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joo ANNUAL REGISTER, 1¥97. 
and concludes with an. intimation 
of his intention to ftudy law, ex- 
prefled in a wifh, which we now 
know to have been prophetic. 
Mihi fit, oro, non inutilis toga, 
Nec indiferta lingua, nec turpis manus ! 
“ Thave already enumerated at- 
tainments and works, which, from 
their diverfity and extent, feem far 
beyond the- capacity of the moit 
enlarged minds; but the catalogue 
may yet be augmented. Toa pro- 
ficiency in the languages of Greece, 
Rome, and Atia, be added the know- 
ledge of the philofophy of thofe 
countries, and of every thing cu- 
rious and valuable that had been 
taught inthem. The doctrines of 
the Academy, the Lyceum, or the 
Portico, were not more familiar to 
him than the tenets of the Vedas, 
the myfticifm of the Sufis, orjthe 
religion of the ancient Perfians; 
and whilft, with a kindred genius, 
ke perufed with rapfure the heroic, 
Tyric, or moral compofitions of the 
moft renowned poets of Greece, 
Rome, and Afia, he could turn with 
equal delight and knowledge to the 
fublime fpeculations or mathema- 
tical calculations of Barrow and 
Newton. With them alfo he pro- 
feffed his conviction of the truth of 
‘the Chriftian religion ; and he juflly 
deemed it no inconfiderable advan- 
tage that his refearches had corro- 
borated the multiplied -evidence of 
revelation, by confirming the Mo- 
faic account of the primitive world. 
« There were, in truth, few {ci- 
ences in which he had not acquired 
confiderable proficiency; in moft, 
kis knowledge was profound. The 
theory of mutfic was familiar to him: 
nor had he neglected to make him- 
felf acquainted with the interefting 
diféoveries lately made in chemii~ 
‘try; and I have heard him afert, 
that*his admiration of the ftruéture 
of the human frame had induced. 
him to attend, for a feafon, to a 
courfe of anatomical leétures de- 
livered by his friend the cele- 
brated Hunter : 
“ We all recolle&, and can refer 
the following fentiments in his 
Eighth Anniverfary Difcourfe. 
“* Theological enquiries are no 
part of my prefeat fubje@; but I 
cannot reirain from adding, that 
the collection of traé&s which we 
call, from their excellence, the 
{criptures, contain, independently 
of a divine origin, more true fub- 
limity, more exquifite beauty, purer 
morality, more important hiftory, 
and finer ftrains both of poetry and 
cloquence, than could be collected 
within the fame compafs from all 
other books that were ever com- 
pofed in any age, or in any idiom: 
~The iwo parts, of which the ferip- 
tures confift, are connected by a 
chain of compofitions, which bear 
no refemblance in form or ftyleto 
any that can be produced from the 
ftores of Grecian, Indian,- Perfian, 
or even Arabjan learning; the .an- 
tiquity of thofe compojitions: no 
man doubts, and the unftrained ap- 
plication of them to events long 
fubfequent to their publication, 
is a folid ground.of belief that the 
were genuine predictions, and co- 
‘fequently infpired.”’ 
His laftand favourite purfuit was 
the ftudy of botany, which he ori- 
ginally age under the confine- 
ment'of a fevere and lingering dif- 
order, which with moft- minds 
would have proved a difqualifica- 
tion from any application. Itcon- 
ftituted the principal amufement 
of his leifure hours. 
* It cannot be deemed ufelefs 
er fuperfluous te inquire by what 
aris 
| 
’ 
