620 



Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. Wm. Pitt. 



he had not prcvKously seen, witliout 

 more than two or three mistakes, and 

 sometimes without even one. He had 

 such an exactness in discriminating the 

 sense of words, and so peculiar a pene- 

 tration in seizingat once the meaningof 

 a writer, that, as was jnstly ohserved by 

 7.1r. Wilson, he never seemed to leani, 

 hut only to recollect. Whenever he 

 did err in rendering a sentence, it was 

 owing to the want of a correct know- 

 ledge of grammar, without which no 

 language can he perfectly understood. 

 This defect, too common in a private 

 education, it %vas my immediate en- 

 deavour to supply; and he was not 

 only soon master of all the ordinary 

 rules of grammar, hut taking great 

 pleasure iii the pliilologicaldisquisitions 

 of critics and commentators, he l)e- 

 «-ame deeply versed in the niceties of 

 construction anil peculiarities of idiom, 

 both in the Latin and (Hreek languages. 

 lie had also read tlic first six hooks of 

 Euclid's Elements, Plane Trigonome- 

 try, the elementary parts of Algebra, 

 and the two quarto volumes of Ruther- 

 ford's Natural Philosophy, a work in 

 some degrex! of repute while Mr. Wil- 

 .s<m was a sfiulent at Cambridge, but 

 afterwards laid aside. 



Nor was it in the learning only, that 

 Mr. Pitt-ivas so much superior to per- 

 sons of his age. Though a boy in years 

 and appearance, his manners were 

 formed, and liis behaviour manly. He 

 mixed in conversation with unaffected 

 vivacity; and delivered his sentiments 

 with perfect ease, equally free from 

 shyness and flippancy, and always with 

 strict attention to propriety and deco- 

 rum. Lord Chatham, who could not 

 but be aware of the powers of his son's 

 mind and understanding, had eucou- 

 ri^edhimto talk without reserve ujwn 

 every subject, M-hich fretiuently aftbrded 

 opportunity for conveying useful in- 

 formation and just notions of persons 

 and things. When his lordship's health 

 would permit, he never suffered a day 

 to pass without giving instructions of 

 some sort to his children, and seldoni 

 without reading a chapter of the Bible 

 with them.* He must indeed he con- 

 book which Mr. Pitt read after he came to 

 collen-e. The only other wish ever ex- 

 pressed by his lordship, relative to Mr. 

 Pitt's studies, was, that I would read Poly- 

 bius with him. 



* I had frequent opportunities of obser- 

 viutjMr. Pitts accurate knowledge of the 

 Bible ; and I may, I trust, be allowed to 

 mcutiou the following- anecdote: lu the 



sidered as having contributed largely 

 to that fund of knowledge, and to tliosc 

 other advantages, with which Mr. Pitt 

 entered upon his acatlemical life. 



The effects of a very .serious illness, 

 with which Jlr. Pitt was attacked soou 

 after he went to the University inl77>^i 

 occasioned him to reside but little at 

 Caiuhridgc in the first three year--. 

 This illness, which confineil him ne^irly 

 two months, and at last reduced him 

 to so weak a state, that, after he w"as 

 convalescent, he was four days travel- 

 ling to London, seems to have been a 

 crisis in liis constitution. I5y great at- 

 tention to diet, to exercise and to early 

 hours, he gradually gained strength, 

 without any relapse, or material check ; 

 and his health became progressively 

 coufirmed. At t!ie age of eighteen he 

 was a healthy man, and he continued 

 so for many years. The preservation 

 of Mr. Pitt's life, in its early part, may 

 be considered as owing, uiuler Provi- 

 dence, to his own care and the affec- 

 tionate watchfulness of his frieml> ; and 

 the prenaturc decline of liis iiealtli, 

 long before he reached the ordinary 

 age of man, may as justly be ascribed 

 to the anxiety and fatigue of unremit- 

 ted atteutiou to the duties of his public 

 station. 



It was originally intended, that Mr. 

 Pitt .should take the degree of Bachelor 

 of Arts in the regular way, and he can- 

 didate for academical honors ; hut his 

 inability to keep the necessary terms, 

 in consequence of the illness which has 

 been noticed, caused this intention to 

 be abandoned : and in the spring of 

 1770, he was admitted to tlie degree of 

 Master of Arts, to which his birth gave 

 him a right, and which is usually con- 

 ferred upon young men of a certain 

 rank, after about two years residence 

 in the University, without any public 

 examination, or the performance of 

 any public exercise, and of course with- 

 out the power of giving public proof of 

 their talents or attainments. 



While Mr. Pitt was under-graduate, 



year 1797, I was reading ^1'1th him, in ma- 

 nuscript, my Exposition of the First of the 

 Thirty-nine Articles, which 1 afterwards 

 published in the Elements of Christian 

 Theoloe:j'. There were several quotations 

 from Scripture, all of which l^c remembered 

 and made no observation upon them. At 

 last, we came to a quotation, at which he 

 stopped, and said, " I do not recollect that 

 passage in the Bible, and it does not sound 

 like Scripture." It was a quotatioB from 

 Apocrvpha, which he had not read. 



he 



