rable, for his profound learning and unaffected piety, and not on account of any celebrity for miraculous and angelic operations. *28.1759.-WILLIAM PITT BORN. ith strict a hatham, w his son aged him et, which ering usef ad things. nit, he nev struction ithout re Some particulars of the early life of Mr. Pitt, as they have been detailed by his tutor, Bishop Tomline, we shall extract from his biography of this great statesman, as peculiarly interesting to all parties, whatever may be their political sentiments. Although Mr. Pitt was little more than fourteen years of age when he went to reside at the university, and had laboured under the disadvantage of frequent ill health, the knowledge which he then possessed was very considerable; and, in particular, his proficiency in the learned languages was probably greater than ever was acquired by any other person in such early, youth. In Latin authors he seldom met with difli-. culty; and it was no uncommon thing for him to read into English six or seven pages of Thucydides, which he had not previously seen, without more than two or three mistakes, and sometimes without even one. : Je must, ted large ther adva is acaden While M ed attend the pu osition. be colle He was not only soon master of all the ordinary rules of grammar, but, taking great pleasure in the philological disquisitions of critics and commentators, he became deeply versed in the niceties of construction and peculiarities of idiom, both in the Latin and Greek languages. He had also read the first six books of Euclid's Elements, Plane Trigonometry, the elementary parts of Algebra, and the two quarto volumes of Rutherforth's Natural Philosophy, a work then in some degree of repute at Cambridge, but afterwards laid aside. Nor was it in learning only that Mr. Pitt was so much superior to persons of his age. Though a boy in years and appearance, his manners were formed, and his behaviour manly. He mixed in conversation with unaffected vivacity; and delivered his sentiments with perfect ease, equally free from shyness and flippancy, and always and belo was alw aboundin Never kn of offen political not disp but allo Though the age his ever species his stu daring was p years ntion to propriety and decorum. Lord could not but be aware of the powers nind and understanding, had encoutalk without reserve upon every subquently afforded opportunity for connformation and just notions of persons When his lordship's health would persuffered a day to pass without giving some sort to his children; and seldom ng a chapter of the Bible with them. leed, be considered as having contrito that fund of knowledge, and to those ges, with which Mr. Pitt entered upon al life. Pitt was under-graduate, he never omitchapel morning and evening, or dining e hall, except when prevented by indisor did he pass a single evening out of walls. Towards the latter end of the Ir. Pitt began to mix with other young wn age and station in life, then resident e; and no one was ever more admired by his acquaintance and friends. He the most lively person in company, n playful wit and quick repartee, but n to excite pain, or to give just ground Even those, who, from difference in ntiments, or from any other cause, were d to do him more than justice, could not chat as a companion he was unrivalled. society was universally sought, and from eventeen or eighteen he constantly passed s in company, he steadily avoided every rregularity; and he continued to pursue with ardent zeal and unremitted diligence, whole residence in the university, which cted to the unusual length of nearly seven with considerable intervals of absence. -ly period, there was the same firmness of principle, and rectitude of conduct, which marked his character in the more advanced stages of life. It ought, perhaps, to be mentioned, that Mr. Pitt did not construe classical authors in the ordinary way, but read several sentences of the original, and then gave the translation of them; and the almost intuitive quickness, with which he instantly saw the meaning of the most difficult passages of the most difficult writers, made an indelible impression upon the mind of his tutor. He was not less successful in mathematics and natural philosophy; displaying the same acuteness and readiness in acquiring knowledge, with an unexampled skill in applying it to the solution of problems. He was master of every thing usually known by young men who obtain the highest academical honours, and felt a great desire to fathom still farther the depths of pure mathematics; and had it been thought right to indulge this inclination, he would, no doubt, have made a wonderful progress in that abstruse science. There was scarcely any book in the wide circle of Mr. Pitt's reading, from which he derived greater advantage and satisfaction, than from Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, of which he formed a complete and correct analysis. Amidst these severer studies, the lighter species of literature were by no means omitted; his intimate acquaintance with the historical and political writers of his own country', and his elegant taste for the boautios of tho English poets, ought not to be passed over in silence. To whatever branch of knowledge he applied, or whatever subject he discussed, the superiority of his abilities, and the clearness and comprehensiveness of his mind, were equally See als 1. T. f * Middleton's Life of Cicero, and the political and historical works of Lord Bolingbroke, were favourite books with Mr. Pitt in point of style, as were also the works of Hume and Robertson. He was not an admirer of Johnson's style, and still less of Gibbon's. He read our last THE aftern sets d Of th dia the Mr. Pitt died on the 23d Jan. 1806; see -17, p. 7. —KİNG CHARLES II RESTORED. th of May, 1660, Charles II was proLondon and Westminster, and afterwards his dominions, with great joy and univerations. In some parts of England it is or the common people to wear oak leaves, ch leaf gold, in their hats, in commemoraconcealment of Charles II in an oak tree, attle of Worcester. An account of the -pe to France, extracted from his own will be found in T. T. for 1815, p. 176. description of his entry into London, in 1820, p. 137; and of his coronation, in lume, pp. 108-110. Moon's Passage over the Meridian. The Moon will pass the first meridian of this country at the following epochs this month, which will be convenient for observation, if the weather prove favourable: viz. May 1st, at 56 m. after 8 in the evening 2d, 30th, 32 - 19. 4 in the morning = 7.32759 Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites. None of the eclipses of these satellites will be visible this month, Jupiter being too near the Sun. Other Phenomena. Jupiter will be in conjunction at half past 5 in the morning of the 4th of this month. Mercury will be in conjunction with Saturn on the same day, when the former planet will be 15′ north of the latter The ad Mars w the 25th T C B THIS |