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Sir William Jones.

1746-1794.

Y acquaintance with Sir William Jones began in my boyhood with my perusal of that charming book which has been a help and an inspiration to so many young minds, "The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties." There, if I remember rightly, he is put forward as a remarkable example of what may be accomplished by patience and perseverance. In my later life, having had occasion to look into his career and character, I have been led to the conclusion that he furnishes one of the best illustrations to be found in all biography of the truth of Gibbon's saying, that "Every person has two educations—one which he receives from others, and one, more important, which he gives to himself." This saying we should take with Sir Walter Scott's corollary, "The best part of every man's education is that which he gives to himself." Sir William Jones was all his life -unhappily it was not a long one—educating himself, and doing so with a wonderful tenacity and thoroughness. His vast stores of knowledge were accumulated by his own industry—an industry guided by intelligence, and sustained by an unwavering firmness of purpose. His

spectres, and in the abolition of the iron traditions and practices of feudalism. All he could see, in his too rapid survey, was the vehemence of a movement which seemed to shake the foundations of society, and threatened to involve the civilised world, with all its law, and order, and religion, in a chaos of broken faiths and wrecked institutions. In the fever of his soul, he saw everything through a blood-red atmosphere. The truth is that, with all his professed Whiggism, Burke at heart was a Conservative. He clung with a strange affection to the altar of the past. He looked back with a tear in his eye to the picturesque aspect of "the age of chivalry." The associations of antiquity he invested with an imaginary sacredness; and whatever was established he sought to place above the reach of the innovating or irreverent hand.

In person Burke was neither commanding nor graceful. He measured five feet ten inches in height, was erect and well made, but not robust. In early life he was partial to rural sports, and down to the date of his last illness he delighted in active exercise. His features were good and sufficiently regular; but the chief expression of his countenance was one of benevolence. His manners were attractive, combining dignity with frankness, and simplicity with ease. Finally, it may interest the reader to know since one of Burke's biographers thinks it worthy of record-that his customary dress was a light brown coat, so made that it seemed to cramp and constrain his movements, and a little bob-wig, with curls. Such was Edmund Burke.

Sir William Jones.

1746-1794.

Y acquaintance with Sir William Jones began in my boyhood with my perusal of that charming book which has been a help and an inspiration to so many young minds, "The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties." There, if I remember rightly, he is put forward as a remarkable example of what may be accomplished by patience and perseverance. In my later life, having had occasion to look into his career and character, I have been led to the conclusion that he furnishes one of the best illustrations to be found in all biography of the truth of Gibbon's saying, that "Every person has two educations—one which he receives from others, and one, more important, which he gives to himself." This saying we should take with Sir Walter Scott's corollary,

The best part of every man's education is that which he gives to himself." Sir William Jones was all his life -unhappily it was not a long one-educating himself, and doing so with a wonderful tenacity and thoroughness. His vast stores of knowledge were accumulated by his own industry-an industry guided by intelligence, and sustained by an unwavering firmness of purpose. His

intellectual activity was ceaseless; his brain was never at rest; and he seems to have been consumed by a fever of acquisition. Like Alexander, he was always sighing for new worlds to conquer. He was, I think, only twenty-seven years old when he mapped out a field of study of such wide area that most minds would look at it aghast. With lofty resolution, he noted down that he would learn no more "rudiments," but perfect himself in twelve languages-not as a mere linguistic triumph, but for the purpose of acquiring an accurate knowledge of

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(a.) Rhetoric. (b.) Poetry. (c.) Painting. (d.) Music. III. Sciences.

(a.) Law. (b.) Mathematics. (c.) Dialectics.

The twelve languages which he proposed to acquire were-Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, German, English.

An accomplished critic, Lord Jeffrey, makes some admirable remarks upon the career of this indomitable seeker after knowledge, which may be accepted as a just statement of the lesson that career teaches :—

"From the very commencement," he says, "he appears to have taxed himself very highly; and having in early youth set before his eyes the standard of a noble and accomplished character in every department of excellence, he seems never to have lost sight of this object of emulation, and never to have remitted his exertions to elevate and conform himself to it in every particular. Though born in a condition very remote from

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