Watfon. 335 
and energetic, andjuftified the encomium 
beftowed upon him by a learned foreigner^, 
in a letter to a correfpondent {c). 
His attention, however, was by no means 
confined to the lubjeds of his own profef- 
iion, or thofe of philofophy at large. He 
was a careful obferver of men, and of the 
manners of the age ; and the extraordinary 
endowment of his memory had furnifhed 
him with a great variety of interefting and 
entertaining anecdotes, concerning the cha« 
rad'ers and circumftances of his time(^). 
On all fubjeds, his liberal and commu- 
nicative difpofition, and his courteous be- 
haviour, encouraged enquiry ; and thofe 
who fought for information from him, fel- 
(r) Wat so Ni us Bot aniens et Phyjlcus clams ejl et 
pcrfpicax homo^ it'idimque humanijfimus. M. Meckelj af 
Berlin^ in Epiftolis ad Halle RUM datis^ 
(d) It is to Sir WilliamW atso^ that we owe the pre- 
fer vation of an anecdote, which tends further to iiiuilrate 
the characler, and exalt the flncerity and integrity of the 
excellent Mr. Addison. It is inferted in the Addenda 
to his Life, in the third volume of the Biographia Britmi' 
jiica. Dr. Kippis alfo acknowledges himfelf the mofl: 
indebted to him for the materials of the life of the late 
He?iry Baker, Efq. 
dom 
