AUTHORS. 



LEAENING AND LABOUES. 



PROFESSOR POESON. 



Person by no means excelled in 

 conversation ; lie neither "wrote nor 

 spoke with facility. His elocution 

 \vas perplexed and embarrassed, 

 except where he was exceedingly 

 intimate, but there was strong in- 

 dication of intellect in his counte- 

 nance, and whatever he said was 

 manifestly founded on judgment, 

 sense, and knowledge. Composition 

 was no less difficult to him. Upon 

 one occasion he undertook to write 

 a dozen lines upon a subject which 

 he had much turned in his mind, 

 and with which he was exceedingly 

 familiar. But the number of era- 

 sures and interlineations was so 

 great as to render it hardly legible; 

 yet, when completed, it was, and is, 

 a memorial of his sagacity, acute- 

 ness, and erudition. 



It is sufficiently notorious that 

 our friend was not remarkably at- 

 tentive to the decoration of his 

 person; indeed, he was at tunes 

 disagreeably negligent. On one 

 occasion he went to visit a learned 

 friend, afterwards a judge, where a 

 gentleman, who did not know Por- 

 son, was waiting in anxious and 

 impatient expectation of the barber. 

 On Person's entering the -library, 

 where the gentleman was sitting, 

 he started up and hastily said to 

 Person, "Are you the barber 1 ?" 

 " No, sir," replied Person, " but I 

 am a cunning shaver, much at your 

 service." 



His peculiarities and failings have 

 been by some too harshly pointed 

 out and commented upon, without 

 due consideration of how exceed- 

 ingly they were counterbalanced by 

 the most extraordinary and most 

 valuable endowments. Of what 

 importance is it, that when he 

 shaved himself he would walk up 

 and down his room, conversing with 



whomsoever might happen to be 

 present ; that he knew the precise 

 number of steps from his apartment 

 to the houses of those of his friends 

 with whom he was the most inti- 

 mate, which, by the way, in the 

 metropolis, must have been strongly 

 indicative of a mind not easily made 

 to swerve from its purpose ; that at 

 one period he was remarkably fond 

 of the theatre, and all at once, as it 

 were, ceased to frequent it? The 

 circumstance most remarkable con- 

 cerning his habits and propensities 

 is, that he latterly became a hoarder 

 of money, and, when he died, had 

 not less than two thousand pounds 

 in the funds. All these, however, 

 are minor subjects of reflection. In 

 him criticism lost the most able, 

 most expert, most accomplished sup- 

 port of her sceptre ; learning one of 

 its greatest ornaments. His know- 

 ledge was far more extensive than 

 was generally understood, or ima- 

 gined, or believed. There are very 

 few languages with which he had 

 not some acquaintance. His dis- 

 cernment and acuteness in correct- 

 ing what was corrupt, and explain- 

 ing what was difficult and perplexed, 

 were almost intuitive ; and, in ad- 

 dition to all this, his taste was ele- 

 gant and correct. His recitations 

 and repetitions were, it must be 

 confessed, sometimes tedious and 

 irksome, which would not, however, 

 have been the case, unless they had 

 been too often heard before, for he 

 never repeated anything that was 

 not characterized by excellence of 

 some kind .or other. (Beloe's Sexa- 

 genarian.) 



GIBBON'S ROMAN EMPIRE. 



It was at Eome, on the 15th of 



October, 1764, as I sat musing 



amidst the ruins of the capitol, while 



the bare-footed friars were singing 



