travelled much, but is deeply versed in Oriental litera

I think I may venture

I think I

person, who loves what

ture, of which he is very fond. to promise that the society of a you still delight in, (for I will not with you say, what you once delighted in) will be most acceptable to you

**

* Mr. Jones to C. Reviczki.

London, February, 1775.

Do not suppose that I have forgotten you, because I write to you so seldom; I have not met with any person to whom I could entrust my packet, and I have no inclination to risk my familiar letters by the post. I doubt if this will ever reach you, and I fear therefore to write to you on any subject with my usual freedom, as your last letter of January, from Warsaw, was delivered to me opened; it is probable that you will receive this in the same manner. I am so constantly occupied with law and politics, that I have no leisure for literature. I have published two books, and only want a safe opportunity to send them to you. Write to me, I beseech you, for your friendship is my greatest delight. How much I wish that you were in England, or I in Germany, that we might live together.

After all, I could not think of accepting the Turkish embassy. I will live in my own country, which cannot easily spare good subjects: it is scarcely yet free from commotion....Oh! how I should rejoice if I could see you here in a diplomatic character: I should not then envy the monarchs of Europe or Asia....Farewel again and again.

If you are fully sensible of the very great regard I entertain for you, you will then conceive how much

* Appendix, No. 30.

† Appendix, No. 31.

pleasure I felt at the receipt of your highly valued letter. Incessantly occupied for a long time, I have been compelled to forego the pleasure of corresponding with you, and I the more readily acknowledge your kindness in writing to me, when I could have no expectation of hearing from you. Though I think it more prudent not to say any thing, the disclosure of which might be attended with unpleasant consequences, I impute the opening of my letter, which you mention, rather to accident than design. Your business as a lawyer must necessarily engage your closest attention. I cannot, therefore, ask you to write to me often; but thus much I wish you to know, that I shall soon have more leisure for corresponding with you, as the late close of the Diet, which lasted for two years (in my estimation a century), has almost left me at liberty. So much for the affairs of this part of the world. Of what is doing in your country your letter gives me no information, but I hear from other quarters of the agitations amongst you, in consequence of the commotions in the colonies, which I consider worse than a foreign war.... For my own part, I confess to you that I am tired both of my situation and my office, not so much on account of their difficulty as their unpleasantness, and all the consolation I feel arises from the hope that my present troublesome occupation will not last more than a year.

I heartily wish I were in London, and at liberty to sit seriously down to the composition of some political work on the subject of our republic; the task would be no less useful than agreeable. Indeed I can conceive nothing more pleasant than such an employment.

If contrary to my expectations my wish should be gratified, I hope to find you there, and to enjoy as formerly your society and conversation. I am anxious to have your last publication (the subject of which you

U

do not mention), and doubt not that the perusal of it will afford me great pleasure. Farewell, and think of me always with affection.

The preceding correspondence proves the high degree of estimation, in which the learning and abili ties of Mr. Jones were held by the literati of Europe; and we find that his reputation had extended into Asia. From the manner in which he mentions his renunciation of the embassy to Constantinople, it is evident that his attention was strongly fixed upon the political state of his country.

The Andrometer, mentioned, by Lady Spencer, to have been invented by Mr. Jones, affords a striking specimen of the extent of his views, in the acquisition of intellectual excellence. It may be defined, a scale of human attainments and enjoyment. He assumes seventy years, as the limit of exertion or enjoyment; and with a view to progressive improvement, each year is appropriated to a particular study or occupation. rangement of what was to be learned, or practised, during this period, admits of a fourfold division.

The ar

The first, comprising thirty years, is assigned to the acquisition of knowledge, as preparatory to active occupation.

The second, of twenty years, is dedicated principally to public and professional employment.

Of the third, which contains ten years, the first five are allotted to literary and scientific composition; and the remainder to the continuation of former pursuits.

The last ten, constituting the fourth division, which begins with the sixty-first year, are devoted to the enjoyment of the fruits of his labours; and the conclusion of the whole is specified to be a preparation for eternity.

The Andrometer is to be considered as a mere

sketch, never intended for publication. In the construction of it, Mr. Jones, probably, had a view to those objects, the attainment of which he then meditated..... We are not to conclude that the preparation for eternity, which stands at the top of the scale, was to be deferred until the seventieth year; it is rather to be considered as the object to which he was perpetually to look, during the whole course of his life, and which was exclusively to engross the attention of his latter years. He was too well convinced of the precarious tenure of human existence, to allow himself to rest the momentous concern of his eternal welfare on the fallacious expectation of a protracted life: he knew, moreover, too well the power of habit, to admit a supposition that it could be effectually resisted or changed at the close of life. Neither are we to suppose that moral and religious lessons, which constitute the occupation of the eighth year, were from that period to be discontinued, although they are not afterwards mentioned; but the meaning of Mr. Jones probably was, that it should be seriously and regularly inculcated at an age when the intellectual faculties had acquired strength and expansion by preceding exercises. That the order of arrangement, in the Andrometer, could never be strictly adhered to, in the application of our time, and cultivation of our talents (if it were intended), is evident; but to those who, from their situation, are enabled to avail themselves of the suggestions which it furnishes, it will supply useful hints for improvement, and serve as a standard of comparison for their progress..... With respect to Mr. Jones himself, if his own acquisitions in his thirtieth year, when he constructed the Andrometer, be compared with it, they will be found to rise to a higher degree in the scale.

With these explanations, I present it to the reader, reversing, for the sake of convenience, the order of the scale.