strong mind and great good sense, who devoted herself with affectionate zeal to the performance of this duty. Rejecting altogether the system of severity which was at that period so much in vogue, she taught her son to love instruction by rendering it pleasant to him. Her principal endeavour was to instil into him a desire for information, and to his incessant questions her answer invariably was, read, and you will know a maxim to which, in after life, he often acknowledged his obligations.

Having thus imbibed from his mother an early taste for literature, he was placed, in the year 1753, at Harrow-school, then under the superintendence of Dr. Thackeray. During the first two years of his residence at Harrow, he was distinguished rather by his diligence than by the superiority of his talents. At the end of that period he had the misfortune to break his thighbone, an accident which detained him at home for upwards of a year. But this period was not mispent. His excellent mother was his constant companion; and under her care he became acquainted with some of our best English writers. On his return to school, he was placed in the same class in which he would have stood had not his studies been interrupted; a circumstance which stimulated his industry, and developed the extraordinary powers of acquisition with which he was gifted. His progress was now rapid; and in his twelfth year he was removed into the upper school, where he distinguished himself by the performance of various exercises not required by the discipline of the school. He made copious translations, into English verse, of the Latin poets; and at this early age composed a dramatic piece on the story of Meleager, which was acted by himself and his schoolfellows. So great was his diligence, that he devoted to study many of the hours usually allotted to recreation; and his acquirements were consequently such as to attract the attention of the masters, and the admiration of his associates. Amongst the latter, Dr. Bennett, afterwards Bishop of Cloyne, and the celebrated

Dr. Parr, were his most intimate friends. The former has drawn a pleasing sketch of Sir William Jones's character at this period. "I knew him from the age of eight or nine years, and he was always an uncommon boy. Great abilities, great particularity of thinking, fondness for writing verses and plays of various kinds, and a degree of integrity and manly courage, of which I remember instances, distinguished him even at that period. I loved him, and revered him; and, though one or two years older than he was, was always instructed by him from my earliest age." Dr. Thackeray's opinion of the capacity and talents of his pupil was expressed in terms equally strong. "So active," he said, “was the mind of Jones, that if he were left, naked and friendless, on Salisbury Plain, he would, nevertheless, find the road to fame and riches." The zeal and industry of young Jones were such during the latter part of his residence at Harrow, that he frequently devoted the night to study, taking coffee and tea as an antidote to drowsiness; till at length, his eyesight being affected, such close application to his studies was forbidden.

In the seventeenth year of his age, his mother determined to remove him to the university, though strongly advised by Mr. Serjeant Prime and others of her friends to place him at that early age under the superintendence of some eminent special pleader. Accordingly, in the spring of 1764, he was entered at University College, Oxford; but the course of study, at that time pursued there, by no means satisfied his expectations. Instead, therefore, of confining himself to the usual discipline of the college, he continued the course of classical reading which had become so grateful to him during his pupilage at Harrow; and also employed a considerable portion of his time in those oriental studies for which he was afterwards so much celebrated. Having discovered a native of Aleppo in London, he persuaded him to change his residence to Oxford, and with his assistance he mastered the Arabic, and subsequently the Persic. His vacations were generally spent in London,

where he frequented the fencing school of Angelo; while at home, his time was occupied in the perusal of the best authors in the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese lan❤ guages. Although Mr. Jones had, shortly after his arrival at the university, been unanimously elected one of the four scholars on the foundation of Sir Simon Bennett, and looked forward with confidence to the prospect of a fellowship at some distant period, yet the smallness of his fortune induced him to accede to an offer made to him on behalf of Lord Spencer to become private tutor to his son Lord Althorpe, at that time only seven years of age. Soon after the acceptance of this offer he was elected fellow on the foundation of Sir Simon Bennett.

While in attendance upon his pupil at Althorpe and in London, Mr. Jones continued to prosecute his oriental studies; and when yet in the 21st year of his age he commenced his Commentaries on Asiatic Poetry. In the year 1767, he accompanied the family of Lord Spencer on a continental tour; and while at Spa, with that versatility of accomplishment which was a distinguishing feature of his mind, he availed himself of the services of Janson, a celebrated dancing-master. He continued to reside for several years in the family of Lord Spencer, and at Harrow with his pupil, during which time he formed some valuable friendships, especially with a distinguished oriental scholar, Count Reviczki, afterwards the imperial minister at Warsaw, and ambassador at the court of England. During the same period also he translated into French the Life of Nadir Shah from the Persian, a task which he undertook by the desire of the King of Denmark.

. In the year 1770, Mr. Jones was induced, by the advice of his friends, who were anxious that his fine talents should have an adequate field for their display, to resign his situation as tutor to Lord Althorpe, and to apply himself to the study of the law. He had, a few years before, been led by curiosity to peruse the treatise of Fortescue, De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, which appears to

have made a very favourable impression on his mind, and to have created a desire for a more intimate acquaintance with legal writers. Accordingly, on the 19th Sept. 1770, he was admitted a student of the Temple, and commenced his legal studies in conjunction with those more liberal pursuits which had hitherto been prosecuted by him with undivided assiduity. Of this change in his destination, he thus speaks in a letter to his friend Reviczki: "On my late return to England, I found myself entangled, as it were, in a variety of important considerations. My friends, companions, relations, all attacked me with urgent 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 soon afterwards, and addressed to his friend Mr. Wilmot, the son of the chief justice of the common pleas, Sir J.. Eardley Wilmot, he thus speaks of the commencement of his legal studies: "I have just begun to contemplate the stately edifice of the laws of England

The gather'd wisdom of a thousand years-'

if 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 a great application of the mind and exertion of the memory. I have just 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 refer 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. I do not mean the popular eloquence which cannot be tolerated at the bar; but that correctness of style and elegance of method which at once pleases and persuades the hearer. 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 an obliging offer of apartments."

The unceasing activity of mind, and the ardent ambition which distinguished Mr. Jones at this period of his life, are manifested in a letter addressed by him to his friend Dr. Bennett. "I have learned so much, seen so much, written so much, said so much, and thought so much, since I conversed with you, that, were I to attempt to tell half what I have learned, seen, writ, said, and thought, my letter would have no end. I spend the whole winter in attending the public speeches of our greatest lawyers and senators, and in studying our own admirable laws, which exhibit the most noble example of human wisdom that the mind of man can contemplate. I give up my leisure hours to a political treatise on the Turks, from which I expect some reputation; and I have several objects of ambition which I cannot trust to a letter, but will impart to you when we meet. If I stay in England, I shall print my De Poesi Asiaticâ next summer, though I shall be at least two hundred pounds out of pocket by it. In short, if you wish to know my occupations, read the beginning of Middleton's Cicero, p. 13-18, and you will see my model; for I would willingly lose my head at the age of sixty if I could pass a life at all analogous to that which Middleton describes."

*Parr's Works, vol. i. p. 55.