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GERARD, GILBERT, D.D., a
divine, son of Rev. Alexander Gerard, D.D., was born at Aberdeen on the
12th of August, 1760, and having acquired the earlier elements of his
professional education in his native city, at a period when the eminence
of several great and well known names dignified its universities, he
finished it in the more extended sphere of tuition furnished by the
university of Edinburgh. Before he reached the age of twenty-two, a
vacancy having occurred in the ministry of the Scottish church of
Amsterdam, a consideration of his father’s qualifications prompted the
consistory to invite the young divine to preach before them, and he was in
consequence waited upon by that body, with an offer of the situation,
which he accepted. During his residence in Holland, he turned the leisure
allowed him by his clerical duties, and his knowledge of the Dutch
language and of general science, to supporting, with the assistance of two
literary friends, a periodical called "De Recensent." What may
have been the intrinsic merits of this publication, it would be difficult
to discover either through the medium of personal knowledge or general
report, in a nation where modern Dutch literature is unnoticed and almost
unknown; but it obtained the best suffrage of its utility in the place for
which it was intended, an extensive circulation. During the same period,
he likewise occupied himself in contributing to English literature; and on
the establishment of the Analytical Review in 1788, he is understood to
have conducted the department of that periodical referring to foreign
literature,—a task for which his hereditary critical acuteness, his
residence on the continent, and knowledge of the classical and of several
modern languages, some of which were then much neglected, or had but begun
to attract the attention of educated Englishmen, must have given peculiar
facilities.
During his residence at
Amsterdam, he received as a token of respect from his native university,
the degree of doctor of divinity. Soon after this event, his professional
and literary pursuits experienced a check from a severe illness, which
compelled him to seek early in life a restorative for his weakened
constitution, in breathing the air of his native country. The change of
climate had the desired effect, and he returned restored in health to his
duties in Holland. These he continued to perform until April, 1791, when
strong family motives induced him to relinquish a situation which habit
and friendship had endeared to him, and his resignation of which was
followed by the regrets of those who had experienced the merits of their
pastor. He soon after accepted the vacant professorship of Greek in the
King’s college of Aberdeen, a situation which he held for four years.
Although the students of King’s college are not very numerous, and the
endowments connected with the institution are by no means affluent, both
are very respectable, and there is every opportunity on the part of the
instructor to exhibit, both to the world in general, and to his students,
those qualifications which make the man respected and esteemed. From the
youth of the scholars generally committed to his care, the
professor of Greek is not only the public lecturer in his department of
literature, but the instructor of its elements; and he has not only to
perform the more ostentatious duty of exhibiting to and laying
before them the stores of his own knowledge, but to find the means by
which this knowledge shall enter the mind of each individual student. The
instructor meets his pupils during a considerable portion of the day, and
for several months together; and a knowledge of individuals is thus
acquired, which gives the benevolent and active discerner of character an
opportunity of uniting the friend and the instructor towards the young man
who looks to him for knowledge. The discernment of the young respecting
those who have cognizance over them is proverbially acute, and it
frequently happens that while the learned world has overlooked, in the
midst of brilliant talents or deep learning, the absence or presence of
the other more personal qualities requisite for the instruction of youth,
the pupils have discovered these, and, as a consequence, have pursued or
neglected their proper studies, as they have personally respected or
disliked the teacher of them. It was the consequence of the learning and
personal worth of Dr Gerard, that his pupils respected his personal
character, and acquired, from his knowledge and his kind friendship
towards them, an enthusiasm for Greek literature, which few teachers have
had the good fortune to inspire, and which has very seldom made its
appearance in Scotland. A course of lectures on Grecian history and
antiquities, (unfortunately never given to the world,) which he delivered
to his students, is still remembered by many to whom they have formed a
stable foundation for more extended knowledge of the subject.
During the latter years of
his father’s life, he had assisted him in the performance of his duties
as professor of divinity, and on his death succeeded to that situation,
where he brought, to the less irksome and more intellectual duties of
instilling philosophic knowledge into more advanced minds, the same spirit
of friendly intercourse which had distinguished his elementary
instructions. The Scottish student of divinity is frequently a person who
stands in need of a protector and friend, and when he has none to trust to
but the teachers of the profession, on whom all have a claim, it is
very natural that it might happen that these individuals should abstain
from the exercise of any little patronage on which there is an indefinite
number of claimants. It is, however, worthy of remark, to the honour of
the individuals who have filled these situations, that many of them have
been the best friends to their students, and that although they had at
that period to look to them for no professional remuneration, they
considered themselves as being from the commencement of the connexion, not
only the temporary instructors, but the guardians of the future conduct,
and the propagators of the future fortune, of their students. Of these
feelings on the part of Dr Gerard, many now dispersed in respectable
ministerial situations through the country, retain an affectionate
recollection. His influence, which was considerable, was used in their
favour, and where he had not that to bestow, he was still a friend. In
1811, he added to his professorship the second charge of the collegiate
church of Old Aberdeen, and continued to hold both situations till his
death. During the intervening period, he permitted his useful leisure
hours to be occupied with the fulfilment of the duties of the mastership
of mortifications for King’s college,—certainly rather an anomalous
office for a scholar, and one which, with a salary that could have been no
inducement, seems to have brought along with it the qualities of its
not very auspicious name. The duties, though petty and irksome in the
extreme, were performed with the same scrupulous exactness which
distinguished the professor’s more important pursuits; and he had in the
end, from his diligent discharge of these duties, and his being
able to procure, from his personal influence with the government, a grant
in favour of the university, the satisfaction of rescuing it from the
poverty with which it was threatened, by a decree of augmentation of the
stipends of several churches, of which the college was titular. During
this period of adversity, Dr Gerard had before his eyes the brighter
prospect of a benefice in the Scottish metropolis, which many of his
friends there attempted to prevail on him to accept; but the retired
habits consequent on a studious life, the small but select circle of
intimate friends in the neighbourhood of his college, to whose appearance
and conversation long intercourse had endeared him, and a desire to
benefit an institution he might almost call paternal, prompted him to
continue his useful duties.
Dr Gilbert Gerard died on
the 28th of September, 1815; and amidst the regrets of his acquaintances,
the professional tribute to his memory was bestowed by the same reverend
friend who preached his father’s funeral sermon. His only published work
is entitled "Institutes of Biblical Criticism," published in
Edinburgh in 1808. It has received from his profession that approval which
the author’s merit had given cause to anticipate. It is characterized by
the author of the Biographie Universelle as "Un ouvrage plein d’Erudition,
et compose dans un hon esprit." |
