Volume 3 > Half-Volume 5

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published by Longman and Co., London, in four
12mo volumes, in 1841, and an edition in one volume
appeared in 1851. This was followed in 1853 by
Original Hymns, for Public, Private, and Social De-
votion. Montgomery also produced several prose
writings, lectured on poetry, and edited The Chris-
tian Poets, published by Collins in Glasgow. The
religious character of his larger poems has no doubt
limited the range of his readers, but both in this
country and in America his works enjoy a high re-
putation, and in the United States have ran through
numerous editions. The purity of his language, the
fluency of his numbers, and above all the evangelical
spirit of his religious compositions, have exerted a
considerable influence upon public taste and feeling.
The tendency of all he wrote was to purify and
elevate. The Catholicity of his religious poems
reflects the spirit of their author, who was singularly
free from sectarian narrowness. His latter years
were devoted to active usefulness and works of
beneficence in Sheffield, where he was universally
known and beloved. He died at his residence, the
Mount, in that town, April 30, 1854, in his eighty-
third year, and was honoured with a public funeral.
The venerable poet had enjoyed, for some years, a
well-deserved literary pension from government, of
�150 a year.
MONTROSE, MARQUIS OF. See GRAHAM
(JAMES).
MOOR, JAMES, LL.D., an eminent Greek scholar,
was the son of Mr. Robert Moor, schoolmaster in
Glasgow�a person of considerable learning, and of
such unwearied industry, that, being too poor to
purchase Newton's Principia, he copied the whole
book with his own hand. The subject of this notice
entered the university of Glasgow in 1725, and dis-
tinguished himself by great industry and capacity as
a student. After finishing his academical course,
and taking the degree of M.A., with considerable
applause, he taught a school for some time in Glas-
gow. This situation he seems to have abandoned in
order to become tutor to the Earls of Selkirk and
Errol, in which capacity he travelled abroad. He
was afterwards in the family of the Earl of Kilmar-
nock; and on the burning of Dean Castle, which
took place in his absence, lost a considerable stock
of books, which he had employed himself in collect-
ing for his own use. Without the knowledge of the
earl, Moor instructed Lord Boyd in Greek, so that
the young nobleman was able to surprise his father
one day by reading, at his tutor's desire, one of the
odes of Anacreon. In 1742 he was appointed libra-
rian to the university of Glasgow; and in July,
1746, became professor of Greek in the same insti-
tution, the Earl of Selkirk advancing him �600 in
order to purchase the resignation of the preceding
incumbent. On the condemnation of his patron,
the Earl of Kilmarnock, for his concern in the insur-
rection of 1745, Moor, who was of opposite politics,
made a journey to London for the purpose of making
interest with the ministers for his lordship's pardon
�an enterprise honourable to his feelings, however
unsuccessful.
Moor was a useful professor, and besides his aca-
demical duties, conferred some benefits on the liter-
ary world by his publications. In company with
Professor Muirhead he superintended, at the request
of the university, a very splendid edition of Homer,
published by the Foulises of Glasgow. He also
edited their Herodotus, and was of. service in several
of their other publications. Some essays read by
him before the Literary Society [of Glasgow], of
which he was a constituent member, were collected
and published in 8vo in 1759. In 1766 he published
A Vindication of Virgil from the Charge of Puerility
imputed to him by Dr. Pearce, 12mo. His principal
work, however, was his Grammar of the Greek Lan-
guage, which has ever since been very extensively
used in schools. He collected a large and valuable
library, and selected a cabinet of medals, which the
university afterwards purchased. In 1761 he was
appointed vice-rector of the college by the Earl of
Errol, the lord-rector, who, under the designation
of Lord Boyd, had formerly been his pupil. In 1763
he applied to the university for the degree of Doctor
of Laws, which was granted to him in consideration
of his talents and services. Dr. Moor was addicted
to the cultivation of light literature, and used to
amuse himself and his friends by writing verses in
the Hudibrastic vein. He resigned his chair in 1774
on account of bad health, and died on the 17th of
September, 1779.
MOORE, DUGALD. This poet, who in humble
life attracted attention, and won for himself a re-
spected name solely by the power of his genius, was
born in Stockwell Street, Glasgow, in August, 1805.
His father, who was a private soldier in a Highland
regiment, died early in life, and such was the poverty
of the widow, that Dugald's only education was such
as she was able herself to impart to him. The educa-
tion, however, of one who is born a poet does not
mainly depend on teachers and school-books. While
as yet a mere child he was sent to serve in the work-
shop of a tobacco-spinner; but this coarse and stupify-
ing occupation he abandoned in youth, for a place in the
copper-printing branch of the establishment of Messrs.
James Lumsden and Son, booksellers, Queen Street,
Glasgow. Dugald Moore began to write verses at
an early period; and Mr. Lumsden, who valued the
good qualities of his protege and admired his poetry,
exerted himself to procure subscribers for the Afri-
can, a Tale, and other Poems, so that Moore was
enabled in 1829 to publish the volume. It was so
favourably received that in the following year a second
edition was required, and about the same time its
author published a second work, entitled Scenes from
the Flood; the Tenth Plague, and other Poems. In
1831 Moore published the Bridal Night, and other
Poems, a larger and more pretentious work than the
two preceding ones. After having written so much
poetry in so short a time, Dugald, who had his aged
mother to support, opened a shop, and commenced
business in his native city as a bookseller and sta-
tioner, which he was enabled to do from the profits
of his publications; and his shop, which was in
96 Queen Street, became a favourite resort of literary
men�a distinction which soon established and ad-
vanced his business as a bookseller.
Although he had thus shown his good sense in
embracing the first opportunity of settling down in
life instead of trusting to the precarious support of
authorship, Dugald still retained his love of poetry
unabated, and employed his leisure hours in its cul-
tivation. The result was, the Bard of the North,
a series of poetical tales, illustrative of Highland
scenery and character, which he published in 1833;
the Hour of Retribution, and other Poems, which
appeared in 1835; and the Devoted One, and other
Poems, which he published in 1839. In so short a
time he had thus done enough for poetical fame; but
numerous as were his publications, they were all
distinguished by a sterling excellence that seldom
accompanies such prolific abundance; and although
his subjects were not chosen for the day, by which
he might have secured a wide but temporary popu-
larity and larger profit, his poetry was of that sub-