Memoir of the Life of Dr. Thomas Young. 331 



graphical, and literary, which are designated by two consecutive 

 letters of the sentence Fortunam ex aliis. His adoption of this 

 motto is deemed ' to have been caused by the consideration that he 

 had not then succeeded to his wish or expectation in his profession, 

 and that he had reason to complain that the extent and utility of his 

 labours in science, after having been fully appreciated by the philo- 

 sophers on the Continent, had not appeared to have met with the same 

 acceptance among his own countrymen.' 



This feeling was, however, transitory, and was, indeed, hardly well 

 founded. The fact is, that Dr. Young, by those best qualified to 

 form a judgment, was acknowledged to rank in the highest scale, if 

 not to stand at the head, of the men of science and literature of Eng- 

 land, and his reputation was duly appreciated on the Continent ; 

 but the studious concealment with which his manifold contributions 

 to the stock of human knowledge in science and philology were 

 stolen into the world, prevented him from enjoying that wide-extended 

 fame with his countrymen to which he was justly entitled, and which 

 he really did enjoy in ah extensive circle of truly eminent friends. 



The philosophical articles of Dr. Young in the Supplement to the 

 Encyclopaedia Britannica, contain the results of his most elaborate 

 investigations. His biographical sketches in the same work are ad- 

 mirably given ; and the Life of Person, in particular, has been pointed 

 out as 4 a masterly production, containing a very interesting indica- 

 tion of some of Dr. Young's opinions both on the value of classical 

 studies and on the mechanism of the human mind.' The article 

 LANGUAGES, in the same work, contains the fruits of his investiga- 

 tions on the subject, into which he had been led when engaged in 

 reviewing Adelung's Mithridates for the Quarterly Review. 



Early in 1817, Dr. Young paid a second visit' to Paris, and was 

 received with that consideration due to him in the scientific circles 

 there. He was happy in renewing his intercourse with Humboldt, 

 Arago, Cuvier, and Gay-Lussac ; and such was the pleasure derived 

 from his flattering reception, that, having occasion to return to Lon- 

 don for a short period, he was induced to make a second visit of a 

 few weeks to Paris in the summer of the same year. 



In 1818, he was appointed one of the Commissioners for taking 

 into Consideration the State of the Weights and Measures employed 

 throughout Great Britain. To this Commission he acted as Secre- 

 tary, and furnished the scientific calculations and the account of the 

 measures customarily in use, attached to the three Reports laid by 

 them before Parliament. It appears to have been Dr. Young's opinion 

 that, ' though theoretically it might be desirable that all weights and 

 measures should be reducible to a common standard of scientific 

 accuracy, yet that practically the least possible disturbance of that 

 to which people had been long habituated was the point to be looked 

 to, and on this ground he was extremely averse to unnecessary 

 changes.' 



Towards the end of the same year, Dr. Young was appointed 



