HARRIS. 
Wales; Strutt's Manners of the People of England, vol. ty of expressing new opinions on a new 
‘i, p. 50, plate 17, 19; Stratt’s Dress and Habits of the which lan i i ini 
Bali ish, vol. i, plate 57; and Aouan Harp. © tu Ta iver’ i wean toda 
HARPOON. $ See Wuatr Fisuery, 
645 
subject, in Harris, 
: c its own na- James, 
ture, may have given rise to some faults in the theoree =" 
HARQUEBUSS. See Gunmakine. 
HARRIS, James, one of the most celebrated philo- 
logists of modern times, was born at Salisbury on the 
20th of July, 1709. His father was a gentleman of 
i fortune of the same name, and his mother 
sister to the Earl of Shaftesbury, author of the Cha- 
racteristics. He was educated in early life under Mr 
Hele at the grammar school of his native city. At the 
age of 16 he was removed to Oxford, where he passed 
usual number of years as a gentleman commoner 
of Wadham college, and was then entered at Lincoln’s 
Inn for the purpose of studying law as a part of liberal 
education. wou in his 24th year, succeeded, by 
the death of his father, to his patrimonial property, he 
followed more completely’ his own inclinations, by de- 
voting himself to the study of Grecian and Roman lite- 
rature. He studied profoundly the philosophical wri- 
tings of the ancients, and acquired a great partiality for 
the philosophy of Aristotle. His studies. were Saas. 
ed in his house at Salisbury, where his habit was to 
rise very early for the purpose of prosecuting them in 
quiet, and to mingle occasionally through the day with 
society of that city. He also officiated with great 
credit as a magistrate for the county of Wilts. 
His first work, which appeared in 1744, was a vo- 
lume containing three treatises ; the first on art, the se- 
cond on music, painting, and poetry, and the third on 
happiness, which contained some sound moral obser- 
vations, and were adorned with elegant literature. In 
1745 he married Miss Clarke, daughter of John Clarke, 
Esq. of Sandford in Somersetshire, by whom he had five 
children. Two of these died young ; but two daugh- 
ters and his son, now Lord Malmesbury, survived him. 
Persevering in his favourite studies, he published, 
in 1751, his Hermes, or Inquiry concerning Universal 
Grammar—a subject to which his attention had been 
icularly directed by the Minerva of Sanctius. The 
lermes was received with great applause, and placed 
the author in the highest rank of philosophical I. 
_ marians: But the credit which that work derived from 
having remained so long unchallenged, was at last sha- 
ken by the severe animadversions on it, which were pub- 
lished by Mr Horne Tooke in his celebrated Diversions 
of Purley. ‘This author has convicted Mr Harris of some 
incongruities ; and has, in his turn, laid the world under 
deep obligations by furnishing valuable materials for 
the correction and improvement of dialectic science: 
(See our article Grammar, passim.) How Mr Harris 
would have felt had he lived to see himself so contume- 
liously treated as he is in the work now mentioned, is 
a question of personal patience, and neither justice nor 
good nature would delight in seeing any man of worth 
subjected to such a trial. But now that both of these 
aiiihioes are out of the reach of each others opposition, 
as well as ‘the partiality of their ive friends, 
neither of them appears sufficiently perfect to be adopt- 
ed as a guide, and both are too respectable to be treat- 
ed-with contempt. Mr Harris had the undoubted me- 
rit of delighting such of his cotemporaries as took an 
interest in the roe Sh Although, when the import of 
the words in which his theories are expressed is severe- 
ly scrutinized, we find them sometimes inconsistent ; 
-candour will still endeavour to appreciate the truths 
which they imperfectly express, and will not fail to 
find out, in the most unmeaning phrases, some just 
views which the author aimed to unfold. The difficul- 
tic dissertations of Mr Harris ; but it is no small praise, 
that his errors required the acuteness of Mr Tooke to 
discover them, and it must be acknowledged, that the 
latter has not done justice to his merit. The works of 
these two authors may be profitably employed for cor« 
recting one another, and extending jointly the limits 
of the science. The views of Mr Harris are on the whole 
pleasing ; and the manner in which are exhibited, 
shews an elegant and scientific mind, His writings are 
not disfigured by wanton satire, expressions of 
antipathy, or querulous moroseness, ical turns of 
phrase, or an inclination to sport with the feelings of one 
part of his readers, and carry off by force the admiration 
of others. Trusting to the interesting nature of his sub- 
ject, he does not go in quest of spurious sources of 
animation. After bestowing much on the investi- 
gation of his subject, he presents his readers in ar 
ful manner with the best views which he is able to form. 
He cherishes throughout a spirit of philosophical inqui- 
ry, free from any character of extravagance, and possess« 
ed of an admirable tendency to generate a placid satis« 
faction, and a chaste consistency of feeling. 
From the time of his marriage till the year 1760, Mr 
Harris lived entirely in Salisbury during winter, and te« 
tired in the summer to his country house at Durford, in 
the neighbourhood of that city. Besides attending to the 
pursuits of literature and the duties of a magi , he 
devoted an adequate proportion of his time to the sacred 
task of superintending the intellectual and moral educa- 
tion of his children; and he zealously promoted a refined 
taste in music and other elegant pursuits in the circle of 
society in which he lived. 
In 1761, he was elected member of parliament for 
the burgh of Christchurch, which seat he retained till his 
death. In the following year, he was made one of the 
lords of the admiralty ; and in two years after a lord of 
the treasury. In 1765, he went out of office with the 
ministry with which he was connected. In 1774, how- 
ever, he was, much to his gratification, appointed secte~ 
wie comptroller to the Queen. é 
uring ms sa leisure which gs duties of pub- 
lic life allowed him, he prosecuted, wi t regularity, 
his literary labours. In 1774, he ublished his Ph i. 
cal Arrangements, a work in which he displayed all his 
former admiration of the Peripatetic logic, and combated 
the doctrines of chance and materialism, animated by 2 
zealous regard for the happiness of mankind,—an object 
of which, many who have the opposite side of 
these questions, have betrayed an unfeeling n 
the syle and manner in which they have p their 
opinions. ; y : 
In1780, the same year in which he died, he printed for 
the use of his circle of private friends a work, which was 
published immediately after his death, entitled Philologi 
cal Inquiries, containing a popular summary of the con- 
clusions to which the phi cal Leper yos the 
ancients conducted them, accompanied pleasing il- 
lustrations and examples. It contains also some affection- 
ate expressions of attachment to his friends, and, 
on the whole, furnishes a good example of talents retain- 
ing at a very advanced age their former vigour, as well . 
as of candour and benevolence continuing undiminished. 
His health, however, was now much im , and he 
died on the 22d of yor hi m ade oe of 
his age, beloved and ry all who knew 
He private character ap to have been thoroughly 
amiable, With a mind well disciplined to severethought, 
