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in his own class were happy to become his pupils. At Harrow he invented a political play, in which Dr. Bennet, Bishop of Cloyne, and the celebrated Dr. Parr, then at Harrow School, were his principal associates. They divided the fields in the neighbourhood of Harrow, according to a map of Greece, into states and kingdoms; each fixed upon one as his dominion, and assumed an ancient name. Some of their schoolfellows consented to be styled Barbarians, who were to invade their territories and attack their hillocks, which were denominated fortresses. The chiefs vigorously defended their respective domains against the incursions of the enemy; and in these imitative wars the young statesmen held councils, made vehement harangues, and composed memorials, all doubtless very boyish, but calculated to fill their minds with ideas of legislation and civil government. In these unusual amusements Jones was ever the leader. His reputation was at this early period of his life so extensive, that he was often flattered by the inquiries of strangers under the title of the great scholar.

In 1783 Sir William Jones was appointed judge to the supreme court of Calcutta, and he fulfilled the duties of that office till his death, which happened in 1794. Sir William Jones knew twenty languages, including Arabic, Persian, and Sanscrit.

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PROFESSOR PORSON.

Professor Porson, who became so famous as a classical scholar, when a boy at Eton, displayed the most astonishing powers of memory, of which the following instance is given :—

In going up to a lesson one day, he was accosted by a boy in the same form with him, Porson, what have you got there?'

'Horace,' said he.

'Let me look at it?'

Porson handed the book to his comrade, who, pretending to return it, dexterously substituted another in its place, with which Porson proceeded.

Being called on by the master, he read and construed the fourth Ode of the first book very regularly.

Observing that the class laughed, the master said, 'Porson, you seem to me to be reading on one side of the page, while I am looking at the other: pray, whose edition have you?'

Porson hesitated.

'Let me see it,' said the master, when, to his great surprise, he found it to be an English Ovid.

Porson was ordered to go on, which he did easily, correctly, and promptly to the end of the Ode.

Porson enjoyed the reputation of being one of the best Greek scholars and critics of the age in England.

He died in 1808.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.

The great triumphs of the poet and philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, were hardly of a kind likely to attract the admiration of a public audience. But as it would be out of all question to pass by in this chapter a name so famous in the literature and thought of our country, we have selected the following account of Coleridge's preaching, written by the celebrated critic William Hazlitt. It may be doubted, indeed, whether the greater triumph in this case lies in the preaching or in the beauty of the descrip

tion:

'A poet and a philosopher,' says Hazlitt, 'getting up into a Unitarian pulpit to preach the gospel was a romance in these degenerate days, a sort of revival of the primitive spirit of Christianity, which was not to

be resisted.

I rose one

HIMSELF, ALONE." As he gave out this text, his voice "rose like a stream of rich distilled perfumes ;" and when he came to the two last words, which he pronounced loud, deep, and distinct, it seemed to me, who was then young, as if the sounds had echoed from the bottom of the human heart, and as if that prayer might have floated in solemn silence through the universe. The idea of St. John came into my mind-" of one crying in the wilderness, who had his loins girt about, and whose food was locusts and wild honey." The preacher then launched into his subject, like an eagle dallying with the wind. sermon was upon peace and war, upon Church and Statenot their alliance, but their separation; on the spirit of the world and the spirit of Christianity-not as the same, but as opposed to one another. He

'It was in January 1798 that morning before daylight to walk ten miles in the mud, to hear this celebrated person preach. Never the longest day I have to live shall I have such another walk as this cold, raw, comfortless one in the winter of 1798. There are impressions which neither time nor circumstances can efface. . . . When I got there, playing the rooth Psalm, and when it was done, Mr. Coleridge rose and gave out his text, "And He went up into the mountain to pray,

the organ was

The

talked of those who had "in

scribed the Cross of Christ on banners dripping with human gore." He made a poetical and pastoral excursion, and to show the fatal effects of war, drew a striking contrast between the simple shepherd boy, driving his team a-field, or sitting under the hawthorn piping to his flock, "as though he should never be old," and the same poor country lad, crimped, kidnapped, brought into town, made drunk at an

alehouse, turned into a wretched drummer - boy, with his hair sticking on end with powder and pomatum, a long cue at his

back, and tricked out in the which imagination has reared loathsome finery of the profes- | between men and higher orders sion of blood.

'Such were the notes our once-loved poet sang. And for myself, I could not have been more delighted if I had heard the music of the spheres. Poetry and philosophy had met together, truth and genius had embraced under the eye and with the sanction of religion. This was even beyond my hopes. I returned home well satisfied.' As a philosopher and theologian, the influence of Coleridge has been very great, and probably is so still, notwithstanding the apparent predominance of a less spiritual philosophy than his. Although he did not live to complete the grand system of religious philosophy which he appears to have projected, the massive fragments he has left suffice to show more than the outlines of the vast whole. His writings are pervaded by a spirit not of this world; and for every earnest student they are rich in lessons of truth, wisdom, and faith. Not a few have found in them the special help, guidance, and defence which the critical doubts and discussions of the age make so needful.

Let the conclusion of this chapter be a passage of much encouragement, drawn from the writings of the great American divine, Dr. Channing: 'When I consider,' he says, 'the capacity of growth in the human soul, I cannot restrain the hope which it awakens. The partition walls

of beings vanish. I feel my utter inability to conceive what a mind is to attain which is to advance for ever. Add but that element, eternity, to man's progress, and the results of his existence surpass not only human but angelic thought. Give me this, and the future glory of the human mind becomes to me as incomprehensible as God Him

self.

'To encourage these thoughts and hopes, our Creator has set before us delightful exemplifications, even now, of this principle of growth, both in outward nature and in the human mind. We meet them in nature. Suppose you were to carry a man, wholly unacquainted with vegetation, to the most majestic tree in our forests, and whilst he was admiring its extent and proportions, suppose you should take from the earth at its root a little downy substance which a breath might blow away, and say to him, "That tree was once such a seed as this; it was wrapped up here; it once lived only within these delicate fibres, this narrow compass:" with what incredulous wonder would he regard you! And if, by an effort of imagination somewhat Oriental, we should suppose this little seed to be suddenly endued with thought, and to be told that it was one day to become this mighty tree, and to cast out branches which would spread an equal shade, and wave with

equal grace, and withstand the winter winds, with what amazement may we suppose it to anticipate its future lot!

'Such growth we witness in nature. A nobler hope we are to cherish and still more striking examples of the growth of mind are set before us in human history. We wonder, indeed, when we are told that one day we shall be as the angels of God. I apprehend that as great a wonder has been realized already on the earth. I apprehend that the distance between the mind of Newton and that of a Hottentot may have been as great as between the mind of Newton and an angel.

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There is another view still more striking: This Newton, who lifted his calm, sublime eye to the heavens, and read among the planets and the stars the great law of the material universe, was, forty or fifty years before, an infant, without one clear perception, and unable to distinguish his nurse's arm from

the pillow on which he slept. Howard, too, who, under the strength of an all-sacrificing benevolence, explored the depths of human suffering, was, forty or fifty years before, an infant, wholly absorbed in himself, grasping at all he saw, and almost breaking his little heart with fits of passion when the idlest toy was withheld.

'Has not man already traversed as wide a space as separates him from angels? And why must he stop? There is no extravagance in the boldest anticipation. I rest the hopes for human nature which I have now expressed on its principle of growth; and growth, as you well know, is a gradual process, not a convulsive start accomplishing the work of years in a moment. All great attainments are gradual. easily might a science be mastered by one struggle of thought, as a great triumph be obtained by a single spasm of effort.'

As

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'Art is a jealous God; it demands the whole and entire man.' MICHAEL ANGELO.

GEORGE JAMESON-SIR PETER LELY-SIR GODFREY KNELLER-SIR JAMES THORNHILL-WILLIAM HOGARTH-SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS-THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH-BENJAMIN WEST-JAMES BARRY-WILLIAM BLAKE -JOHN OPIE-GEORGE MORLAND-SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE-JOSEPH TURNER.

A SCOTTISH painter is the first to present himself to our notice.

the

GEORGE JAMESON. Of George Jameson artist less is known than could be wished. He was the son of an architect, and was born at Aberdeen in the year 1586. He went abroad, studied under Rubens in the company of Vandyke, returned to Scotland in 1628, and commenced his professional career at Edinburgh. His earliest works are chiefly painted on panel; he afterwards used fine linen cloth. Having made some successful attempts in landscape and history, he relinquished them for portraiture, a branch of the art which this

island has never failed to pa tronize. He acquired much fame in his day, and was considered after Vandyke the ablest of the scholars of Rubens.

When Charles 1. visited Scotland in 1633, he sat for his portrait to Jameson, and rewarded him with a diamond ring from his own finger. Many of his portraits are still to be found in the houses of the Scottish nobility and gentry. So well had he caught the manner and spirit of Vandyke, that several of his heads have been imputed to his more famous contemporary.

The prices which he received for his pictures were small, even in the swelling numbers of the Scottish currency. the genealogy of the house of

In

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