Doctor left a son and daughter the former a man of respectable gifts, and a fellow of the London Royal College of Physicians. His remains were interred in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, next to those of the celebrated Jebb.[1]
BUCHANAN, DUGALD, a Highland poet of eminent merit, was born, in the early part of the eighteenth century, in the parish of Balquhidder, Perthshire. In early youth he is said to have been of a dissolute character; but little is known of him till he was found keeping a small school in a hamlet of his native country, and in possession of much local fame as a writer of devotional arid pious verses. Some respectable persons, struck by his talents, interested themselves in his fate, and obtained for him the superior situation of school-master and catechist at Rannoch, on the establishment of the society for propagating Christian knowledge. When he first went to reside in that remote district, the people were so rude, from the want of religious instruction, that they hardly recognised the sacred nature of the Sabbath. They were in the habit of meeting at different places, on that day, to amuse themselves with foot-ball and other sports. The parish clergyman visited them once every three weeks; but, from the extent of the parish, he seems to hare been unable to exercise any proper control over them. Buchanan, it is said, invited them all to come and enjoy their Sunday recreations with him, and when they arrived, began to perform divine worship, which he seasoned with a lecture on the sin of Sabbath-breaking. Though many were disgusted at first, all of them became at length convinced of their error, and Buchanan in time brought them into a state of high religious culture, the effects of which are said to be visible at this day in Rannoch. The education of this poor scholar was not of the best order; yet he was acquainted with divinity, natural philosophy, and history, and possessed a most felicitous gift of poetry, which he almost exclusively employed for sacred purposes. His writings, which are unknown to English readers, and never can be adequately translated, resemble those of Cowper. An effort was made to obtain for him a license as a preacher of the Scottish church, but without success. He was of much service to the Rev James Stewart of Killin, in translating the New Testament into Gaelic. Having accompanied that gentleman to Edinburgh, in order to aid him in superintending the press, he took the opportunity of improving himself by attendance on the classes for natural philosophy and anatomy in the college. He was at the same time introduced to David Hume, who maintained, in conversation with him, that, although the bible was an excellent book, it was surpassed in beauty and sublimity of language by many profane authors. In support of his assertion, he quoted the lines
"The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leave not a wreck behind."
The devout bard admitted the beauty and sublimity of these lines, but said, that he could furnish a passage from the New Testament still more sublime, and recited the following verses: (Rev. xx. 22.) "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great,
- ↑ The following somewhat ungracious anecdote, -which appears in the obituary notice of Dr Buchan, in the Gentleman's Magazine, must have been contributed, we suspect, by a pronium would be felt by every body, on account of the taxes laid on to pay the interest of the loan whereas the loss of the Doctor would not be generally felt.' "
