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GILLIES, JOHN, LL.D., F.R.S.,
F.A.S., member of many foreign societies, and historiographer to his
Majesty for Scotland. The many literary titles of this erudite and once
popular historian, evince the high estimation in which he was held by the
learned men of his day. He was born at Brechin, in the county of Forfar,
on the 18th of January, 1747. Although of a family belonging to
the middling classes, he was not its only distinguished member, as one of
his younger brothers became an eminent lawyer at the Scottish bar, and
finally attained the rank of Lord of Session. John Gillies was educated at
the University of Glasgow, and there he so highly distinguished himself by
his classical attainments, that, before he was of age, he was appointed to
teach the classes of the Greek professor, who had been laid aside by old
age and infirmity. Instead of waiting, however, for those turns of fortune
that might have elevated him to the chair which he had filled as deputy,
he repaired to London, for the purpose of devoting himself to authorship.
Before he settled down in the metropolis, he resolved still further to
qualify himself for his future occupation by the study of the living
languages; and for this purpose he took up his residence for some time on
the Continent. Upon his return he was engaged by the Earl of Hopetoun to
accompany his second son as travelling tutor; and as it was necessary that
he should relinquish certain profitable literary engagements into which he
had already entered, before he set out with his pupil, he was remunerated
for the sacrifice by the Earl in 1777, who settled upon him a pension for
life. But in the year previous his young charge died abroad; and a few
years afterwards he was induced to undertake the charge of two other sons
of the Earl, who were about to travel on the Continent—one of them being
John, afterwards Sir John Hope, and finally Earl of Hopetoun,
distinguished by his military achievements—the other, Alexander,
afterwards Sir Alexander Hope, lieutenant-governor of Chelsea Hospital.
During the interval that elapsed between his first and second tutorship,
and when no such interruption was anticipated, he had commenced the
purposed business of his life in earnest, by publishing his first work.
This was the "Orations of Lysias and Socrates, translated from the Greek,
with some account of their Lives; and a Discourse on the History, Manners,
and Character of the Greeks, from the conclusion of the Peloponnessian War
to the Battle of Chaeronea," 1778, 4to. About the same time he received
the diploma of LL.D., the first of his literary distinctions.
On returning from the
Continent, when his office of travelling-tutor had ended, which it did in
1784, Dr. Gillies resumed those labours which were so congenial to his
tastes and habits, and which were now continued to the end of a very long
life. His previous duties had not only furnished him with such a
competence as to make him independent of the many painful contingencies to
which authorship as a profession is subject, but had closely connected him
with the Hopetoun family, to whose early patronage and continuing kindness
he was wont to attribute much of the happiness by which his tranquil
course was enlivened. Two years after his return to England, he published
the first portion of the work by which he is best known, entitled the
"History of Ancient Greece, its Colonies and Conquests, from the earliest
accounts till the Division of the Macedonian Empire in the East; including
the History of Literature, Philosophy, and the Fine Arts," 2 vols. 4to,
1786. This work, which was continued in a second part, was so acceptable
to the scholars of Germany, that a translation of it into German was
published at Vienna in 1825, while at home it was so popular that it went
through several editions. Time, however, which has so much diminished the
lustre that invested the literature and science of the last century, has
not spared his history any more than it has done the more distinguished
productions of Hume and Gibbon; and Gillies, the once distinguished
historian of Greece, is now subjected to an ordeal through which few of
his contemporaries have passed unscathed. Newer and juster views, the
fruit of a more ample experience and sounder philosophy; a more extensive
knowledge of Grecian history and antiquity, and a more rigid and severe
taste in historical writing, by which the present day is in the habit of
judging the labours of the past, will no longer be satisfied with any
history of ancient Greece that has as yet been produced. But,
notwithstanding the faults that have been objected to the work of Gillies
under this new and improved school of criticism, it was certainly a most
useful production in its day, and well worthy of the approval with which
it was welcomed by the learned; so that, notwithstanding the complaints
that have been made of the dulness of his dissertations, the pomposity of
his style, and the occasional unfaithfulness of his translations, we have
still to wait for a better history of Greece. By a curious coincidence,
the first part of the work, and the first volume of "Mitford’s History of
Greece"—two rival publications upon a common subject—were published during
the same year.
The rest of the life of Dr.
Gillies presents few incidents for the biographer. In 1793 he succeeded
Dr. Robertson as historiographer royal for Scotland, a sinecure office, to
which a salary of £200 per annum is attached. He was also elected a member
of several societies in our own country, as also a corresponding member of
the French Institute and of the Royal Society of Gottingen. In 1794 he
married. His various publications continued to appear at distant
intervals, until the debility of old age compelled him to lay aside his
pen; and, having done enough for fame and fortune, he retired in 1830 to
Clapham, near London, where the rest of his life was passed in tranquil
enjoyment, until he died, at the age of ninety, without disease and
without pain. This event occurred on the 15th of February, 1836.
Besides his writings which
we have already specified, Dr. Gillies published:—
1. "View of the Reign of
Frederic II. of Prussia, with a Parallel between that Prince and Philip
II. of Macedon," 1789, 8vo.
2. "Aristotle’s Ethics and
Politics, comprising his Practical Philosophy, translated from the Greek;
illustrated by Introductions and Notes, the Critical History of his Life,
and a New Analysis of his Speculative Works," 1797, 2 vols. 4to.
3. "Supplement to the
Analysis of Aristotle’s Speculative Works, containing an account of the
Interpreters and Corrupters of Aristotle’s Philosophy, in connection with
the times in which they respectively flourished," 1804, 4to.
4. "The History of the
Ancient World, from the Dominion of Alexander to that of Augustus, with a
Preliminary Survey of Preceding Periods," 1807-10, 2 vols. 4to. This was
afterwards reprinted in 4 vols. 8vo, as the "History of Ancient Greece,
its Colonies and Conquests, Part II.," 1820.
5. "A New
Translation of Aristotle’s Rhetoric, with an Introduction and Appendix,
explaining its relation to his Exact Philosophy, and vindicating that
Philosophy by proofs that all departures from it have been deviations into
Error," 1823, 8vo. |
