In his ninth year, he had the misfortune to break his thigh bone, while playing with his school-fellows; an accident which kept him at home a whole year.

On his return to school, he was however placed in the same class which he would have attained, if the progress of his studies had not been interrupted. He was of course far behind his fellow-labourers of the same standing, who erroneously ascribed his insufficiency to laziness or dulness: while the master, who had raised him to a situation above his powers, required exertions of which he was incapable, and corporal punishment and degradation were applied, for the non-performance of tasks, which he had never been instructed to furnish. But in truth he far excelled his school-fellows in general, both in dili. gence and quickness of apprehension; nor was he of a temper to submit to imputations, which he knew to be unmerited. Punishment failed to produce the intended effect; but his emulation was roused. He devoted himself incessantly to the perusal of various elementary treatises, which had never been explained nor even recommended to him; and having thus acquired principles, he applied them with such skill and success, that in a few months he not only recovered the station from which he had been degraded, but was at the head of his class his compositions were correct, his analysis accurate, and he uni formly gained every prize offered for the best exercise. He voluntarily extended his studies beyond the prescribed limits, and by solitary labour, having acquired a competent knowledge of the rules of prosody, he composed verses in imitation of Ovid, a task, which had never been required from any of the students in the lower school at Harrow.'

He always spoke of this brutal behaviour of the master with great abhorrence; and it is impossible for us not to pause here, in order to reflect on the strange incidents that happen in this lower world; one of the least curious of which is certainly not that which exhibits a youth inhumanly chastised, and treated as a blockhead, who was destined to be the brightest orna ment of his age, and the first linguist that ever lived.

We are now to consider our hero from the time of his admission to the upper school, which was in his twelfth year, till that of his entering the University, in 1764. The following instance of his superior powers of memory is mentioned as having happened at the commencement of this period:

• His school-fellows proposed to amuse themselves with the representation of a play; and at his recommendation they fixed upon the Tempest as it was not readily to be procured, he wrote it for them so correctly from memory, that they acted it with great satisfaction to themselves, and with considerable entertainment to the spectators. He performed the character of Prospero.

His diligence increased with his advancement in the school: he now entered upon the study of the Greek tongue, the characters of which he had already learned for his amusement. His genius and as

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siduity

siduity were also displayed in various compositions, not required by the discipline of the school. He translated into English verse several of the epistles of Ovid, all the pastorals of Virgil, and composed a dramatic piece on the story of Meleager, which he denominated a tragedy; and it was acted during the vacation, by some of his schoolfellows with whom he was most intimate. In his own play he performed the part of the hero.'

These juvenile efforts contributed to establish the influence and reputation of Jones in the school; and the success with which his studies had latterly been pursued, left him no reason to regret the disadvantages under which he had at first laboured. His improvement in the knowledge of prosody was truly extraordinary; he soon ac. quired a proficiency in all the varieties of Roman metre, so that he was able to sca. the trochaic and iambic verses of Terence, before his companions even suspected that they were any thing but mere prose, He also learnt to taste the elegance of that writer, and was frequently heard to repeat with particular satisfaction the rule in the Andria:

Facile omnes perferre et pati
Nunquam præponens se aliis.

Such was the extent of his attainments, and such his facility of com. position, that for two years he wrote the exercises of many boys in the two superior classes, who often obtained credit for performances to which they had no title, whilst the students in the same class with himself were happy to become his pupils. During the holidays his studies were varied, but not relaxed; in these intervals, he learned the rudiments of French and arithmetic, and was particularly gratified with an invitation to attend the meetings of learned and ingenious men, at the house of that amiable philosopher, Mr. Baker, and his friend, Mr. Pond. As an introduction to the knowledge of the subjects discussed in this literary society, by the particular reconmendation of his mother, he read the Spectacle de la Nature; he acknowledged, however, that he was more entertained with the Arabian Tales, and Shakespeare, whose poems and plays he repeatedly perused with increased delight.

In the usual recreations of his school-fellows at Harrow, Jones was rarely a partaker; and the hours which they allotted to amusement, he generally devoted to improvement. The following anecdote strongly indicates the turn of his mind, and the impression made by his studies. He invented a political play, in which Dr. William Bennet, Bishop of Cloyne, and the celebrated Dr. Parr, were his principal associates. They divided the fields in the neighbourhood of Harrow, according to a map of Greece, into states and kingdoms; each fixed upon one as his dominion, and assumed an ancient name. Some of their school-fellows consented to be styled barbarians, who were to invade their territories and attack their hillocks, which were denomi nated fortresses, The chiefs vigorously defended their respective domains against the incursions of the enemy; and in these imitative wars, the young statesmen held councils, made vehement harangues, and composed memorials, all doubtless very boyish, but calculated to fill their minds with ideas of legislation and civil government. In these

unusual

unusual amusements, Jones was ever the leader; and he might jutsly have appropriated to himself the words of Catullus:

Ego gymnasii flos, ego decus olei.

'Dr. Thackeray retired from the superintendance of the school at Harrow, when his pupil had attained his fifteenth year. It was a singular trait in the character of this good man and respectable tutor, that he never applauded the best compositions of his scholars, from a notion which he had adopted, that praise only tended to make them vain or idle. But the opinion which he gave of Jones in private was, that he was a boy of so active a mind, that if he were left naked and friendless on Salisbury Plain, he would nevertheless find the road to fame and riches.

Dr. Thackeray was succeeded by Dr. Sumner; and for his information of the course of study pursued at Harrow, a plan of the lec tures and exercises in the upper school was accurately delineated by Jones, at the suggestion of the principal assistant, who presented it to the new master, with many encomiums on the talents of his favourite scholar. He annexed to it a collection of his compositions, including his translation of the pastorais of Virgil. Dr. Sumner quickly distinguished him; and of the two complete years which he passed under that excellent instructor, it is sufficient to say, that he employed them in reading and imitating the best ancient authors; nor did he confine himself merely to the compositions of Greece and Rome; he learned the Arabic characters, and studied the Hebrew language sufficiently to enable him to read some of the original Psalms. His ardour for knowledge was so unlimited, that he frequently devoted whole nights to study, taking coffee or tea as an antidote to drowsiness; and his improvement by these extraordinary exertions was so rapid, that he soon became the prime favourite of his master, who with an excusable partiality was heard to declare, that Jones knew more Greek than himself, and was a greater proficient in the idiom of that language. Nor was he less a favourite with his fellow-students than with his master. He acquired popularity with them, by the frequent holidays that rewarded the excellence of his compositions. His reputation at the same time was so extensive, that he was often flattered by the enquiries of stran gers, under the title of the Great Scholar.

Of his juvenile compositions in prose and verse, the early fruits of rare talents and unbounded industry, some have been printed in the fragment of a work which he began at school and entitled Limon, in imitation of Cicero. During the last months of his residence at Harrow, Dr. Sumner not only dispensed with his attendance at school, but was obliged to interdict his application, in consequence of a weakness of sight contracted by it. His compositions were not however discontinued; and he obtained the assistance of the younger students to write them from his dictation. He employed the intervals of suspended duty, which he was reluctanly compelled to admit, in learning chess, by practising the games of Philidor.

During the vacations, his application was directed to improve his knowledge of French and arithmetic, to which he also added the study of the Italian. Books he had always at command; for his mother, who contemplated

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contemplated with delight the progress of her son, with a wise liberality allowed him unlimited credit on her purse. But of this indulgence, as he knew that her finances were restricted, he availed himself no further than to purchase such books as were essential to his improvement.’-

His name was long remembered at Harrow, with the respect due to his superior talents, and unrivalled erudition; and he was frequently quoted by Dr. Sumner, as the ornament of his school, and as an example for imitation. He had not only distinguished himself by the extent of his classical attainments, and his poetical compositions, but by the eloquence of his declamations, and the masterly manner in which they were delivered. In the varied talents which constitute an orator, Dr. Sunner himself excelled; and his pupil had equally benefited by his example and instruction. In the behaviour of Jones towards his school-fellows, he never exhibited that tyranny, which in the larger seminaries of learning is sometimes practised by the senior, over the younger students. His disposition equally revolted at the exercise or sufferance of oppression; and he early exhibited a mind, strongly im. pressed with those moral distinctions which he ever retained. Of the friendships which he contracted at school, many were afterwards cultivated with reciprocal affection; and among the friends of his early years, some still survive, who remember his virtues with delight, and deplore his loss.'

During his residence at Harrow, his most intimate friend among his school-fellows was the late Sir John Parnell; who, in a letter to Lady Jones, thus speaks of him:

When I first knew him, about the year 1761, he amused himself with the study of botany, and in collecting fossils. In general, the same pursuits which gave employment to his mature understanding, were the first objects of his youthful attention. The same disposition formed the most distinguished features at an early, and at a late period of his life. A decision of mind, and a strict attachment to virtue, an enthusiastic love of liberty, an uniform spirit of philanthropy, were the characteristics of his youth, and of his manhood: he did no act, he used no expression, which did not justify these assertions.'

With regard to his early courtship of the Muses, we find that

A collection of English poems, composed by Mr. Jones, at. Harrow, was presented by him to his friend Parnell, in 1763. The first and longest of the collection, containing more than three hundred and thirty lines, is entitled Prolusions, and is a critique on the various styles of pastoral writers. This was written by Mr. Jones, at the age of fifteen, and is the original of the poem, which he afterwards published under the title of Arcadia.

The variations between his first attempt and subsequent publica tion are very considerable. In his earliest composition, he makes Menalcas, who represents Theocritus, the father of pastoral poetry, adopt the language of Chaucer, as the only model he could take for a specimen of the English Doric. Spenser speaks in his own dialect, and, as the poet says,

Masks

Masks in the roughest veil the sweetest song.

In the original essay, Mr. Jones gives the prize to Tityrus, or Virgil; but, in the latter, Theocritus divides the kingdom of Arcadia between Virgil and Spenser, and assigns to them his two daughters, Daphne and Hyla, by whom he understands the two sorts of pas toral poetry; the one elegant and polished, the other simple and unadorned, in both which Theocritus excels.'

We next attend Mr. Jones at the University; where his situation, says Lord T.,

Did not at first correspond with his expectations. Under the tuition of a master, who saw with admiration his capacity and application, who was anxious to assist his exertions, and rewarded their success with unlimited applause, his ardour for learning had been raised to a degree of enthusiasm: at the University, he expected to find a Sumner or Askew, in every master of arts, and generally the same passion for literature, which he had himself imbibed. It was evident that such extravagant expectations must be disappointed; and from the public lectures, he derived little gratification or instruction: they were much below the standard of his attainments, and, in fact, were considered as merely formal; and instead of pure principles on subjects of taste, on rhetoric, poetry, and practical morals, he complained that he was required to attend dull comments on artificial ethics, and logic detailed in such barbarous Latin, that he professed to know as little of it as he then knew of Arabic. The only logic then in fashion was that of the schools; and in a memorandum written by himself, which is my authority for these remarks, I find an anecdote related of one of the fellows, who was reading Locke with his own pupils, that he carefully passed over every passage in which that great metaphysician derides the old system.'

After a residence of a few months at Oxford,

His partiality for oriental literature began to display itself in the study of the Arabic, to which he was strongly incited by the example and encouragement of a fellow-student of great worth and abilities, who had acquired some knowledge in that celebrated language, and offered him the use of the best books, with which he was well provided. In acquiring the pronunciation, he was assisted by a native of Aleppo, who spoke and wrote the vulgar Arabic fluently, but was without any pretensions to the character of a scholar. Mr. Jones accidentally discovered him in London, where he usually passed his vacations, and prevailed upon him to accompany him to Oxford, under a promise of maintaining him there. This promise he was obliged exclusively to fulfil for several months, at an expence which his finan ces could ill afford, being disappointed in the hopes which he had en-. tertained, that some of his brother collegians might be inclined to avail themselves of the assistance of the Syrian, and participate with him in the expence of his maintenance.

The disgust expressed by Mr. Jones after his first introduction into the University soon subsided, and his time now passed with great satisfaction to himself. He found in it, all the means and opportu