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try, if the Eng should be obliged to carry his manuscript into France. Incited by those motives, and principally the last, un. willing to be thought churlish or morose, and eager for reputation, he undertook the work, and sent a specimen of it to his Danish majesty, who returned his approbation of the style and method, ́but desired, that the whole translation might be perfectly literal, and the oriental images accurately preserved. The task would have been far easier to him, if he had been directed to finish it in Latin; for the acquistion of a French style was infinitely more tedious, and it was necessary to have every chapter corrected by a native of France, before it could be offered to the discerning eye of the public, since in every language there are certain peculiarities *of idiom, and nice shades of meaning, which a foreigner can never attain to perfection. The work, however arduous and unpleasant, was completed in a year, not without repeated hints from the secretary's-office, that it was expected with great impatience by the court of Denmark. The translation was not published until 1770. Forty copies, upon large paper, were sent to Copenhagen, one of them, bound with uncommon elegance, for the king himself, and the others as presents to his courtiers.

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What marks of distinction he received, or what fruits he reaped from his labours, he thought it would ill-become him to mention at the head of a work, in which he professed to be the historian of others, and not of himself; but to repel the false assertions which appeared in an advertisement on this subject in the public papers, containing a most unjust reflection on the king of Denmark, he considered it as a duty imposed upon him by the laws of justice and gratitude, to print at the beginning of his translation, the honorable testimony of regard, which his majesty, Christian VII. sent publicly to London a few months after the receipt of the work, together with the letter of thanks which he returned for so signal a token of his favor. From these documents it appears, that his Danish majesty sent to him a diploma, constituting him a member of the royal society of Copenhagen, and recommended him in the strongest terms to the favor and benevolence of his own sovereign.

In detailing the circumstances attending the first publication of Mr. Jones, we have carried the narrative to its conclusion, with

some anticipation of the order of time. Part of the summer of 1768 he passed at Tunbridge, where his private studies formed his chief occupation; and the winter of that year in London. In the beginning of this year, Mr. Jones formed an acquaintance with Re-viczki, afterwards the imperial minister at Warsaw, and ambassador at the court of England, with the title of count. This learned and accomplished nobleman was deeply captivated with the charms. of oriental literature; and the reputation of Mr. Jones, as an oriental scholar, attracted his advances towards an intimacy, which' were eagerly received. After their separation, they commenced a correspondence, which was cultivated with attention for years. Of this correspondence, much has been lost, and many of the remaining letters are defaced and mutilated. They generally wrote in Latin, and occasionally in French, on literary subjects chiefly, but more particularly on oriental literature.

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In this year, lord Althorpe was settled at Harrow, and Mr. Jones, who accompanied him there, had the satisfaction of secing himself restored to the society of Dr. Sumner. This enthusiasm for literature was equal: the master contemplated with delight, unmixed with envy, a rival of his own erudition in his scholar, who acknowledged with gratitude his obligations to his preceptor. Their intercourse, although interrupted, had never! been discontinued; and Mr. Jones seldom suffered any considerable! time to elapse without visiting Harrow. During his residence there, at this period, he transcribed a Persian grammar, which he had three years before composed for the use of a school-fellow, who' had been designed for India, but had since relinquished that object for a commission in the army.

The plan of the epic poem which he mentions in letters to his Polish friend, was sketched during his residence at Spa, in July, 1770. The subject of the poem was, the supposed discovery of our island, by Tyrian adventurers, and he proposed, to exhibit un der the character of the prince of Tyre, that of a perfect king of this country; a character which he pronounces, the most glorious and beneficial of any that the warmest imagination can form. It represents (to quote his own words) the dangers to which a king of England is necessarily exposed, the vices which he must avoid, and the virtues and great qualities with which he must be adorned

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On the whole," Britain Discovered" is intended as a poetical pa, negyric on our excellent constitution, and as a pledge of the author's attachment to it as a national epic poem, like those of Homer, Virgil, Tasso, and Camoens, designed to celebrate the honors of his country, and to display in a striking light the most important principles of politics and morality, and to inculcate these grand maxims that nothing can shake our state, while the liberty of the subject remains united with the dignity of the sovereign, and that in all states, virtue is the only sure, basis of public and private happiness, He reserved, the completion of the poem to a period of leisure and independence, which never arrived and. although, after an interval of some years, he resumed the idea of composing an epic poem on the same subject, but with consider.. able alterations, he never extended the execution of it beyond a few lines.

The anticipation of future prospects, suggested by the fervor of youthful imagination, is too common to all, but particularly tomen of genius, to excite much surprise; and of them it has been generally and justly remarked, that what has been performed by them, bears little proportion to what has been projected. In their progress through life, impediments occur to the execution of their plans, which the mind at first eagerly overlooks; whilst time, imperceptibly advancing, deprives them of the power, and even of the inclination, to complete what has been designed with so. much ardour. They find, what experience daily proves, that. the duties of life can only be properly performed, when they: are the primary objects of our regard and attention.

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On the 30th of April, 1772, Mr. Jones was elected a fellow of the royal society, and admitted on May the 14th of the same year.

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This kindness of a contemporary student, has furnished an anecdote in proof of his particular aversion to the logic of the schools, that in an oration which he pronounced in university-hall, he de-, claimed violently against Burgersdicius, Cracanthorpius, and the whole body of logicians in the college of queen Phillippa, his op posite neighbour. prom

Of his uncommon industry, many proofs, might be enumerated, and among others, the copying of several Arabic manuscripts, of which one was the entertaining romance of Bedreddin Hassan, or Alladin's lamp, from a most elegant specimen of Arabic calligraphy.

Nor was he less remarked for an affectionate attention to his mother and sister, who resided at Oxford; such portion of his time as he could spare from his studies, was given to their society; and during his occasional absence from the university, he was regular in his correspondence with his mother.

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In the commencement of 1744, he published his Commentaries on Asiatic poetry. This work was received with admiration and applause by the oriental scholars of Europe in general, as well as by the learned of his own country. It was perhaps the first publication on eastern literature, which had an equal claim to elegance and erudition. This work was begun by Mr. Jones in 1766, and finished in 1769, when he was in his twenty-third year; but with the same solicitude which he had exhibited on other occasions, to lay his compositions before the public in the greatest possible perfection, he had repeatedly submitted the manuscript to the examination and critical remarks of his learned friends.

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At the conclusion of the Commentaries, we find an elegant address to the muse, in which Mr. Jones expresses his determination. to renounce polite literature, and devote himself entirely to the study of the law. He was called to the bar in January 1774, and had discovered, as he writes to an intimate friend, that the law was a jealous science, and would admit no partnership with the Eastern muses. To this determination he appears to have inflexibly adhered for some years, notwithstanding the friendly remonstrances and flattering invitations of his learned correspondents. He had about this time an intention of publishing the mathematical works of his father; and with this view, circulated proposals, but for what reason we know not, he abandoned it.

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The ambition of obtaining distinction in his profession, could not fail to animate a mind always ardent in the pursuit of the objects which it had in view, nor was he of a temper to be satisfied with mediocrity where perfection was attainable. His researches. and studies were not confined to any one branch of jurisprudence,

but embraced the whole in its fullest extent. He compared the doctrines and principles of ancient legislature with the later improvements in the science of law; he collected the various cođes of the different states of Europe; and collected professional knowledge wherever it was to be found. If the reader recollects the enthusiasm displayed by Mr. Jones in the prosecution of his oriental studies, the extent and depth of his attainments in the literature of Asia, and the high reputation which he had acquired for them, he will readily applaud his resolution and perseverance in renouncing his favorite pursuits. That he acted wisely will be admitted; but the sacrifice of inclination to duty, affords an example of too great use and importance to pass without particular observation.

In 1775, for the first time, he attended the spring circuit and sessions at Oxford, but whether as a spectator or actor, on that occasion, we are not informed. In the following year, he was regular in his attendance at Westminster-hall.

In 1778, Mr. Jones published a translation of the speeches of Isæus, in causes concerning the law of succession to property at Athens, with a prefatory discourse, notes critical and historical, and a commentary.

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The works of Isæus had long been neglected; the subject of them was dry, and his thenical language, as Mr. Jones observes, was unintelligible to the herd of grammarians and philologers by whom the old monuments of Grecian learning were saved from destruction. To rescue them from obscurity, and to present them to the student of our English laws in his native language, was a task which required the united qualifications of classical erudition and legal knowledge, and which he discharged with equal pleasure and success.

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From the public occurrences in which Mr. Jones was engaged, we 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 instruc tion, he was indebted for the first rudiments of literature; she di rected his early studies, formed his habits and his taste; and by

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