D R. Tobias Smollett, an author whofe writings will transmit his name with honour to pofterity, and whose virtues as a man deserve to be commemorated, was born about the year 1720 *, at a fmall village, within two miles of Cameron, on the banks of the river Leven +. He appears to have received a claffical education, and was bred to the practice of phyfic and furgery. It is a trite remark, that the lives of authors are little more than an enumeration and account of their works; they are generally fo deficient in incident, that, after a compleat catalogue of their writings is produced, nothing more can be added, except the times of their births See his Travels through France and Italy, Vol, I. p. 177; he fpeaks of his age in the year 1763, thus: "Annum ætatis post qua<< dragefimum tertium." Humphry Clinker, Vol, III. p. 41. |