196 



His ar 1 Presses to the jurors are no less distinguished 

 for philanthropy and liberality of sentiment, than for 

 just expositions of the law, perspicuity and elegance 

 of diction ; and his oratory was as captivating as his 



arguments were convincing. 



In an epilogue to his Commentaries on Asiatic Po- 

 etry, he bids farewell to polite literature, without re- 

 linquishing his affection for it; and concludes with 

 an intimation of his intention to study law, expressed 

 in a wish which we now know to have been prophetic. 

 Mlhi sit oro, non inutilis toga, 

 Nee indisserta Tmgua, nee turps manus ! 



I have already enumerated attainments and works 

 which, from their diversity and extent, seem far be- 

 yond the capacity of the most enlarged minds ; but 

 the catalogue may yet be augmented. To a proficiency 

 in the languages of Greece, Rome, and Asia, he added 

 the knowledge of the philosophy of those countries, 

 and of every thing curious and valuable that had been 

 taught in them. The doctrines of the Academy, 

 the Lyceum, or the Portico, were not more familiar to 

 him than the tenets of the Vedas, the mysticism of 

 the Sufis, or the religion of the ancient Persians ; and 

 whilst with a kindred genius he perused with rapture 

 the heroic, lyric, or moral compositions of the most 

 renowned poets of Greece. Rome, and Asia, he could 

 turn with equal delight and knowledge to the sublime 

 speculations, or mathematical calculations of Bar- 

 row and Newton. With them also he professed 

 his conviction of the truth of the Christian religion ; 

 and he justly deemed it no inconsiderable advantage 

 that his researches had corroborated the multiplied 



evidence 



