Dr. John Armstrong, littérateur, and associate of Smollett, Thomson, Wilkes, and other celebrities / Lewis M. Knapp.

  • Knapp, Lewis M. (Lewis Mansfield)
Date:
[1944?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr. John Armstrong, littérateur, and associate of Smollett, Thomson, Wilkes, and other celebrities / Lewis M. Knapp. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    DR. JOHN ARMSTRONG, LITTERATEUR, AND ASSOCIATE OF SMOLLETT, THOMSON, WILKES, AND OTHER CELEBRITIES • i7W TWO hundred years ago, in April, 1744, there was printed in London a long didactic poem in blank verse, The Art of Preserving Health, which brought its author, Dr. John Armstrong, considerable literary reputation during the following century in England, Italy, and America.1 In this work there are occasional passages of very pleasing poetry, but the goddess Hygeia, whom Armstrong invoked with all due fervor, failed to inspire him to create an enduring masterpiece on such themes as air, diet, and exercise. Consequently, during the last century there has been little interest in his poems and essays, or in his life, personality, and friendships. There is, of course, A. H. Bullen’s short article in the Dic¬ tionary of National Biography, which added little, however, to Robert Anderson’s memoir,2 or to Robert Chambers’ account,3 and more recently V _ _ Mr. Iolo A. Williams paid tribute to The Art of Preserving Health and published a bibliography of Armstrong’s works.4 But there is no likeli¬ hood that Armstrong’s writings will be much read or discussed in the future except by literary antiquarians and special students of the eight¬ eenth century. Why, then, should anyone write about Armstrong today? There are several valid reasons. The first is that all written accounts of his life are woefully incomplete. Secondly, no one has attempted to give a complete evaluation of his personality. And finally, Armstrong’s associations with eighteenth-century celebrities, such as Thomson, Wilkes, the painter Fuseli, and especially Smollett, are of lively interest to explorers of that age of worthy “originals.” My purpose, therefore, is to present a rather complete account of Armstrong in order to restore the faded colors of his portrait, and to reveal him and his associates more clearly. I According to Robert Chambers, Armstrong’s family5 had been promi¬ nent among the old rievers of the Scottish border. Armstrong himself was 1 The Art of Preserving Health was many times reprinted in England. In 1745 Benjamin Franklin printed it in Philadelphia. It was issued in Boston in 1757 and subsequently; it was translated into Italian by Thomas J. Mathias and published at Naples in 1825. Hazlitt included the whole poem in his Select British Poets (London, 1824). 2 The Works of the British Poets, ed. Robert Anderson, M.D., x (London, 1795), [963]—966. 3 Robert Chambers, A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (Glasgow, 1835), i, 58-64. 4 See Iolo A. Williams, By-Ways Round Helicon (London, 1922), pp. 8-14; and his Seven XVIIIth Century Bibliographies (London, 1924), pp. 17-38. 6 Op. cit., p. 58