288 THOMAS YOUNG. 



lations were defective; the gaps were serious and 

 numerous; and he finally abandoned the manuscripts 

 when he fled from Naples, with the royal family, on 

 the French invasion in 1806. Some of the rolls, which 

 had been presented to the Prince of Wales, were com- 

 mitted to the care of the Royal Society, and placed by 

 the Society in the hands of Dr. Young. He spent many 

 months in devising and applying means for the opening 

 of the leaves; and though only partially successful in 

 this respect,* he was able to correct many important 

 errors, and to fill many serious gaps in the work of his 

 predecessors. 



The " Quarterly Review " was established in 1809, 

 and Young was intimate with its leading contributors. 

 One of these, George Ellis, " a man of ardent affections," 

 had resented, almost as personal to himself, the attacks 

 on Young in the " Edinburgh Review," and Young's pen 

 was soon invoked to enrich and adorn the pages of its 

 rival. A great work, the "Herculanensia," on the an- 

 cient condition of Herculaneum and its neighbourhood, 

 had been published. The review of this work was com- 

 mitted to Young, and his article upon it, embodying 

 his own views and researches, was published in 1810. 

 " The appearance of the article," says Peacock, " equally 

 remarkable for its critical acuteness and vigorous writ- 

 ing, at once placed its author, in the estimation of the 

 public, in the first class of the scholars of the age." 

 Gifford, the editor of the " Quarterly," described the 

 article as " certainly beyond all praise." Ellis, at the 

 same time, wrote thus to Young : " It is a consolation 

 to know that Brougham, who took advantage of the 

 growing circulation of the ' Edinburgh Review ' to dis- 

 seminate his vile abuse of you; and Jeffrey, who per- 



* Davy afterwards tried his hand upon the rolls, with imper- 

 fect success. 



