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PllEVOST PRICE. 



1806, he became one of the foreign members of the 

 Koyal Society. In 1799, he obtained the first 

 accessit for an essay Sur I influence des siyncs reln- 

 tivement a la formation des idees, which was writ- 

 ten for a prize, adjudged to the celebrated Deger- 

 ando, proposed by the Institute of France : and he 

 was shortly- afterwards elected i; corresponding 

 member of that body. His Ess/iis de philosophic, 

 et etudes de I'esprit humain, appeared in 1804, to 

 which were appended some very remarkable essays 

 of his friend and ancient preceptor Le Sage, of 

 whom he published a most interesting life in the 

 iollowing year. He likewise published, in very 

 rapid succession, translations of the Rhetoric of 

 Blair, the Essays and posthumous works of Adam 

 Smith, the Elements of Philosophy of Dugald Stew- 

 art, the Essay on Population of Malthus, Salt's 

 Travels in Abyssinia, the Conversations on Politi- 

 cal Economy, by his wife's sister-in-law, Mrs Mar- 

 cet, and many other works of less importance and 

 interest. In 1823, at the age of seventy two, 

 though still vigorous and active both in body and 

 mind, he resigned the professorship of natural 

 philosophy, in wise anticipation of the approach of 

 that period of life when men naturally feel reluc- 

 tant to acknowledge the decline of their faculties, 

 or incompetent to perceive it. From this time, 

 though still consulted by his colleagues and fellow 

 citizens on every important subject connected with 

 the academy or the state, he retired into the 

 bosom of his family, which contained within itself, 

 in a very uncommon degree, every element of 

 tranquillity, contentment, and happiness. His own 

 temper was singularly equable and tranquil ; and 

 his tastes and pursuits, which rarely left his time 

 unoccupied, saved him from that tcedium vita 

 which sometimes renders old age querulous and 

 discontented. Thus happily disposed and happily 

 circumstanced, it is not wonderful that his life 

 should have been prolonged beyond the ordinary 

 limits of humanity. He died on the 8th of April, 

 1839, in the eighty-eighth year of his age, sur- 

 rounded by his family, and deeply regretted by all 

 who knew him. The philosophical character of 

 M. Prevost had been greatly influenced by that of 

 his master Le Sage, a man of great originality and 

 profundity of thought, but whose speculations, 

 particularly those which attempted the explana- 

 tion of the cause of gravity, trespassed somewhat 

 beyond the proper limits of philosophy. We con- 

 sequently find him disposed to explain the laws of 

 the propagation of heat and light on the most sim- 

 ple mechanical principles, and to trace their origin 

 and progress much further than the experiments or 

 facts will properly warrant; thus giving to his 

 conclusions, in many cases, a much more hypothe- 

 tical character than would otherwise have attached 

 to them. M. Prevost had little acquaintance with 

 the more refined resources of modern analysis; and 

 his researches on many important branches of ex- 

 perimental and philosophical inquiry were conse- 

 quently limited to reasonings which could be car- 

 ried on by the most simple algebraical or geometri- 

 cal processes. But, notwithstanding the restric- 

 tions which were thus imposed on his progress, the 

 range of his philosophical researches was unusually 

 extensive and various, and his discoveries on heat 

 must always be considered as constituting a most 

 important epoch in a branch of science which has 

 recently -received so extraordinary a development 

 in the hands of Fourier, Forbes, Melloni, and other 

 philosophers. 



PRICK, MA.'OR DAVID, Bombay army: mem- 

 ber of the royal Asiatic society, and of the royal 

 society of literature, was a native of Wales, where 

 his father was a clergyman. In 1780, he em- 

 barked for India, having obtained the appointment 

 of a cadet in the army there. On the voyage 

 thither, his vessel, the Essex, bore a distinguished 

 part in the skirmish between the squadrons of Ad- 

 miral Suffrien and commodore Johnson, in Porto 

 Praya bay, off the island of St lago. Immediately 

 on his arrival in India, he as an acting ensign, wa- 

 (hrown into active service on the Coromandel 

 coast, under general Sir Hector Munro, and at 

 Trincomalee, with the naval force of admiral Sir 

 Edward Hughes. He afterwards distinguished 

 himself in the wars with Tippoo Saib. At an 

 unsuccessful attack on the fort of Darw&r, on the 

 7th of February, 1791, he was severely wounded 

 in the arm and ankle, rendering necessary the am- 

 putation of his leg. On the surrender of the fort 

 he proceeded to Poona, where he remained attached 

 to the military escort of Sir Charles Malet, our 

 political minister at that court, until the peace of 

 Seringapatam. He was then removed to a staff 

 situation at Surat. It was in this city that he 

 made his celebrated collection of Persian and other 

 historical works. He had there leisure to pursue 

 his researches, assisted by most of the standard 

 historians of Persia and Arabia, which terminated 

 in the publication of that great repository of Ma- 

 hommedan history, of which farther mention will 

 presently be made. In 1795, being a captain by 

 brevet, he was appointed judge advocate of the 

 Bombay army. ' This office he held until his de- 

 parture from India. He was present at the me- 

 morable repulse of Tippoo's vigorous attack on the 

 Bombay army, before its junction; and afterwards, 

 at the operations of the siege and capture of the 

 Sultan's capital. The Bombay army appointed 

 captain Price their prize agent for that important 

 booty, seldom, if ever, surpassed, as to amount, by 

 any conquest of a British army. After arranging 

 the slain sovereign's magnificent assemblage of 

 jewellery, his fine library, arid other matters con- 

 nected with that confidential appointment, captain 

 Price returned to Bombay, and prosecuted with 

 eagerness and industry his compilation and trans- 

 lations from his valuable collection of Oriental 

 manuscripts. In June, 1804, he attained a ma- 

 jority; and in February, 1805, after a continued 

 service in India of twenty-four years, he sailed 

 from Bombay, arrived in England in September 

 following, and in October, 1807, he finally retired 

 from the service. 



Major Price repaired to Brecon in South Wales, 

 and married most happily soon after his arrival in 

 England. He became a magistrate of that borough 

 and of the county of Brecknock ; and there com- 

 pleted and printed the result of the laborious 

 research of half an industrious life in four qnaito 

 volumes, under the title of " A Chronological 

 Retrospect; or Memoir of the Principal Events of 

 Mahommedan History, from the death of the 

 Arabian Legislator to the Accession of the Em- 

 peror Akbar." The oriental translation committee 

 numbered major Price among the distinguished 

 scholars whose translations of the " Autobiography 

 of the Emperor Jehangir," and of the "Last Days 

 of Krishna," were published by that committee ; 

 and in June, 1830, its gold medal was presented to 

 him, as a mark of the committee's estimation of 

 his talents and labours. Subsequently the com- 



