To kindle in thy breast, Phoebæan flame;
Oh rise; oh! emulate their lives and claim:
The glorious meed of many a studious night,,
And many a day spent in asserting right,
Repressing wrong, and bringing fraud to shame.
Nor let the glare of wealth, or pleasure's bowers
Allure thy fancy. Think how Tully shone,.
Think how Demosthenes, with heavenly fire,
Shook Philip's throne and lightened o'er his towers.
What gave them strength? Not eloquence alone,
But minds elate above each low desire..

SIR WILLIAM JONES'S PROFESSIONAL life.

It is singular that we should meet in our legal annals with three celebrated men who have enjoyed the name and title of Sir William Jones. The first, the author of the Reports, who held a seat on the Bench in the reign of Charles I.; the second, Attorney General for a short period during the reign of Charles II.; and the third, "Linguist Jones," the subject of the present. brief notice..

He appears to have been designed for the Bar from an early period. It was strongly recommended by Sergeant Prime, and other legal friends of his mother, that young Jones should be placed, at the age of sixteen, in the office of some eminent special pleader. Even at this early age the juvenile student had the curiosity to peruse the

Abridgment of Coke's Institutes by Ireland, with so much attention, that he is stated to have frequently amused the legal friends of his mother, by reasoning with them on old cases, generally supposed to be confined to the learned of the profession. The Law, however, at that time, observes his biographer, had little attraction for him; and he felt no inclination to renounce his Demosthenes and Cicero for the pleadings in Westminster Hall. His disgust to the study of the law had also been particularly excited by the perusal of some old and inaccurate abridgments of law cases in barbarous Latin. This disinclination probably induced Mrs. Jones to reject the advice of the learned Sergeant, and her son was accordingly sent to the University. The progress which he made in so many various branches of literature and science, and the attachment which he imbibed for those pursuits, no doubt tended to indispose his mind for the confined and severe labours which the profession of the law exacts. It was not until he had determined to resign the charge of Lord Althorp's education, in the year 1770, at the age of twenty-four, that Mr. Jones became a member of the Temple; but he did not on this occasion desert his former studies. "On my late return to England," says he in a letter to his friend Reviczki, " I found myself entangled, as it were, in a variety of important considera

tions. My friends, companions, relations, all attacked me with solicitations to banish poetry and oriental literature for a time, and apply myself to oratory and the study of the law, in other words, to become a Barrister, and pursue the track of ambition. Their advice, in truth, was conformable to my own inclinations; for the only road to the highest stations in this country is that of the law, and I need not add how ambitious and laborious I am."

In another letter, written in the same year, (1771,) addressed to Mr. Wilmot, we trace the progress of his studies, "I have just begun to contemplate the stately edifice of the Laws of England,

if

"The gather'd wisdom of a thousand years.'

you will allow me to parody a line of Pope. I do not see why the study of the law is called dry and unpleasant; and I very much suspect that it seems so to those only who would think any study unpleasant which required great application of the mind and exertion of memory. I have read most attentively the two first volumes of Blackstone's Commentaries, and the two others will require much less attention. I am much pleased with the care he takes to quote his authorities in the margin, which not only give a sanction to what he asserts, but point out the sources to which the student may apply for more

diffusive knowledge. I have opened two common place books, the one of the law, the other of oratory, which is surely too much neglected by our modern Speakers. *** But I must lay aside my studies for about six weeks, while I am printing my grammar, from which a good deal is expected; and which I must endeavour to make as perfect as a human work can be. When that is finished I shall attend the Court of King's Bench very constantly, and shall either take a lodging in Westminster, or accept the invitation of a friend in Duke Street, who has made me an obliging offer of apartments."

That Mr. Jones's more elegant pursuits encroached upon the moments which would otherwise have been devoted to his legal studies, is very evident from the foregoing passage; and from another letter, written in the same year, we find that he was not without apprehensions of his professional character suffering in consequence of his reputation as a man of letters. "As to the years in which the poems were written," he observes, "they are certainly of no consequence to the public; but (unless it be very absurd) I would wish to specify them, for it would hurt me, as a student at the Bar, to have it thought that I continue to apply myself to poetry; and I mean to insinuate that I have given it up for several years, which I must explain more fully in the preface.

For a man who wishes to rise in the law, must be supposed to have no other object."

Under these impressions, Mr. Jones, like Sir William Blackstone, in an address to the Muse, expressed his determination to renounce polite literature, and to devote himself entirely to the study of the law. He was called to the Bar in January, 1774, and in the Autumn of the same year, we find him, in a letter to his friend Schultens, expressing his determination to renounce for the next twenty years, all studies but those which were connected with his profession. He then passes a warm eulogium upon the study of the law, and after comparing it with lighter pursuits, tells his correspondent that he prefers its fruitful and useful olive to the barren laurels of literature. "To tell you my mind freely," he adds, "I am not of a disposition to bear the arrogance of men of rank, to which poets and men of letters are so often obliged to submit."

For some time after his being called to the bar, Mr. Jones declined practice, though, in 1775, for the first time, he attended the spring circuit and sessions at Oxford, whether as a spectator or actor his biographer does not inform us. In the following year, he was regular in his attendance at Westminster Hall, and was appointed a Commissioner of Bankrupts, through the interest of Lord Bathurst. We find him also talking of