Memoir of the Life of Dr. Thomas Young. 243 
which work Dr. Young furnished sixty three articles, scientific, bio- 
graphical and literary, which are designated by two consecutive let- 
ters of the sentence Fortunam ex aliis. His adoption of this motto 
is deemed ‘to have been caused by the consideration that he had not 
then succeeded to his wish or expectation in his profession, and that 
he had reason to complain that the extent and utility of his labors in 
science, after having been fully appreciated by the philosophers on 
the Continent, had not appeared to have met with the same accept- 
ance among his own countrymen 
This feeling was, however, transitory, and was, indeed, hardly well 
founded. The fact is, that Dr. Young, by those best qualified to form _ 
a judgment, was acknowledged to rank in the highest scale, if not to 
stand at the head, of the men of science and literature of England, 
and his reputation was duly appreciated on the Continent; but the 
studious concealment with which his manifold contributions to the 
stock of human knowledge in science and philology were stolen into 
the world, prevented him from enjoying that wide extended fame 
with his countrymen to which he was justly entitled, and which he 
really did enjoy in an extensive circle of truly eminent friends. 
The philosophical articles of Dr. Young in the Supplement to the 
Encyclopedia Britannica, contain the results of his most elaborate 
investigations. His biographical sketches in the same work are ad- 
mirably given; and the Life of Porson, in particular, has been pointed 
out as ‘a masterly production, containing a very interesting indication 
of some of Dr. Young’s opinions, both on the value of classical studies 
and on the mechanism of the human mind.’ . The article Languages, 
in the same work, contains the fruits of his investigations on the sub- 
ject, into which he had been led when engaged in reviewing Adelung’s 
Mithridates for the Quarterly Review. 
Early in 1817, Dr. Young paid a second visit to Paris, and was 
received with that consideration due to him in the scientific circles 
there. He was happy in renewing his intercourse with Humboldt, 
Arago, Cuvier and Gay-Lussac ; and such was the pleasure derived 
from his flattering reception, that, having occasion to return to Lon- 
don for a short period, he was induced to make a second visit of a 
few weeks to Paris in the summer of the same year 
In 1818, he was appointed one of the Cominibilaaiers for taking 
into consideration the state of the Weights and Measures employed 
throughout Great Britain. To this Commission he acted as Secre- 
tary, and furnished the scientific calculations and the account of the 
