Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/332

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

328 HUTCHINSON. great length with equal force of argument, and earnestness” of persuasion. His attention, however, was not confined to the pupils under his own immediate care; he endea voured to be useful to the students in all the different faculties; and was peculiarly solicitous to be serviceable to those in divinity. He was a valuable member of the university in a l l other respects, a s well a s that o f professor; his great abilities qualifying him, and his zeal prompting him, o n a l l occasions, t o promote i t s civil a s well a s literary interests. A firm constitution, with pretty uniform state o f good health, excepting some slight attacks o f the gout, seemed t o promise the world a long enjoyment o f his valuable life; but he died o f a sudden attack o f that disease i n his fifty-third year, i n 1747. He had married soon after his settling i n Dublin, Mrs. Mary Wilson, the daughter o f a gentleman i n the county o f Longford, by whom h e had a son, Francis Hutcheson, M.D. who published from the original MS. o f his father, “A System o f Moral Philosophy,” i n three books, Glas gow, 1755, 2 vols. 4to. To this work i s prefixed, “Some Account o f the Life, Writings, and Character o f the Author,” b y Dr. Leechman, professor o f divinity i n the same university. Dr. Hutcheson acquired a lasting fame b y his acade mical lectures; and he did a n inestimable benefit t o moral science, b y diffusing a taste for analytical investigation, t o which the world i s indebted for the highly esteemed works of those authors mentioned at the commencement o f this article, by means o f whose labours this branch o f philosophy has since made s o remarkable a n advance IIlent. JOHN HELY HUTCHINSON, An eminent lawyer and senator, was the son o f Francis Hely, Esq. and received his education i n the university o f Dublin. A t a very early period, h e distinguished him