The death of a new-born child before that of its parents may seem an unnatural, but it is ftrictly a probable, event: fince of any given number the greater part are extinguished before their ninth year, before they poffefs the faculties of the mind or body. Without accufing the profufe waste or imperfect workmanship of Nature, I shall only observe, that this unfavourable chance was multiplied against my infant existence. So feeble was my conftitution, fo precarious my life, that, in the baptifm of each of my brothers, my father's prudence fucceffively repeated my chriftian name of Edward, that, in cafe of the departure of the eldest fon, this patronymick appellation might be ftill perpetuated in the family.

Uno avulfo non deficit alter. To preserve and to rear so frail a being, the most tender affiduity was scarcely fufficient; and my mother's attention was somewhat diverted by her frequent pregnancies, by an exclufive paffion for her husband, and by the diffipation of the world, in which his taste and authority obliged her to mingle. But the maternal office was supplied by my aunt, Mrs. Catherine Porten; at whofe name I feel a tear of gratitude trickling down my cheek. A life of celibacy transferred her vacant affection to her fifter's first child: my weakness excited her pity; her attachment was fortified by labour and fuccefs: and if there be any, as I trust there are fome, who rejoice that I live, to that dear and excellent. woman they muft hold themselves indebted. Many anxious and folitary days did she consume in the patient trial of every mode of relief and amufement. Many wakeful nights did the fit by my bed-fide in trembling expectation that each hour would be my laft. Of the various and frequent diforders of my childhood my own recollection is dark; nor do I wish to expatiate on fo difgufting a topic. Suffice it to fay, that while every practitioner, from Sloane and Ward to the Chevalier Taylor, was fucceffively fummoned to torture or relieve me, the care of my mind was too frequently neglected for that of my health: compaffion always fuggested

an excufe for the indulgence of the mafter, or the idleness of the pupil; and the chain of my education was broken, as often as I was recalled from the school of learning to the bed of fickness.

As foon as the ufe of fpeech had prepared my infant reafon for the admiflion of knowledge, I was taught the arts of reading, writing, and arithmetic. So remote is the date, fo vague is the memory of their origin in myself, that, were not the error corrected by analogy, I fhould be tempted to conceive them as innate. In childhood I was praised for the readinefs, with which I could multiply and divide, by memory alone, two fums of feveral figures: fuch praise encouraged my growing talent; and had I perfevered in this line of application, I might have acquired fome fame in mathematical ftudies.

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After this previous inftitution at home, or at a day-school at Putney, I was delivered at the age of feven into the hands of Mr. John Kirkby, who exercifed about eighteen months the office of my domeftic tutor. His own words, which I fhall here transcribe, infpire in his favour a fentiment of pity and esteem." During my abode in my native county of "Cumberland, in quality of an indigent curate, I used "now-and-then in a Summer, when the pleasantness of the "feafon invited, to take a folitary walk to the fea-fhore, "which lies about two miles from the town where I lived. "Here I would amufe myfelf, one while in viewing at large "the agreeable profpect which furrounded me, and another "while (confining my fight to nearer objects) in admiring "the vast variety of beautiful fhells, thrown upon the "beach; fome of the choiceft of which I always picked up, "to divert my little ones upon my return. One time "among the reft, taking fuch a journey in my head, I fat "down upon the declivity of the beach with my face to the "fea, which was now come up within a few yards of my "feet; when immediately the fad thoughts of the wretched "condition of my family, and the unfuccefsfulness of all "endeavours to amend it, came crowding into my mind,

"which drove me into a deep melancholy, and ever and anon "forced tears from my eyes." Diftrefs at last forced him to leave the country. His learning and virtué introduced him to my father; and at Putney he might have found at leaft a temporary fhelter, had not an act of indifcretion again driven him into the world. One day reading prayers in the parish church, he most unluckily forgot the name of King George: his patron, a loyal fubject, difmiffed him with fome reluctance, and a decent reward; and how the poor man ended his days I have never been able to learn. Mr. John Kirkby is the author of two fimmall volumes; the Life of Automathes (London, 1745), and an English and Latin Grammar (London, 1746); which, as a teftimony of gratitude, he dedicated (November 5th, 1745) to my father. The books are before me: from them the pupil may judge the preceptor; and, upon the whole, his judgment will not be unfavourable. The grammar is executed with accuracy and skill, and I know not whether any better exifted at the time in our language: but the life of Automathes afpires to the honours of a philofophical fiction. It is the ftory of a youth, the fon of a fhipwrecked exile, who lives alone on a defert island from infancy to the age of manhood. A hind is his nurfe; he inherits a cottage, with many useful and curious inftruments; fome ideas remain of the education of his two first years; fome arts are borrowed from the beavers of a neighbouring lake; fome truths are revealed in fupernatural vifions. With thefe helps, and his own industry, Automathes becomes a felf-taught though fpeechlefs philofopher, who had inveftigated with fuccefs his own mind, the natural world, the abftract fciences, and the great principles of morality and religion. The author is not entitled to the merit of invention, fince he has blended the English ftory of Robinson Crufoe with the Arabian romance of Hai Ebn Yokhdan, which he might have read in the Latin verfion of Pocock. In the Automathes I cannot praise either the depth of thought or elegance of style; but the book is not devoid of entertainment or inftruction;

and

and among feveral interefting paffages, I would felect the difcovery of fire, which produces by accidental mifchief the difcovery of confcience. A man who had thought fo much on the fubjects of language and education was furely no ordinary preceptor: my childish years, and his hafty departure, prevented me from enjoying the full benefit of his lef fons; but they enlarged my knowledge of arithmetic, and left me a clear impreffion of the English and Latin rudi

ments.

In my ninth year (January 1746), in a lucid interval of comparative health, my father adopted the convenient and cuftomary mode of English education; and I was fent to Kingston upon Thames, to a fchool of about feventy boys, which was kept by Dr. Wooddefon and his affiftants. Every time I have fince pafled over Putney Common, I have always noticed the fpot where my mother, as we drove along in the coach, admonished me that I was now going into the world, and must learn to think and act for myself. The expreffion may appear ludicrous; yet there is not, in the course of life, a more remarkable change than the removal of a child from the luxury and freedom of a wealthy houfe, to the frugal diet and ftrict fubordination of a fchool; from the tenderness of parents, and the obfequioufnefs of fervants, to the rude familiarity of his equals, the infolent tyranny of his feniors, and the rod, perhaps, of a cruel and capricious pedagogue. Such hardships may fteel the mind and body against the injuries of fortune; but my timid referve was aftonished by the crowd and tumult of the school; the want of strength and activity difqualified me for the fports of the play-field; nor have I forgotten how often in the year forty-fix I was reviled and buffetted for the fins of my Tory ancestors. By the common methods of difcipline, at the expence of many tears and fome blood, I purchased the knowledge of the Latin fyntax; and not long fince I was poffeffed of the dirty volumes of Phædrus and Cornelius Nepos, which I painfully conftrued and darkly underftood. The choice of these authors is not injudicious. The

lives of Cornelius Nepos, the friend of Atticus and Cicero, are compofed in the style of the pureft age: his fimplicity is elegant, his brevity copious: he exhibits a series of men and manners; and with fuch illuftrations, as every pedant is not indeed qualified to give, this claffic biographer may initiate a young student in the history of Greece and Rome. The ufe of fables or apologues has been approved in every age from antient India to modern Europe. They convey in familiar images the truths of morality and prudence; and the most childish understanding (I advert to the fcruples of Rouffeau) will not fuppofe either that beafts do fpeak, or that men may lie. A fable reprefents the genuine characters of animals; and a fkilful mafter might extract from Pliny and Buffon fome pleafing leffons of natural hiftory, a science well adapted to the tafte and capacity of children. The Latinity of Phædrus is not exempt from an alloy of the filver age; but his manner is concife, terfe, and fententious: the Thracian flave discreetly breathes the spirit of a freeman; and when the text is found, the ftyle is perspicuous. But his fables, after a long oblivion, were first published by Peter Pithou, from a corrupt manuscript. The labours of fifty editors confefs the defects of the copy as well as the value of the original; and the school-boy may have been whipt for misapprehending a paffage, which Bentley could not reftore, and which Burman could not explain.

My studies were too frequently interrupted by sickness; and after a real or nominal refidence at Kingston-school of near two years, I was finally recalled (December 1747) by my mother's death, which was occafioned, in her thirtyeighth year, by the confequences of her laft labour. I was too young to feel the importance of my lofs; and the image of her perfon and converfation is faintly imprinted in my memory. The affectionate heart of my aunt, Catherine Porten, bewailed a fifter and a friend; but my poor father was inconfolable, and the tranfport of grief feemed to threaten his life or his reafon. I can never forget the scene

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