It was in conversational intercourse with minds trained to abstract thought that his power as a thinker chiefly appeared. The results of his thought were usually given in sententious aphorisms, much in the manner of a rabbi; while in concision and precision of language he showed the influence of Aristotle. He had very little faith in the achievements of philosophy; its constructive power was very small; it could never raise man to the heights to which he aspired. He relied for the discovery of truth on the voice of God which he claimed to have heard in the scriptures.
Duncan wrote very little. He edited in 1838 a British edition of Robinson's ‘Lexicon of the Greek New Testament;’ published a lecture on the Jews and another on protestantism, and contributed a lecture on ‘The Theology of the Old Testament’ to the inaugural volume of the New College, Edinburgh. A volume of sermons and communion addresses was published after his death. But such contributions were no fair sample of the man. Much of him may be learned from the ‘Colloquia Peripatetica’ (1870) of Professor Knight of St. Andrews, a favourite and most admiring student, who, living under the same roof with him for two summers in his student days, took notes of his conversation, and has reproduced many of his most characteristic sayings. This book has passed through several editions (5th ed. 1879).
Duncan died on 26 Feb. 1870, aged 74. He married Janet Douglas, who died 28 Oct. 1852.
[Life of the late John Duncan, LL.D., by David Brown, D.D., Professor of Theology, Aberdeen 1872; Recollections of John Duncan, LL.D., by A. Moody Stuart, D.D.; Colloquia Peripatetica, by Professor Knight, LL.D.; the Pulpit and the Communion Table, edited by D. Brown, D.D.; Disruption Worthies; personal acquaintance.]
DUNCAN, JOHN (1794–1881), weaver and botanist, was born at Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, on 19 Dec. 1794. His mother, Ann Caird, was not married to his father, John Duncan, a weaver of Drumlithie, eight miles from Stonehaven, and she supported herself and the boy by harvesting and by weaving stockings. The boy never went to school, but very early rambled widely over the rough cliffs, and procured rushes in the valleys, from which he made pith wicks for sale. From the age of fifteen he went as herd-boy in various farms, receiving cruel treatment, which increased his natural shyness and developed various peculiarities. During his boyhood he acquired a strong love for wild plants. In his own words, ‘I just took a notion to ken ae plant by anither when I was rinnin' aboot the braes. I never saw a plant but I lookit for the marrows o'd [that is, for those similar], and as I had a gweed memory, when I kent a flower ance, I kent it aye.’ He could always in after life recall the precise spot where he had seen any particular plant in boyhood, though he might have only seen it again after many years, and never have known its name or scientific position till then.
In 1809 Duncan was apprenticed for five years to a weaver in Drumlithie, a village of country linen-weavers. His master, Charles Pirie, a powerful ill-tempered man, who had almost conquered the celebrated Captain Barclay [see Allardice, Robert Barclay], and also carried on an illicit still and smuggled gin, was exceedingly cruel to his apprentice; but his wife, who had some education, inspired the boy with the wish to read, and he at last acquired moderate skill in reading, though it was always difficult for him, probably through his extreme shortsightedness. He did not learn to write till after he was thirty years of age. Meanwhile his love of nature continued, and was further stimulated by obtaining the loan of Culpeper's ‘British Herbal,’ then in great repute among village herbalists. He thus learnt to name some plants for himself. In 1814, however, when his apprenticeship had still some months to run, his servitude became so intolerable that he ran away and returned to Stonehaven, where he lived with his mother for two years. By dint of extreme care, for wages were very low, he managed to save 1l. to buy a copy of Culpeper, and he became master of its contents and of herbalism, which he practised all his life. From Culpeper, too, and the astrology it contained, he gained an introduction to astronomy, which he afterwards studied as deeply as his means permitted. In 1816 Duncan and his mother removed to Aberdeen, where he learnt woollen-weaving. He married in 1818, but his wife proved unfaithful, and, after deserting him, continually annoyed him and drained his scanty purse. In 1824 Duncan became a travelling or household weaver, varying his work with harvesting, and taking a half-yearly spell of training as a militiaman at Aberdeen for nearly twenty years. He became an excellent weaver, studying the mechanics of the loom, and purchasing ‘Essays on the Art of Weaving’ (Glasgow, 1808), by a namesake, the inventor of the patent tambouring machinery, Peddie's ‘Weaver's Assistant,’ 1817, and ‘Murphy on Weaving,’ 1831. He also devoted himself to advancing his general education by the aid of dictionaries, grammars,
