and whofe chair he afterwards filled, with fo much honour to himself and fatisfaction to the public. Thus was diffolved, in a premature manner, a copartnery perhaps of as fingular a kind as is to be found in the annals of literature: nor was Cullen a man of that difpofition to let any engagement with him prove a bar to his partner's advancement in life. The articles were freely departed from by him; and Cullen and Hunter ever after kept up a very cordial and friendly correfpondence; though, it is believed, they never from that time had a personal interview with each other. During the time that Cullen practised as a country furgeon apothecary, he formed another connection of a more permanent kind, which, happily for him, was not diffolved till a very late period of his life. With the ardour of difpofition he poffeffed, it cannot be fuppofed he beheld the fair fex with indifference. Very early in life, he took a strong attachment to an amiable woman, a Mifs Johnston †, nearly of his own age, who was prevailed on to join with him in the facred bonds of wedlock, at a time when he had nothing elfe to recommend him to her except his perfon and difpofitions for as to riches and poffeffions, he had little of these to boast of. She was beautiful, had great good fenfe, equanimity of temper, an amiable difpofition, and elegance of manners, and brought with her a little money, which, though it would be accounted nothing now, was fomething in those days, to one in his fituation in life. After giving to him a numerous family, and participating with him the changes of fortune which he experienced, fhe peacefully departed this life in fummer 1786. In the year 1746, Cullen, who had now taken a degree of Doctor in phyfic §, was appointed a lec +Daughter to a Clergyman in that neighbourhood. § His diploma bears date, Glasgow 4th September 1740. turer in chemiftry in the Univerfity of Glafgow and in the month of October began his lectures in that science. His fingular talents for arrangement, his diftinctness of enunciation, his vivacity of manner, and his knowledge of the fcience he taught, rendered his lectures interefting to the ftudents, to a degree that had been till then unknown at that univerfity. He be came, therefore, in fome meafure adored by the ftudents. The former profeffors were eclipfed by the brilliancy of his reputation; and he had to experience all thofe little rubs, that envy and disappointed ambition naturally threw in his way. Regardlefs, however, of thefe fecret fhagreens, he preffed forward with ardour in his literary career; and, fupported by the favour of the public, he confoled himself for the contumely he met with from a few individuals. His practice as a phyfician increafed from day to day; and a vacancy having occurred in the year 1751, he was then appointed by the king profeffor of medicine in that univerfity. This new appointment ferved only to call forth his powers, and to bring to light, talents, that it was not formerly known he poffeffed; fo that his fame continued to increase. As the patrons of the Univerfity of Edinburgh are ever on the watch to discover the most eminent men in the medical line in Scotland, their attention was foon directed towards Cullen; fo that on the death of Doctor Plumber, profeffor of chemistry in Edinburgh, which happened in the year 1756, Doctor Cullen was unanimoufly invited to accept the vacant chair. This invitation he accepted: and having refigned all his employments in Glasgow †, he began his academical career in Edinburgh in the month of October of that year; and here he refided till his death. * A lecturer gives leffons like a profeffor; but he is not a conftituent member of the corporate body called an University. ↑ March 22. 1756. If the admiffion of Cullen into the University of Glasgow gave great fpirit to the exertions of the ftudents, this was ftill, if poffible, more ftrongly felt in Edinburgh. Chemistry, which had been till that time of small account in that University, and was attended to by very few of the ftudents, inftantly became a favourite ftudy; and the lectures upon that science were more frequented than any others in the University, anatomy alone excepted. The ftudents, in general, fpoke of Cullen with the raptrous ardour that is natural to youth when they are highly pleafed. These raptrous eulogiums appeared extravagant to moderate men, and could not fail to prove difgufting to his colleagues. A party was formed among the ftudents for oppofing this new favourite of the public; and these ftudents, by mifreprenting the doctrines of Cullen to others who could not have an opportunity of hearing thefe doctrines themselves, made even fome of the most intelligent men in the University, think it their duty publicly to oppofe thefe imaginary tenets. The ferment was thus augmented; and it was fome time before the profeffors difcovered the arts by which they had been impofed upon, and univerfal harmony reftored. During this time of public ferment, Cullen went fteadily forward, without taking any part himself in these difputes. He never gave ear to any tales refpecting his colleagues, nor took any notice of the doctrines they taught: That fome of their unguarded ftrictures might at times come to his knowledge, is not impoffible; but if they did, they feemed to make no impreffion on his mind: For during three years that the writer of this article attended his public lectures, while this ferment reigned, and for upwards of thirty years that he has been indulged with his private acquaintance, he can with truth aver, that neither in public nor in private, did he ever hear a fingle expreffion drop from Cullen, that tended, directly or indirectly, to derogate from the profeffional character of any of his colleagues, or VOL. I. B that could induce a student to think lightly of their talents as profeffors, or their abilities as phyficians. This circumftance is here brought forward merely as a characteristical trait,-as an unequivocal mark of that magnanimity and dignity of character, which a little mind could never be taught to attain. : These attempts of a party of ftudents to lower the character of Cullen on his firft outfet in the Univerfity of Edinburgh, having proved fruitless, his fame as a profeffor, and his reputation as a phyfician, became more and more respected every day. Nor could it well be otherwife Cullen's profeffional knowledge was always great, and his manner of lecturing fingularly clear and intelligible, lively, and entertaining; and to his patients, his conduct in general as a physician was fo pleafing, his addrefs fo affable and engaging, and his manner fo open, fo kind, and fo little regulated by pecuniary confiderations, that it was impoffible for those who had occafion to call once for his medical affistance, ever to be fatisfied on any future occafion without it. He became the friend and companion of every family he vifited; and his future acquaintance could not be dispensed with. On the Advantages of Periodical Performances. MAN is the only animal we know, that poffeffe's the power of aggregate existence. All other animals may be faid to exift individually; that is to fay, each individual, after it comes into the world, is directed only by its own instincts, observation and experience, to purfue the mode of conduct that is suited to its nature, and the cirumftances in which it finds itself placed. Hence it happens, that the aggregate powers of any one class of animals remain without any change. Their numbers may increase or diminish; but their faculties are, upon the whole, for ever the fame. The distinc tive properties of the horse, the afs, the elephant, the bee, and all other claffes of animals we know, are precisely the fame at the present moment as in the days of Mofes and of Homer, and will continue unchanged till the end of time. But of MAN, the fame thing cannot be faid. Each individual of his fpecies, like those of other animals, comes into the world, endowed with certain instincts and perceptive faculties, which enable him to make obfervations, and derive knowledge from experience as they do, and from reasoning. This experience, and the knowledge refulting from it, is not, however, in him confined to the individual alone-he is endowed with the faculty of communicating the knowledge he has individually acquired to others of his own species, and to derive from them in return, the knowledge that other individuals who fall in his way, have in the fame manner acquired. The young derive information from the old; and thus are enabled, at their first entry into life, to fet out with a greater fhare of acquired knowledge than any one individual of the human fpecies ever could have attained during the course of the longest life, had he been left entirely to himself, like other animals. He does more-The experience of ages thus furnishes an accumulated stock of knowledge for every fingle perfon; and the individual who died a thousand years ago, may become the inftructor of those who are born in the present time. It is this faculty of accumulating knowledge in the aggregate, which forms the diftinctive character of the human fpecies, when compared with every other class of animals, and which has conferred upon man that distinguished rank he holds in the univerfe. It is this circumstance which gives to the man, even of the loweft intellectual powers, that marked fuperiority he holds above the most intelligent individuals of the most faga. |