on it by the historian himself, in his celebrated Vindication.

The second and third volumes were not so favourably received as the first; the author himself admits that they are possibly too minute and prolix; and the work made as yet no progress on the Continent. But he persevered with increasing zeal in the labour which was now become necessary to his happiness; and that he might the more exclusively devote himself to it, he returned to establish himself at Lausanne, in 1783, nearly twenty years after his second visit to that place. He made it his residence until 1793, and there composed the last three volumes of his history: and he has carefully recorded, that it was on the 27th of June, 1787, between eleven and twelve at night, in a summer-house in his garden, that he wrote the last His fourth volume cost him rather more than two years, his fifth rather less, and the sixth little more than one. It had been his habit, till quite at last, to close his studies with the day, and commonly begin them with the morning, and the result of this late change is observed in the increased rapidity with which the latter portion of the work was written. He visited England to superintend the printing of these three volumes, and published them together on his fifty-first birthday.

sentence.

He lived only five years and seven months longer; and his premature death (for he died during the full vigour of all his faculties and talents) may be ascribed to his own singular improvidence. He had been afflicted above thirty years by a disease requiring surgical assistance, which he altogether neglected till it became incurable. He died January 16, 1794, at the house of his friend Lord Sheffield, and was buried in his lordship's family vault at Fletching in Sussex.

Of his miscellaneous works, the following are some of the most remarkable :

Historical. Outlines of the History of the World' (written between 1755 and 1763); 'Mémoire sur la Monarchie des Mèdes' (do.); Introduction à l'Histoire Générale de la République des Suisses' (1767); 'Antiquities of the House of Brunswick' (1790).

Classical and critical. Essai sur l'Etude de la Littérature;' Nomina Gentesque Antiquæ Italiæ' (1763 and 1764); Remarques sur les Ouvrages et sur le Caractère de Salluste, Jules César, Cornèle Nepos, Tite Live, &c.;''Critical Observations on the Design of the 6th Book of the Æneid (1770); 'Vindication of the History of the Decline and Fall.' Miscellaneous. Mémoire Justificatif;' Principes des Poids, des Monnoies, et des Mesures des Anciens' (1759); and 'Dissertation sur les Anciennes Mesures du Bas Empire;' Selections from the Extraits raisonnés de mes Lectures, and from the Recueil de mes Observations' (from 1754 to 1764); Remarks on Blackstone's Commentaries' (1770). These, and many more than these, were the subjects to which he applied his extensive erudition-with more or less success, but never without throwing some light on whatever he undertook to treat.

6

WILLIAM JONES, the most accomplished Oriental scholar of the last century, an upright magistrate, and eminent benefactor of the native subjects of our Indian dominions, was born in London, on Michaelmas Eve, 1746. His father, a man esteemed by his contemporaries, a skilful mathematician, and the friend of Newton, died in July, 1749. His mother then devoted herself entirely to the education of this her only surviving son; and to her careful and judicious culture of his infant years, bestowed indeed upon a happy soil, is to be ascribed the early development of that thirst for learning and faculty for profitable application, which enabled Jones to accumulate, in a short and busy life, a quantity and variety of abstruse knowledge, such as the same age does not often see equalled. To the end of her life he acknowledged and repaid her care and affection by ardent love and

unchanging filial respect. When only seven years old, he was sent to Harrow. His progress, slow at first, afterwards became most rapid; and the head master, Dr. Thackeray, a man not given to praise, spoke of him as a boy of so active a mind, that if he were left naked and friendless on Salisbury Plain, he would find the way to fame and riches."

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At the time of his quitting school, besides a much deeper acquaintance with the classical languages than usually falls to the lot of a schoolboy, Jones had acquired the French and Italian languages, had commenced the study of Hebrew, and (a thing only worth mention as indicative of his tastes) had made himself acquainted with the Arabic letters. Botany, the collection of fossils, and composition in English verse, were his favourite amusements at this period. March 16, 1764, he was entered as a student of University College, Oxford. He was elected a scholar on the Bennet foundation, October 30, 1764; and fellow on the same foundation, August 7, 1766, before he was of standing to proceed to the degree of B.A., which he took in 1768. At an early period of his residence he applied in earnest to the study of Arabic; and his zeal was such, that, though habitually self-denying, and anxious not to trespass on his mother's slender income, he maintained at Oxford, at his own expense, a Syrian, with whom he had become acquainted in London, for the benefit to be derived from his instruction. From the Arabic he proceeded to learn the Persian language.

His residence was varied, though his favourite studies do not appear to have been interrupted, by an invitation to undertake the care of the late Lord Spencer, then a boy of seven years old. This was in 1765. The next five years he spent with his pupil chiefly at Harrow, and occasionally at Althorp, or in London, or on the continent. It appears from the

college books that he resided at Oxford very little in the years 1766, 1767, and 1768. Wherever he was, his time was diligently employed, not only in his severer studies, but in the pursuit of personal accomplishments and the cultivation of valuable acquaintances, especially with those who, like himself, were attached to the investigation of Eastern languages and science. In 1768 he received a high, but an unprofitable compliment, in being selected to render into French a Persian Life of Nadir Shah, transmitted to the English government by the King of Denmark for the purpose of translation. To this performance, which was printed in 1770, Mr. Jones added a

Treatise on Oriental Poetry,' in which several of the odes of Hafiz are translated into verse. This also was written in French; and it has justly been observed by a French writer in the Biographie Universelle' that the occurrence of some imperfections of style ought not to interfere with our forming a high estimate of the talents of a man who, at the age of twentytwo, possessed the varied qualifications and recondite acquirements displayed in this work. By the end of the same year, 1770, the author finished his 'Commentaries on Asiatic Poetry,' a Latin treatise, which, for its style, is commended by the competent authority of Dr. Parr; and which has also obtained high praise for the taste and judgment displayed in selecting and translating the passages by which the text is illustrated. It was not printed till 1774.

Not the least striking part of Mr. Jones's character was an ardent love of liberty, and a high and honourable feeling of independence in his own person. The former was displayed in his open and fearless advocacy of opinions calculated to close the road to preferment, such as an entire disapprobation of the American war, and a strong feeling of the necessity of reform in parliament. It should also be noticed that