Halyburton assiduously applied himself, and on his induction to the professor's chair, delivered an inaugural discourse, taking for his subject a recent publication by the celebrated Dr Pitcairn of Edinburgh, containing an attack on revealed religion under the feigned name of "Epistola Archimedis ad Regera Gelonem alba? Gi-ajeae reperta, anno aeras Christiana?, 1688, A. Pitcarnio, M.D. ut vulgo creditur, auctore." One of the earliest, and perhaps the most powerful, of all the deistical writers that have yet appeared, was Edward lord Herbert of Cherbury in Shropshire, (elder brother of the amiable George Herbert, the well known English poet,) who figured conspicuously in the political world in the time of Charles L, and wrote several works in disproof of the truth or necessity of revealed religion. His most important publication, entitled "De Veritate," was originally printed at Paris in 1624, in consequence, as the author solemnly declares, of the direct sanction of heaven to that effect, but was afterwards republished in London, and obtained very general circulation. Mr Halyburton applied himself zealously to refute the doctrines contained in these works and others of similar tendency from the pens of different other writers, and produced his "Natural Religion Insufficient, and Revealed Necessary to Man's Happiness," a most able and elaborate performance, in which he demonstrates with great clearness and force the defective nature of reason, even in judging of the character of a Deity, the kind of worship which ought to be accorded him, &c. Dr Leland, in his letters, entitled "View of Deistical Writers," expresses great admiration of this performance, and regrets that the narrowness and illiberality of the writer's opinions on some points operated prejudicially against it in the minds of many persons. Neither this nor any other of Mr Halyburton's works were given to the world during his life, which unfortunately terminated in September, 1712, being then only in his thirty-eighth year. Besides the above work, which was published in 1714, the two others by which he is best known in Scotland are "The Great Concern of Salvation," published in 1721, and "Ten Sermons preached before and after the celebration of the Lord's Supper," published in 1722. A complete edition of his works in one vol. 8vo. was some years ago published at Glasgow.
HAMILTON, (Count) Anthony, a pleasing describer of manners, and writer of fiction, was born about the year 1646. Although a native of Ireland, and in after life more connected with France and England than with Scotland, the parentage of this eminent writer warrants us in considering him a proper person to fill a place in a biography of eminent Scotsmen. The father of Anthony Hamilton was a cadet of the ducal house of Hamilton, and his mother was sister to the celebrated duke of Ormond, lord lieutenant of Ireland. The course of politics pursued by the father and his connexions compelled him, on the execution of Charles the First, to take refuge on the continent, and the subject of our memoir, then an infant, accompanied his parents and the royal family in their exile in France. The long residence of the exiles in a country where their cause was respected, produced interchanges of social manners, feelings, and pursuits, unknown to the rival nations since the days of the Crusades, and the young writer obtained by early habit that colloquial knowledge of the language, and familiar acquaintance with the magnificent court of France, which enabled him to draw a finished picture of French life, as it existed in its native purity and as it became gradually engrafted in English society. At the age of four- teen he returned with the restored monarch to England, but in assuming the station and duties of a British subject, he is said to have felt a reluctance to abandon the levities of a gayer minded people, which were to him native feelings. The return of the court brought with it Englishmen, who had assimilated their manners to those of the French, and Frenchmen, anxious to see tin
