CRUDEN, ALEXANDER, the second son of Thos. W. Cruden, one of the baillies of Aberdeen, was born in 1701. At the age of fifteen he went to Marischa] College, and four years afterwards took his degree. A disappointment in love, at tended by some peculiarly painful circumstances, shortly afterwards affected his intellect, and led to eccentricities of manner and expression which re mained with him through life. He lived for some time as a private tutor, but he mainly earned his live lihood by the correction of books for the press, which caused him, in his various fantastic pamphlets, to assume the title of Alexander the Corrector. At one time he set up as a bookseller ; but, as he met with little success, his eccentricities became so marked, that on two several occasions he was con fined in a lunatic asylum. This seems to have been a harsh measure, as his peculiarities were very harmless. He used, for instance, to go about with a sponge, effacing from walls all inscriptions offensive to good morals, and sheaving his abhor rence of Wilkes by rubbing out the number 45 wherever he found it. He died in the year 177o, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, being found dead upon his knees, in a posture of prayer. Through out life he had been a simple-minded, earnest, in offensive Christian man.
His only claim to notice in these pages is his admirable Concordance, of which the first edition was published in 1737, and dedicated to Queen Caroline. As the queen died a few days after it was presented to her, Cruden obtained no reward beyond the barren title of bookseller to Queen Caro line. It was a work of enormous labour, and oc cupied, before it reached its complete form, many years of the author's life. Not only is it a remark ably comprehensive and faithful concordance, hut also, the various explanations and notices prefixed to the more curious and important words are very clear and useful, and, considering the state of biblical learning in England at that time, are highly creditable to the author's learning. Many of his definitions are deeply marked by the spirit of Cal vinism. Cruden's Concordance still continues to be the most useful book of the kind, but his other works have long been forgotten. The only two worth mentioning are, A Brief Compendium of the Bible (1750), often printed with the Concor dance ; an Index to Bishop Newton's edition of Milton's works ; and A Scripture Dictionary or Guide to the Holy Scriptures, 2 vols. Svo.—F. W. F.