BARCLAY, John, a distinguished scholar and writer, was born, January 28, 1582, at Pont-a-Mousson, where his father William Barclay (see below) was professor of civil law. Educated at the Jesuits college, he gave evidence of remarkable ability at an early age, and was only nineteen when he published a commentary upon the Thelais of Statius. The Jesuits were naturally desirous that he should enter their order, but to this both himself and his father were averse. The jealous enmity of the order was roused against them in consequence of this refusal, and in 1603 both left France and crossed over to England. In the following year they returned and settled at Angers, where Barclay s father had been appointed pro fessor of law. Soon after the death of his father in 1605, Barclay appears to have married, and to have settled in London, where in 1606 he published the second part of his Satyricon, the first part having appeared on his previous visit to England. In 1610 he edited an important treatise left by his father, De Potestate Papae, which involved him in controversy with the famous Cardinal Bellarmin. In 1614 appeared the wittiest and most interesting part of the Satyricon, entitled Icon Animorum, which gives a critical survey of the varied manners and characteristics of the several European nations. It has been frequently reprinted. In 1616, after a short stay in Paris, he proceeded to Rome, where he continued to reside till his death on 12th August 1621. His romance, Argenis, was passing through the press at the period of his death, and it appeared in the course of the same year. Barclay, from what reason is nut apparent, failed to attain the position to which his talents seemed fairly to entitle him. His reputation as a writer and scholar was remarkably high among his con temporaries. Grotius and others have lavished praises on the purity and elegance of his Latin style ; his romance was extremely popular ; and some of his Latin poems are very happy. The idea of the Satyricon, one of his two extensive compositions, is borrowed from Petronius ; in the details, however, the work fortunately does not follow that author so closely. It was very extensively read, and has passed through several editions. The Argenis, a long Latin romance, sometimes looked on as a political allegory, was very popular. It is said to have been warmly admired by Richelieu and Leibnitz, while Cowper, Disraeli, and Coleridge speak of it in terms of high admiration. The value that was put upon it by Barclay s contemporaries and immediate successors may be gathered from the critical estimate of it given in the Vita Bardaii, prefixed to later editions of the work. " Habet enim" says the anonymous writer of the life, " heroicum Tullii vigorem, Laconismum ct politicam Taciti, Livii antiquitatem, Jlosculos puros Petronit, sales fabulosos Nasonis, poeticam Maronica vix inferiorem." There have been numerous editions of the book, which has been translated into almost every European language.
BARCLAY, John, M.D., an eminent anatomist, was born in Perthshire in 1760, and died at Edinburgh in 1826. After the usual routine of parochial education, he completed his academical course at the United College of St Andrews. He subsequently studied divinity there, and was licensed as a preacher by the Presbytery of Dunkeld. Having repaired to Edinburgh in 1789, as tutor to the family of Sir James Campbell of Aberuchill, he began to give his attention to the study of medi cine, and particularly to human and comparative anatomy. He became assistant to Mr John Bell, and took the degree of M.D. in 1796, after having defended an inaugural dissertation, De Anima sen Principio Vitali, a subject which occupied his maturer powers towards the close of his life. Immediately after his graduation, he repaired to London, and studied for some time under Dr Marshall, at that time a very distinguished teacher of anatomy in the metropolis. Soon after his return to Edin burgh, he commenced his lectures on anatomy in November 1797, and speedily attracted an audience, which increased considerably in numbers until the period of his retirement, a short time before his death.
Of Barclay s professional writings, the earliest, we believe, was the article Physiology, contributed to the third edition of this work. In 1803 he attempted a reform in the language of anatomy, with a view to render it more accurate and precise, a task for which his acquirements as a classical scholar rendered him peculiarly well qualified. Although the Nomenclature which he published in that year has not been generally adopted, the profession acknowledged the importance of the object which he had in view, as well as the talent and learning with which it was executed. In 1808 he published his Treatise on the Muscular Motions of the Human Body, and in 1812 his Description of the Arteries of the Human Body, a work displaying much acute observation and laborious re search, which may be considered the most practically useful of all his writings. His last publication, completed only a few years before his death, was An Inquiry into the Opinions, Ancient and Modern, concerning Life and Organization, a work replete with learning and sound original criticism. His introductory lectures published after his death contain a valuable abridgment of the history of anatomy.
BARCLAY, John, founder of a small sect in the Scotch Church called Bereans or Barclayites, was born in Perthshire in 1734, and died at Edinburgh in 1798. He graduated at St Andrews, and after being licensed became assistant to the parish minister of Errol in Perthshire. He developed some very peculiar views, which led to a difference with the minister; and in 1763 he left and was appointed assist ant to Mr Dow of Fettercairn. In this parish he became very popular, but his opinions, whether as expounded from the pulpit, or as set forth in a paraphrase of some Psalms which he published, failed to give satisfaction to his Pres bytery. In 1772 he was rejected as successor to Mr Dow, and was even refused by the Presbytery the testi monials requisite in order to obtain another living. The refusal of the Presbytery was sustained by the General Assembly, and Mr Barclay thereupon left the Scotch Church. He preached in Edinburgh, London, Bristol, and other places, but with no great success. Neither his writings, which were collected in three volumes, nor the sect formed by him, are of much importance. His adherents were called Bereans, because they regulated their conduct as the in habitants of Berea are said to have done, by diligently searching the Scriptures (Acts xvii. 11).
BARCLAY, Robert, one of the most eminent writers belonging to the Society of Friends, or Quakers, was born in 1648 at Gordonstown in Morayshire. He was sent to finish his education in Paris, and it appears he was at one time inclined to accept the Roman Catholic faith. In 1667, however, he followed the example of his father, Colonel Barclay of Urie, and joined the recently formed Society of Friends. He was an ardent theological student, a man of warm feelings and considerable mental power, and he soon came prominently fonvard as the leading apologist of the new doctrine. His greatest work, An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, was published in Latin in 1676, and was an elaborate statement of the grounds for holding certain fundamental positions, laid down in the Theses Tkeoloyicce which had been put forward in the preceding year. The most prominent of the Theses was that bearing on Immediate Revelation, in which the superiority of this Inner Light to Reason or Scripture is sharply stated. Barclay experienced to some extent the persecutions inflicted on the new society, and was several times thrown fnto prison. He died in 1690 at the early age of forty-two. His Apology, which is still the most important manifesto of the Quaker society, was translated by himself into English in 1678. Translations of it into foreign languages have also appeared.
