keep off sleep. He had, even already, merely to divert his leisure, commenced his study of the law; and it is related that he would often amuse and surprise his mother's legal acquaintances, by putting cases to them from an abridgment of Coke's Institutes, which he had read and mastered. In after life his maxim was never to neglect any opportunity of improvement which presented itself. In conformity with this rule, while making the most wonderful exertions in the study of Greek, Latin, and the Oriental languages, at Oxford, he took advantage of the vacations to learn riding and fencing, and to read all the best authors in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French; thus, to transcribe an observation of his own, "with the fortune of a peasant, giving himself the education of a prince." In the same spirit, while tutor, some time after this, in the family of Lord Spencer, he embraced an opportunity of accomplishing himself in dancing and the use of the broad-sword, and of learning the German language, music, and the art of playing on the Welsh harp, the instrument of his country. It was while residing in the Temple, and busily engaged in the study of the law, that, beside continuing his oriental studies with great zeal, he found time to compose and prepare for the press, a translation of the speeches of the Greek orator Isæus, and a volume of poems. Yet he was, at this very time, both reading and writing elaborately on subjects of law and jurisprudence, an evidence of his proficiency in which he gave to the world, a few years after, in his learned Treatise on the Law of Bailments. found leisure, too, in the midst of all these professional and literary occupations, to attend Dr. William Hunter's Lectures on Anatomy, and to prosecute the study of mathematics so far as to be able to read Newton's Principia.

He

In India, where he filled the office of Judge in the Supreme Court of Bengal, and where his professional duties were of the most laborious nature, he contrived to do more than ever in the study of general literature and philosophy. He had scarcely arrived in the country when he exerted himself to establish a society in Calcutta, on the model of the Royal Society of London, of which he officiated as president as long as he lived, enriching its Transactions every year with the most elaborate and valuable disquisitions on every department of oriental philology and antiquities. Almost his only time for study now was during the vacation of the courts; and here is the account, as found among his papers, of how he was accustomed to spend his day during the long vacation in 1785. In the morning, after writing one letter, he read ten chapters of the Bible, and then studied Sanscrit grammar and Hindoo law; the afternoon was given to the geography of India, and the evening to Roman history; when the day was closed by a few games at chess, and the reading of a portion of Ariosto. Already, however, his health was beginning to break down under the climate; and his eyes had become so weak, that he had been obliged to discontinue writing by candle-light. But nothing could prevent him from pursuing the studies he loved, while any strength remained to him. Even while confined by illness to his couch, he taught himself botany; and it was during a tour he was advised to take for the recovery of his health, that he wrote his learned Treatise on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India'-as if he had actually so disciplined his mind, that it adopted labour like this almost for a relaxation. His health, after a time, was partially restored; and we find him again devoting himself both to his professional duties and his private studies, with more zeal and assiduity

L

than ever.

When business required his attendance daily in Calcutta, he resided at a country-house on the banks of the Ganges, about five miles from the city. "To this spot," says his amiable and intelligent biographer, Lord Teignmouth, "he returned every evening after sunset, and in the morning rose so early as to reach his apartments in town, by walking, at the first appearance of dawn. The intervening period of each morning, until the opening of court, was regularly allotted and applied to distinct studies." At this time, his hour of rising used to be between three and four. During the vacation of the court he was equally occupied. Writing from Crishna, his vacation residence, in 1787, he says, "We are in love with this pastoral cottage; but though these three months are called a vacation, yet I have no vacant hours. It rarely happens that favourite studies are closely connected with the strict discharge of our duty, as mine happily are: even in this cottage I am assisting the court by studying Arabic and Sanscrit, and have now rendered it an impossibility for the Mahometan or Hindoo lawyers to impose upon us with erroneous opinions." It was these constant exertions, in truth, that gave its chief enjoyment to his life. "I never was happy," he says in this very letter, "till I was settled in

India."

This eminent and admirable man, however, at last fell a sacrifice to his zeal in the discharge of his duty; and if it has been accounted a befitting fate for a great captain to die in the field of battle, surely his is to be deemed an equally appropriate and a far more enviable lot who, after a life, whether of many or of few years, in which he has done enough for his fame, sinks to his rest in the full brightness of a career made glorious by many peaceful triumphs. The greatest literary achievement of Sir William Jones was

the

his last-the digest he undertook to superintend of a complete body of Hindoo and Mahometan jurisprudence. To this work, considered by him as of very highest importance to the right administration of law in India, but encompassed, from a variety of causes, with difficulties of the most formidable description, he resolved, after long consideration, to devote himself, even under increasing weakness of sight, and probably general decay of constitution, which a fervid and unwearied spirit did not permit him to perceive. In the midst of his labours, it was found necessary that Lady Jones should proceed to England for the sake of her health; and this separation he felt severely: but he determined, notwithstanding, to remain in the country himself until he should have finished at least a certain portion of his task, on the accomplishment of which he had set his heart. He had been divided, however, but a few months from the companion of his life, and even of many of his studies, when he was suddenly attacked by an inflammation of the liver, which carried him off, after seven days' illness, at the early age of forty-seven.

It was by a persevering observance of a few simple maxims that Sir William Jones was principally enabled to accomplish what he did. One of these, as we have already mentioned, was never to neglect an opportunity of improvement: another was, that whatever had been attained was attainable by him, and that, therefore, the real or supposed difficulties of any pursuit formed no reason why he should not engage in it, and with perfect confidence of success. "It was also," Lord Teignmouth tells us, a fixed principle with him, from which he never voluntarily deviated, not to be deterred, by any difficulties which were surmountable, from prosecuting to a successful termination what he had once deliberately under

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taken."

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"But what appears to me," adds his Lordship, more particularly to have enabled him to employ his talents so much to his own and the public advantage, was the regular allotment of his time to particular occupations, and a scrupulous adherence to the distribution which he had fixed: hence all his studies were pursued without interruption or confusion. Nor can I omit remarking the candour and complacency with which he gave his attention to all persons, of whatever quality, talents, or education: he justly concluded that curious or important information might be gained even from the illiterate; and, wherever it was to be obtained, he sought and seized it." By these methods it was that he accumulated that vast mass of knowledge, and enabled himself to accomplish those profound and extended labours which remain, even now that he is dead, for the benefit of us who yet live, and of those who are to come after us. This is truly to make a short life long-to exist, in spite of death, for unnumbered generations.

Biography abounds, in truth, with examples of the union of the pursuits of literature and science with those of every department of active life. The most elegant of the writers of ancient Rome was also the most renowned of her warriors. It was amid the hurry and toils of his campaigns that JULIUS CESAR is said to have written those Commentaries, or Memoirs of his military exploits, which have immortalized his name more than all his victories, and thus amply justified the anxiety he is recorded to have shewn to preserve the work, when, being obliged to throw himself from his ship in the bay of Alexandria, and swim for his life, he made his way to the shore with his arms in one hand, and his Commentaries in the other. Cæsar distinguished himself also as a writer on grammar, astronomy, history, and