tier claim the univerfal attention of mankind to a fcheme of education that has produced fuch a ftupendous progrefs! The authors, who have endeavoured to -teach certain and unfailing rules for obtaining a long life, however they have failed in their attempts, are univerfally confeffed to have, at least, the merit of a great and noble defign, and to have deferved gratitude and honour. How much more then is due to Mr. Barretier, who has fucceeded in what they have only attempted? for to prolong life, and improve it, are nearly the fame. If to have all that riches can purchafè, is to be rich; if to do all that can be done in a long time, is to live long; he is equally a benefactor to mankind, who teaches them to protract the duration, or fhorten the business of life.

That there are few things more worthy our curiosity than this method, by which the father affifted the genius of the fon, every man will be convinced, that confiders the early proficiency at which it enabled him to arrive; fuch a proficiency as no one has yet reached at the fame age, and to which it is therefore probable that every advantageous circumftance concurred.

At the age of nine years, he not only was mafter of five languages, an attainment in itself almoft incredible, but understood, fays his father, the holy writers, better in their original tongues, than in his own. If he means by this affertion, that he knew the fenfe of many paffages in the original, which were obfcure in the tranflation, the account, however wonderful, may be admitted; but if he intends to tell his correfpondent, that his fon was better acquainted with the two languages of the Bible, than with his own, he must be allowed to speak hyperbolically, or to admit that his fon had somewhat neglected the study of his native

language;

language; or we must own, that the fondness of a parent has tranfported him into fome natural exaggerations.

Part of this letter I am tempted to fupprefs, being unwilling to demand the belief of others to that which appears incredible to myself; but as my incredulity may, perhaps, be the product rather of prejudice than reason, as envy may beget a difinclination to admit fo immense a fuperiority, and as an account is not to be immediately cenfured as falfe, merely becaufe it is wonderful, I fhall proceed to give the rest of his father's relation, from his letter of the third of March 1729-30. He fpeaks, continues he, German, Latin, and French, equally well. He can, by laying before him a tranflation, read any of the books of the Old or New Teftament in its original language, without hefitation or perplexity. He is no ftranger to biblical criticism or philofophy, nor unacquainted with antient or modern geography, and is qualified to fupport a converfation with learned men, who frequently visit and correfpond with him.

In his eleventh year, he not only published a learned letter in Latin, but tranflated the travels of Rabbi Benjamin from the Hebrew into French, which he illuftrated with notes, and accompanied with differtations; a work in which his father, as he himself declares, could give him little affistance, as he did not understand the rabbinical dialect.

The reafon, for which his father engaged him in this work, was only to prevail upon him to write a fairer hand than he had hitherto accustomed himself to dó, by giving him hopes, that, if he fhould tranflate fome little author, and offer a fair copy of his version to fome bookfeller, he might, in return for it, have other books which he wanted and could not afford to purchase.

Incited

Incited by this expectation, he fixed upon the "Travels of Rabbi Benjamin," as moft proper for his purpose, being a book neither bulky nor common, and in one month completed his tranflation, applying only one or two hours a day to that particular task. In another month, he drew up the principal notes; and, in the third, wrote fome differtations upon particular paffages which feemed to require a larger examination.

Thefe notes contain fo many curious remarks and enquiries, out of the common road of learning, and afford fo many inftances of penetration, judgment, and accuracy, that the reader finds in every page fome reafon to perfuade him that they cannot poffibly be the work of a child, but of a man long accustomed to these studies, enlightened by reflection, and dextrous by long practice in the use of books. Yet, that it is the performance of a boy thus young, is not only proved by the teftimony of his father, but by the concurrent evidence of Mr. Le Maitre, his affociate in the church of Schwabach, who not only afferts his claim to this work, but affirms that he heard him at fix years of age explain the Hebrew text as if it had been his native language; so that the fact is not to be doubted without a degree of incredulity, which it will not be very easy to defend.

This copy was however far from being written with the neatness which his father defired; nor did the bookfellers, to whom it was offered, make proposals very agreeable to the expectations of the young tranflator; but after having examined the performance in their manner, and determined to print it upon conditions not very advantageous, returned it to be tranfcribed, that the printers might not be embarraffed with a copy fo difficult to read.

Barretier

1

Barretier was now advanced to the latter end of his twelfth year, and had made great advances in his ftudies, notwithstanding an obftinate tumour in his left hand, which gave him great pain, and obliged him to a tedious and troublesome method of cure; and reading over his performance, was fo far from contenting himself with barely tranfcribing it, that he altered the greatest part of the notes, new-modelled the differtations, and augmented the book to twice its former bulk.

The few touches which his father beftowed upon the revifal of the book, though they are minutely fet down by him in the preface, are so inconfiderable that it is not neceffary to mention them; and it may be much more agreeable, as well as ufeful, to exhibit the fhort account which he there gives of the method by which he enabled his fon to fhew fo early how eafy an attainment is the knowledge of the languages, a knowledge which some men spend their lives in cultivating, to the neglect of more valuable ftudies, and which they seem to regard as the highest perfection of human

nature.

What applaufes are due to an old age, wafted in a fcrupulous attention to particular accents and etymologies, may appear, fays his father, by feeing how little time is required to arrive at fuch an eminence in these studies as many even of thefe venerable doctors have not attained, for want of rational methods and regular application.

This cenfure is doubtlefs juft upon those who fpend too much of their lives upon ufelefs niceties, or who appear to labour without making any progrefs; but as the knowledge of languages is neceffary, and a VOL. IV. Hh minute

minute accuracy fometimes requifite, they are by no means to be blamed, who, in compliance with the par-. ticular bent of their own minds, make the difficulties of dead languages their chief ftudy, and arrive at excellence proportionate to their application, fince it was to the labour of fuch men that his fon was indebted for his own learning.

The first languages which Barretier learned were the French, German, and Latin, which he was taught not in the common way by a multitude of definitions, rules, and exceptions, which fatigue the attention and burthen the memory, without any ufe proportionate to the time which they require, and the disgust which they create. The method by which he was instructed was easy, and expeditious, and therefore pleasing. He learned them all in the fame manner, and almost at the fame time, by converfing in them indifferently with his father.

The other languages of which he was mafter, he learned by a method yet more uncommon. The only book which he made ufe of was the Bible, which his father laid before him in the language that he then proposed to learn, accompanied with a tranflation, being taught by degrees the inflections of nouns and verbs. This method, fays his father, made the Latin more familiar to him in his fourth year than any other language.

When he was near the end of his fixth year, he entered upon the study of the Old Testament in its original language, beginning with the book of Genefis, to which his father confined him for fix months; after which he read curforily over the reft of the historical books, in

which