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HENRY MACKENZIE (1745-1831)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 253 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HENRY See also:MACKENZIE (1745-1831)  , Scottish novelist and See also:miscellaneous writer, was See also:born at See also:Edinburgh in See also:August 1745 . His See also:father, See also:Joshua See also:Mackenzie, was a distinguished physician, and his See also:mother, See also:Margaret See also:Rose, belonged to an old See also:Nairnshire See also:family . Mackenzie was educated at the high school and the university of Edinburgh, and was then articled to See also:George See also:Inglis of Redhall, who was See also:attorney for the See also:crown in the management of See also:exchequer business . In 1765 he was sent to See also:London to See also:prose-cute his legal studies, and on his return to Edinburgh became partner with Inglis, whom he afterwards succeeded as attorney for the crown . His first and most famous See also:work, The See also:Man of Feeling, was published anonymously in 1771, and met with instant success . The . " Man of Feeling " is a weak creature, dominated by a futile benevolence, who goes up to London and falls into the hands of See also:people who exploit his innocence . The sentimental See also:key in which the See also:book is written shows the author's acquaintance with See also:Sterne and See also:Richardson, but he had neither the See also:humour of Sterne nor the subtle insight into See also:character of Richardson . One See also:Eccles of See also:Bath claimed the authorship of this book, bringing in support of his pretensions a MS. with many ingenious erasures . Mackenzie's name was then officially announced, but Eccles appears to have induced some people to believe in him . In 1773 Mackenzie published a second novel, The Man of the See also:World, the See also:hero of which was as consistently See also:bad as the " Man of Feeling " had been " constantly obedient to his moral sense," as See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott says . Julia de Roubigne (1777), a See also:story in letters, was preferred to his other novels by " See also:Christopher See also:North," who had a high See also:opinion of Mackenzie (see Noctes Ambrosianae, vol. i. p .

155, ed . ,866) . The first of his dramatic pieces, The See also:

Prince of See also:Tunis, was produced in Edinburgh in 1773 with a certain measure of success . The others were failures . At Edinburgh Mackenzie belonged to a See also:literary See also:club, at the meetings of which papers in the manner of the Spectator were read . This led to the See also:establishment of a weekly periodical called the See also:Mirror (See also:January 23, 1779—May 27, 1780), of which Mackenzie was editor and See also:chief contributor . It was followed in 1785 by a similar See also:paper, the Lounger, which ran for nearly two years and had the distinction of containing one of the earliest tributes to the See also:genius of See also:Robert See also:Burns . Mackenzie was an ardent Tory, and wrote many tracts intended to counteract the doctrines of the See also:French Revolution . Most of these remained See also:anonymous, but he acknowledged his See also:Review of the See also:Principal Proceedings of the See also:Parliament of 1784, a See also:defence of the policy of See also:William See also:Pitt, written at the See also:desire of See also:Henry Dundas . He was rewarded (1804) by the See also:office of See also:comptroller of the taxes for See also:Scotland . In 1776 Mackenzie married Penuel, daughter of Sir Ludovick See also:Grant of Grant . He was, in his later years, a notable figure in Edinburgh society .

He was nicknamed the " man of feeling," but he was in reality a hard-headed man of affairs with a kindly See also:

heart . Some of his literary reminiscences were embodied in his See also:Account of the See also:Life and Writings of See also:John See also:Home, Esq . (1822) . He also wrote a Life of See also:Doctor See also:Blacklock, prefixed to the 1793 edition of the poet's See also:works . He died on the 14th of January 1831 . In 1807 The Works of Henry Mackenzie were published surreptitiously, and he then himself superintended the publication of his Works (8 vols., 1808) . There is an admiring but discriminating See also:criticism of his work in the Prefatory Memoir prefixed by Sir Walter Scott to an edition of his novels in Ballantyne's Novelist's Library (vol . V., 1823) .

End of Article: HENRY MACKENZIE (1745-1831)
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