Memoir of Dr. Thomas Young. 403 



He frequented, assiduously, the most brilliant circles in 

 London. The accomplishments of his mind, the elegance 

 of his manners, were fully sufficient to render him a re- 

 markable person ; but when we consider these numerous 

 combinations, in which 50 different subjects are developed 

 in a few minutes, we can then conceive the value of such a 

 true living library, where an exact, precise, and substan- 

 tial answer could be given in an instant to every kind of 

 question which could be proposed. 



Young devoted much time to the study of the arts. Se- 

 veral of his memoirs display the profound knowledge which 

 he acquired at an early period of the theory of music. I 

 shall not dwell on his powers of execution, because there 

 were two instruments on which he could not perform, and 

 I do not know what they were. His taste for painting was 

 acquired during his stay in Germany. There his attention 

 was entirely taken up with the collection at Dresden ; for 

 he did not aspire at acquiring a mere superficial knowledge 

 of them, but he studied the defects and the peculiarities of 

 the greatest masters, their frequent changes of style, the 

 material objects of their work, and the modifications which 

 the objects and colours underwent in the lapse of time. 

 Young, in short, studied painting in Saxony in the same 

 manner as he had previously studied the languages in his 

 own country ; and, as latterly, he cultivated the sciences. 

 In fact, every thing appeared, in the sight of Young, worthy 

 of meditation and research. The college-acquaintances of 

 the illustrious philosopher recollect an amusing example of 

 this turn of mind. They tell that, having entered the room 

 of Young during the day that he had received at Edinburgh 

 the first lesson in dancing a minuet, they found him busy, 

 with a rule and compass, measuring the intersecting direc- 

 tions which the two dancers followed, and the different im- 

 provements which the various figures appeared to him sus- 

 ceptible of acquiring. 



Young acquired at an early period from the sect of the 

 Quakers, to which he belonged, the opinion that the intel- 

 lectual faculties of children differ originally much less from 

 each other than is commonly supposed. Every man ought 

 to be able to do what every other man has done, had become 

 his favourite maxim. He never retracted from submitting 

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