476 
grew his attention to that branch of know- 
Jedge. He pofiefled himfeif of the moft fub- 
lime demenftrations of Newton with great 
eagernefs, and it is well known, that to the 
Jaf moments of-bis life, he regarded the 
mathematical fciences as the moft noble ftudy 
gn which man can employ his faculties. In 
the year 1776 he left Hoxton, and fettled 
as a minifter with acongreyatien of Diffen- 
ters at Norwich. After having refided about 
feyen years in that city, where he formed 
many friendihips which were cherifhed through 
life, he was married to Mifs Ann Hurry, 
one of the daughters of William Hurry, efq. 
an-eminent merchant of Yarmouth, whither 
he moved in the year 1785, in confequence of 
being chofen the minifter of a congregation in 
that place. ‘Towards the Jatter end of the 
year 1786 Mr. Metcalfe, the colleague of 
Dr. Price, at the Gravel-Pit mecting-houfe, 
in Hackney, having been rendered incapable 
by a paralytic diforder of officiating to that 
congregation, Mr. Morgan was invited to be 
hisfucceffor. This invitation, ant the with 
of being more nearly connected with one of 
his bef& friends, induced him once more to 
change his refidence, and in the beginning of 
the following year ke left Yarmouth, and fet- 
tled at Hackney» as the colleague of his 
uncle. At the moment of Mr.Morgan’s fettle- 
ment in this village, the diffenters projected 
the plan ef a new academical inftitution, and 
st was determined to fix it at Hackney. A 
Jarze houfe was accordingly purchafed, fub- 
fcriptions were raifed, and Dr. Price, forget- 
ing in his zeal for its fuccefs his declining 
health and advanced age,. was prevailed upon 
@o take upon himfelf the office of tutor in 
the higher branches of the mathematics, In 
this new feminary. Mr. Morgan was appoint- 
ed claffical tutor in this college, and kad the 
additional duty impofed upon him, of affifting 
his uncle in the mathematical department ; 
for Dr. Price did not take upon himfelf to 
teach the higher branches of the mathema- 
tics, without exprefsly ftipulating that he 
fhould have the affiftance of a competent me- 
¢hematician to divide the labour with him. 
Mr. Morgan was afterwards, much to his 
own inconvenience, 
sion, chofen lecturer on natural philofophy, 
end now fo various were his duties in this in- 
that to difcharge them, and attend 
to his private pupils at home, of whom heai- 
avays had a limited number, became too fa- 
tiguing for him, evenii he had thought that 
r his zeal had met with due en- 
couragement. But feeing no reafon to be fa- 
fished with the returns which he received 
for his fervices, he refigned his different em- 
ployments in the year 1792) and difiolved 
his conne@tion with the diflenting college. It 
was not the fate of the inftitution long te fur- 
vive this lofs; but it is notour bufinets to 
write the hiftory of this ill-fated eftablithe 
ment. 
Mr Morgan, 
ftitution, 
his labour and 
about four ¥ears ago, pub- 
Account of the late Mr. George Cadogan Morgan. 
and againft his inclina- 
[Dec. 
lifhedin 2 vols. r2mo. the Lectures on Elec- 
tricity, which conftiteted one part of thofe 
le&tures on natural philofophy, which hede- 
livered to the ftudents in the college, and te 
his pupils at home. With the higheft re- 
fpe&t, and even veneration for the character 
and talents of Benjamin Franklin, which he 
has not negleéted to exprefs in thefe volumes, 
he yet advances an oppofite opinion to that of 
the American philofopher, on the fubje& of 
condu€ting points. Mr. Morgan maintains, 
that the fafety of a building depends on the 
connection of the different condu@ting rods with 
each other, bothat the reof and the foundation, 
and by no means either upon the number or 
the termination of thefe rods; for he in- 
ferred from the deftruGion of the houfe at 
Heckingham, and from other accidents of the 
fame kind, that if thofe conductors be infu- 
lated from each other, it is of little confe- 
quence what their number be3 and from his 
own experiments, in which it appeared that 
an explofien takes place at a greater diftance 
intoa point than it does intoa balls he ar- 
gued the fallacy of this part of the Frank- 
linian hypothetis, which maintains, that pointe 
draw down the ele€tric fluid without a ffroke. 
This inftance of Mr. Morgan differing in opi- 
nion from aman whom he regarded witha 
fentiment little fhort of idolatry, is very cha- 
racteriftic of his mind; for in the fearch ef 
truth, he paid no regard to authority, but pur- | 
fued his inquiries with fearlefs intrepidity. 
Perhaps, his mind tended towards the 
oppofite extreme; for, like John Hunter and 
Dr. Brown, he feemed to value himfelf upon 
original thinking on all fubjeG&is, and to al- 
low but a fecondary importance to that know- 
ledge, which is colleéted folely from books. 
He has incorporated with the detail of philo- 
fophical faéts in thofe leCtures, many ftriking 
obfervations on fociety and government ; for 
fo intent was his mind upon the improvement 
and happinefs of mankind, thet he let ne 
“opportunity flip of making fuch remarks as 
he thought might roufe the mind to reflec- 
tion and aétivity on whatever regards the 
comfort of our fpecies. It is not wonderful 
that adifcoverer in fcience, fhould anticipate 
an era inthe hiftory ef the human race, in 
which pofterity, profiting by the labour and 
experience of former generations, fhail be- 
come wife, vittorious and happy, and enjoy 
their exiftence in circumftances much more 
favourable than thofe in which the great 
family of mankind have ever yet been found. 
It is remarkable that poets have always cele- 
brated the golden age as an era which is paft, 
whilft philofophers, who have difcovered new 
truth, have looked forward to a ate yet te 
come for wifdon: and happinefs. Whether 
this arifes in the one cafe from the circum- 
fiance of the moft ancient poetry being the 
moét perfect, or in the other, from the no- 
velty of natural philofophy as an experimental 
{cience, and difcovers in it exciting hopes 
of progreftive improvement, it may not be fo 
ealy 
