A SKETCH OF THE CAREER OF THE LATE J. 11. LOGAN. 81 



vileged companion and favoured protege of the most illustrious men 

 in power, by whose interest and support he had unstinted facilities 

 given him in his special and peculiar pursuits. Logan, the son of 

 a gentlman, had none of this. What he attained was due solely to his 

 own labour and indomitable perserverance ; these being exercised 

 at the same time under the distracting influences of a laborious 

 profession by which he honourably maintained himself. 



Under these circumstances, probably Leyden would have accom- 

 plished more ; indeed he must have done so, but an early death 

 overtook him, as we all know, caused by exposure to the malaria of 

 Batavia. 



What Leyden accomplished, therefore, was small as compared 

 with Log ax. In the science of races and languages, Logan's grasp 

 was almost universal, enabling him to collate the lexicons, vocabu- 

 laries and grammars of nations and tribes in the most distant parts 

 of the globe, and elucidate their systems and constructions. Of this 

 vast enquiry, Leyden may be said to have had time only to 

 approach the portal. 



But, as I have suggested before, Logan's work was also incom- 

 plete. Ten years of learned leisure in his native country would 

 have enabled him to work wonders. But this was not vouchsafed 

 to him. Borne down by weak health, far from his native land, he 

 was taken from us at the age when man's intellect is in its full 

 vigour. And we live to lament unfulfilled hopes, disappointed 

 aspirations, and useful labour ceased, to be no more. 



Inyercaegtll, New Zealand, 

 20/// May, 1881. 



