Mr. JONES to Mr. CARTWRIGHT. DEAR SIR, Nov. 12, 1780. You have fo fully proved the favourable opinion, which you do me the honour to entertain of me, that I am perfuaded you acquit me of any culpable neglect in delaying for more than two months to anfwer your very obliging letter. The truth is, that I had but just received it when I found myself obliged to leave England on very preffing business; and I have not long been returned from Paris. The hurry of preparing myself for fo`long a journey at fuch a feafon, left me no time for giving you my hearty thanks, which I now moft fincerely request you to accept, both for your kind letter, and for the very elegant fonnet*, * SONNET. To Sir WILLIAM JONES, On his being a candidate to represent the University of Oxford in Parliament, 1780. In Learning's field, diversified and wide, The narrow beaten track is all we trace: How few, like thee, of that unmeasur'd space Can boast, and justly boast, no part untried! 1 with which you have rewarded me abundantly for my humble labours in the field of literature. I give you my word that your letters and verses have greatly encouraged me in proceeding as expeditiously as I am able, to fend abroad my feven Arabian poets; and I propose to spend next month at Cambridge, in order to finish my little work, and to make use of a rare manufcript in the library of Trinity College; my own manuscript, which was copied for me at Aleppo, is very beautiful, but unfortunately not very correct. You may depend on receiving a copy as foon as it can be printed. How happy I shall be if I fhould be able Yet rest not here alone thy honest pride, The pride that prompts thy literary chace; And, justly proud of her superior son, Repay the honour that she boasts in thee. Poems by Edmund Cartwright, M. A. 1803. p. 111. to wait upon you in Leicestershire, or to fee you in London, and affure you in person that I am, With the greatest fincerity, &c. W. JONES. From the public occurrences in which Mr. Jones was engaged, I now turn to a domestic calamity, the death of his mother, which involved him in the deepest affliction. If, as a parent, she had the strongest claims upon the gratitude and affection of her son, the obligations of filial duty were never more cheerfully and zealously discharged than by Mr. Jones. To her able inftruction he was indebted for the first rudiments of literature; fhe directed his early ftudies, formed his habits and his tafte; and, by the closest attention to economy, was enabled to promote his progrefs in learning by fupplying the funds for this purpose. From the period of his obtaining a fellowship, he had declined receiving any affiftance from her purfe; and as his profeffional profits increased, his own was ever at her difpofal. During his refidence at Oxford, the time which he did not employ in study or college duties, was devoted to her: his attention was equally the refult of principle and affection. She was the confidant of his plans, hopes, and occupations, and he invariably confulted her on all occafions, where his more important interests were concerned. The kindness, as well as the fincerity of his affection, was fhewn in numberlefs inftances, which never failed to attract the obfervation of his friends and affociates, although they are too minute to be particularized, and the satisfaction which he derived from the diftinction to which his abilities had raised him, was redoubled from the confideration that his mother participated in it. I I regret that none of his letters to his mother have been preferved, as they would have exhibited an amiable and striking part of his character *. * I transcribe the following memorandum from the hand-writing of Mr. Jones: Anno Etat: 33. Resolved year The remaining correspondence of this between Mr. Jones and his friends, is not important: I select from it only two letters, which cannot fail to please, although they may not be particularly interesting, Resolved to learn no more rudiments of any kind, but to perfect myself in, First, 12 languages, as the means of acquiring accurate knowledge of the N. B. Every species of human knowledge may be reduced to one or other of these divisions. Even law belongs partly to the History of Man, partly as a science, to dialectic. The 12 languages are, Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, German, English, 1780. |