one years, and
was universally acknowledged to be one of the most diligent and
laborious teachers that ever held the honourable office.
What contributed, in a
great degree, to fix Mr Burnet's attention upon the literature and
philosophy of the Greeks, was not only the instructions he had received
at home from his tutor, but that, when he entered the university,
Principal Blackwell had for several years been professor of Greek. This
person was the great means of reviving the study of this noble language
in the north of Scotland; and one of his greatest admirers, and zealous
imitators in the prosecution of Grecian learning, was Mr Burnet.
Esteeming the philosophical works transmitted to us by the Romans as
only copies, or borrowed from the Greeks, he determined to have recourse
to the fountain head. Burnet was naturally a man of very keen passions,
of an independent tone of thinking, and whatever opinion he once
espoused, he was neither ashamed nor afraid to avow it openly. He
dreaded no consequences, neither did he regard the opinions of others.
If he had the authority of Plato or Aristotle, he was quite satisfied,
and, how paradoxical soever the sentiment might be, or contrary to what
was popular or generally received, he did not in the least regard.
Revolutions of various kinds were beginning to be introduced into the
schools; but these he either neglected or despised. The Newtonian
philosophy in particular had begun to attract attention, and public
lecturers upon its leading doctrines had been established in almost all
the British universities; but their very novelty was a sufficient reason
for his neglecting them. The laws by which the material world is
regulated, were considered by him as of vastly inferior importance to
what regarded mind, and its diversified operations. To the
contemplation of the latter, therefore, his chief study was directed.
Having been early
designed for the Scottish bar, he wisely resolved to lay a good
foundation, and to suffer nothing to interfere with what was now to be
the main business of his life. To obtain eminence in the profession of
the law, depends less upon contingencies, than in any of the other
learned professions. Wealth, splendid connections, and circumstances
merely casual, have brought forward many physicians and divines, who had
nothing else to recommend them. But though these may be excellent
subsidiaries, they are not sufficient of themselves to constitute a
distinguished lawyer. Besides good natural abilities, the most severe
application, and uncommon diligence in the acquisition of extensive
legal knowledge, are absolutely necessary. At every step the neophyte is
obliged to make trial of his strength with his opponents, and as the
public are seldom in a mistake for any length of time, where their
interests are materially concerned, his station is very soon fixed. The
intimate connection that subsists between the civil or Roman law, and
the law of Scotland, is well known. The one is founded upon the other.
According to the custom of Scotland at that time, Burnet repaired to
Holland, where the best masters in this study were then settled. At the
university of Groningen he remained for three years, assiduously
attending the lectures on the civil law. He then returned to his native
country so perfectly accomplished as a civilian, that, during the course
of a long life, his opinions on difficult points of this law were highly
respected.
He happened to arrive in
Edinburgh from Holland on the night of Porteous' mob. His lodgings were
in the Lawnmarket, in the vicinity of the Tolbooth, and hearing a great
noise in the street, from a motive of curiosity he sallied forth to
witness the scene. Some person, however, had recognised him, and it was
currently reported that he was one of the ringleaders. He was likely to
have been put to some trouble on this account, had he not been able to
prove that he had just arrived from abroad, and therefore could know
nothing of what was in agitation. He was wont to relate with great
spirit the circumstances that attended this singular transaction.
In 1737, he became a
member of the Faculty of Advocates, and in process of time came into
considerable practice. His chief patrons in early life, were lord
justice clerk Milton, lord president Forbes, and Erskine lord Tinwald,
or Alva. The last had been a professor in the university of Edinburgh,
and being an excellent Greek scholar, knew how to estimate his talents.
During the rebellion of
1745, Burnet went to London, and prudently declining to take any part in
the politics of that troublous period, he spent the time chiefly in the
company and conversation of his literary friends. Among these were
Thomson the poet, lord Littleton, and Dr Armstrong. When peace was
restored, he returned to Scotland. About 1760, he married a beautiful
and accomplished lady, Miss Farquharson, a relation of Marischal Keith,
by whom he had a son and two daughters. What first brought him into very
prominent notice, was the share he had in conducting the celebrated
Douglas' cause. No question ever came before a court of law, which
interested the public to a greater degree. In Scotland it became in a
manner a national question, for the whole country was divided, and
ranged on one side or the other. Mr Burnet was counsel for Mr Douglas,
and went thrice to France to assist in leading the proof taken there.
This he was well qualified to do, for, during his studies in Holland, he
had acquired the practice of speaking the French language with great
facility. Such interest did this cause excite, that the pleadings before
the court of session lasted thirty-one days, and the most eminent
lawyers were engaged. It is a curious historical fact, that almost all
the lawyers on both sides were afterwards raised to the bench. Mr Burnet
was, in 1764, made sheriff of his native county, and on the 12th
February, 1767, through the interest of the Duke of Queensberry, lord
justice general, he succeeded Lord Milton as a lord of session, under
the title of Lord Monboddo. It is said that he refused a justiciary
gown, being unwilling that his studies should be interrupted, during the
vacation, by any additional engagements.
The first work which he
published was on the Origin and Progress of Language. The first volume
appeared in 1771, the second in 1773, and the third in 1776. This
treatise attracted a great deal of attention on account of the
singularity of some of the doctrines which it advanced. In the first
part, he gives a very learned, elaborate, and abstruse account of the
origin of ideas, according to the metaphysics of Plato and the
commentators on Aristotle, philosophers to whose writings and theories
he was devotedly attached. He then treats of the origin of human society
and of language, which he considers as a human invention, without paying
the least regard to the scriptural accounts. He represents men as having
originally been, and continued for many ages to be, no better than
beasts, and indeed in many respects worse; as destitute of speech, of
reason, of conscience, of social affection, and of every thing that can
confer dignity upon a creature, and possessed of nothing but external
sense and memory, and a capacity of improvement. The system is not a new
one, being borrowed from Lucretius, of whose account of it, Horace gives
an exact abridgment in these lines: - "Cum prorepserunt primis
animalia terris, mutum et turpe pecus," &c. which Lord Monboddo
takes for his motto, and which, he said, comprehended in miniature the
whole history of man. In regard to facts that make for his system he is
amazingly credulous, but blind and sceptical in regard to every thing of
an opposite tendency. He asserts with the utmost gravity and confidence,
that the oran-outangs are of the human species - that in the bay of
Bengal, there exists a nation of human creatures with tails, discovered
one hundred and thirty years before by a Swedish skipper - that the
beavers and sea-cats are social and political animals, though man, by
nature, is neither social nor political, nor even rational - reason,
reflection, a sense of right and wrong, society, policy, and even
thought, being, in the human species, as much the effects of art,
contrivance, and long experience, as writing, ship-building, or any
other manufacture. Notwithstanding that the work contains these and many
other strange and whimsical opinions, yet it discovers great acuteness
of remark.
His greatest work, which
he called "Ancient Metaphysics," consists of three volumes
4to., the last of which was published only a few weeks before the
author's death. It may be considered as an exposition and defence of the
Grecian philosophy in opposition to the philosophical system of Sir
Isaac Newton, and the scepticism of modern metaphysicians, particularly
Mr David Hume. His opinions upon many points coincide with those of Mr
Harris, the author of Hermes, who was his intimate friend, and of whom
he was a great admirer. He never seems to have understood, nor to have
entered into the spirit of the Newtonian philosophy; and, as to Mr Hume,
he, without any disguise, accuses him of atheism, and reprobates in the
most severe terms some of his opinions.
In domestic circumstances
Monboddo was particularly unfortunate. His wife, a very beautiful woman,
died in child-bed. His son, a promising boy, in whose education he took
great delight, was likewise snatched from his affections by a premature
death; and his second daughter, in personal loveliness one of the first
women of the age, was cut off by consumption, when only twenty-five
years old. Burns, in an address to Edinburgh, thus celebrates the beauty
and excellence of Miss Burnet: -
Thy daughters bright thy
walks adorn,
Gay as the gilded summer sky,
Sweet as the dewy milk-white thorn,
Dear as the raptured thrill of joy!
Fair Burnet strikes the
adoring eye,
Heaven's beauties on my fancy shine;
I see the Sire of love on high,
And own his work indeed divine."
His eldest daughter was
married to Kirkpatrick Williamson, Esq. late keeper of the outer house
rolls, who had been clerk to his lordship, and was eminent as a Greek
scholar.
About 1780, he first
began to make an annual journey to London, which he continued for a good
many years, indeed, till he was upwards of eighty years of age. As a
carriage was not a vehicle in use among the ancients, he determined
never to enter and be seated in what he termed a box. He esteemed it as
degrading to the dignity of human nature to be dragged at the tails of
horses instead of being mounted on their backs. In his journeys between
Edinburgh and London he therefore rode on horseback, attended by a
single servant. On his last visit, he was taken ill on the road, and it
was with difficulty that Sir Hector Monroe prevailed upon him to come
into his carriage. He set out, however, next day on horseback, and
arrived safe in Edinburgh by slow journeys.
Lord Monboddo being in
London in 1785, visited the King's bench, when some part of the fixtures
of the place giving way, a great scatter took place among the lawyers,
and the very judges themselves rushed towards the door. Monboddo,
somewhat near-sighted, and rather dull of hearing, sat still, and was
the only man who did so. Being asked why he had not bestirred himself to
avoid the ruin, he coolly answered that he "thought it was an
annual ceremony, with which, being an alien, he had nothing to do."
When in the country he
generally dressed in the style of a plain farmer; and lived among his
tenants with the utmost familiarity, and treated them with great
kindness. He used much the exercises of walking in the open air, and of
riding. He had accustomed himself to the use of the cold bath in all
seasons, and amid every severity of the weather. It is said that he even
made use of the air bath, or occasionally walking about for some minutes
naked in a room filled with fresh and cool air. In imitation of the
ancients, the practice of anointing was not forgotten. The lotion
he used was not the oil of the ancients, but a saponacious liquid
compound of rose water, olive oil, saline aromatic spirit, and Venice
soap, which, when well mixed, resembles cream. This he applied at
bed-time, before a large fire, after coming from the warm bath.
This learned and
ingenious, though somewhat eccentric, man died upon the 26th May, 1799,
at the advanced age of eighty-five years. |
