CHARACTERS. 



725 



A manuscript of these poems, in 

 the hand-writing of Mr. Jones, -was 

 presented to lady Jones by sir 

 John Parne)l,a few weeks only be- 

 fore his death. We select as a speci- 

 men of Air. Jones's poetical talents, 

 at the age of fourteen, the shortest 

 in the collection, in imitation cf a 

 well known ode of Horace, and ad- 

 dressed to his friend Parncil : — 



How quickly fades the vital flower ! 

 Alas, my friend ! each silent hour 



Stealb unperceivetl away : 

 The enrly joys of bloomin;: youth, 

 Sweet innocence and dove-cy'd truth 



Are destin'd to decay. 



Can zeal drear Pluto's wrath restrain? 

 No — tho' an iiourlv victim stain 



His hailou'd sln-ine witli blood. 

 Fate will recal !ier doom for none : 

 The scepter'd king must leave his throne 



To pass the Stygian flood. 



Tn vain, my Parnell, wrapt in ease, 

 We shun the merchant-marring seas ; 



In \'ain we fly from wars : 

 In vain we shun tli' autumnal blast, 

 (The blow Cocytus must be past,) 



How needless are our cares ! 



Our house, our land, our shadowy grove, 

 The very mistress of our love, 



Ah me ! we soon must leave ! 

 Of all our trees, the liatetl boughs 

 Of cypress shall alone diffuse 



Their fragrance o'er our grave. 



To others shall we tlicn resisrn 



The numerous casks of sparkling wine 



^\ hicli frutial now we store ; 

 With theiri a more deserving heir 

 (Is this our labour, this our care?) r 



Shall stain the stucco floor. 17C0. 



The new situation of Mr. Jones, 

 at the university, did not at first 

 correspond with his expectations. 

 Under the tuition of a master, who 

 Raw with admiration his <apacity and 

 application, who was anxious to as- 



sist his exertions, and rewarded their 

 success with unlimited applause, his 

 ardour for learning had been raised 

 to a degree of. enthusiasm : at the 

 nniversity he expefted to find a 

 Sumner or an Askew in every master 

 of arts, and generally the same pas- 

 sion for literature which he had him- 

 self imbibed. It was evident that 

 such extravagant expe6tations must 

 he disappointed ; and from the pub- 

 lic lectures he derived little gratifi- 

 cation or instruction : they were 

 much below the standard of his at- 

 tainments, and, in fa<5t, Averc consi- 

 dered as merely formal : and ii^stead 

 of pure principles on subjefts of 

 taste, on rhetoric, poetry, or prac- 

 tical morals, he complained that he 

 was required to attend didl com- 

 ments on artificial ethics, and logic, 

 detailed in such barbarous Latin, 

 that he professed to know as little 

 of it as he then -knew of Arabic, 

 The only logic then in fashion was 

 that of the schools; and in a memo- 

 randum written by himself, which is 

 our authority for these remarks, we 

 find an anecdote related of one of 

 the fellows, who was reading Locke 

 with his own pupils, that he care- 

 fully passed over every passage in 

 which that great metaphysician de- 

 rides the old system. 



After the residence of a few 

 months at the university, on the 

 31st of Oaober, 1764, Mr. Jones 

 was unanimously elected one of the 

 four scholars on the foundation of 

 Sir Simon Bennett, to whose muni- 

 ficence he was erer proud to ac- 

 knowledge his obligations. The 

 prospect of a fellowship, to which 

 he looked with natural impatience, 

 Mas, however, remote, as he had 

 three seniors. 

 Jlis partiality for oriental litera- 

 3 A 3 turo 



