BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR

OF

WILLIAM FALCONER.

If the Lives of literary men afford but scanty materials to their Biographer, the deficiency does not arise from a want of interesting events, since the natural progress of Genius must be always interesting; but because the events that happened were not deemed of sufficient importance to be preserved, nor the progress of genius towards maturity of sufficient consequence to be described, until Death had repressed the malevolence of Envy, and thus overcome, what BEATTIE† SO admirably termed, the unconquerable bar of Poverty.

It, on this account, becomes the duty of Literary Men, who have published works of sufficient importance to attract public notice, to bequeath, as a kind

Minstrel.

of legacy to their Country, an account of their lives and writings, and of the gradual progress of their minds: nor should any writer be taxed with vanity t for doing this, since it would tend to enlarge our knowledge of an history of all others the most interesting— the history of the human mind. Memoirs of living Authors, published by persons who have never lived in habits of intimacy with them, are of little service to the cause of Literature, unless Minutes of the leading particulars in each Life are furnished by the individuals themselves: for otherwise, a scope is afforded to wound the feelings of many a worthy man, and to increase the flippant conceit of many a successful Impostor. Splenetic Curiosity frequently devours what Principle and Honour should lead men to reject with indignation. Biography, in the present day, affords only a suspicious, and a very questionable mode of information; whilst many a character, owing to the strange state in which this branch of Literature is suffered to remain, will descend to Posterity, so chan

+ Ac plerique suam ipsi vitam narrare, fiduciam potius morum, quàm arrogantiam arbitrati sunt. (TACITUS VITA AGRIC.)

It behoves the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, and also the Royal Academy, to procure from the relatives of any deceased

ged from the original, that all deductions which the Historian or Critic may draw from a consideration of it, must necessarily prove defective.

I had long sought in vain to procure any authentic materials, however scanty, for a Biographical Memoir of poor FALCONER, when I fortunately met a shipmate of his, Governor HUNTER, at the house of an ingenious Highlander. † With the natural cordiality of a seaman, Mr. HUNTER Communicated to me all the information he could remember; and this was also increased by frequent conversations which I enjoyed with that gallant veteran his brother, Lieutenant HUNTER of Greenwich Hospital: but for these gentlemen, the little that has survived respecting FALCONER, Would have perished; and even this, owing to the years that have elapsed since the loss of the Aurora, must necessarily be scanty.

Mr. WILLIAM FALCONER was born about the year

Associate, or Member of celebrity, a biographical Memoir of his literary Life, which should be regularly published in their Transactions.

+ JOHN M'ARTHUR, Esq. of York Place, a literary and naval character of considerable eminence.

b

1730, and was the son of a poor but industrious barber at Edinburgh; who, like Fielding's celebrated Partridge, possessed considerable talents and humour, and maintained a large family by his industry. It is remarkable that all his children, with the sole exception of our Author, were either deaf or dumb: FALCONER himself mentioned this singular circumstance to Captain HUNTER, when they were shipmates together; and " I had afterwards," adds that officer, " an opportunity of being convinced of its truth; when, long after the commencement of my acquaintance with him, I met two of his family labouring under these infirmities in the Poor-house at Edinburgh, where they continued until their death."

Poverty in Scotland is never depressed by ignorance, or a want of religious principles: FALCONER therefore, though poor, had a proper bias given to his mind, from the first dawn of its intellectual powers; and it was this bias, impelled by the energy of his genius, which enabled him, without any further education, to reach the goal of literary fame. When very young he entered on board a merchant vessel at LEITH, and therein served his apprenticeship. We afterwards

find him in the capacity of a servant to CAMPBELL, the Author of LEXIPHANES, when Purser of a ship. This officer, according to Dr. CURRIE, † delighted in improving the mind of our young Seaman; and afterwards, when he had acquired celebrity, this early Patron felt a pride in boasting of his scholar. Probably from the interest of this master, FALCONER was afterwards made second Mate of a Vessel employed in the Levant trade, which was shipwrecked during her passage from ALEXANDRIA to VENICE. Only three of the crew survived; and from this melancholy event, calculated to make a lasting impression on his mind, and which seemed, as it were, a foretaste of the dreadful fate he would one day endure, our Poet afterwards drew the outline and characters of one of the finest Poems in our language.

At this distance of time it is impossible to discover the friends who, at so critical a juncture, fostered the

Edition of BURNS' Works, vol. ii. p. 283, second edition. It is singular that the Surgeon of a man of war, who gave this information to Dr. CURRIE in 1777, should afterwards experience the fate of FALCONER, and be shipwrecked on the Coast of Africa.

I have not been able to ascertain the date of this event.