MOORE, DR JOHN, was the son of a clergyman, and was born at Stirling in the year 1780. He received his medical education at the university of Glasgow, and at the age of seventeen he served with the army in Flanders. After the conclusion of peace, he prosecuted his medical studies at Paris, where he was appointed surgeon to the household of the English ambassador, Lord Albemarle. On his return to Scotland he settled as a surgeon at Glasgow, where he quickly rose to extensive and successful practice.
In the year 1769 he was called, in his medical capacity, to attend the young Duke of Hamilton, which led to his subsequently accompanying the brother of his patient to the Continent. An extensive and long-continued tour through Italy, France, and Germany, opened a wider range to his observation of character than he had hitherto enjoyed. After spending five years abroad, he settled as a physician in London; and about the same time commenced his literary career by publishing the fruits of his travels in his View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany, 2 vols., Lond. 1779. This work was so well received, that in 1781 he added to it two volumes, entitled A View of Society and Manners in Italy. In 1785 he published his Medical Sketches, consisting chiefly of observations on the animal economy and the treatment of fevers. His next performance, which appeared in the year 1789, was a novel entitled Zeluco, in which he has exhibited a character so atrocious as rather to excite horror than afford amusement or instruction. It was much admired, however, on its first appearance, and was hailed as a work of very great power.
In 1792 Dr Moore accompanied Lord Lauderdale to Paris, where he witnessed some of the principal scenes of the Revolution, of which he published an interesting account on his return to England, entitled A Journal of a Residence in France during the Revolution 1792-4. The same journey supplied him with materials for his View of the Causes and Progress of the French Revolution, which was published in 1795. The scenes which Dr Moore had hitherto exhibited, both in his travels and fictitious compositions, were copied from the manners of other countries. The novel of Edward, which he published in 1796, is entirely confined to the illustration of our domestic usages and national customs. Mordaunt, or Sketches of Life, Character, and Manners in Various Countries, possesses something of the same sort of merit as Edward, but in an inferior degree. He survived the publication of Mordaunt only two years, and died at London in 1802. In addition to the works already signalized, Dr Moore published an edition of Smollett's works in 8 vols., with a Life of the author, Lond. 1797.
The reputation of Dr Moore with posterity will rest on his travels and novels. As long as they are read, he will be acknowledged as a writer endowed with admirable good sense, a rich vein of original humour, keen insight into human nature, and a capacity of describing its intricacies with force and discernment.
A complete edition of his works, in 7 vols., with a Memoir of his life, was published by Dr Robert Anderson, Edinburgh, 1820.