242 • Memoir of Dr. Thomas Young. 



to prevent them from being discouraged, that Pic de la 

 Mirandole, the phenix of the scholars of every age and 

 country, was, at a mature age, an insignificant author ; that 

 Newton, the powerful intelligence of whom Voltaire has 

 said, without giving way to any exaggeration, 



" Confidens de Tres-Haut, substances eternelles, 

 Qui parez de vos feux, qui couvrez de vos ailes 

 Le trone oil votre maitre est assis parmi vous, 

 Parlez, du grand Newton n'etiez-vous point jaloux ?" 



that the great Newton, we say, made little progress in the 

 classics during his terms at college ; that study had at 

 first no attractions for him ; that the first time he perceived 

 the necessity of labouring, was in order to get above a tur- 

 bulent student, who, seated, on account of his rank, on a 

 higher bench than himself, tormented him by kicking him ; 

 that in his 22d year he competed for a Fellowship at Cam- 

 bridge, and was beat by a certain Robert Uvedale, whose 

 name, without this circumstance would be entirely forgot ; 

 that Fontenelle applied with less accuracy than ingenuity 

 these words of Lucan, " Men have not been permitted to 

 see the Nile feeble at its source." 



At the age of six, Young was given to the care of a teacher, 

 at Bristol, whose mediocrity proved fortunate for him. This 

 is not paradoxical ; the pupil, unable to submit to the slow 

 and circuitous path of the master, became his own in- 

 structor ; and thus, those brilliant qualities were developed 

 which too much assistance would certainly have weakened. 



Young was eight years old when chance, whose influence 

 in the events of the lives of all men, is more considerable 

 than their vanity considers it prudent for them to admit, 

 relieved him from his exclusively literary studies, and 

 pointed out his proper vocation. 



A land surveyor of great merit, near whom he dwelt, 

 took a great liking to him. He carried him away some- 

 times over the land during the holydays, and allowed him 

 to enjoy, with his instruments geodesy and physics. The 

 operations by which the young scholar saw how to deter- 

 mine distances, and the elevation of inaccesible objects 

 struck his imagination ; but speedily some chapters of a 

 mathematical dictionary dissipated every thing which ap- 

 peared mysterious. After this time, in the Sunday pro- 



