1 797-8. ^ET. 24-25.] PKOFESSOK YOUNG. 233 



The views, objects, character, and arguments of onr ma- 

 thematicians were very different then to what they are now, 

 and Young, who was certainly beforehand with the world, 

 perceived their defects. Certain it is that he looked down 

 upon the science, and would not cultivate the acquaintance 

 of any of our philosophers. Wood's books I have heard 

 him speak of with approbation, but Vince he treated with 

 contempt, and Vince afterwards returned the compliment. 



He never obtruded his various learning in conversation, 

 but if appealed to on the most difficult subject he answered 

 in a quick, flippant, derisive way, as if he was speaking of 

 the most easy ; and in this mode of talking he differed from 

 all the clever men that I ever saw. His reply never seemed 

 to cost him an effort, and he did not appear to think there 

 was any credit in being able to make it. He did not assert 

 any superiority, or seem to suppose that he possessed it, 

 but spoke as if he took it for granted that we all understood 

 the matter as well as he did. He never spoke in praise of 

 any of the writers of the day, even in his own particular 

 department, and could not be persuaded to discuss their 

 merits. He was never personal ; he would speak of 

 knowledge in itself of what was known or what might be 

 known, but never of himself or any other as having deserved 

 anything, or as likely to do so. 



His language was correct, his utterance rapid, and his 

 sentences, though without any affectation, never left un- 

 finished ; but his words were not those in familiar use, and 

 the arrangement of his ideas seldom the same as those he 

 conversed with. He wag, therefore, worse calculated than 

 any man I ever knew for the communication of knowledge. 



I remember his taking me with him to the Royal In- 

 stitution to hear him lecture to a number of silly women 

 and dilettante philosophers. But nothing could show less 

 judgment than the method he adopted ; for he presumed, 

 like many other lecturers and preachers, on the knowledge, 

 and not on the ignorance, of his hearers. 



