II A R 
there is not a word in all his papers concerning the 
particular figure of that planet. But there were among 
the papers of Harriot a large fet of .obfervations on the 
fatellites of Jupiter, with drawings of them, their pofi- 
tion, and calculations of their revolutions and periods. 
His firft obfervation of thofe fatellites was made on Ja¬ 
nuary 16, 1610; and are continued till February 6, 1612. 
Galileo pretends to have difcovered them January 7, 
1610; fo that it is not improbable that Harriot was like- 
wife the firft difroverer of thofe attendants of Jupiter. 
Among his other obfervations of the moon, of eclipfes, 
of the planet Mars, of folftices, of refraction, of the de¬ 
clination of the needle, &c. there are remarkable ones 
of the comet of 1607, and the comet of 1618. The ob¬ 
fervations of the comet of the year 1607 are of the more 
importance, even now, for modern aftronomy, as this is 
the fame comet that fulfilled Dr. Halley’s prediction of 
its return in 1759. Befides the manufcripts of Mr. Har¬ 
riot already mentioned, there are a great number of 
others, which contain feveral elegant folutions of quadra¬ 
tic, cubic, and biquadratic, equations ; with fome other 
folutions, and loca geometrica, that fhow his eminent quali¬ 
fications. Thefe manufcripts^ we underftand, have been 
prefented to the univerfity of Oxford, on the condition 
of their printing them ; and that they have been put into 
the hands of an ingenious member of that learned body, 
to arrange and prepare them for the Clarendon prefs; 
from whence they might be now foon expeCted. 
HAR'RIS (James), a learned and elegant writer, the 
eldeft foil of James Harris, efq. of the Clofe of Salifbury, 
by his fecond wife, the lady Elizabeth Afliley, who was 
the third daughter of Anthony earl of Shaft fbury, and 
lifter of the celebrated author of the Charadteriftics, as 
well as to the honourable Maurice Afliley Cooper, the 
elegant tranflator of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia. He was 
born July 20th, 1709; and received the early part of 
his education under the Rev. Mr. Hill, matter of the 
grammar-fchool at Salilbury, who was long known and 
refpedted in the weftof England as an inftrudtor of youth. 
At fchool Mr. Harris remained till the age of fixteen ; 
lie was then entered as a gentleman commoner at Wad- 
Jham college, Oxford ; and having completed his acade¬ 
mical ftudies, his father removed him to Lincoln’s Inn, 
not intending him for the bar, but, as was then a com¬ 
mon practice, meaning to make the fludy of the law a 
part of his education. When he had attained his twen¬ 
ty-fourth year, .he had the misfortune of lofing his fa¬ 
ther : but this event, by making him independent, en¬ 
abled him to engage in thofe purfuits, and to adopt that 
mode of life, which were bett fuited to his inclination. 
The ftrong and decided bent of his mind had always 
been towards the Greek and Latin claflics. -Thefe he 
preferred to every, other fort of reading; and to his fa¬ 
vourite authors lie now applied himfelf with avidity, 
retiring from London to the houfe in which his family 
had very long refided in the Clofe of Salifbury. His ap¬ 
plication-during fourteen or fifteen years to the beft 
writers of antiquity continued to be almolt unremitting, 
and his induftry was fuch as is not often exceeded. He 
rofe always very early, frequently at four or five o’clock 
in the morning, efpecially during the winter, becaufe he 
could then moft ettedlually infure a command of time to 
himfelf. 
Mr. Harris’s fondnefs for works of literature, did not 
detach him from other important purfuits; he adted re¬ 
gularly and afiiduoufly as a magiftrate for his own coun¬ 
ty,. and gave in that capacity occafional proofs of a man¬ 
ly fpirit and firmnefs, without which the mere formal 
difcharge of magifterial duty is often ufelefs and infuffi- 
cient. His firft literary produftion was publiflied in 
1.744, and containedthree treatifes, ift. concerning Art, 
—2d. Mufic, Painting, and Poetry,—and 3d. on Happi- 
r.efs; a work which difplays abundant erudition, as well 
as a capacity of mind well.fiiited to the inveftigation of. 
inch elegant and interefting fubjedts,, Jn July j745j.be 
R I S. 235 
married Mifs Elizabeth Clarke, daughter and heirefs of 
John Clarke, efq. of Sarjdford, near Bridgewater, in the 
county of Somerfet, by whom he. had five children; 
two ot thefe died at an early period • James, now earl 
of Malmefbury, and two daughters, have furvived their 
father. In 1751, he publiflied his Hermes, or a Philofo- 
plucal Inquiry concerning Univerfal Grammar, which 
was received with great applanfe by the learned ; though 
Hie ingenious Mr. Horne'Tooke, in his Diverfions of 
Purley, has made fome f'e.vere criticifms upon it. The 
learned bifhop Lowt.h, however, gave it a high charac¬ 
ter, by aflerting that thofe who would enter dee) ly into 
the fubjedt of univerfal grammar, will find it fully ahd 
accurately handled, .with the greateft acutenefs of in¬ 
veftigation, perfpiciiity of explanation, and elegance of 
method, in a treatile entitled Hermes, by-James Harris, 
efq. the moft beautiful example of analyfis that has been 
exhibited fince the days of Ariftotle. We are informed 
by lord Mahnlbury, in the biographical fketch which 
that nobleman has given of his father’s life, “that what 
firft led his father to a deep and accurate confideration 
ot the principles of univerfal grammar, was a book 
which lie held in high eftimation, and was frequently 
quoted in his Hermes, ‘ the Minerva ofSandtius.’ To 
tliat writer he-confefles himfelf indebted for abundance 
of valuable information ; of which it appears (continues 
his lordfliip) that he knew well how to profit, and to 
pufti his refearches on the fubjedt of grammar to a much 
greater length, by the help of his various and ex-tenfrae 
erudition.” 
Mr. Harris was no lefs a votary of the fine arts, than 
a lover of fcience. The fuperior tafte and Ikill which 
he poflefled in mufic, and; his extreme fondnefs for hear¬ 
ing it, led him to attend to its cultivation'in his native 
place with uncommon pains and fuccefs ; infomuc-h that, 
under his aufpic.es, not only the annual mufical feftival 
in Salifbury flouriflied beyond moft inftitutions of the 
kind, but even the ordinary fubfcription-concerts were 
carried on, by his afliftance and direction, with a fpirit 
and effedt feldom equalled out of the metropolis. Many 
of the beautiful feledtions made from the beft Italian 
and German compofers for thefe feftivals, adapted by 
Mr. Harris to words which he himfelf feledted from 
Scripture, or from Milton’s.Paradife Loft, and fome- 
times to compofitions of his own, have furvived the oc- 
cafions on which they were firft produced, and are ftill 
in great eftimation. Two volumes of thefe feledtions 
have been lately publifhed by Mr. Corfe, organift of 
Salifbury cathedral. 
Mr. Harris was chofen a reprefentative in parliament 
for the borough of Chriftclnirch in Hampfhire, in 1761, 
which feat he retained to the day of his death. In the 
following year, he accepted the office of one of the; lords 
of the Admiralty, whence he was promoted in 1763 to 
be a lord of the treafury: in 1774, he became fecretary 
and comptroller to the queen, and this appointment he 
held during the remainder of his life. Although aflidu- 
ous in the difcharge of his parliamentary duty, and oc- 
cafionally taking a fhare in the debates, he never con¬ 
tracted any violent fpirit of party. He abhorred fadtion 
of every kind; nor did he ever relinquifli, for public bu- 
finefs, thofe ftill more interefting purfuits which had 
made the delight and occupation of his earlier years. 
If they were fomewhat intermitted during the fitting of 
parliament, he renewed them with increafed relifli and fa- 
tisfadtion on his return into the country. - But for this, 
we might feel fui'prize that he could have found time 
to conipofe and publifh, in 1775, another learned work. 
It contains, under the title of Philofophical Arrange¬ 
ments, a part only of a larger -work that he had medi¬ 
tated, but did not live to'finifh, on the Peripatetic logic. 
So far as relates to tlie arrangement of ideas, it is com¬ 
plete ; but it has other objects alfo in view. It com¬ 
bats, with great force and ability, the atheiftical dec- 
tr.uies of chance and materialifm. The laft work, Which. 
proceeded 
