THOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT,, ESQ. 43 



deepest metaphysicians through all the subtleties of their inge- 

 nious disquisitions, his intimate friends can bear testimony that 

 the evidences of revealed religion had latterly occupied much 

 of his attention, which he discussed in that spirit of candour, 

 and with that fair mode of argument, which can alone make 

 our faith a rational one. 



" There were few branches of knowledge into which the 

 acute mind of this gifted individual had not led him ; but those 

 in which he took most delight were the different branches of 

 natural history, particularly zoology, ornithology, and botany. 

 Few, indeed, at his age have possessed a mind stored with such 

 deep and varied information ; for a quickness of perception, 

 carrying him at once through all the ordinary paths of know- 

 ledge, made him appear to start from the point at which others 

 rested as their goal. The energy of a powerful mind led him 

 at once to cope with difficulties, which others need the discipline 

 of habit to enable them to encounter with success ; hence arose 

 the acquisition of a deep and varied store of information, appa- 

 rently without effort or application. 



" The same originality of mind, which made him delight in 

 pursuing some of the least beaten tracks of knowledge, guided 

 him also in the choice of his travels. It was to those countries 

 on the Continent of Europe, where man has done the least in sub- 

 duing nature, that he bent his steps Norway, Sweden, Lapland, 

 and Finmark, became the field of his researches. Here, in the 

 company of his friend, George Chichester Oxenden, Esq., he 

 encountered difficulties and hardships which the less hardy 

 frame of the enterprising Clarke prevented him from attempt- 

 ing. Blessed with stronger constitutions, they traversed 2^ 

 of latitude between Tornea and the Icy Sea, principally on 

 foot, carrying their own provisions, occasionally exposed to 

 imminent danger from the half-frozen state of the lakes and 

 rivers they had to pass over, and sleeping for many nights 

 together on the snow. They at length reached the North Cape, 

 and afterwards, from the little village of Hammerfest, embarked 

 on board a Russian trader for Archangel, with the intention of 



