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tude, upon which all this labour, these sacrifices had been wasted. She confessed, that Thomas Day, blackguard, as he used jestingly to style himself, less displeased her eye than Thomas Day, fine gentle

man.

"Thus again disappointed, he resumed his accustomed plainness of garb, and neglect of his person, and went again upon the continent, for another year, with pursuits of higher aim, more congenial to his talents and former principles. Returning to England in the year 1773, he saw, that spring, miss Honora Sneyd united to his friend Mr. Edgeworth, who was become a widower; and, in the year 1780, he learned that his second love of that name, miss Elizabeth Sneyd, was also, after the death of Honora, married to Mr. Edgeworth. "It was singular that Mr. Day should thus, in the course of seven years, find himself doubly rivalled by his most intimate friend; but his own previously renounced pursuit of those beautiful young women, left him without either cause or sensations of resentment on their

account.

"From the year 1773 this hitherto love-renounced philosopher resided chiefly in London, and amid the small and select circle which he frequented there, often met the pretty and elegant miss Esther Mills, of Derbyshire, who, with modern acquirements, and amongst modish luxuries, suited to her large for tune, had cultivated her understand ing by books, and her virtues by benevolence. The again unpolished stoic had every charm in her eyes, 'She saw Othello's visage in his mind.' But, from indignant recollection of hopes so repeatedly baffled, Mr. Day looked with distrust on female attention of however flatter1801,

ing semblance; nor was it till after years of her modest, yet tender devotion to his talents and merit, that he deigned to ask miss Mills, if she could, for his sake, resign all that the world calls pleasures; all it's luxuries, all it's ostentation: if, with him, she could resolve to employ, after the ordinary comforts of life were supplied, the surplus of her affluent fortune in clothing the naked, and feeding the hungry; retire with him into the country, and shun, through remaining existence, the infectious taint of human society.

"Mr. Day's constitutional fault, like poor Cowper's, seemed that of looking with severe and disgusted' eyes upon those venial errors in his species, which are mutually tolerated by mankind. This stain of misanthropy was extremely deepened by his commerce with the world, restrained as that commerce' had ever been. Satiric, jealous, and discerning, it was not easy to deceive him; yet, in a few instances, he was deceived by the appearance of virtues congenial to his own:

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For neither man nor angel can discern
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone.'

"To proposals so formidable, so sure to be rejected by a heart less than infinitely attached, miss Mills gladly assented; but something more remained. Mr. Day insisted, that her whole fortune should be settled upon herself, totally out of his present or future control; that if she grew tired of a system of the world, she might return to that life so likely to weary a woman of world any hour she chose, fully empowered to resume it's habits, and it's pleasures.

"They married, and retired into the country about the year 1780, E accord,

according to the best recollection of the author of these memoirs. No carriage; no appointed servant about Mrs. Day's own person; no luxury of any sort. Music, in which she was a distinguished proficient, was deemed trivial. She banished her harpsichord and mu sic-books. Frequent experiments upon her temper, and her attachment, were made by him, whom she lived but to obey and love. Over these she often wept, but never repined. No wife, bound in the strictest fetters, as to the incapacity of claiming separate maintenance, ever made more absolute sacrifices to the most imperious husband, than did this lady, whose independence had been secured, and of whom nothing was demanded as a duty.

"Thus Mr. Daу found, at last, amid the very class he dreaded, that of fashionable women, a heart whose passion for him supplied all the requisites of his high-toned expectations.

"Some eight or ten years after his marriage, the life of this singular being became, in its meri

dian, a victim to one of his un common systems. He thought highly of the gratitude, generosity, aad sensibility of horses; and that whenever they were disobedient, unruly, or vicious, it was owing to previous ill usage from men. He had reared, fed, and tamed a favourite foal. When it was time it should become serviceable, disdaining to employ a horsebreaker, he would use it to the bit and the burthen himself. He was not a good horseman. The animal, disliking his new situation, heeded not the soothing voice to which he had been accustomed. He plunged, threw his master, and then, with his heels, struck him on the head an instantly fatal blow. It was said that Mrs. Day never afterwards saw the sun; that she lay in bed, into the curtains of which no light was admitted during the day, and only rose to stray alone through her garden, when night gave her sorrows congenial gloom. She survived this adored husband two years, and then died, brokenhearted, for his loss."

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to be regarded as a selfish gratification, but to be chiefly valued for the grand excitements and important aids which it afforded to the attainment of religious knowledge, and the formation of just principles. When a young man, he expresses, in one of his private letters, his resolution to be chiefly occupied in that noblest science to be good;' and after the experience of many years, when he was giving affectionate advice to one of his daughters, he thus strongly incul. cates the unimportance of all lite rary attainments which terminate short of moral improvement. You know my sentiments on these points so well as to free me from the necessity of adding, how trivial and insignificant are the noblest intellectual endowments, in competition with benevolence • of feeling and purity of heart;with that sensibility, and complacency, and accommodation of manners, which reaps it's sin⚫ cerest and highest pleasures from relieving the wants, attending to the wishes, and consulting the gratification, of a single human • being.'

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"As a member of civil society, a mind such as his could never for a moment either entertain or inculcate

Th' enormous faith of many made for

one.'

"Respecting forms of govern ment, indeed, he was little attached to any particular theory, but rather anxious to behold civil institutions practically applied to the public good. He could scarcely be called a politician, in the usual meaning of the term, till, in the latter years of his life, those events began to agitate the world, which were calculated to rouse the attention

and interest the feelings of every man of thought and reflection.

"He was now led to investigate the character and conduct of the public men of his time. In one who, unhappily for his country and the world, has been too long a statesman without power,' he discovered a liberality of sentiment and an openness of profession congenial to his own. Contemplating the perilous situation of his country, an incessant prey to the ravages of war and the accumulation of public burdens, he described Mr. For as her Angel of Redemption.' Of his rival, it is well known that he formed, in earlier life, a far less favourable opinion, which the experience of his riper years tended only to confirm.

"Yet his habits and inclination generally led him to the enjoyments. of domestic society and the occupations of private life. As a cheerful and most engaging companion-an able and persevering instructor of the youths committed to his care-a zealous promoter of the interests of learning, with an especial regard to the eventual predominance of religion-in these characters he is peculiarly worthy of being proposed as an example, and in these, indeed, it was his first ambition to excel.

"As a companion he has, we believe, been seldom equalled by any professed student; for, among his various excellencies, his colloquial powers were eminently conspicuous. No one was ever more fond of social intercourse, or took a more active part in promoting its enjoyment, by keeping conversation alive, whatever turn it might take.

"Indeed, it could not be at à stand where he was present. The accommodating disposition with

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which he applied his varied talents, enabled him to instruct by his learning, or to amuse by a rich fund of anecdote, and lively sallies of humour. Perhaps upon these occasions he was carried too far into the practice of punning; at least, it might be thought so by those who have no talent for that species of pleasantry, from which, however, he carefully abstained when its indulgence might give

uneasiness to others.

"In conversation, he was not desirous of engrossing too large a share, but rather solicitous to bring forward those around him, especially the young and the diffident. It might be truly said of him, that in speech, neither the pleasantness excluded gravity, nor was the sobriety of it inconsistent with delight. No man parted willingly from his discourse: for he so ordered it, that every man was satisfied that he had his share.'

Though thus unassuming in his manners, he was sure to attract attention to his sentiments on all subjects. Whenever these excited opposition, he would listen to the contrary opinion with the most patient and impartial attention; for he was not less observable for a candid and conciliating mode of argument, than for the readiness and command of language with which he could sustain his own opinion. What he says of himself on this point was strictly correct. Though some people regard me

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violent and self-willed, I know very well, that I owe the extraordinary affection of my many friends to no one property so much as a kind attention to their sentiments, and a civil manner of disputing them.'

"That he was subject, especially in his early years, to that irritabi

lity of temper which is too frequently an attendant on genius, cannot be denied. During the latter pes riod of his life, however, he had so far acquired the mastery over his feelings, which were naturally strong, as to have been but very rarely betrayed, in his conversa tion, into asperity of language, by the harshness or ill manners of an opponent. When such painful circumstances occurred, they were dismissed as soon as possible from his memory, and never suffered to prejudice his mind in estimating the general merit even of those by whom his sentiments were rudely controverted.

His

"Such were the talents and dispositions which he brought into his social intercourse; a pensive, yet pleasing recollection of which enables us to speak upon this subject with peculiar confidence. early love of society has been described by himself, where he men、 tions that during a five years' con⚫tinuance at college he never break. 'fasted, drank tea, or supped alone;

half-a-dozen times.' He consider. ed it, under due restrictions, as the most useful school of wisdom, and virtue, to beings endued with social faculties. His sentiments are not less accurately than beautifully de scribed by the poet :

Man in society is like a flower

Blown in its native bed; 'tis there alone His faculties, expanded in full bloom, 'Shine out; there only reach their proper use.'

"It was doubtless chiefly owing to his early and continued indul. gence of this disposition, that he avoided those awkward, and fre quently unaccommodating pecu liarities, so observable in men of reOf himself he re tired habits. marks, I have always endeavour•ed

*ed to guard against those indecorous absences, and alienating singularities, too incident to studious men.'

"To this freedom from every thing like repulsive manners must, in a great measure, be attributed that eagerness with which his society was sought after by many persons of tastes and habits of life very different both from himself and from each other; a proof of something singularly amiable and engaging in his conversation and deportment. Few had an opportu

nity of coming once into his company without desiring a greater intimacy. Some especially, from whom in his latter years he received peculiar marks of friendship, were in this manner introduced to his acquaintance.

"In the important character of a tutor, the rationality of his method of instruction may be inferred from his eminent success, while his conduct towards the youths committed to his charge secured at once their respect and affection."

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IN

CHARACTER of SIR WILLIAM JONES.

[From LORD TEIGNMOUTH'S MEMOIRS of his LIFE.]

N the short space of fortyseven years, by the exertion of rare intellectual talents, he acquired a knowledge of arts, sciences, and languages, which has seldom been equalled, and perhaps never surpassed. If he did not attain the critical proficiency of a Porson or Parr in Grecian literature, yet his knowledge of it was most extensive and profound, and entitled him to a high rank in the first class of scholars, while as a philologist, he could boast an universality in which he had no rival. His skill in the idioms of India, Persia, and Arabia, has perhaps never been equal led by any European; and his compositions on Oriental subjects display a taste which we seldom find in the writings of those who had preceded him in these tracts of literature. The language of Constantinople was also familiar to him; and of the Chinese characters and tongue, he had learned enough to enable him to translate an ode of Confucius. In the modern dia

I

lects of Europe, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German, he was thoroughly conversant, and had perused the most admired writers in those languages. might extend the list by specifying other dialects which he understood, but which he had less perfectly studied.

"But mere philology was never considered by sir William Jones as the end of his studies, nor as any thing more than the medium through which knowledge was to be acquired; he knew that words. were the daughters of earth, and things the sons of heaven,' and would have disdained the character of a mere linguist. In the little sketch of a treatise on education, which has been inserted in these Memoirs, he describes the use of language, and the necessity of acquiring the languages of those people who in any period of the world have been distinguished by their superior knowledge, in order to add to our own researches the E 3

accumu

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