family, and the unfuccessfulness of a cruel and capricious peda of all endeavours to amend it, came crowding into my mind, which drove me into a deep melancholy, and ever and anon forced tears from my eyes." Diftrefs at laft forced him to leave the country. His learning and virtue introduced him to my father; and at Putney he might have found at leaft a temporary shelter, had not an act of indifcretion again driven him into the world. One day reading prayers in the parish church, he most unluckily forgot the name of king George: his patron, a loyal fubject, difmiffed him with fome reluctance, and a decent reward; and how the poor man ended his days I have never been able to learn. In my ninth year (January 1746), in a lucid interval of comparative health, my father adopted the convenient and cuftomary mode of English education; and I was feut to Kingston upon Thames, to a fchool of about feventy boys, which was kept by Dr. Wooddefon and his affiftants. Every time I have fince paffed over Putney common, I have always noticed the fpot where my mother, as we drove along in the coach, admonished me that I was now going into the world, and muft learn to think and act for myfelf. The expreffion may appear ludicrous; yet there is not, in the course of life, a more remark-, able change than the removal of a child from the luxury and freedom of a wealthy houfe, to the frugal diet and trict fubordination of a fchool; from the tenderness of parents, and the obfequioufnefs of fervants, to the rude familiarity of his equals, the infolent tyranny of his feniors, and the rod, perhaps, VOL. XXXVIII. gogue. Such hardfhips may feel the mind and body against the injuries of fortune: but my timid re-’ ferve was aftonished by the crowd and tumult of the fchool; the want of ftrength and activity difqualified me for the fports of the play-field ;' nor have I forgotten how often in the year forty-fix I was reviled and buffetted for the fins of my tory anceftors. By the common methods of difcipline; at the expence of many tears and fome blood, I purchafed the knowledge of the Latin' fyntax: and not long fince I was poffeffed of the dirty volumes of Phædrus and Cornelius Nepos, which I painfully conftrued and darkly understood. My ftudies were too frequently interrupted by fickness; and af ter a real or nominal refidence at Kingfton-fchool of near two years, I was finally recalled (December 1747) by my mother's death, which was occafioned in her thirty-eighth year, by the confequences of her laft labour. I was too young to feel the importance of my lofs; and the image of her perfon and converfation is faintly imprinted in my memory. The affectionate heart of my aunt, Catherine Porten, bewailed a fifter and a friend; but my poor father was inconfolable and the tranfport of grief feemed to threaten his life or his reafon. I can never forget the fcene of our first interview, fome weeks after the fatal event; the awful filence, the room hung with black, the mid-day tapers, his fighs and tears; his praifes of my mother, a faint in heaven; his folemn adjuration that I would cherish her memory and imitate her virtues; and the fervor with which he kiffed and bleifed me Y as verted by her frequent pregnancies, by an exclufive paflion for her hufband, and by the diffipation of the world, in which his tafte and authority obliged her to mingle. But the maternal office was fupplied by my aunt, Mrs. Catharine Porten; at whofe name I feel a tear of gratitude trickling down my cheek. A life of celibacy transferred her vacant affection to her fifter's firft child my weaknefs excited her pity; her attachment was fortified by labour and fuccefs: and if there be any, as I truft there are fome, who rejoice that I live, to that dear and excellent woman they muft hold themfelves indebted. Many anxious and folitary days did the confume in the patient trial of every mode of relief and amufement. Many wakeful nights did fhe fit by my bed-fide in trembling expectation that each hour would be my laft. Of the various and frequent diforders of my childhood my own recollection is dark; nor do I wish to expatiate on fo difgufting a topic. Suffice it to fay, that while every practitioner, from Sloane and Ward to the chevali er Taylor, was fucceffively fummoned to torture or relieve me, the care of my mind was too frequently neglected for that of my health; compaffion always fuggefted an excufe for the indulgence of the mafter, or the idleness of the pupil; and the chain of my education was broken, as often as I was recalled from the school of learning to the bed of fickness. As foon as the use of speech had prepared my infant reafon for the admiflion of knowledge, I was taught the arts of reading, writing, and arithmetic. So remote is the date, fo vague is the memory of their origin in myself, that, were not the error corrected by analogy, I should be tempted to conceive them as innate. In my childhood I was praised for the readiness, with which I could multiply and divide, by memory alone, two fums of feveral figures: fuch praise encouraged my growing talent; and had I perfevered in this line of application, I might have acquired fome fame in mathematical studies. After this previous inftitution at home, or at a day-school at Putney, I was delivered at the age of feven into the hands of Mr. John Kirkby, who exercised about eighteen months the office of my domeftic tutor. His own words, which I fhall here tranfcribe, infpire in his favour a fentiment of pity and efteem.-" During my abode in my native county of Cumberland, in quality of an indigent curate, I used now-andthen in a fummer, when the pleafantnefs of the feafon invited, to take a folitary walk to the fea thore, which lies about two miles from the town where I lived. Here I would amuse myself, one while in viewing at large the a greeable profpect which furrounded me, and another while (confining my fight to nearer objects) in admiring the vast variety of beau tiful fhells, thrown upon the beach; fome of the choiceft of which I always picked up, to divert my little ones upon my return. One time among the reft, taking fuch a journey in my head, I fat down upon the declivity of the beach with my face to the fea, which was now come up within a few yards of my feet; when immediately the fad thoughts of the wretched condition of my family, family, and the unfuccessfulness of a cruel and capricious peda of all endeavours to amend it, came crowding into my mind, which drove me into a deep melancholy, and ever and anon foreed tears from my eyes." Diftrefs at laft forced him to leave the country. His learning and virtue introduced him to my father; and at Putney he might have found at leaft a temporary fhelter, had not an act of indifcretion again driven him into the world. One day reading prayers in the parish church, he most unluckily forgot the name of king George: his patron, a loyal fubject, difmiffed him with fome reluctance, and a decent reward; and how the poor man ended his days I have never been able to learn. In my ninth year (January 1746), in a lucid interval of comparative health, my father adopted the convenient and cuftomary mode of English education; and I was fent to Kingston upon Thames, to a fchool of about feventy boys, which was kept by Dr. Wooddefon and his affiftants. Every time I have fince paffed over Putney common, I have always noticed the fpot where my mother, as we drove along in the coach, admonished me that I was now going into the world, and muft learn to think and act for myfelf. The expreffion may appear ludicrous; yet there is not, in the courfe of life, a more remark-, able change than the removal of a child from the luxury and freedom of a wealthy houfe, to the frugal diet and ftrict fubordination of a school; from the tendernefs of parents, and the obfequioufness of fervants, to the rude familiarity of his equals, the infolent tyranny of his feniors, and the rod, perhaps, VOL. XXXVIII. gogue. Such hardfhips may fteel the mind and body against the injuries of fortune: but my timid referve was aftonished by the crowd and tumult of the fchool; the want of ftrength and activity difqualified me for the fports of the play-field; nor have I forgotten how often in the year forty-fix I was reviled and buffetted for the fins of my tory anceftors. By the common methods of difcipline; at the expence of many tears and fome blood, I purchafed the knowledge of the Latin fyntax: and not long fince I was poffeffed of the dirty volumes of Phædrus and Cornelius Nepos, which I painfully conftrued and darkly underftood. My ftudies were too frequently interrupted by fickness; and af ter a real or nominal refidence at Kingfton-fchool of near two years, I was finally recalled (December 1747) by my mother's death, which was occafioned in her thirty-eighth year, by the confequences of her laft labour. I was too young to feel the importance of my lofs; and the image of her perfon and converfation is faintly imprinted in my memory. The affectionate heart of my aunt, Catherine Porten, bewailed a fifter and a friend; but my poor father was inconfolable and the tranfport of grief feemed to threaten his life or his reason. I can never forget the fcene of our first interview, fome weeks after the fatal event; the awful filence, the room hung with black, the mid-day tapers, his fighs and tears; his praifes of my mother, a faint in heaven; his folemn adjuration that I would cherish her memory and imitate her virtues; and the fervor with which he kiffed and bleised me Y as as the fole furviving pledge of their loves. The form of paffion infenfibly fubfided into calmer melancholy. At a convivial meeting of his hiends, Mr. Gibbon might affect or enjoy a gleam of cheerfulness; but his plan of happiness was for ever deftroyed; and after the lofs of his companion he was left alone in a world, of which the bufinefs and pleafures were to him irkfome or infipid. After fome unfuccefsful trials he renounced the tumult of London and the hofpitality of Putney, and buried himself in the rural or rather ruftic folitude of Buriton; from which, during feveral years, he feldom emerged. As far back as I can remember, the house, near Putney - bridge and church yard, of my maternal grandfather appears in the light of my proper and native home. It was there that I was allowed to fpend the greatest part of my time, in fickness or in health, during my fchool vacations and my parents' refidence in London, and finally after my mother's death. Three months after that event, in the fpring of 1748, the commercial ruin of her father, Mr. James Porten, was accomplished and declared. He fuddenly abfconded; but as his effects were not fold, nor the hoafe evacuated, till the Chritmas following, I enjoyed during the whole year the fociety of my aunt, without much conicioufnefs of her impending fate. I feel a melancholy pleafure in epeating my obligations to that excellent woman, Mrs. Catherine Porten, the true mother of my mind and health. Her natural good fenfe was improved by the perufal of the beft books in the English language; and if her rea fon was fometimes clouded by prejudice, her fentiments were never difguifed by hypocrify or affectation. Her indulgent tendernefs, the franknefs of her temper, and my innate rifing curiofity, foon removed all diftance between us: like friends of an equal age, we freely converfed on every topic, familiar or abftrufe; and it was her delight and reward to obferve the firft fhoots of my young ideas. Pain and langour were often foothed by the voice of inftruction and amufement; and to her kind leffons i afcribe my early and invincible love of reading, which I would not exchange for the ticafures of India. I thould perhaps be aftonifhed, were it poflible to afcertain the date, at which a favourite tale was engrav ed, by frequent repetition, in my memory: the Cavern of the Winds; the Palace of Felicity, and the fatal moment, at the end of three months or centuries, when prince Adolphus is overtaken by Time, who had worn out fo many pair of wings in the purfuit. Before I left Kingfion fchool I was well acquainted with Pope's Homer and the Arabian Nights Entertainments, two books which will always please by the moving picture of human manners and fpecious miracles: nor was I then capable of difcerning that Pope's tranflation is a portrait endowed with every merit, excepting that of likeness to the original. The verfes of Pope accustomed my ear to the found of poetic harmony: in the death of Hector, and the fhipwreck of Ulyffes, I tafted the new emotions of terror and pity; and ferioufly difputed with my aunt on the vices and virtues of the beroes of the Trojan war. From Pope's Homer to Dryden's Virgil Was was an eafy tranfition; but I know not how, from fome fault in the author, the tranflator, or the reader, the pious neas did not fo forcibly feize on my imagination; and I derived more pleasure from Ovid's Metamorphofes, especially in the fall of Phaeton, and the fpeeches of Ajax and Ulyffes. My grandfather's flight unlocked the door of a tolerable library; and I turned over many English pages of poetry and romance, of history and travels. Where a title attracted my eye, without fear or awe I fnatched the volume from the thelf; and Mrs. Porten, who indulged herfelf in moral and religious fpeculations, was more prone to encourage than to check a curiofity above the ftrength of a boy. This year (1748), the twelfth of my age, I thall note as the moft propitious to the growth of my intellectual ftature. The relics of my grandfather's fortune afforded a bare annuity for bis own maintenance; and his daughter, my worthy aunt, who had already passed her fortieth year, was left deftitute. Her noble ipirit fcorned a life of obligation and dependence; and after revolving feveral fchemes, the preferred the humble induftry of keeping a boarding-houfe for Westminster-fchool, where the laboriously earned a competence for her old age. This fingular opportunity of blending the advantages of private and public education decided my father. After the Chiftmas holidays in January 1749, I accompanied Mrs. Porten to her new houfe in Col. lege-street; and was immediately entered in the fchool, of which Dr. John Nicoll was at that time headmafter. At first I was alone: but my aunt's refolution was praifed; her character was efteemed; her friends were numerous and active : in the courfe of fome years the became the mother of forty or fifty boys, for the most part of family and fortune; and as her primitive habitation was too narrow, the built and occupied a spacious manfion in Dean's yard. I fall always be ready to join in the common opinion, that our public fchools, which have produced fo many eminent characters, are the beft adapted to the genius and conftitution of the English people. A boy of fpirit may acquire a previous and practical experience of the world; and his playfellows may be the future friends of his heart or his intereft. In a free intercourfe with his equals, the habits of truth, fortitude, and prudence will infenfibly be matured. Birth and riches are measured by the ftandard of perfonal merit; and the mimic fcene of a rebellion has difplayed, in their true colours, the minifters and patriots of the rifing generation. Our feminaries of learning do not exactly correfpond with the precept of a Spartan king, that the child fhould be inftructed in the arts, which will be useful to the man;' fince a finished fcholar may emerge from the head of Westminster or Eton, in total ignorance of the bufinefs and converfation of English gentlemen in the latter end of the eighteenth century. But thefe fchools may affume the merit of teaching all that they pretend to teach, the Latin and Greek languages: they depofit in the hands of a difciple the keys of two valuable chefts; nor can he complain, if they are afterwards loft or neglected by his own fault. The neceflity of leading in equal ranks fo Y 2 many |