It does not seem that Dr. Moore's efforts to obtain employment as a physician in the metropolis, whither his family had removed, soon after his return from abroad, were equally fortunate : and the reception of his Medical Sketches,' published in 1785, appears to have confirmed his predilection for the career of a man of letters. The success which the novel Zelucco met with, was not calculated to disappoint such hopes. Its strong delineations of character and passion, its scenes of pathos and pleasantry, redeemed the occasional harshness and exaggeration of this work, and gave to it a more lasting existence, than generally falls to the lot of similar productions.
The fame arising from these performances procured to Dr. Moore the advantages of a society fitted to ap preciate his acquirements. He had corresponded with Dr. Smollett, and was prompt to encourage the genius of Robert Burns. His time seems chiefly to have been engaged by such intercourse, and by a limited exertion of his professional:abilities, till, in 1792, the French re volution having awakened the attention of all Europe, Moore visited Paris in company with Lord Lauderdale, for the purpose of more narrowly inspecting a phenome non so extraordinary and so vast. The Journal' of his residence in France, which he quitted immediately after the fatal 9th of September, was published on his return to England ; and the author's ideas upon the object he had been contemplating, were given in a more mature shape under the title of ' Causes and Progress of the French Revolution,' three years afterwards. Though
the temporary interest which caused these works to be eagerly sought after, at the time of their appearance, no longer exists, they still merit a perusal. The first, in particular, is noted for the fidelity and spirit with which it sketches some events that will long figure in the his tory of the world.
From politics Dr. Moore again turned his attention to novels. But his Edward' (1796,) and his ' Mordaune (1800) added little to his literary character. Though they retain some traces of his early vigour, they both exhibit symptoms of exhaustion and decay. They were the last effort of his genius : he died at his house in Clifford-street, on the 20th Feb. 1802.
As an author, Dr. Moore was more distinguished by the range of his information, than by its accuracy or extent upon any particular subject ; and his writings did not owe their celebrity to any great depth or even originality of thought. As a Novelist he sheaved no ex traordinary felicity in the department of invention ; no great power of diversifying his characters, or ease in con ducting his narrative. The main quality of his works is that particular species of Sardonic wit, with which they are indeed perhaps profusely tinctured, but which frequently confers a grace and poignancy on the general strain of good sense and judicious observation, that per vades the whole of them. (T. c.)