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 formulas 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 



