Dr ARTHUR, was born at Caikieben, near Aberdeen, the seat of his ancestors, and probably was educated at Aberdeen, as he was afterwards advanced to the highest dignity in that university. The study he chiefly applied himself to was that of physic; and to improve himself in that science, he travelled into foreign parts. He was twice at Rome; but the chief place of his residence was Padua, in which university the degree of M.D. was conferred on him in 1612, as appears by a MS. copy of verses in the advocate's library in Edinburgh. After leaving Padua, he travelled through the rest of Italy, and over Germany, Denmark, England, Holland, and other countries; and at length settled in France; where he met with great applause as a Latin poet. He lived there 20 years, and by two wives had 13 children. After 24 years absence, he returned into Scotland in 1632. It appears by the council books at Edinburgh, that the doctor had a suit at law before that court about that time. In the year following, it is very well known that Charles I. went into Scotland, and made Bishop Laud, then with him, a member of that council: and by this accident, it is probable, that acquaintance began between the doctor and that prelate, which produced his "Psalterum Davidis Paraphrasa Poetica;" for we find that, in the same year, the doctor printed a specimen of his Psalms at London, and dedicated them to his lordship.

He proceeded to perfect the whole, which took him up four years; and the first edition complete was published at Aberdeen in 1637, and at London the same year. In 1641, Dr Johnston being at Oxford, on a visit to one of his daughters who was married to a divine of the church of England in that place, was seized with a violent diarrhoea, of which he died in a few days, in the 54th year of his age, notwithstanding having seen the beginning of those troubles that proved so fatal to his patron. He was buried in the place where he died; which gave occasion to the following lines of his learned friend Wedderburn in his Suspiria on the doctor's death:

Scotia maga, dole, tanti viduata sepulchro Vatis: is Angligenis conigit alius honos.

In what year Dr Johnston was made physician to the king does not appear: it is most likely that the archbishop procured him that honour at his coming into England in 1633, at which time he translated Solomon's Song into Latin elegiac verse, and dedicated it to his majesty. His Psalms were reprinted at Middleburgh, 1642; London, 1657; Cambridge,....; Amsterdam, 1706; Edinburgh, by Williams Lauder, 1739; and last on the plan of the Delphin classics, at London, 1741, 8vo, at the expense of Auditor Benson, who dedicated them to his late majesty, and prefixed to this edition memoirs of Dr Johnston, with the testimonies of various learned persons. A laboured comparison between the two translations of Buchanan and Johnston was printed the same year in English, in 8vo, entitled, A Prefatory Discourse to Dr. Johnson's Psalms, &c. and A Conclusion to it. His translations of the Te Deum, Creed, Decalogue, &c. were subjoined to the Psalms. His other poetical works are his Epigrams; his Parerga; and his Myce Anglicae, or commendatory Verses upon persons of rank in church and state at that time.