332 THOMAS YOUNG. 



favourite maxim. And further, never did he personally 

 himself recoil before trials of any kind to which he 

 wished to subject his system. The first time he mounted 

 a horse, in company with the grandson of Mr. Barclay, 

 the horseman who preceded them leapt a high fence. 

 Young wished to imitate him, but he fell at ten paces. 

 He remounted without saying a word, made a second 

 attempt, was again unseated, but this time was not 

 thrown further than on to the horse's neck, to which he 

 clung. At the third trial the young learner, as his 

 favourite motto taught, succeeded in executing what 

 another had done before him.* This experiment need 

 not have been referred to here, but that it had been 

 repeated at Edinburgh, and afterwards at Gottingen, and 

 carried out to a further extent beyond what might seern 

 credible. In one of these two cities Young soon after- 

 wards entered into a trial of skill with a celebrated rope- 

 dancer, in the other, (and in each case the result of a 

 challenge,) he acquired the art of executing feats on 

 horseback with remarkable skill, even in the midst of 

 consummate artistes, whose feats of agility attract every 

 evening such numerous crowds to the circus of Franconi. 

 Thus, those who are fond of drawing contrasts may, on 

 the one side, represent to themselves the timid Newton,f 

 never riding in a carriage, so much did the fear of being 

 upset preoccupy him, without holding to both the doors 

 with extended arms, and, on the other, his distinguished 



* This anecdote seems at variance with what is stated on the 

 authority of a Cambridge contemporary of Young in Dr. Peacock's 

 Life (p. 119), that he only once there attempted to follow the hounds, 

 when a severe fall prevented any further exhibitions of the kind. 

 Translator. 



t This practice has been described as that of Newton, but the 

 motive assigned by Arago is novel. 



