348 
early education themselves, was deter- 
mined to communicate this blessing to his 
children, who consisted of three sons 
and a daughter. He himself was self- 
taught, for be had not begun his own stu- 
dies until a late period of life ; but he 
had perceived, in the progress of them, 
that memory was an inlet to every spe- 
cies of knowledge, and that without this, 
the task of teaching resembled the boyish 
practice of inscribing characters on the 
sand of the sea-shore. He determined, 
therefore, to pay particular attention to 
the qualifications alluded to;and it is emi- 
nently deserving of the attention of both . 
parents and instructors to weigh, con- 
gider, and imitate, the singular means re= 
curred to by him upon this occasion. 
The elder Mr, Porson began “ from 
the earliest dawn of intellect” to collect, 
fix, ‘and concentrate the attention of 
his children. He commenced, of course, 
with Richard, the first-born, whom he 
instructed in all the common rules of 
arithmetic, without any of the usual re- 
ferences to book or slate, and following 
this practice with incessant persever- 
ance and increasing success, the future 
professor was at length capable of work- 
sng, by the unaided operation of his own 
mind, a question in the cube root, 
before he had completed his ninth 
year. 
This astonishing power of intellectual 
effort once attained, the process, in re- 
spect to every thing else, ceased to be 
difficult. A regular, close, and intense 
combination of thought was thus achiev- 
ed, so that in future life, while others 
looked constantly to the board for the 
figure, young Porson could solve a difh- 
cult mathematical problem without re- 
eurring once to the diagram. 
His initiation into the alphabet was 
obtained by a double process, simple in- 
deed (for every thing excellent is gene- 
rally simple in its principle), but wonder- 
fully efficacious. His father taught him 
to read and write at one and the same 
time. To accoinplish this he drew the 
outlines of the letter with chalk ona 
board, andthe comphant pupil instantly 
attempted and completed the imitation. 
As soon as hé could speak he traced the 
alphabetical character with a considera- 
ble degree of precision and correctness ; 
and it ought not to be omitted here, that 
this sedulous and worthy parent appears 
to have recurred to the ancient eastern 
practice of writing in sand with the hu- 
man finger, traces of which are to be 
found in the Bible long before cither the 
a 
Memoirs of Professor Porson. 
, 
[Nov. 1, 
indefatigable Mr, Lancaster, or the 
praise-worthy Dr. Bell, laudably intro- 
duced it into their respective seminaries. 
Taking great delight in imitation, Richard 
soon began to excel as a penman; the 
walls were covered with his delineations, 
and while yet a boy, without meaning 
any offence, he wrote what is called “a 
better hand,” than any of the bench of 
bishops, or perhaps their predecessors, 
since the times of the primitive apostles, 
The period of from nine till twelve was 
passed under the superintendance of Mr, 
Summers, a village schoolmaster, whose 
humble powers as a teacher did not ex- 
tend beyond his native language, writing, 
arithmetic, and the rudiments of Latin; 
but here again, paternal interposition 
came in aid of the scanty means afforded 
for instruction; forthe boy was accus- 
tomed every evening to repeat to his 
father the labours of the day in the ex+ 
act order in which they had occurred, so 
as atonce to strengthen both his memory 
and his judgment, by that habit of recol- 
lection in which he excelled his contem- 
poraries still more, if possible, than in 
his attainments in respect to learning. 
At Jength a rumour was spread abroad, 
that a prodigy, in the shape of a little 
bey, had made its appearance in the ob- 
scure parish of East Ruston. Amon 
others was the Rev. Mr. Hewitt, the 
rector of the parish, a gentleman whose 
benificence deserves high commendation; 
for not content with simple admiration, 
he determined to cultivate a wild plant, 
which, by being nurtured under his own 
fostering care, might expand its foliage 
in a richer soil, and exhibit all its yet un- 
known beauties to the day. 
From that moment Richard Porson 
and his youngest brother, Thomas, daily 
attended Mr. Hewitt: Henry, the second 
brother, went one voyage to sea, and af= 
terwards settled as a farmer. Richard’s 
progress, in classical learning, to which 
his attention was now turned, for the first 
time, proved such as might be expected 
from a youth of. this description; and 
after two years application, other ac- 
complishments, chiefly produced by a 
memory tenacious in the extreme, fully 
disclosed themselves. 
Being now upwards of fourteen years 
of age, the time had arrived when it be- 
came necessary that the further progress 
of this wonderful youth should be at+ 
tended to. But without patrimonial 
fortune, wealthy friends, or pita con= 
nexions, how was this to be effected ? 
Interest was at the same time wanting 
even 
‘ 
