MURRAY, ALEXANDER, D.D., 1775-1813; b. Scotland; son of a shepherd. In his early life he showed a great desire for learning, and by the family hearth in the evening or amid his flock on the hill-side during the day he read with avidity the few books in his father's house. In 1789 be attended a school at 3finnigaff. The next five years were spent in school in summer, teaching the children of the neighboring families in winter. Books were bought or borrowed; grammars and dictionaries of several lan guages were studied. He obtained a knowledge of the French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and of the Anglo-Saxon, Welsh, and Arabic alphabets, and wrote a volume of poems. At the age of nineteen lie entered the university at Edinburgh through the assist ance of the rev. Dr. Baird of that city, who had heard of his remarkable proficiency. At the end of two years he began to study for the ministry. He contributed several articles to Scots Magazine and the Edinburgh Review. He learned thoroughly all the European languages, and the Geez, Amharic, and Abyssinian dialects. The knowledge
of the latter prepared him to edit Traacts, and in three years the edition appeared in 7 vols., with a life of the author, and copious philological and antiquarian notes. In 1806 he was ordained and installed assistant and successor to the minister of Urr in the stewardey of Kirkcudbright. In 1811 he was employed to translate a Geez letter, which had been sent to the king from the governor of Tigre. In 1812 he was elected professor of oriental languages in the university of Edinburgh. During that year he published a small work entitled Outlines of Oriental Philology, comprehending the Grammatical Princi ples of the _Hebrew, Syriac, Cluddee, Arabic, and Abyssinian languages. Ile now began a work entitled History of the European Languages, or Researches into the Affinities of the Thutonic, Greek, Celtic, Sclaronic, and Indian Nations, but before the end of the first ses sion, his health which had been feeble for sonic time, utterly failed, and he died in the 37th year of his age.