The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

From the Gentleman's Magazine for May, 1784.

Mr. Urban,

I am surprised at not having seen in your useful repository any account of Dr. Moyes, of Edinburgh, who, I think, ought to be commemorated as one of the literary phænomena of the present age, though he must be well known to many of your readers, as he gave philosophical lectures at both ends of the town, in the spring of 1783. To others let me say, that this wonderful man, now only 29 years of age, though he has been quite blind ever since he was 18 months old, is possessed of an almost unequalled fund of knowledge in chemistry, and in every branch of natural philosophy and history, with all the mechanical arts; is well versed in polite literature; and is yet modest and diffident in his opinions, amiable in his manners, benevolent in his heart. He read, or rather delivered, his lectures in London (as mentioned above) in 1783, and afterwards repeated them to a numerous set of subscribers (upwards of one hundred) twice at Norwich, and then at Yarmouth, as much to their satisfaction as to his own pecuniary advantage. He returned to Scotland last summer, in order to arrange at his leisure the materials for another series of lectures, on a noble and extensive plan, to be delivered at London and elsewhere. But I have lately heard he has since been induced to accompany a friend to America.

[The Doctor has since arrived at Providence, and has begun his Lectures on The Philosophy of Chemistry and Natural History, which, so far as they are proceeded in, have afforded the highest satisfaction.]