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MEMOIR OF THE LATE MR. JOHN JUST, OF BURY. 



all the antiquities and curiosities in the neighbourhood, and 

 also collected plants, more particularly of late years, the 

 Cryptoganiiae, which he examined at night, or (if any of 

 the party had no taste for such pursuits) in his bedroom in 

 the morning. Such was his ambition to excel in anything 

 he undertook, that he has seemed as much annoyed by any 

 one doubting his skill as an angler, as if bis capabilities 

 as a botanical lecturer, or a philologist, had been called in 

 question. The same conscientiousness which was conspicuous 

 in the graver transactions of life, was manifested in the midst 

 of his amusements. His strong love of truth was ever 

 apparent, and though passionately fond of angling, whatever 

 others might do, he always attended Church on the morning 

 ctf Good Friday. 



In all that has been enumerated of Mr. Just's favourite 

 pursuits and remarkable acquirements, nothing more has been 

 done than to give a feeble and imperfect portraiture of the 

 immense amount of actual work accomplished by him in 

 those brief snatches and intervals, those small "strays and 

 waifs of time," which so many allow to slide away, as too 

 short and insignificant to attempt to render available to any 

 important or useful end. To him alone, nine-tenths of whose 

 time is mortgaged to the duties and business of life, can 

 leisure have a peculiar value and a charm, that even wealth 

 without it cannot compensate. Besides his daily duties at 

 the Bury Grammar School, which, (distant nearly a mile and 

 a half from his residence,) may be said to have consumed his 

 whole day, he gave private lessons at his own house, both 

 morning and evening ; teaching the mathematics, classics, 

 modern languages, &c., preparing young men for college, 

 reading with others who wished to keep up their scholastic 

 acquirements, — and thus even the hours before the morning 

 and after the evening meal, still found him labouring at 

 the drudgery of tuition. In the summer months he had a 

 class at his own residence at seven o'clock in the morning. 



