BIOGRAPHICAL ‘SKETCHES, 179
worship-were thrown open to him to lecture in, and every rank and condition
rivalled each other who should show him the greatest hospitality and kindness.
He was much more popular in that country than he had been even in England.
The attempt at delivering lectures on any branch of philosophy was a very
great novelty, but especially from a person who had not the use of eyes.
The following paragraph respecting him sppeaked in an American newspaper
of that day :-‘‘ The celebrated Dr. Moyes, though blind, delivered a lecture
upon optics, delineating the properties of light and shade,” etc. It therefore
seems that he did not confine his lectures strictly to chemistry when abroad.
His American tour is understood to have been a very profitable speculation. ’
On his return to his native country he took a house in Edinburgh, where
he resided for some time. Before he went to America he had projected to
make a tour through Ireland, but was prevented. In 1790, he crossed the
channel and arrived in Belfast. He visited all the principal towns in the island,
and remained a few months in Dublin, and was highly gratified with the reception
he met. He now determined to take up his residence at Manchester, and
there spend the remainder of his life.’
This remarkable character was rather tall in his person, and of a swarthy
complexion, His temper was cheerful, and his conversation interesting. He was
remarkably abstemious. He had a natural dislike to animal food of every
description, and tasted no ardent spirits nor fermented liquors. He bequeathed
his fortune, which was considerable, to his brother: and died on the 10th of
August 1807, in the fifty-seventh year of his age.
After his return from Duhliq, Dr. Moyes delivered a lecture in Edinburgh, on the 14th of April
1795, for the benefit of the “ Industrious Blind” employed at the Asylum. His audience consisted
principally of the higher classes, and it was calculated that there could be no less than eleven hundred
individuals present. The exact amount of the sum collected is not stated, but it is understood to have
been very large. “ It is scarcely necessary to add,” says a notice of this lecture, “that the Doctor’s
observations on the best means of preserving the blessings of health were received with every mark
of that unfeigned satisfaction which sound philosophy, expressed with all the elegance and energy of
language, never fails to produce in enlightened minds, especially when directed to the purposes of
utility and benevolence.” * He was one of the Episcopal clergymen of St. Paul’s Chapel, then in the Cowgate. He is alluded
to in that wicked poem, the “Town Eclogue”-Edinburgh, 1804-written by the Rev. Williani
Aureol Hay Drummond. The Cowgate Chapel, from the eloquent discourses of that amiable clergyman,
the Rev. Mr. Alison, was usually crowded whenever he preached. In allusion ta this, Hay says,
“ But things are better, where each Sabbath dny
Gay fashion’s coaches crowd the Chapel’s way,
Save when Old Moses’ dreary, drowsy drone,
Makes maidens titter, and Sir William [Forbes] groan.”
The poet says, with what truth we know not, that “Moses” (Mr. Moyes), in treating of the
happiness of the life to come, observed that one great benefitpras, “An easy introduction to the
acquaintance of those very respectable persons the angels.”
