MOORE, Dr John, was the son of one of the clergymen of Stirling, at which place he was born in the year 1730. He received his medical education at the University of Glasgow, and at the early age of seventeen he served as surgeon’s mate 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; and there he quickly rose to extensive and successful practice. In every period of his life he delighted in social intercourse; and during his residence in Glasgow, his leisure hours were, in a great measure, devoted to the enjoyment of society. His vivacity in conversation, and agreeable turn of wit and humour, attracted around him a numerous and respectable circle of acquaintances. Although he did not at this period come before the public as an author, he often wrote occasional poems on the occurrences of the day, for the amusement of the society which he frequented, and of which he formed the principal charm. His acute and just discrimination of the various shades in the manners and dispositions of mankind was even at this time displayed in a series of verses, characteristic of the members of a convivial club to which he belonged.

In the year 1769 he was called, in his medical capacity, to attend the young Duke of Hamilton, who was labouring under a pulmonary complaint, to which he ultimately fell a victim. His attendance at Hamilton subsequently led to his 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 faculty of investigating the characters of mankind 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. This work was so well received that, in the year 1781, he added to it two volumes, entitled A View of Society and Manners in Italy. A discriminating observer of the customs, passions, and prejudices of mankind, he was admirably qualified to give a correct and interesting view of society and manners in the countries through which he had travelled; and, by means of the epistolary form which he adopted, he has completely succeeded in giving sufficient connection and animation to his Miscellaneous Anecdotes, his Sketches of Distinguished Men, and his Remarks on National Character. 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 following, was the celebrated novel of Zeluco, in which he has exhibited a character so atrocious as rather to excite horror than to afford amusement or instruction. The only prototype of such a personage in fictitious narrative (for surely none ever existed in real life) is the Ferdinand Count Fathom of Smollett, which Dr Moore, doubtless, bad in his eye when he undertook this singular delineation. Both characters are utterly devoid of principle, and are equally profligate, perfidious, and selfish. Yet there are different shades in the characters of these fictitious wretches; Zeluco is a more daring and hardy, Fathom a more pliant and crafty, villain. Fathom, too, in the commission of all his atrocities, is solely actuated by self-interest, or the indulgence of the lowest sensual gratifications; whereas Zeluco is excited to many of his blackest crimes by the strongest evil passions of our nature, by hatred, envy, and revenge. Fathom has perfect command of temper, and never sacrifices his interest to caprice. Zeluco’s temper, on the other hand, is ungovernable, and he disregards all consequences in the gratification of his rage and malice. The moral effect of all such pictures of depravity may well be doubted. Fathom, indeed, who is represented as a coward, a thief, and a sharper, is so utterly degraded, loathsome, and disgusting, that the contemplation of his character is only for the time a pollution of the imagination. But the high birth, personal attractions, gentlemanlike accomplishments, and courage of Zeluco, may, to an ill-regulated mind, extenuate his enormities, and even spread the infection of his wickedness. It is true, that the history of Zeluco, who is the only son of a noble and wealthy family in Sicily, is intended to show the fatal consequences of uncontrolled passions, and excessive maternal indulgence. It is true, that, with every advantage of person, birth, and fortune, he is represented as utterly wretched from the depravity of his nature; that an awful punishment is awarded to him in the catastrophe, and that he closes his life in paroxysms of penitence. But though the author’s design may have been laudable, the moral scope is often as much lost sight of in the perusal as are the recondite allegories of the Orlando, or the Jerusalem Delivered. Such a picture, too, of the darkest tinges of villany, unmitigated by the intermixture [7:15:450]of one good quality, harmonizes so little with the ideas or feelings of this country, that we revolt at its improbability; or, at least, the credence of reality, so essential to the success of every fictitious narrative, is hardly ever excited. Besides, the principal parts of the work are not such as afford scope for the display of the author’s peculiar excellencies. The mind, however, is occasionally relieved by scenes of humour and pleasantry, by picturesque sketches, and interesting traits of character. The comic part, indeed, is infinitely superior to the tragic, and in it the author seldom fails. Of Transfer we have, perhaps, too much, but Buchanan is an admirable sketch. There is much light humour in the relation of the story of Ro-solia, and the comic dialogue is invariably spirited and lively. Though now somewhat sunk in reputation, Zeln-co was much admired on its first appearance, and was bailed as one of those productions which, by its knowledge of human nature, and reach of mind, redeemed the species of composition to which it belonged from the imputation of frivolity, and elevated fictitious narratives to a higher walk in the paths of literature.

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. 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. Edward is a foundling, whom chance places under the protection of Mrs Barnet. Under her guidance his mind, which is intended as a contrast to that of Zeluco, gradually unfolds every amiable and every manly virtue. His character is exhibited in many trying situations, till at length, by a natural series of incidents, he is finally brought to the discovery of his reputable descent, and is united to a beautiful heiress, of whom he was enamoured, and of whom the person he discovers to be his mother is the guardian. The thread, however, by which the hero is connected with the other characters of the work is very slight, and the incidents are barely such as keep up its title to the character of a regular novel. It is not distinguished by originality of sentiment, by novelty of character, by deep involution of events, or by scenes of complicated distress or unexpected deliverance. But, without strongly interesting the feelings, the mind is kept, particularly through the conversation pieces, in an agreeable state of amusement; and it is wonderful that, in its perusal, we should experience so little lassitude, when there is so little excitation.

Mordaunt possesses something of the same sort of merit as Edward, but in an inferior degree. A series of letters from different persons, characteristically supported, was a species of novel which required great versatility of powers, and one in which the genius of Dr Moore qualified him peculiarly to excel. But it would appear that the brilliancy of his wit had been tarnished by too frequent exposure to the world, or that his natural vivacity had been somewhat diminished by the advance of age. He survived the publication of Mordaunt only two years, and died at London in 1802.

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, an uncommon insight into human nature, and a capacity of describing its intricacies with force and discernment.