Dr Tobias, an author whose writings will transmit his name with honour to posterity, was born in the year 1720 at a small village within two miles of Cameron, on the banks of the river Leven. He appears to have received a classical education, and was bred to the practice of physic and surgery; and in the early part of his life served as a surgeon's mate in the navy.

The incidents that befell him during his continuance in this capacity served as a foundation for Roderick Random, one of the most entertaining novels in the English tongue. He was present at the siege of Carthagena; and in the before mentioned novel he has given a faithful, though not very pleasing, account of the management of that ill-conducted expedition, which he censures in the warmest terms, and from circumstances which fell under his own particular observation.

His connection with the sea seems not to have been of long continuance; and it is probable that he wrote several pieces before he became known to the public by his capital productions. The first piece we know of with certainty is a satire in two parts, printed first in the years 1746 and 1747, and reprinted in a collection of his Plays and Poems in 1777. About this period, or some time before, he wrote for Mr Rich an opera intitled Alceste, which has never been performed nor printed. At the age of 18 he wrote a tragedy intitled The Regicide, founded on the story of the assination of James I. of Scotland. In the preface to this piece, published by subscription in the year 1749, he bitterly exclaimed against false patrons, and the duplicity of theatrical managers. The warmth and impetuosity of his temper hurried him, on this occasion, into unjust reflections against the late George Lord Lyttleton and Mr Garrick: the character of the former he characterized in the novel of Peregrine Pickle, and he added a burlesque of the Monody written by that nobleman on the death of his lady. Against Mr Garrick he made illiberal ill-founded criticisms; and in his novel of Roderic Random gave a very unfair representation of his treatment of him respecting this tragedy. Of this conduct he afterwards repented, and acknowledged his errors; though in the subsequent editions of the novel the passages which were the hasty effusions of disappointment were not omitted.

However, in giving a sketch of the liberal arts in his History of England, he afterwards remarked, "the exhibitions of the stage were improved to the most exquisite entertainment by the talents and management of Garrick, who greatly surpassed all his predecessors of this and perhaps every other nation, in his genius for acting, in the sweetness and variety of his tones, the irresistible magic of his eye, the fire and vivacity of his action, the eloquence of attitude, and the whole-pathos of expression.

Not satisfied with this public declaration, he wrote an apology to Mr Garrick in still stronger terms. With these ample concessions, Mr Garrick was completely satisfied; so that in 1757, when Dr Smollet's comedy of the Reprisals, an afterpiece of two acts, was performed at Drury Lane theatre, the latter acknowledged himself highly obliged for the friendly care of Mr Garrick exerted in preparing it for the stage: and still more for his acting the part of Lufignan in Zara for his benefit, on the fifth instead of the ninth night, to which he was only intitled by the custom of the theatre.

The Adventures of Roderic Random, published in 1748, 2 vols 12mo, a book which still continues to have a most extensive sale, first established the Doctor's reputation. All the first volume and the beginning of the second appear to consist of real incident and character, though certainly a good deal heightened and disguised. The Judge his grandfather, Crab and Potion the two apothecaries, and 'Squire Gawky, were characters well known in that part of the kingdom where the scene was laid. Captains Oakhum and Whiffle, Doctors Macklane and Morgan, were also said to be real personages; but their names we have either never learned or have now forgotten. A bookbinder and barber long eagerly contended for being shadowed under the name of Strap. The Doctor seems to have enjoyed a peculiar felicity in describing sea characters, particularly the officers and sailors of the navy. His Trunnion, Hatchway, and Pipes, are highly finished originals; but what exceeds them all, and perhaps equals any character that has yet been painted by the happiest genius of ancient or modern times, is his Lieutenant Bowling. This is indeed nature itself; original, unique, and sui generis.

By the publication of this work the Doctor had acquired to great a reputation, that henceforth a certain degree of success was insured to everything known or suspected to proceed from his hand. In the course of a few years, the Adventures of Peregrine Pickle appeared; a work of great ingenuity and contrivance in the composition, and in which an uncommon degree of erudition is displayed, particularly in the description of the entertainment given by the Republican Doctor, after the manner of the ancients. Under this personage the late Dr Akenfide, author of The Pleasures of Imagination, is supposed to be typified; and it would be difficult to determine whether profound learning or genuine humour predominate most in this episode. Another episode of The Adventures of a Lady of Quality, likewise inserted in this work, contributed greatly to its success, and is indeed admirably executed; the materials, it is said, the lady herself (the celebrated Lady Vane) furnished.

These were not the only original compositions of this stamp with which the Doctor has favoured the public. Ferdinand Count Fathom, and Sir Launcelot Greaves, are still in the list of what may be called reading novels, and have gone through several editions; but there is no injustice in placing them in a rank far below the former. No doubt invention, character, composition, and contrivance, are to be found in both; but then situations are described which are hardly possible, and characters are painted which, if not altogether unexampled, are at least incompatible with modern manners; and which ought not to be, as the scenes are laid in modern times.

The last work which we believe the Doctor published was of much the same species, but cast into a different form—The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker. It consists of a series of letters, written by different persons to their respective correspondents. He has here carefully avoided the faults which may be justly charged to his two former productions. Here are no extravagant characters nor unnatural situations. On the contrary, an admirable knowledge of life and manners is displayed; and most useful lessons are given applicable to interesting but to very common situations.

We know not whether the remark has been made, but there is certainly a very obvious similitude between the characters of the three heroes of the Doctor's chief productions. Roderic Random, Peregrine Pickle, and Matthew Bramble, are all brothers of the same family. The same satirical, cynical disposition, the same generosity and benevolence, are the distinguishing and characteristic features of all three; but they are far from being fertile copies or imitations of each other. They differ as much as the Ajax, Diomed, and Achilles of Homer. This was undoubtedly a great effort of genius; and the Doctor seems to have described his own character at the different stages and situations of his life.

Before he took a house at Chelsea, he attempted to settle as practitioner of physic at Bath; and with that view wrote a treatise on the waters; but was unsuccessful, chiefly because he could not render himself agreeable to the women, whose favour is certainly of great consequence to all candidates for eminence, whether in medicine or divinity. This, however, was a little extraordinary; for those who remembered Dr Smollet at that time, cannot but acknowledge that he was as graceful and handsome a man as any of the age he lived in; besides, besides, there was a certain dignity in his air and manner which could not but inspire respect wherever he appeared. Perhaps he was too soon discouraged; in all probability, had he persevered, a man of his great learning, profound sagacity, and intense application, besides being endowed with every other external as well as internal accomplishment, must have at last succeeded, and had he attained to common old age, been at the head of his profession.

Abandoning physic altogether as a profession, he fixed his residence at Chelsea, and turned his thoughts entirely to writing. Yet, as an author, he was not near so successful as his happy genius and acknowledged merit certainly deserved. He never acquired a patron among the great, who by his favour or beneficence relieved him from the necessity of writing for a subsistence. The truth is, Dr Smollet possessed a loftiness and elevation of sentiment and character which appear to have disqualified him for paying court to those who were capable of conferring favours. It would be wrong to call this disposition pride or haughtiness; for to his equals and inferiors he was ever polite, friendly, and generous. Bookellers may therefore be said to have been his only patrons; and from them he had constant employment in translating, compiling, and reviewing. He translated Gil Blas and Don Quixote, both so happily, that all the former translations of these excellent productions of genius have been almost superceded by his. His name likewise appears to a translation of Voltaire's Prole Works; but little of it was done by his own hand; he only revised it, and added a few notes. He was concerned in a great variety of compilations. His History of England was the principal work of that kind. It had a most extensive sale; and the Doctor is said to have received 200l. for writing it and the continuation.

In 1755 he set on foot the Critical Review, and continued the principal manager of it till he went abroad for the first time in the year 1763. He was perhaps too acrimonious sometimes in the conduct of that work; and at the same time displayed too much sensibility when any of the unfortunate authors attempted to retaliate whose works he had perhaps justly censured.

Among other controversies in which his engagements in this publication involved him, the most material in its consequences was that occasioned by his remarks on a pamphlet published by Admiral Knowles. That gentleman, in defence of his conduct on the expedition to Rochfort, published a vindication of himself; which falling under the Doctor's examination, produced some very severe strictures both on the performance and on the character of the writer. The admiral immediately commenced a prosecution against the printer; declaring at the same time that he desired only to be informed who the writer was, that if he proved to be a gentleman he might obtain the satisfaction of one from him. In this affair the Doctor behaved both with prudence and with spirit. Devoid of compromising the dispute with the admiral in an amicable manner, he applied to his friend Mr Wilkes to interpose his good offices with his opponent. The admiral, however, was inflexible; and just as sentence was going to be pronounced against the printer, the Doctor came into court, avowed himself the author of the strictures, and declared himself ready to give Mr Knowles any satisfaction he chose.

The admiral immediately commenced a fresh action against the Doctor, who was found guilty, fined 100l., and condemned to three months imprisonment in the King's Bench. It is there he is said to have written the Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, in which he has described some remarkable characters, then his fellow-prisoners.

When Lord Bute was called to the chief administration of affairs, he was prevailed upon to write in defence of that nobleman's measures; which he did in a weekly paper called the Briton. This gave rise to the famous North Briton; wherein, according to the opinion of the public, he was rather baffled. The truth is, the Doctor did not seem to possess the talents necessary for political altercation. He wanted temper and coolness; and his friends accused his patron of having denied him the necessary information, and even neglected the fulfilling of some of his other engagements with him. Be that as it will, the Doctor is said not to have forgotten him in his subsequent performances.

Besides the Briton, Dr Smollet is supposed to have written other pieces in support of the cause he espoused. The Adventures of an Atom, in two volumes, are known to be his production.

His constitution being at last greatly impaired by a sedentary life and studious application to study, he went abroad for his health in June 1763, and continued in France and Italy two years. He wrote an account of his travels in a series of letters to some friends, which were afterwards published in two volumes octavo, 1766. During all that time he appears to have laboured under a constant fit of chagrin. A very slight perusal of these letters will sufficiently evince that this observation is founded in fact, and is indeed a melancholy instance of the influence of bodily distemper over the best disposition.

His relation of his travels is actually cynical; for which Sterne, in his Sentimental Journey, has animadverted on him under the character of Smelfungus. The Doctor lived to return to his native country; but his health continuing to decline, and meeting with fresh mortifications and disappointments, he went back to Italy, where he died in October 21, 1771. He was employed, during the last years of his life, in abridging the Modern Universal History, great part of which he had originally written himself, particularly the histories of France, Italy, and Germany.

He certainly met with many mortifications and disappointments; which, in a letter to Mr Garrick, he thus feelingly expresses: "I am old enough to have seen and observed, that we are all playthings of Fortune; and that it depends upon something as insignificant and precarious as the tossing up of a halfpenny, whether a man rises to affluence and honours, or continues to his dying day struggling with the difficulties and disgraces of life."

It would be needless to expatiate on the character of a man so well known as Dr Smollet, who has, besides, given so many strictures of his own character and manner of living in his writings, particularly in Humphrey Clinker; where he appears under the appellation of Mr Serle, and has an interview with Mr Bramble; and his manner of living is described in another letter, where young Melford is supposed to dine with him at his house in Chelsea. No doubt he made money by his connec- Smollett, tions with the bookellers; and had he been a rigid smuggler, economift, or ended with the gift of retention (an expression of his own), he might have lived and died very independent. However, to do justice to his memory, his difficulties, whatever they were, proceeded not from extravagance or want of economy. He was hospitable, but not ostentatiously so; and his table was plentiful, but not extravagant. No doubt he had his failings; but still it would be difficult to name a man who was so respectable for the qualities of his head, or more amiable for the virtues of his heart.

Since his death a monument has been erected to his memory near Leghorn, on which is inscribed an epitaph written in Latin by his friend Dr Armstrong, author of The Art of Preserving Health, and many other excellent pieces. An inscription written in Latin was likewise inscribed on a pillar erected to his memory on the banks of the Leven, by one of his relations.

To these memoirs we are extremely sorry to add, that so late as 1785 the widow of Dr Smollett was residing in indigent circumstances at Leghorn. On this account the tragedy of Venice Preserved was acted for her benefit at Edinburgh on the 5th of March, and an excellent prologue spoken on that occasion.

The pieces inserted in the posthumous collection of Dr Smollett's plays and poems are, The Regicide, a tragedy; The Reproof, a comedy; Advice and Reproof, two satires; The Tears of Scotland; Verses on a Young Lady; a Love Elegy, in imitation of Tibullus; two Songs; a Burlesque Ode; Odes to Mirth, to Sleep, to Leven Water, to Blue-eyed Ann, and to Independence.