1830.] a Lover of Literature. 417 



of dressing like a Bishop ; a result of his old principle, of enjoying the 

 shadow, if he was hopeless of the substance. Towards the close of his 

 days, the probable accession of the Whigs to pov/er, made him conceive 

 some hope of reaching the Episcopal Bench. The hollowness of his old 

 contempt for professional distinction, was now ludicrously proved by his 

 actually drawing up a " code of conduct" for himself, a set of principles, 

 to be put in execution, as soon as he felt the mitre on his brow, and 

 which he had the absurdity to let loose to the world. But he was 

 doomed to feel the mortifications of vanity in this instance, as in so 

 many others, and died uncanonized by the lawn sleeves. 



He was an able scholar, so far as an extensive knowledge of Greek 

 and Latin deserves the title ; but he altogether wanted the force of un- 

 derstanding, which makes knowledge a part of the intellect. He was 

 neither a wiser nor a better man for his knowledge ; and his mind more 

 resembled the miscellaneous and dead accumulation of a large library, 

 than the active and well furnished energy of living literature. 



But one of the most humiliating and characteristic habits of the 

 man, was his ravening for flattery. A curious instance transpired of 

 his supplying this appetite himself. On the death of the late eccentric 

 Lord Ched worth, his lordship's nearest of kin contested the singular 

 will by which he had alienated his whole fortune, amounting nearly to 

 600,000/., to Wilson his solicitor, and Penrice his surgeon. The plea on 

 the part of his family was, that his lordship was not of " sound mind," 

 for a long period before his death ; and Dr. Parr, who had contrived to 

 fasten himself during his residence in Norfolk, on this very outre noble- 

 man, to speak in the tenderest terms, was brought forward to attest his 

 insanity, which the Doctor did without hesitation. On this, the counsel 

 for the Legatees produced an unlucky series of correspondence, which 

 the Doctor had kept up with his lordship, at the very period when, ac- 

 cording to his deposition, he was "non compos." This, of course, settled 

 the opinion of every body as to the value of the testimony. But the 

 laugh of the court was universal, on the reading of one letter, in which, 

 to Lord Chedworth's offer of sending him a silver goblet, the 

 Doctor replied by sending back an inscription, which he proposed to 

 have engraved on it. It was in the following modest terms : 



Samueli Parr, LL.D. 

 Viro ob ing-enium peracre et perelegans, 

 Eruditionem multiplicein et reconditam, 



Singularem Libertatis Amorem, 

 Et mentem simulationum ornnino nesciam, 



Hocce summae suse observantiae, 

 Et constantissimac erga'eum benevolentiae, 



Monimentum, 



Johannes Baro de Chedworth, 

 Anno Sacro, 1803. 

 D.D.D. , 



It is unfortunate that the pains which have been taken to such a 

 remorseless extent, with the biography of this self-praised old coxcomb, 

 had not been exerted on recovering those fragments of Person's career; 

 which still exist scattered in the memories of his fellow scholars. 

 Person, between nerves and drink, was shaken into something not far 

 from lunacy towards the close of his brief life. But the details of his 

 modes of acquiring his extraordinary knowledge, his style of thinking, 

 while his mind continued in its vigour, his actual acquirements, and his 



M.M. New Series. VOL. IX. No. 52. 3 H 



