542
tributions was the "Ode to the Cuckoo," which,
notwithstanding the obvious fault of a want of con-
nection between the various parts of various stanzas,
is still one of the most popular poems in the lan-
guage.
In 1773 Logan was licensed as a preacher by the
presbytery of Edinburgh, thus joining the ranks of
the Established instead of the Dissenting church.
He soon became known as an eloquent and affecting
preacher, and in the same year was called by the
kirk-session and incorporations of South Leith to
be their minister; a situation always considered as
one of the most honourable in the Church of Scot-
land, and which had just been vacated by another
man of genius, Dr. Henry Hunter, whose life has
been given in the present work. Here he continued
to cultivate literature with devoted ardour, though
it was not till 1781 that he thought proper to publish
any poetry under his own name. Among the studies
of Dr.' Logan, history was one of those in which he
most delighted. In the winter of 1779 he delivered
a course of lectures on the " Philosophy of History,"
in St. Mary's Chapel, Edinburgh, under the coun-
tenance and approbation of Drs. Robertson, Blair,
Ferguson, and other eminent persons connected with
the university. So successful was he in these exhi-
bitions, that on the chair of universal history becom-
ing vacant in 1780, he would unquestionably have
obtained it, if he had possessed the incidental quali-
fication of being a member of the Scottish bar. In
the succeeding year he published an analysis of his
lectures, so far as they related to ancient history,
under the title of Elements of the Philosophy of His-
tory, which was followed by one of the lectures On
the Manners and Government of Asia. His poems,
published in 1781, attracted so much attention, that
a second edition was called for next year. In this
collection he reprinted several of the pieces which
he had formerly given to the world along with those
of Michael Bruce. A painful charge rests against
his memory regarding the real authorship of some
of those pieces, and also respecting the use he made
of a copious manuscript of Bruce's poetry intrusted
to him after the publication of the first volume.
Into this controversy, which is fully stated in Ander-
son's edition of the British Poets, we deem it unne-
cessary to enter; but we can state, as a fact not for-
merly known to the biographers of Logan, that he
asserted his innocence in a very decided manner,
after his removal to London, by ordering an Edin-
burgh agent to take out an interdict against an
edition of Bruce's Poems, in which several of his own
pieces had been appropriated, under the supposition
of their belonging to that poet.
Undeterred by the fate of Home, Logan produced
a tragedy in 1783. It was entitled Runnimede, and
aimed at combining the history of Magna Charta
with a love-story said to be expressly borrowed from
the Tancrede of Voltaire. Runnimede was rehearsed
by Mr. Harris at Covent Garden Theatre, but pre-
vented from being acted by an order from the cham-
berlain, who, in the recent feeling of the American
war of independence, took alarm at several of the
breathings in favour of liberty. Logan then printed
it, and had it acted in the Edinburgh theatre; but in
neither form did it meet with decided success. This,
with other disappointments, preyed upon the spirits
of the poet, and he now betook himself to the most
vulgar and fatal means of neutralizing grief. It is
to be always kept in mind that his father had died
in a state of insanity, the consequence of depressed
spirits. Hence it is to be presumed that the aberra-
tions of the unhappy poet had some palliative in
constitutional tendencies. From whatever source
they arose, it was soon found necessary that he should
resign the charge of the populous parish with which
he had been intrusted.1 An agreement to this pur-
pose was completed between him and the kirk-
sessionin 1786, and he retired with a certain modicum
of the stipend, while Mr. Dickson was appointed
his assistant and successor.
In the autumn of the preceding year Logan had
proceeded to London, apparently with the design of
devoting himself entirely to literature. He was en-
gaged in the management of the English Review,
and compiled a view of ancient history, which passed
under the name of Dr. Rutherford. In 1788 he
published an anonymous pamphlet, entitled A Review
of the Principal Charges against Mr. Hastings; which,
being construed into a breach of the privileges of
the House of Commons, caused a prosecution of the
publisher Stockdale, who, however, was acquitted.
This was the last production he gave to the world.
After a lingering indisposition he died in London,
December 28, 1788, about forty years of age.
Dr. Logan destined legacies to the amount of
£6oo to certain of his friends and relations, to be
realized out of his books and manuscripts. The lat-
ter consisted of sermons, miscellaneous prose pieces,
lectures, and a few small lyrical poems. In 1790
the first volume of the sermons was published, under
the superintendence of Drs. Robertson, Hardy, and
Blair. The second volume appeared in the follow-
ing year; and, before the end of 1793, both volumes
had undergone a second impression. None of his
other posthumous works have been published.
Except in the latter part of his life, when rendered
irritable and sottish by the results of his constitu-
tional temperament, Dr. Logan is allowed to have
been a man of the most amiable character, full of
refined sensibility, and free from all mean vices. Of
his poetry, which has been several times reprinted in
the mass, it is no small praise to say that it advances
before the age in which it was written, having more
of the free natural graces which characterize modern
verse, than the productions of most of his contem-
poraries. It is also characterized in many instances
by singularly happy expressions, as it is in general
by extreme sweetness of versification. His "Ode
to the Cuckoo" and his hymns are the pieces which
may be expected to last longest. A selection from
the latter, omitting portions of some of those chosen,
was embodied inthevolume of paraphrases sanctioned
by the Church of Scotland as an addition to the
psalmody. "The sermons of Logan," says his
earliest biographer, Dr. Anderson, "though not so
exquisitely polished as those of Blair, possess in a
higher degree the animated and passionate expres-
sion of Massillon and Atterbury. His composition
is everywhere excellent—its leading characteristics
being strength, elegance, and simplicity. The for-
mation of his sentences appears the most inartificial;
though, at the same time, it will be found strictly
correct. But the manner, amidst all its beauties,
is, on the first perusal, lost in the enjoyment the
reader feels from the sentiment. Devotional and
solemn subjects peculiarly accord with his feelings
and genius. In exhibiting deep and solemn views of
human life, his sentiments are bold and varied, and
1 An aged parishioner of Dr. Logan mentioned to a friend
of the editor of this work, that he was present in church one
day, when the conduct of the reverend gentleman was such
as to induce an old man to go up, and, in no very respectful
language, call upon the minister to descend from the pulpit
which he disgraced. Such an anecdote, if read immediately
after perusing one of the elegant discourses of Logan, would
form a singular illustration of the propinquity which sometimes
exists between the pure and impure, the lofty and the de-
graded, in human character.