356 Marriages and Deaths 
BlankVerfe. He was prefented to the rectory of- 
Wallingford, in the county of Norfolk, in the 
gift of Mr. Coke ; and was appvinted chaplain 
to the Tower on the refignation of Mr. Grofe. 
Found dead on the 3d inf. in a -garret in 
Rupert-ftreet, Mr. Fohn Tullock, a well known 
mathematician. He literally died of want. 
Thts extraordinary man was a native of Shet- 
Jand. His father, who was a poor induftrious 
fifherman, having one day difcovered a cheft 
wathed on fhore by the tide, found that it con- 
tained a quantity of carpenter’s tools, and a 
Zew books: when he fhewed. this treafure to 
his fon John, he was furprifed to find that 
the boy fixed his eyes on the books, and 
icarcely glanced at the chizzels and planes. 
« Oh father! (laid he, after a paufe anda 
figh,) I would give all Lerwick (the chief 
town of the ifland) to be able to read any 
one of thefe books.’”’ “ Then, (cried the old 
man, with tears in his eyes) if I live and you 
live, you fhall read every one of them, if I 
fhould even fell the cheft and all it contains, 
and what is ftill more valuable, my boat and 
nets into the bargain.’”’ John, who was then 
about nine years old, was fent to fchool the 
very next day; and in lefs than two years 
the pupil outftripped the mafter, who was 
allowed by all the iflanders to be an excellent 
teacher, as he could read Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s 
Progrefs from beginning to end. John was 
not fatistied with his fchool acquifitions, he 
was refolved to try what he could do by him- 
¥elf,. Among the books * which had fallen 
from heaven,’ to ufe his own expreflion, he 
found Hill’s Arithmetic. Notwithftanding all 
the difficulties that rofe im fucceifion to a be- 
-gimner, who had fcarce ever ventured to count 
‘beyond a hundred, he was determined to 
make himfelf mafter or a fcience that daily 
- extended the boundaries of his mind. In lefs 
than a year he could folve all the queftions 
‘jn fkil]. His fame as an arithmetician was fo 
~ great, that fome of the ignorant people thought 
that he dealt a little in what they called the 
black art. He was refolved that the mere 
‘knowledge of numbers fhould not clofe his 
literary career, he fat down to ftudy mathe- 
matics. Nature had endowed him with ta- 
lents peculiarly adapted to ftudies of this 
‘kind: a mind ardent yet patient in the pur- 
fuit of knowledge, a thorough contempt for 
what the world calls wealth, and a temperance 
in diet contributed to health and ferenity. 
He was now about fifteen years of age, and 
_as his father and mother were almoft paft 
fheir labours, he was advifed to open a {chool, 
which would enable him to fupport his parents 
an decency. Dr. Young fays, in allufion to 
inftruction, that “in giving we receive, and in 
teaching we learn.” ‘This was verified in 
“young Tullock, In confulting that peculiar 
bias which nature has given to every mind, 
he was enabled to draw many deductions 
from the queftions and purfuits of his pupils. 
Some of thefe queftions led him to caft his 
eye to the heavens, the native feat of plfilo- 
in and near Londons’ —- [Nov. 1, 
fophy and kindred arts. Having in time 
learned to call fome of .“ the ftars by their 
names,” he began to emulate the fame of 
Flamftead and Halley. Thefe illuftrious. 
men, however, could converfe with the living , 
and the dead ; they had friends and books ; 
they had leifure, and could view the moon 
through Gallileo’s eyes. But Tullock had 
none of thefe aids : he was obliged to provide 
for the wants of the day that was pafling over 
his head, and the only time that he could de- . 
vote to the ftudy of aftronomy, was at the 
expence of his humble, pillow. A favourite 
mountain was his only ebfervatory, on the 
top of which he ufed to pafs many a night, 
even in the depth of winter, watching the 
motion of the heavenly bodies. At the age 
of twenty he married a young woman, whe. 
in the courfe of time brought him a fine fa- 
mily of girls and boys. One of his friends, 
in an unlucky moment, conceiving that his 
native ifle was too narrow a fphere for fuch 
a ftar to move in, edvifed him to try his for- 
tune in_London, the mart of genius, as he 
‘was taught to believe. This advice fell in 
with our young aftronomer’s wifhes; he long- 
ed to converfe with the learned, to confult 
books, and to communicate all that he knew 
to the world. Accordingly he fet out for the 
capital on the wings of hope, and flattered 
himfelf that in lefs than a year he would be 
able to return with a fum fufficient to enable 
him to pafs the reft of his days in lettered 
eafc, inthe bofom of his family. He travelled 
from Edinburgh to London on foot, with a few 
fhillings in his pocket. All his golden proe 
fpects were not a little clouded, foon after his, 
arrival, to find that he could not even procure’ 
the fituation of a mathematical afliftant in 
‘any one of the academies about the city. He 
had the mortification to experience that talent 
is often eftimated by drefs and addrefs, in 
both of which he was unfortunately wanting. 
Difappointed in all his applications, he open- 
ed a fchool in theneighbourhood of the Seven 
Dials. Having been told by a perfon on whofe 
judgment he depended, that all the treafures 
of learning were locked up in the Latin ; he 
devoted all his {pare moments tothe fudy of, _ 
that language, and, inthe end, made fo great 
a progrefs in the acquifition of it, that he 
could tranflate it with tolerable eafe. He 
then began to turn his thoughts to chymiftry, 
and foothed himfelf with the hopes of making 
fome difcoveries in that ufeful branch of 
knowledge, and of one day emerging from 
obfcurity. The income arifing from his 
’ fchool was fo flender, that he was obliged to 
live on the clieapeft food, and could fcarce 
afford himfelf coal or candle-light. . Baron 
Maferes occafionally affifted him, but fuch was 
his modefty, that even the want of the necef- 
faries of life could not urge him to folicit the 
leaft relief. Having caught a cold about 
two years ago, it fell on his lungs. As hig 
health declined, his fcholars fell off; and as 
to friends he had nong that couid aflift re 
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