1824.] Udc Rev. Dr. Choke. 413 



The subject, though excellent for a pamphlet, was neither popu- 

 lar nor comprehensive enough for the expensive form in which 

 it was thus obliged to appear (the price was 18s.), and the intro- 

 duction of such topics as the ruins of Sais and Tithorea, how- 

 ever interesting in themselves, was so far injudicious, that it 

 injured the unity of the piece, and added to the expense without 

 furnishing any ground for the argument: thus, notwithstanding 

 the advantages under which it came out, the work was by no 

 means lucrative, either to himself or his publisher, Mr. Mawman, 

 in whose hands a large number of copies remained for many 

 years. To the author, however, it was productive of essential 

 advantage in many ways. By the few who read it, it was, for 

 the most part, well received and highly estimated : amongst 

 whom are mentioned by himself, Porson, Parr, Dr. Zouch, Lord 

 Aberdeen, Dr. Henley (Principal of Hertford College), Dr. Knox 

 (his early tutor), Mr. Tyr;vhit, Mr. Matthias, &c. ; all of whom 

 gave their countenance and approbation, and some their assist- 

 ance or advice in the work. It was the means, also, of making 

 him more favourably and more intimately known to other men 

 of learning and genius, whose friendship he never lost. Above 

 all, it gave him confidence in his own powers, and enabled him 

 to stand upon much higher ground, when soon afterwards he 

 had to treat with the booksellers for his travels. Nor can it be 

 denied, that his position was maintained with great ingenuity : 

 by many learned persons, the proofs were considered conclu- 

 sive, as their letters show ; others, more reserved, readily 

 expressed their surprise that such a mass of evidence existed; 

 and all were disposed to allow, that a vague and obscure tradi- 

 tion had been elevated in his hands to tha rank of a learned and 

 probable conjecture. 



The extraordinary activity of Dr. Clarke's mind enabled him, 

 in the very midst of a controversy to which this publication 

 gave rise (Easter, 1805), to compose and send to press " a 

 treatise on Mineralogy, principally intended for students, of 

 which the following notice is given in a letter to Dr. Henley : — 

 ' I have already sent -another work to the press, very different in 

 its nature, which will be mere play to me this Easter vacation. 

 It is " an easy and simple method of arranging the substances 

 of the mineral kingdom," by which I hope to make mineralo- 

 gists, as fast as Bolton makes buttons. The introduction only 

 is addressed to persons rather above the class of students, and 

 is intended to develope the theory of elementary principles, the 

 cause and origin of the fluid matter of heat, the formation of 

 atmosphere, &e. Sec. It is a portable volume, small and plea- 

 sant for travellers.' The work was never published, and its 

 existence is scarcely known to any of his friends, but one or two 

 copies were found amongst his papers, and a slight view of it is 

 sufficient to show that it must have cost him considerable time 



