Jil4 Biographical Memoir of Dr Tliomas Young. 



on these our solemn festivals. To discharge this sacred debt 

 with as little delay as possible, is scarcely a less imperative obli- 

 gation. Gentlemen, the denizen academician always leaves after 

 him, among the brethren to whom his election introduced him, 

 many confidents of his private thoughts, — of the unfolding of his 

 discoveries, — and of all the vicissitudes of his lot. The foreign 

 member, on the contrary, is far removed from us ; he but rare- 

 ly takes his place amongst us, and we know little of his life, his 

 habits, or his character, unless by the accounts of the traveller ; 

 and, when a few years have passed away, if we find any traces 

 of these documents, we can no longer depend upon their accu- 

 racy ; literary news, which are not embodied in the press, are a 

 species of money, the circulation of which at once alters the im- 

 ,pression, the weight, and the value. 



These reflections will at once suggest the reason why the 

 names of Herschel, of Davy, and of Volta, have been pronounced 

 in our meetings, before those of many celebrated academicians 

 who have died in the midst of us ; and in a few moments, I trust, 

 there will be no one amongst us, who will not willingly concede to 

 the universal genius, whose life I am about to recount, a full 

 right to a similar preference. 



Thomas Young was born at Milverton, in the county of 

 Somerset, on the 13th of June 1773, of parents who belonged 

 to the sect of Quakers. He spent his earhest years with his ma- 

 ternal grandfather, Mr Robert Davies of Minehead, who, though 

 of active commercial habits, presented a rare exception, in not 

 laying aside the cultivation of the classics. Young could read 

 currently at the age of two years. His memory was truly ex- 

 traordinary. In the time of his long sederunis at the Dame- 

 School in the neighbourhood of Minehead, he committed to me- 

 mory, at the age of four years, a great number of English au- 

 thors, and even some Latin poems, which he could repeat from 

 beginning to end, although at that time he did not understand 

 the language. The name of Young, then, like that of many 

 other celebrated ones already collected in our biographies, will 

 contribute to nourish the hopes or the fears of many kind fa- 

 thers, who will see, in a few lessons well recited or badly learnt, 

 the certain tokens of a permanent mediocrity, or the infallible 

 commencement of a glorious career. We should be losing our 



