his view, it formed a safe and steady pilot for his judgment. "Amplissimam illam omnium artium bene vivendi disciplinam, vita magis quam literis feliciter persecutus."

The writer foresees, with anxiety, that the present and other passages of this memoir will appear, to some of his readers, to partake too much of the nature of theoretical discussion. He can only say in extenuation, that, to the best of his judgment, he thinks he could not have properly illustrated the motives and character of his friend without introducing such passages; and surely, in an age when the public listen to a dissertation intended to free Petrarch and Laura from the charge of illicit love, an attempt to investigate the conduct, and to appreciate the virtues of Dr Adam, will not be thought superfluous.

In the autumn of 1771, the Rector visited Paris, accompanied by Mr Townshend, an English clergyman, who was regarded as a man of considerable abilities. Their journey

was circumscribed, on account of the limited time allowed for a vacation at the High School; but the travellers inspected all the most remarkable places, then resorted to by strangers, in the French capital. They likewise made their appearance at court, and Mr Adam, in conformity to the mode, attired himself in all the customary fopperies, such as appending an enormous bag to his hair, and wearing an immensely long rapier. He did not, however, bring home with him any favourable idea of the French people in general, but always reprehended the rage of imitation in this country.

The work which laid the foundation of Mr Adam's reputation was his Latin Grammar. This book was published in May 1772, and its merits underwent the severest scrutiny; for no sooner was it generally known, or rather no sooner was it generally circulated, than it met with the most violent opposition. In the month of July of the same year, it was

severely attacked by an anonymous critick, in Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine, vol. 17. p. 117. The 19th volume of the same work, a number of which appeared in January 1773, contains a laborious attempt to satirize the Rector in Latin. An account is pretended to be given of his travels, and it is said that he visited foreign countries to get himself a name. He is accused of pillaging, upon his return, the repositories of Thomas Ruddiman; and, after he had copied that authour's just observations and his errours promiscuously like a plagiary, of having obtruded them on the public as discoveries of his own. Numbers of schoolmasters, who had implicit faith in Ruddiman's Grammar, thought that Mr Adam had committed a species of literary heresy which was not to be tolerated. Our authour, on the other hand, was naturally anxious that he should teach his pupils, on his own principles, from that book, which was the produce of much labour and many anxious hours. It was

accordingly introduced into the High School, but not till it had been under the inspection of the literati for a considerable period, nor, till the Rector had good reason to believe that practice would sanction what he had fully anticipated in theory. His expectations of success were fully confirmed by the favourable opinions of several learned and ingenious contemporaries. Nay, so fearful was he of committing himself before the public in an undertaking of so much consequence, that he transmitted his manuscript, in the year before it was published, to Bishop Louth. He had the satisfaction to find, that the opinion of the exalted prelate agreed with his own; and he quotes a part of it in his preface with becoming ostentation. He had also contracted an acquaintance with Lord Kames, and, in consequence of their friendly intercourse, communicated several of his ideas upon general grammar to that wonderful man. This liberality was reciprocal, and their friendship continued un

til the death of Lord Kames, which happened on the 27th of December 1782. The following passage occurs in a letter from his Lordship to his bookseller, dated October 20. 1773. "Tell my good friend Mr Alexander Adam, that I have ready for him, a most exact definition of a verb which even Mr Harris has missed."

The Rector's grammar had not been long taught in the seminary under his controul, when dissensions arose. In these he was implicated, and the consequence was, that in 1778, the practice of teaching in the High School from two grammars was commenced. The Rector taught in his class from his own book, and the other four masters from that of Ruddi

man.

Mr Adam's behaviour, however, and his reputation for talents, procured him the friendship of Dr Robertson, a historian who has been aptly styled the British Livy. To the intercourse arising out of this connection, the