(234 Memoir of the Life of Dr. Thomas Young. 
Botany having about this time engaged his attention, and desiring 
to possess a microscope for the purpose of examining plants, he 
attempted the construction of one from the descriptions of Benjamin 
Martin. This led him to optics; and having procured a lathe in or- 
der to make his microscope, like most young experimenters, he for- 
got or neglected science, for a time applied himself to the acquire- 
ment of manual dexterity, and every thing gave way to a passion for 
turning, until, falling upon a demonstration in Martin’s Philosophy, 
- which exhibited some fluxional symbols, he was not satisfied until he 
had read and mastered a short introduction to the doctrine of fluxions. 
Before he quitted school, a Hebrew Bible being left in his way, 
he began by enabling himself to read a few chapters; this led him 
to the study of the other principal oriental languages; and on quit- 
ting Mr. Thompson’s, at the age of fourteen, it appears that he was 
more or less versed in Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Hebrew, Per- 
sian, and Arabic; and had laid the foundation of that calligraphic 
skill for which he was afterwards so remarkable, and in which he 
rivalled even the neatness and beauty of the pen of Porson. 
He was about this time attacked by symptoms of what his friends. 
feared to be incipient consumption, but by the attention of his uncle 
Dr. Brocklesby, and Baron Dimsdale, his health was restored ;.his 
indisposition scarcely interrupted his studious labors, and it is said . 
that ‘he merely relieved his attention by what to him stood in the 
place of repose—a course of Greek reading in such authors as 
amused the weariness of his confinement.’ 
In the year 1787, he met, at the house of a relation, a friend of 
Mr. David Barclay, of Youngsbury, in Hertfordshire, who was then 
wishing to form an arrangement for the education of his grandson ; 
and it was at length agreed that the youths should pursue their stu- 
dies together, under a private tutor in Mr. Barclay’s house. ‘The 
tutor, however, did not come, and Young, who was only a year and 
a half older than his companion, took upon himself provisionally the 
office of preceptor. They were afterwards joined by Mr. Hodgkin, 
author of the ‘Calligraphia Greca,’ who was of somewhat maturer 
years, and then seeking to perfect himself in the higher branches of 
classical attainments. But Young did not relinquish the task he had 
undertaken, and continued to be the principal director of the studies 
of the whole party. 
Thus passed the five years from 1787 to 1792, the summers being 
spent in Hertfordshire, the winters in London, and with no other 
