a 
4808.] 
son. . The latter is found at once, being 
the complement to 90°, 
TI should add that a right line from the 
Pleiades, carried directly up tillit falls 
into the south-east side of the Milky-way, 
brings the eye tothe phenomenon, It 
was very nearly on, the. Meridian at 
twelve last night. 
Memoirs of Professor Porson. 
347 
It is nearly in opposition to the © and 
probably as far as @ beyond the 6's 
orbit. 
I see nothing to support the idea which 
I wished to entertain of its being the Co- 
met of last year. Your's, &c. 
Troston, Capen Lorrt, 
October 20, 1808. 
rns 
MEMOIRS AND REMAINS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
Some, account of the late RICHARD POR- 
_ SON, ESQ. M. 4. dnd GREEK PROFESSOR 
in the UNIVERSITY Of CAMBRIDGE. 
*€ Sint hic etiam sua premia laudi.” 
WT is the fashion to. pay court to what- 
ever is vulgarly considered either as 
great or noble. The demise of those 
encumbered with .wealth, or bedecked 
with stars. or titles, is announced with 
pomp, their memories embalmed with 
incense, and their names loaded with pa- 
negyric, Their faults and failings are at 
the same time carefully concealed, while 
every semblance of virtue is ostentati- 
ously brought forward,.so that the re- 
collection of the dead may become a 
subject of servile flattery for the living. 
We are soiry to observe, and to re- 
mark, that it is otherwise, notwithstand- 
ing their superior pretensions, in respect 
to men of letters. A “ green-eyed jea- 
lousy,” witha few honourable exceptions, 
seems to pervade the whole fraternity. 
The poet criticises his brother bard with 
acrimony, the antiquary derides the col- 
lector of antiquities, and the historian 
reviews the historian with a splenetic 
envy of jhis talents. We have only to 
look back to the reign of Ann, the boast- 
ed Augustan age of English literature, to 
perceive the paltry arts, and the enve- 
nomed artifices made use of, even by the 
greatest scholars of that day, in respect 
to each other. Whoever is acquainted 
with the literary history of the present 
epoch, must also lament, that the de- 
corum of private life, gradually refined 
into elegance, in respect to all other 
classes of society, seems to be forgotten 
in the communications which ought to 
take place among those who aspire at 
once to amuse and to instruct -not only 
their contemporaries, but the remotest 
posterity. Meanwhile our illustrious men 
seem determined to wing their flight to 
ether, and bewer warlds, 
The subject of the present memoir has 
just been numbered with the dead, and 
the renowned author of the EDEA IITE- 
POENTA, perhaps, at this very moment 
ceases to be reckoned among the living.* 
The ashes of Hurd are scarcely cold in 
the grave; and his antagonist, Parr, (now 
become a solitary leviathan in the ocean 
of ancient literature,) is fast declining 
into the vale of years, Let us at once 
cherish and venerate such names, if we 
wish to do credit either to our country or 
ourselves. 
Richard Porson, a native of Norfolk, 
was born at East Ruston, in that county, 
on the 25th of December, 1759, and was 
the eldest son of a former parish-clerk. 
Seemingly destined to a humble station 
of life, he became, of course, the archi. 
tect of his own fortune: had he been a 
worldly-minded man, the edifice erected 
by him might have been far moré bril- 
hant, as well as commodious, 
In the character of this celebrated 
scholar, there was one grand character- 
istic feature, which predominated from 
his early infancy, gave a colour to his 
future life, and led, by degrees, to all his 
immense acquisitions.. This was a most 
astonishingly retentive memory, at once 
extensive and minute, accurate beyond 
common conception, and a source of 
continual amusement to all his friends. 
The history of the early part of this 
gentleman’s life seems to prove, that if 
this gnality of the human mind cannot be 
actually created, yet that it may be im- 
proved to.an extent, of which in this 
filicitous instance the maximum has been 
nearly attained. 
Mr. Huggin Porson, the father, liké 
many of those who have not received an 
* The writer of this article is proud to say 
with the great Roman orator :—= 
« Nigidium vidi; Cratippum cognovi.” 
early 
