David Macbeth Moir was born at Musselburgh on the 5th January 1798. His
elementary education was conducted at a private seminary and the
Grammar-school of that town. He subsequently attended the medical
classes in the University of Edinburgh, and in his eighteenth year
obtained a surgeon's diploma. In partnership with Dr Brown, a
respectable physician of long standing, he entered on medical practice
in his native place. He wrote good poetry in his fifteenth year, and
about the same age contributed some prose essays to the _Cheap
Magazine_, a small periodical published in Haddington. In 1816 he
published a poem entitled "The Bombardment of Algiers." For a succession
of years after its commencement in 1817, he wrote numerous articles for
_Constable's Edinburgh Magazine_. Soon after the establishment of
_Blackwood's Magazine_, he became one of its more conspicuous
contributors; and his poetical contributions, which were generally
subscribed by his literary _nom de guerre_, the Greek letter Delta
([Greek: Delta]), long continued a source of much interest to the
readers of that periodical. In 1824 he published a collection of his
poetical pieces, under the title of "Legend of Genevieve, with other
Tales and Poems." "The Autobiography of Mansie Wauch," originally
supplied in a series of chapters to _Blackwood_, and afterwards
published in a separate form, much increased his reputation as an
author. In 1831 appeared his "Outlines of the Ancient History of
Medicine;" a work which was followed, in 1832, by a pamphlet entitled,
"Practical Observations on Malignant Cholera;" and a further
publication, with the title, "Proofs of the Contagion of Malignant
Cholera." A third volume of poems from his pen, entitled "Domestic
Verses," was published in 1843. In the early part of 1851 he delivered,
at the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh, a course of six lectures
on the "Poetical Literature of the Past Half-century," which, afterwards
published in an elegant volume by the Messrs Blackwood, commanded a
large share of public attention. In a state of somewhat impaired health,
he proceeded to Dumfries on the 1st day of July 1851, hoping to derive
benefit from a change of scene and climate. But his end was approaching;
he died at Dumfries on the 6th of the same month, having reached only
his 53d year. His remains were interred, at a public funeral, in the
burying-ground of Musselburgh, where a monument has been erected to his
memory. Indefatigable in the discharge of his professional duties, Moir
regularly devoted a portion of his time to the gratification of his
literary tastes. A pleasant prose writer, he will be remembered for his
inimitable drollery in the adventures of "Mansie Wauch." As a poet, his
style is perspicuous and simple; and his characteristics are tenderness,
dignity, and grace. He is occasionally humorous, but he excels in the
plaintive and elegiac. Much of his poetry breathes the odour of a
genuine piety. He was personally of an agreeable presence. Tall in
stature, his countenance, which was of sanguine hue, wore a serious
aspect, unless kindled up by the recital of some humorous tale. His
mode of utterance was singularly pleasing, and his dispositions were
pervaded by a generous benignity. He loved society, but experienced his
chief happiness in the social intercourse of his own family circle. He
had married in 1829; and his amiable widow, with eight children, still
survive. A collected edition of his best poems, in two duodecimo
volumes, has been published since his death, by the Messrs Blackwood,
under the editorial superintendence of Thomas Aird, who has prefixed an
interesting memoir.