218 Biographical Memoir ofDr Thomas Young. 



strains of admiration ; though I cannot say if the public is ever 

 likely to receive the benefit of it. At all events, it could not 

 be without its influence upon the lifeof the author, for, in giving 

 himself up to a minute and attentive examination of the wild 

 caprices which abounded in the conceptions of the Greek philo- 

 sophers, Young felt that the partiality he had hitherto retained 

 for the principles of the sect in which he was born gradually 

 became more feeble, although he did not separate himself entire- 

 ly from it till some years after, during his stay at Edinburgh. 



The little circle of students of Youngsbury was in the habit 

 of quitting Hertfordshire for some months during the winter, 

 and resorting to London. On one of these occasions Young 

 encountered an instructor who was worthy of him. He was ini- 

 tiated into chemistry by Dr Higgins, whose name I am the more 

 solicitous to introduce here, because, in spite of his many inac- 

 curacies, we should be unjust not to admit the useful part which 

 he took in the theory of definite proportions, one of the most 

 beautiful acquisitions of modern chemistry. 



Dr Brocklesby, the maternal uncle of Young, and one of the 

 most celebrated physicians in London, justly proud of the bril- 

 liant success of his young relative, occasionally communicated 

 his compositions to the men of science and literature, whose ap- 

 probation might have flattered his vanity. In this way Young 

 early found himself in personal communication with the cele- 

 brated Burke and Windham, members of the House of Com- 

 mons, and with the Duke of Richmond. The Duke, who was 

 at the time Master of the Ordnance, offered him the situation of 

 his assistant secretary. The two other politicians, though they 

 also wished to attach him to the public service, recommended 

 him first to go to Cambridge for a time, to study law. With so 

 many powerful patrons, Young might readily have reckoned on 

 one of those lucrative posts which persons in office are not slow 

 to confer upon those who can save them from the trouble of all 

 study or application, and who can supply them daily with the 

 means of shining at court, in the council, or the senate, and with- 

 out ever compromising their vanity by indiscretion. But Young, 

 fortunately, had a conviction of his own powers ; he felt within 

 him the germ of those brilliant discoveries which have since so 

 much distinguished his name ; and he preferred the laborious 



