radise has written at the top of it. I will attempt to copy it; and after the various characters I have, in days of yore, feen you decipher, I will not defpair of your making out Greek, though written by me. Αἱ Χαρίτες, τέμενΘ' τι λαβεῖν ὅπερ ἐκι πεσείῃ I fhall expect to fee the poem fomething fooner than the rest of your friends; and I affure you, the having fo feldom the pleasure of meeting you, does not diminish the sincerity, with which I fhall ever retain that title. If you are ftill at Chilbolton, pray give my love to the family there, and tell Mifs Shipley to write to me. My feal is a talisman, which if you can fend me the explanation of, I shall be much obliged to you. In the beginning of 1783, Mr. Jones publifhed his tranflation of the feven Arabian *The Graces, seeking a shrine that would never decay, found the soul of Jones. 1 poems, which he had finished in 1781. It was his intention to have prefixed to this work, a difcourfe on the antiquity of the Arabian language and characters, on the manners of the Arabs in the age immediately preceding that of Mohammed, and other interesting information refpecting the poems, and the lives of the authors, with a critical history of their works; but he could not command fufficient leifure for the execution of it. Some of the subjects intended for this differtation, appeared in a discourse on the Arabs, which he compofed fome years afterwards, and from the manner in which it was written, it is impoffible not to regret the irrecoverable lofs of the larger difcuffion which he originally propofed. The poems prefent us with a curious fpecimen of the manners of the natives of Arabia, and on this account, must be particularly interefting to thofe, who confider the study of human nature in all its varieties, as an inftructive fubject of contemplation. "They exhibit (to use the words of Mr. Jones)" an exact picture of the virLife-V. I. DD "tues and vices of the Arabs in the age of "the fever poets, their wisdom and their folly, and fhew what may be conftantly expected from men of open hearts, and boiling paffions, with no law to control, "and little religion to reftrain them." The period was now arrived, when Mr. Jones had the happiness to gain the accomplishment of his most anxious wishes. In March 1783, during the administration of Lord Shelburne, he was appointed a judge of the fupreme court of judicature at Fortwilliam at Bengal, on which occafion the honour of knighthood was conferred upon him; and, in the April following, he married Anna Maria Shipley, the eldest daughter of the Bishop of St. Afaph. I have remarked the early impreffion made upon the affections of Sir William Jones by this lady, and the honourable determination which he formed upon that occafion, and if I fhould have fucceeded in imparting to my readers any portion of that intereft, which I feel in his perfonal concerns, they will fee him with pleasure receiving the rewards of principle and affec tion. The Bishop of St. Afaph, of whofe respectable character and highly literary reputation it is unneceffary to remind the public, poffeffed too enlightened an understanding not to appreciate the early distinguished talents and virtues of Sir William Jones, and their friendship was cemented by an union of political principles, and the zealous admiration each felt for the conftitution of their country. The Bishop, in the choice of a fon-in-law, had every reason to indulge the pleasing hope that he had consulted, as far as human forefight can extend, the happiness of his beloved daughter; nor were his expectations disappointed. For his appointment to India, Mr. Jones was indebted to the friendship of Lord Afhburton in October 1782, I find a letter from his Lordship to Mr. Jones, with the following words: "You will give me credit "for not being indifferent about the import"ant ftake ftill left in India, or your parti "eular intereft in it, in which I confider "that of the public fo materially involved." The intelligence of his fuccefs was communicated to Mr. Jones, in the following letter of congratulation, to which I fubjoin one from the celebrated Franklin on the fame occafion. MY DEAR SIR, March 3, 1783. It is with little lefs fatisfaction to myself than it can give you, that I fend you the inclosed, and I do affure you there are few events, in which I could have felt fo fenfible a mortification, as in that of your finally miffing this favourite object. The weather fuggefts to me as no flight topic of congratulation, your being relieved from fuch a journey, and under fuch circumstances, as your laft favour intimates you had in contemplation for Wednesday; but when I confider this appointment as fecuring to you at once, two of the firft objects of human purfuit, thofe of ambition and love, I feel it a fubject of very ferious and cordial congratula |