AN IMPERFECT OUTLINE OF THE LIFE OF RICHARD PORSON. RICHARD PORSON, the subject of this hasty sketch, was born at East Ruston in Norfolk, on Christmas-day*, 1759. He was the eldest of three brothers. His father, Mr. Huggins * R. P. was wont to speak of his birth day with gratitude and triumph. On the same day Sir Isaac Newton was born, 1642. They were of the same College; and the mortal remains of R. P. rest near the statue of this first of philosophers in the Anti-chapel of Trin. Coll. Cambridge; while those of RICHARD BENTLEY lie without the railing, on the north-side, of the altar. ↑ Henry, his second brother, was settled in a farm in Essex, and died early in life. Thomas, his youngest brother, kept a boarding-school at Fakenham, and died in 1792. His sister was married to Siday Hawes, Esq. of Coltishall in Norfolk. His mother died in 1784, aged 57; and his father in 1805, in the 74th year of his age. Porson, who was Parish-Clerk, and much respected, initiated him in the rudiments of his native tongue, and in the common rules of arithmetic. At nine years of age R. P. was sent to the Village-school, kept by a Mr. Summers, where he continued three years. The Rev. Mr. Hewitt, Vicar of the Parish, heard of R. P.'s extraordinary aptitude in acquiring and retaining whatever he was taught, and undertook to give him a classical training. During his boyhood R. P. was inured to a pastoral life, and afterwards, I am told, to the labours of the loom. Proofs of a serious turn of thought in his early years are still extant; they are in the shape of hymns and grave reflections; but in no respect remarkable except in tracing out the adorable nature of the first cause. In August, 1774, Mr. Norris, of GrosvenorPlace, an opulent and liberal gentleman, sent R. P. to Eton, and the late Sir George Baker contributed most generously towards his continuance Our tinuance in that illustrious school. When he entered Eton, R. P. was wholly ignorant of quantity; and, after he had toiled up the arduous path to literary eminence, he was often twitted by his quondam school-fellows with those violations of quantity which are common in first attempts at Latin verse. Greek Professor always felt sore upon this point. One of his best friends and greatest admirers has preserved a copy of verses, which, indeed, evince the rapid progress of his mind, but would not do honour to his memory. The Rev. Doctor Davies, late Provost of Eton, when Head-Master, presented R. P. with a copy of Toup's Longinus as a mark of his regard for a "good" exercise. This book, R. P. was wont to say, first biassed his mind to critical researches, and BENTLEY and DAWES cherished and confirmed that strong propensity: the rest he gave himself. At this time R. P. was deeply smitten with a predilection for scenic exhibitions; and a b 2 sort |