at the same time, that he is said never to have been once punished, or even reprehended. A pane of glass belonging to the window of one of the inhabitants, happening to be broken, when he was present, all the boys then on the spot were doomed to suffer; but Mr. Combe, a writer of some celebrity, who is still alive, although absent and consequently excluded from the proscription, generously stepped forward and took the guilt as well as the infliction, upon himself.

Of his early proficiency the following is a specimen of what he was enabled to achieve, when only in the seventeenth year of his age.

Ad Fredericum Secundum Prussia Regem.

(A. D. 1758.)

Ergo insolenti sanguine nobilem
Vindex subactis abdidit hostibus,
Læsæque libertatis ultor

Deposuit Fredericus ensem.

At non inerti Principis otio

Languescit ardor; mox vehementior
Erumpet, adversasque turmas
Austriadum graviore casu

Contundet Heros. Sic ubi murmura
Cessant parumper, quà gemit horridum
Ætnæa rupes, aut Vesevi

Culmina flammivomi colonos

Vicina terrent; jam violentior
Motus refectis viribus ingruit,
Et pestis improvisa latè

Depositum ingeminat furorem.

"Jam Jamque cadit, celerique recursu,

Erigitur lapsum, retrahens, perque' acra nutat.”

was ever thing any more picturesque ?

This prodigy, the young Marcellus of his day, at the University and abroad, gave the world assurance of pre-eminent gifts and powers when death took him from us." LIT. ANEC. Vol. VIII.

Tu doctus audis, nec tibi simplicem
Nectit coronam Pallas; at impiæ
Per bella quam sensere turmæ,

Et calami decuere dextram.
Pubes quid acris, te duce, gesserit,
Quid ipse victor, tu spolia inclyta
Dignè, triumphatumque Gallum, et
Saxonidis data jura dices.

Nec te moretur Pieridum cohors,
Ad arma Mavors si vocet integrum;
I, Victor ingens, i, triumphis

Perge novis decorare fastos."

Here follows a sample of what he accomplished at a little later period of his life:

Virga Aurea.

(A.D. 1765.)

"Apta neci, vitæque potens, somnique ministra

Dicitur aligeri virga fuisse Dei :

Nec malè (majestas ne desit regia) versu
Sceptrigerum pinxit quisque poeta Jovem.
Terrigenas sceptro victor fudisse Gigantas
Fertur, et in Siculis intumulâsse jugis.
A Jove nutriti gestant Jovis arma; tyrannis
Imponunt facilem regia sceptra notam.
Enean miræ fretum tutamine virgæ

Duxit ad Elysias casta Sibylla domos:
Visâ fronde Charon cymbam venientibus offert,
Et fera tergemini concidit ira canis.
Ferre pedum gestit pastor, quo claudit ovile,
Gramineoque vagas monte coercet oves.
Fulcit utrumque latus, teretique innixa bacillo
Invalidum firmat tarda senecta gradus.
Utiliter baculum mutilatos sustinet artus,
Ne careat facili debilis Irus ope.
Fida comes sacris adhibetur virga, silentes

Nec minor est hodie venerandæ gratia virgæ,
Illa decet doctam, pondus et arma, manum.
Suggerit illa rudi numeros et dulcia vati

Carmina, vimineâ, musa juvatur ope.
Nuda licet, foliis orbata, nec ardua jactet

Brachia, nec multam dives inauret humúm;
Sed tamen hanc Pallas, Musæque tuentur: Apollo
Creditur huic lauros posthabuisse suas.
Betula, dulce decus nemoris, reginaque silvæ
Usque feras domino vimina digna tuo."

Sir James appears to have remained at Eton for several years. He then set out on his travels, and was received every where, by the learned, with that distinction so justly due to his unrivalled talents. At Rome, in particular, great honours were paid him, by several of the Cardinals; and he died in that city in 1766, when only 25 years old! His remains were accompanied by all the English, Scotch, and Irish, then resident in that part of Italy; and it is greatly to be lamented that the materials are so scanty for the life of a youth, who in person, learning, and talents, seems to have realised all the marvellous accomplishments attributed to his countryman, "the admirable Crichton !"

No. II.

THE VERY REV. WILLIAM VINCENT, D.D.

LATE DEAN OF WESTMINSTER.

F this respectable divine and eminent scholar, a copious memoir has been already given in Vol. I. p. 124. It is with great pleasure that the Editor now subjoins the inscription on the monument recently erected to his memory in WestminsterAbbey: --

Copy of an original and very interesting letter from Dr. Vincent, in London, to Alexander Henderson, Esq., of Edinburgh, with whom he kept up a long and uninterrupted corres

"Dear Sir,

"I should not get through ten books on the progress of virtue in ten months, but wherever I have opened the book, I find the numbers flowing, and the images agreeable.

*

*

My own taste in regard to di

dactic poems is, I suppose, vicious, for, excepting the Georgics of Virgil, I never got through a whole poem of this sort in my life.

*

"Sermons, I never published any but such as I was under the necessity of printing for the publick occasions on which they were preached, or one or two, from some censure of their contents which I thought it right to repel. With a powerful voice, a fluent delivery, and a good manner, several have pleased an audience; but though I had bestowed all the pains on them that the subjects deserved, and all the divinity I was master of, yet when I came to read other men's sermons on the same subjects, I have, in many instances, been so conscious of my inferiority, that I never ventured to publish a volume.

"In short, I believe my credit can only exist as a geographer, and that of a peculiar turn, and whether soracte is candida or candidum, I will not allow you to triumph over my lapse. I fear many may occur, but, as times go, the work is a good one. Believe me,

with much respect,

your most obedient

"Deanery,

March 6, 1812."

and faithful Servant,
W. VINCENT."