EARLY LIFE AND STUDIES. 263 



literature.' According to Peacock's correspondent, there 

 was about Young no pretence or assumption of supe- 

 riority. ' He spoke upon the most difficult subjects as 

 if he took it for granted that all understood the matter 

 as well as himself. But he never spoke in praise of any 

 of the writers of the day, and could not be persuaded 

 to discuss their merits. He would speak* of knowledge 

 in itself of what was known or what might be known 

 but never of himself or of any one else as having dis- 

 covered anything, or as likely to do so. His language 

 was correct, his utterance rapid, but his words were not 

 those in familiar use, and he was therefore worse calcu- 

 lated than any man I ever knew for the communication 

 of knowledge.' This writer heard Young lecture at the 

 Royal Institution, but thought that nothing could show 

 less judgment than the method he adopted. ' It was 

 difficult to say how he employed himself at Cambridge. 

 He read little ; 1 there were no books piled on his floor, 

 no papers scattered on his table. His room had all the 

 appearance of belonging to an idle man. He seldom 

 gave an opinion,' and never volunteered one; never laid 

 down the law like other learned doctors, or uttered 

 sayings to be remembered. He did not think abstract- 

 edly. A philosophical fact, a difficult calculation, an 

 ingenious instrument, or a new invention, would en- 

 gage his attention; but he never spoke of morals, or 

 metaphysics, or religion. Of the last, I never heard 

 him say a word. Nothing in favour of any sect, or in 

 opposition to any doctrine.' 



The impression made upon Young by Cambridge 

 was, from first to last, entirely favourable. In those 

 days, six years' study was indispensable before the 

 degree of Bachelor of Medicine could be taken. Young 



1 Critics and commentators must be great readers ; but creators 

 in science and philosophy do not always belong to this category. 



