1803.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 223 



his genius he anticipated the progress of science, and 

 his reputation has risen until it now ranks with that 

 of Davy and Faraday. 



A short sketch of his life will bring this period of 

 the history of the Institution to a close. 



Thomas Young was born in Somersetshire on June 1 3, 

 1773. Both his parents were Quakers, and to their 

 tenets he was accustomed to attribute his resolution to 

 effect any object on which he was engaged. This 

 determination he brought to bear on all he did, and 

 by this he educated himself almost from infancy ' with 

 little comparative assistance or direction from others.' 



His earliest years were passed with a grandfather, a 

 merchant at Minehead, who had some classical taste. 

 He encouraged his precocious grandchild and often 

 repeated to him that 



A little learning is a dangerous thing ; 

 Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring. 



From 1780 to 1787 (7 to 14) he was chiefly at school. 

 He gives an account of his acquirements in an auto- 

 biography written in Latin at this time writing, 

 arithmetic, Latin, Greek, mathematics, natural philo- 

 sophy, introduction to the Newtonian philosophy, turning, 

 telescope making, bookbinding, colour making, draw- 

 ing, Hebrew, botany, Suctions, Priestly on Air, Italian, 

 Chaldee, Syriac, Samaritan. He was a prodigy at 

 fourteen. 



His father had a neighbour, a man of great ingenuity, 

 by profession a land-surveyor, in whose office during 

 the holidays the boy was given the use of mathematical 



