SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 285 
printed at Paris, of which he was desirous to know the 
contents :—Hebrew, in order to read the Old Testament 
in the original: Persian and Arabic, with the view of 
deciding a question started at table, whether there were 
as marked differences between the Oriental languages as 
between those of Europe ? 
I perceive the necessity of mentioning that I write 
from authentic documents, before I add that during what 
might appear so fabulous a progress in languages, Young, 
during his walks at Compton, was seized with a violent 
passion for botany : and that being destitute of the means 
of magnifying objects of which naturalists make use when 
they wish to examine the delicate parts of plants, he un- 
dertook to construct a microscope himself, without any 
other guide than a description of the instrument in a 
work by Benjamin Martin: that to arrive at this difficult 
result it was necessary to acquire some skill in the art of 
turning: that the algebraic forfulas of the optician 
having presented to him symbols of which he had no 
idea (those of fluxions), he was for a moment in great 
perplexity ; but not being willing at last to give up the 
enlargement of his pistils and stamens, he found it more 
simple to learn the differential calculus, in order to com- 
prehend the unlucky formula, than to send to the neigh- 
bouring town to buy a microscope. The ardent activity 
of the juvenile Young had led him to exertions beyond the 
strength of his constitution. At the age of fourteen his 
health was sadly altered. Various indications excited 
fears of a disease of the lungs; but these menacing _ 
symptoms at length yielded to the prescriptions of art, 
and the anxious cares of which this malady made him 
the object on the part of all his relations. 
It is rare among our neighbours on the other side of 
