parent. Who shall prescribe exact limits to the benefits conferred on her
country and her race by this humble, but pious Christian woman who taught
in early life religion to her elder son, the author of the article Scripture, in the
"Encyclopædia Britannica," which, in the third and many subsequent editions
of that work, has been read and distributed over the globe for nearly half a
century, to a greater extent than perhaps any other religious treatise and who
gave the earliest impressions of his relations to his Maker to the great chemical philosopher?
THOMSON, Thomas.—In few countries has the study of national antiquities been prosecuted so zealously or so successfully as in Scotland. It would be too much to assign this peculiarity either to the romantic character, or the importance of the early achievements of Scotland, for these were certainly of small account in "the general history of Europe. The cause is rather to be found in the grievous calamities that befell our national archives in the times of Edward I. and Oliver Cromwell. By these, our written records, and even our national monuments, were so destroyed or obliterated, that nothing but the most devote antiquarianism could have restored to us the semblance of a history. Hence, not only the necessity of diligent Scottish research among the relics of bygone ages, but the keenness with which it has been prosecuted, and the success that has attended it. Through these labours, Scotland now possesses a history that, in point both of accuracy and fulness, may compete with that of most countries of Europe. And among the foremost of those antiquaries who, for a century, have toiled in such a patriotic task, perhaps there is none entitled to take precedence of him whose name stands at the head of this notice.
Thomas Thomson was descended of a family that might well be characterized as a portion of the tribe of Levi; for not only his father, but also his grandfather and great-grandfather, had been successively ministers of the Kirk of Scotland. To this, also, it may be added, that his younger brother John was the late minister of Duddingston, although he is better known among the lovers of the fine arts as the Claude Lorraine of Scotland. Thomas, the future antiquary, was born in the manse of Dailly, Ayrshire, of which parish his father was minister, on the 10th of November, 1768. As it was nothing more than natural that his views, from an early period, should be directed towards the church, in which his ancestors had held the ministerial office since the close of the seventeenth century, he was sent in 1782 to prosecute the necessary studies in the university of Glasgow. He passed through what are called the "gown classes" with considerable distinction, took the degree of A.M. in 1789, and became, during the two following sessions, a student in theology. But at this time the lectures in the divinity hall, as well as the class-room of church history in the college of Glasgow, were of such a massive, not to say a heavy character, that none but a mind of congenial calibre could endure them to the end. Accordingly, in spite of every prospect of church advancement, which was now a sort of heir-loom in the family, Mr. Thomson's mercurial spirit broke impatiently from the restraint, and sought shelter in other pursuits. He resolved to study law, and devote himself to the bar; and for this purpose he exchanged the of theology for the law classes of Professor Millar, whose lectures were of a very different description from those he had hitherto attended. After this, he completed his course of legal study in the university of Edinburgh, and at the close of 1793 was admitted a member of the faculty of advocates.
It is not our purpose to follow out the course of Mr. Thomson at the
