[Born at Edinburgh, 1773. Died, 1850. Aged 77.]
One of the founders, and for many years the editor, of the “Edinburgh
Review,”--a publication which he enriched by his essays on poetry and
general literature. He had an acute, ingenious, and spirited intellect,
a sensibility of taste, and a constant flow and vivacity of style; but
his apprehensions in literature and the arts, were rather trained and
authorized than free and original. He had a leaning, scarcely a special
gift, to speculate on the questions of the Mind--questions early and
familiarly brought before him, as rife in the Scottish school in which
he was educated. The influence of Jeffrey upon literature and public
opinion, during his life-time, was very great--partly from the character
of the Review which he governed, partly from the independence,
brilliancy, and ability with which he maintained his principles of
taste. Many of his criticisms contain the soundest views, and are
eloquently written: others have been signally refuted by time and the
public verdict; and their style is defaced by wanton and unjustifiable
flippancy of language. Jeffrey studied for the law, and, being always a
liberal in politics, was promoted by his Whig friends to the Scottish
bench. With the reputation of a brilliant and ingeniously argumentative
speaker, he disappointed, in the House of Commons, the general
expectation. He was esteemed a very kind and friendly feeling man.
[By Christopher Moore. Executed in 1846.]