Henry, author of The Life of God in the Soul of Man, was born at Salton, in Haddingtonshire, in June 1650, where his father, the immediate predecessor of Bishop Burnet, was rector. Having prosecuted his studies with much distinction at the University of Edinburgh, he was appointed to the chair of philosophy in Aberdeen, on his leaving college. Having taught there for some years, he took orders, and was settled at Auchterless, some twenty miles from Aberdeen. It was in this retirement he wrote the work by which he is now known. This book is marked above others of its class by the earnest spirit of piety which it breathes, and by the purity and elegance of the style in which the thoughts are conveyed. It appeared in 1677 anonymously, the modesty of the author withholding him from prefixing to it his name. Scougal hardly survived its publication a twelvemonth. He died of consumption on the 13th of June 1678, in his twenty-eighth year. He was interred on the north side of the chapel of King's College, Aberdeen, where a tablet of black marble records to the passer-by the revered dust which lies below.