402 Biographical Sketch of the [Dec. 



points of character, sufficiently important to occupy a place in 

 this brief memoir ; nor has there been found a single academical 

 composition written by him at this time, in any department of 

 learning, either in prose or verse, which would be considered 

 worthy of his subsequent fame. Indeed, it is not the least 

 extraordinary circumstance in his history, that this critical period, 

 which generally lays the foundation of other men's fortunes, and 

 exercises the greatest influence upon the conduct of their future 

 lives, was by him suffered to pass, not only without academical 

 honours or distinctions of any kind, but apparently without fix- 

 ing any character whatever upon his literary views ; and 

 evidently without even those moderate advantages which a com- 

 mon mind might have derived from it. The loss itself, however, 

 is much more easy to account for, than the singular vigour of 

 mind, with which he afterwards redeemed it. Mathematical 

 studies formed the principal path to College honours and emolu- 

 ments, but for these, unhappily, Edward Clarke had no taste, 

 and therefore made little progress in them ; and with respect to 

 classics, in which, as intimated above, he came up with a moderate 

 knowledge, there was nothing at that time, either in the consti- 

 tution or the practice of his College, calculated to encourage a 

 taste already formed for them, much less to create one where 

 nothing of the kind was felt before. Under these circumstances, 

 with a strong literary passion, and at sea, as it were, without a 

 pilot, upon the great waters of mental speculation, it was natural 

 for him to form his own plans, and to steer his own course. 

 Though he made little progress in the appropriate studies of the 

 place, his literary ardour was not directed to unworthy objects, 

 nor conducted upon a narrow scale. His active mind ranged 

 lightly over a wide and interesting field of literature : history, 

 ancient and modern ; medals, antiquities, with all the variety of 

 polite learning which is comprehended under the name of the 

 Belles Lettres, shared by turns his attention and his time. But 

 English Poetry was the natural element in which his youthful 

 and ardent imagination delighted to expatiate. To these pur- 

 suits may be added Natural History in some of its branches, 

 particularly Mineralogy; but, as he had few books, and no 

 assistance in these subjects, it was not probable that he could 

 make much progress in them. 



About the end of the year 1789, he took his degree of Bachelor 

 of Arts, and within a few months afterwards, through Dr. Bea- 

 don's recommendation, he became the tutor of the Hon. Henry 

 Tufton, with whom he made the tour of Great Britain in the 

 summer of 1791. This was undoubtedly a most important 

 epoch in Mr. Clarke's life ; it was the first opportunity he had 

 of gratifying a passion which was always uppermost in his mind, 

 but which he had hitherto been unable to indulge ; and it 

 necessarily threw in his way many opportunities of acquiring 



