Volume 3 > Half-Volume 6

567
to see why; for there is a humour and a muscularity
about him thoroughly unlike Wordsworth (cf. the
poems of both on "Nutting," for instance), while
his sadness, unlike Byron's, is always brightened by
a ray of faith. When speaking of his poetic gifts,
we would record his kindness to David Gray, on
whom he afterwards pronounced an eloquent eulo-
gium when a monument was erected to the ill-fated
youth in the churchyard of Kirkintilloch. He also
wrote a biography of Shakespeare, which was pre-
fixed to an edition issued under his care in 1865.
He was an acknowledged connoisseur in art; and,
better than all connoisseurship, he did inestimable
service alike to the people of Scotland and to pro-
fessional artists, by his zealous co-operation with
John Steel and D. O. Hill towards the establishment
in 1833 of the Royal Association for the Promotion
of the Fine Arts in Scotland. He frequently ap-
peared on the public platform as an eloquent speaker
on subjects relating toart, literature, and social science;
and was for many years, in some respects, the best
known man in our western capital.
In many ways Glassford Bell resembled his friend
John Wilson. He was a great chess-player; and,
like Christopher North, an enthusiastic angler and a
member of the " Six Foot Club." He had a tall and
powerful physique. His almost gigantic proportions
suggested to Wilson the name of "Tallboys," a char-
acter in the Noctes; and Bell himself accepted this
immortalization of his stature in his verses entitled
"Tallboys to North."
After suffering for some time from the effects of
the amputation of his right hand for cancer, the up-
right judge and genial poet died at Glasgow on the
7th of January, 1874.
BREWSTER, SIR DAVID. This venerable and
revered teacher of science, who, in an age distin-
guished for the cultivation of physics, was one of the
greatest natural philosophers of his day, was born at
Jedburgh on the 11th December, 1781. His father,
who was rector of the grammar-school in that town,
seems to have mainly devoted his sons to the service
of the church, and this also with such good effect
that three of them held ministerial charges in the
Church of Scotland. Of these Dr. Patrick Brewster,
minister of Paisley, was an eloquent and popular
preacher of the Evangelical school; and although he
remained in the Established Church at the Disrup-
tion, when so many like-minded with himself had
left it, he continued to cherish opinions of his own,
and was a democrat in politics and a keen agitator
for the "People's Charter." A second of the family,
Dr. George Brewster of Scoonie, was a man of much
intellectual power and great moral courage, but
inert; and although characterized as the most im-
moderate of the church party called the Moderate,
both in theology and church politics, and an absolute
devotee of Tory politics in secular rule, he could
shake himself loose from his trammels and apathy
when questions concerning religious liberty were at
stake, and express himself with energy and freedom.
A third brother, Dr. James Brewster of Craig, a
clergyman universally beloved, belonged to the
Evangelical party, and, unlike the other two, became
a minister of the Free Church at the Disruption. It
will thus  be seen that each of the brotherhood had
a distinctive character and will of his own.
Of this Levitical family of the rector of Jedburgh
academy, David, the subject of this memoir, was
also intended for the church, and with that view was
sent to the University of Edinburgh when only twelve
years old; and during several sessions distinguished
himself by his respectable, and often brilliant, per-
formances in the tasks of the classes. He also
passed through the appointed courses of the theolo-
gical hall, and even took license as a preacher in the
Church of Scotland, and was offered a presentation
by the Duke of Roxburgh. But here he stopped
short in his advance to the church, and the offer of
a presentation was declined. During his studies his
strong scientific tendencies, which he had evinced
in boyhood when only ten years old by constructing
a telescope, had assumed the predominance, and
claimed him exclusively for their own. His health
was also so delicate as to be judged a serious dis-
qualification for the laborious duties of a Scottish
clergyman. He therefore, after long and matured
thought, resolved to devote himself to a scientific
life, and the world has profited by the resolution.
He was also justified in his choice by the remarkable
proficiency which he had already made in his scien-
tific studies, in which he had enjoyed the acquaint-
ance and aid of Professors Robison, Playfair, and
Dugald Stewart. He had also taken the degree of
M.A. in 1800. The commencement of his public
career in this new path was that series of optical
researches which have since made his name so
deservedly famous. He had already so greatly
benefited by his past instructions, that in maturely
examining the basis of Newton's theory of light he
succeeded in discovering a new and important fact
in optics�that of the influence of the condition of
the surfaces of bodies on the "inflection" or changes
of direction of the rays of light, which had been
formerly accepted as a consequence of the nature of
the bodies themselves. An evidence of the value of
his discoveries connected with light was soon indi-
cated by the distinguished honours which now began
to shower upon him. In 1807, when he was only
twenty-six years old, he was made LL.D. by the
University of Aberdeen, D.C.L. by the University of
Oxford, and A.M. by that of Cambridge. In the
following year he was elected a member of the Royal
Society of Edinburgh, of which the afterwards filled
the offices of secretary, vice-president, and president,
the last of which offices he held until his death. A
literary appointment intrusted to him in 1808 also
showed the confidence which was reposed in his
talents, for it was the editorship of the Edinburgh
Encyclopedia, to which he added many important
contributions from that date until 1830.
Although such an editorship would of itself have
been sufficient for the energies of most men, Dr.
Brewster's working powers enabled him to wield it
as lightly as if it had been little more than a feather-
weight, and during the long interval his scientific
achievements were carried on apparently without
interruption. In 1813 he published some of the
results of his optical researches during the twelve
preceding years, under the title of A Treatise on
New Philosophical Instruments, &c. Having in
1811 turned his attention to Buffon's experiments in
endeavouring to discover the nature and produce the
effects of the burning mirrors of Archimedes, Dr.
Brewster in the course of his researches discovered
the construction of what he termed "polyzonal
lenses," which might be turned to important account
in British commerce. At that time lighthouses were
usually fitted up with plain parabolic reflectors,
which were often insufficient to pierce through the
darkness of the ocean and give timely warning to
the ship. Instead of these imperfect reflectors, Dr.
Brewster therefore proposed the use of lenses built
up of zones of glass, each of which might be com-
posed of several circular segments, arranged concen-
trically round a central disc, with the effect of
strengthening the light, and transmitting it to a