‘ 
324] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
many unequal powers of capacity 
and application, will prelong to 
eight or ten years the juvenile stu- 
dies, which might. be dispatched in 
half. that time by the skilful master 
of ‘a single pupil. Yet even the 
repetition of exercise and discipline 
contributes to fix in a vacant mind 
the verbal sciehce of grammar and 
prosody : and the private or volun- 
tary student, who possesses the sense 
and spir.t of the classics, may of- 
fend, by a false quantity, the scru- 
pulous ear of a well-flogged critic. 
For myself, [ must be content with 
a very small share of the civil and 
literary fruits of a public school. 
In the space of two years (1749, 
1750), interrupted by danger and 
debility, I painfully climbed into 
the third form; and my riper age 
was left to acquire the beauties of 
the Latin, and the-rudiments of the 
Greek tongue. Instead of auda- 
ciously mingling in the sports, the 
quarrels, and the connexions of our 
little world, I was still cherished at 
home under the maternal wing of 
my aunt; and my removal from 
Westminster long preceded the ap- 
proach of manhood, 
The violence and variety of 
my complaints, which had excused 
my frequent absence from. West- 
minster-school, at length engaged 
Mrs. Porten, with the advice of 
physicians, to conduct me to Bath: 
at the end of the Michaelmas va- 
cation (1750) she quitted me with 
reluGtance, and I remained several 
months under the. care of a.trusty 
maid-servant. A strange nervous 
affeGtion, which alternately con- 
tra@ed my Jegs, and produced, 
without any visible symptoms, the 
most excruciating pain, was inef- 
feQually opposed by the various 
metheds of bathing and pumping, 
&. 
From Bath I was transported to 
Winchester, to the house of a phy-. 
sician; and after the failure of his 
medical skill, we had again recourse 
to the virtues of the Bath waters. 
During the intervals of these fits, I 
moved with my father to Buriton 
and Putney; and a short, unsuc- 
cessful trial was attempted to renew 
my attendance at Westminsters 
school, But my infirmities could 
not be reconciled with the hours 
and discipline of a public seminary ; 
and instead of a domestic tutor, 
who might have watched the fa- 
vourable moments, and gently ad- 
vanced the progress of my learn- 
ing, my father was too easily con- 
tent with such cccasional teachers, 
as the different places of my resi- 
dence could supply. I was never 
forced, and seldom was I persuad- 
ed, to admit these lessons: yet £ 
read with a clergyman at Bath some 
odes of Horace, and several episodes 
of Virgil, which gave mean imper- 
fet and transient enjoyment of the 
Latin poets. It might now be ap- 
prehended that I should continue 
for life an illitcrate cripple: but, as 
I approached my sixteenth year, 
Nature displayed in my favour her 
mysterious energies: my constitu- 
tion was fortified and. fixed; and 
my disorders, instead of growing 
with my growth and strengthening 
with my strength, most wonder. 
fully vanished. I have never pos- 
sessed or abused the insolence of 
health: but since that time. few 
persons have been more exempt 
from. real or imaginary ills; and, 
till I am admonished by the gout, 
the reader will.no more be troubled 
with the history of my bodily com 
plaints. My unexpected recovery 
again encouraged the hope of my 
education; and I was placed at. 
Esher, 
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