JOHN ARMSTRONG was born at Caftleton, on the banks of the Liddal, in Roxburghshire, about 1709. His father and brother were minifters of Castleton, and highly respected for their piety and diligence in their pastoral duty.

After the ordinary course of school education, he was fent to the University of Edinburgh; where he studied the feveral branches of philosophy and medicine, under the different Professors, and took his degree in Phyfic, February 4. 1732, with much reputation. The subject of his inaugural differtation was De Tabe purulenta.

Soon after his graduation he went to London, the proper place for a man of accomplishments like his, where he commenced Physician; but never attained any great extent of practice or eminence of popularity.

He was more fuccessful as an author than a physician. In 1735, he published, without his name, a pamphlet, intituled An Essay for Abridging the Study of Phyfic; to which is added a Dialogue betwint Hygeia, Mercury, and Pluto, relating to the Practice of Phyfic, as it is managed by a certain illustrious Sosicty; and An Epiftle from Ufbeck the Perfian to Jofbua Ward, Esq. with a dedication. “To the Antiacademic Philofophers, to the Generous Despisers of the Schools, to the Defervedly Celebrated Joshua Ward, John Moor, and the reft of the numerous fect of Infpired Physicians." This fugitive piece contains much wit and pleafantry. In the dialogue he has caught the very spirit of Lucian.

In 1737, he published ▲ Synopsis of the Hiflory and Cure of the Venereal Disease, 8vo, inscribed in an ingenious dedication to Dr. Alexander Stuart, as to "a person who had an indisputable right to judge feverely of the performance prefented to him."

This publication was foon followed by The Economy of Love, 4to, a poem, which has much merit; but, it must be confessed, is too strongly tinctured with the licentiousness of Ovid. It appears by one of the "Cafes on literary Property," that Mr. Millar the bookseller paid fifty guineas for the copy right of this poem, which was intended as a burlesque on fome didactic writers. It has paffed through many editions, more, it is to be be feared to the advantage of the bookfeller than the reader. It is but justice, however, to add, that his maturer judgment expunged many of the luxuriances of youthful fancy, in an edition" revised and corrected by the author" in 1768.

In 1741, he folicitated the recommendation of Dr. Birch, to be appointed physician to the fleet, then going to the West-Indies.

In 1744, he published The Art of Preserving Health, a didactic poem, 8vo, which laid the foundation of his fame, and will be a lafting monument of his abilities.

In 1746, he was appointed one of the Phyficians to the Hospital for Lame and Sick Soldiers be hind Buckingham-Hufe.

In 1751, he published his poem on Benevolence, in folio; and in 1753, "Tafe, an Epifle to a Young Critic," 4to. In the fame year an elegant ode was addreffed to him by Dr. Theobald.

In 1758, he published Sketches or Effays on Various Subje&s, by Launcelot Temple, Efq. 8vo. In this production, which poffeffes much humour and knowledge of the world, and which had a remarkably rapid fale, he is fuppofed to have been affisted by his friend Mr. Wilkes.

In 1760, he was appointed Physician to the army in Germany; where in 1761 he wrote a poem called Day, An Epifle to John Wilkes of dyhsbury, Efq. 4to, which was published (as the prefatory adver ifement confeffes) without the knowledge or the confent of the author, or of the gentle

man to whom it is addreffed."

In this poem he wantonly hazarded a reflection on Churchill, which drew on him the vengeance of that fevere fatirist.

What rews to-day?—I ask you not what rogue,
What paltry imp of fortune's now in vogue.
What forward blunde ing fool was last preferr'd,
By mere pretence diftinguish'd from the herd:
With what new cheat the gaping town is fmit,
What crazy fcribbler reigns the prefent wit;

What ftuff for winter the Two Booths have mixt,
What bouncing mimic gives a Rofcius next.

In "The Journey," almoft the last lines of poetry that Churchill lived to write, af er referring thofe who hinted that he fhould" run his stock of genius out," to fome contemporary writers who had obtained what he thought unmerited celebrity, he thus pointedly concludes the catalogue with Armstrong.

Let them with Armstrong, taking leave of sense,
Read mufty lectures on Benevolence,

Or con the pages of his gaping Day,

Where all his former fame was thrown away;
Where all but barren labour was forgot,
And the vain ftiffness of a letter'd Scot.
Let them with Armfireng pafs the term of light,
But not one hour of darkness, when the night
Sufpends this mortal coil, when memory wakes,
When for our paft mildoings confcience takes
A deep revenge: when, by reflection led,
She draws his curtains, and locks comfort dead,
Let every mufe be gone; in vain he turns
And tries to pray for fleep; an Ætna burns,
A more than Ætna in his coward-breaft;

And guilt, with vengeance arm'd, forbids him reft.
Though soft as plumage from young zephyr's wing,
His couch feems hard, and no relief can bring;

Ingratitude hath planted daggers there,

No good man can deferve, no brave man bear..

It must be acknowledged, that Armstrong himself afforded the original caufe of offence; but the retaliation was unjustifiably fevere. Armstrong was incapable of the crime with which he is charged; and the imputation of ingratitude will never obfcure the character of a humane, benevolent, kindy affectioned man of genius, whose great offence was his attachment to the party in oppofition to Mr. Wilkes and his friends.

It may be here observed, that nothing appears fo fatal to the intercourfe of friends, as a disagreement in politics. The intimacy which had fubfifted between Armstrong and Mr. Wilkes, was cer tainly interrupted, if not diffolved, by the demon of party.

After the peace of Paris, in 1763, he quitted the army, returned to London, and refumed the practice of phyfic, in which he appears to have been chiefly wanting to his own fuccefs, by his indolence and inactivity.

He was a man of a very liberal turn of mind, of general erudition, with a large acquaintance among the learned of different professions; but he could not enter into connections with people that were not to his liking. He could not cultivate the acquaintances to be met with at tea-tables; he could not intrigue with nurses, nor affociate with the various knots of pert, infipid, well-bred, impertinent, good humoured, malicious goflips, that are often found so useful to introduce a young pi yfician into practice. He rather chofe to employ his time at home in the indolent occupations cf reading and fludy, or to spend an Attic evening in a felect company of men of taste and learning.

In 1770, he put lished a collection of Mifcellanies, in 2 vols. 8vo, containing the pieces he had formerly published feparately, except the Economy of Love and Day, with Imitations of Shakspeare and Spenfer, the Universal Almanack by Neuraddin Ali, The Forced Marriage, a tragedy, Sketches, &c.

In an advertisement to this collection, he says, he " has at last taken the trouble upon him to collect them, and to have them printed under his own infpection, a task that he had long avoided, and to which he would hardly have fubmitted himself at laft, but for the fear of their being, fometime hereafter, expofed in a ragged, mangled condition, and loaded with more faults than they originally had, while [when] it might Le impoflible for him, by the change perhaps of one letter, to recover a whole period from the most contemptible nonfenfe. Along with fuch pieces as he had formerly offered to the public, he takes this opportunity of prefenting it with several otherą;

fome of which had lain by him many years. What he has loft, and efpecially what he has de. ftroyed, would probably enough have been better received by the great majority of readers than any thing he has published. But he never courted the public. He wrote chifly for his own amusement; and because he found it an agreeable and innocent way of fometimes frending an idle hour. He has always moft heartily defpifed the opinion of the mobility, from the loweft to the higheft; and if it is true what he has fometimes been told, that the best judges are en his fide, he defires no more in the article of fame and renown as a writer. If the best judges of this age ho nour him with their approbation, all the worst too of the next will favour him with theirs, when, by Heaven's grace, he'll be too far beyond the reach of their unmeaning praises, to receive any dif guft from them.".

In most of the Sketches or Essays, he has difcovered a found understanding, and a good tafte; but he feems very fond of making ufe of fome vulgarities of expreffion that belong peculiarly to the mobility. The Forced Marriage was written in 1758. It had been offered to Garrick, but refused by him. It is a performance in which there is much paffion, but little judgment.

In 1771, he published A Short Ramble through fome parts of France and Italy, by Launcelot Temple, Efq. 8vo.; and in 1773, a pamphlet in his own name, intituled, Medical Effays, 4to towards the conclufion of which, he accounts for his not having fuch extensive practice as fome of his brethren, from his not being qualified to employ the ufual means, from a ticklish state of spirits, and a diftempered excefs of fenfibility. He complains much of the behaviour of fome of his brethren, of the herd of critics, and particularly of the reviewers.

This work, which does not appear to have acquired much reputation, was the laft which he gave to the world. He died September 7. 1779, in confequence, it is faid, of a fall he received in stepping out of a coach; and, to the furprife of his friends, left behind him more than 3000l. faved out of a very moderate income, arifing principally from his half pay.

The following Verses on the Death of Dr. Armirorg, appeared in the "Gentleman's Magazine," " for October 1779, dated Gray's-Inn, September 10. and figned W. R.

Ye fwains of Liddal, as you drive your sheep

To verdant pastures, or the ruffet fteep,

If yet a mufe on Liddal's banks remain,

For tuneful Armfrong wake the plaintive ftrain.

Though from you long, long from the limpid wave,

In which he lov'd his infant limbs to lave;
Long from the pool, where oft with mimic fly
He patient angled for the filver fry;
Yet were his manners artlefs as your own,
As plain as he the world had never known.
The world he fcorn'd, for well he knew to scan
The crooked views of narrow-minded man.

Ye fons of Galen, though he lack'd not skill
Like you, by flow and fecret means to kill,
He fought to fave, he fought to heal the frame,
And breath'd Nepenthe in poctic flame.
From breezy fummit, or fairyop'ning lawn,
He bade his patients hail the cheerful dawn;
Their villas build, wide from the marshy mead,
But chief where bees on fragrant wild thyme feed
As death itself avoid the fmoky town';

Refift the enfeebling luxury of down:
Far from the breaft all rankling cares expel,

And there invite content and hope to dwell, &c.

No edition of his Mifcellanies has been called for fince his death; but his Art of Preferving Health, has been frequently reprinted, and with his other poetical pieces, except The Economy of Love, was received into the edition of "the English Poets," 1790%

The character of Armstrong feems to have been very ariable and refpectable. It is to his ho nour that he was the intimate friend of Thomfon, and his Toadjutor in the compofition of his admirable « Castle of Indolence." Stanza Ixviii, was written by Armfrong. "Though the Decter," Thomfon writes his friend Paterfon, "increates in his bufinefs, he does not decrease in fpleen;