fchool at Putney, I was delivered at the age of feven into the hands of Mr. John Kirkby, who exercised about eighteen months the office of my domeftic tutor. His own words, which I fhall here transcribe, infpire in his favor a fentiment of pity and efteem. —

During my abode in my native county of Cumber. "land, in quality of an indigent curate, I used now. "and-then in a Summer, when the pleasantness of "the season 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 myself, "one while in viewing at large the agreeable profpect "which furrounded me, and another while (confi

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ning my fight to nearer objects) in admiring the " vaft variety of beautiful shells, 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 rest, 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 im"mediately the fad thoughts of the wretched condi❝tion 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." Diftress at last forced him to leave the country His learning and virtue introduced him to my father; and at Putney he might have found at leaft a temporary shelter, 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 fmall 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 unfavorable. 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 honors of a philofophical fiction. It is the ftory of a youth, the fon of a fhipwrecked exile, who lives alone on a defert ifland 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 visions. With these helps, and his own industry, Automathes becomes a felf-taught though speechless philofo. pher, who had investigated with fuccefs his own mind, the natural world, the abstract sciences, 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 ftyle; but the book is not devoid of entertainment or inftruction; and among feveral interefting paffages, I would felect the discovery of fire, which produces by accidental mifchief the difcovery of confcience. A man who had thought fo much on the subjects 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 leffons; but they enlarged my knowledge of arithmetic, and left me a clear impreffion of the English and Latin rudiments.

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 school of about feventy boys, which was kept by Dr. Wooddefon and his affiftants. Every time I have fince paffed 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 school; from the tenderness of parents, and the obfequioufnefs of fervants, to the rude familiarity of his equals, the infolent tyranny of his seniors, and the rod, perhaps, of a cruel and capricious pedagogue. Such hardships may steel the mind and body against the injuries of

fortune; but my timid referve was aftonished by the crowd and tumult of the fchool; the want of ftrength and activity disqualified me for the sports 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 expense 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 understood. 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 ftudent in the history of Greece and Rome. The use of fables or apologues has been approved in every age from ancient 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 beasts do speak, or that men may lie. A fable reprefents the genuine characters of animals; and a skilful mafter might extract from Pliny and Buffon fome pleafing leffons of natural hiftory, a science well adapted to the talte 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 perfpicuous. But his fables, after a long oblivion, were first published by Peter Pithou, from a corrupt manufcript. The labors 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 restore, and which Burman could not explain.

My ftudies were too frequently interrupted by ficknefs; and after a real or nominal refidence at Kingston fchool of near two years, I was finally recalled (December 1747) by my mother's death, which was occafioned, in her thirty-eighth year, by the confequences of her laft labor. 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 of our first interview, fome weeks after the fatal event; the awful filence, the room hung with black, the mid-day tapers, his fighs and tears; his praises of my mother, a faint in heaven; his folemn adjuration that I would cherish her memory and imitate her virtues; and the fervor with which he kiffed and bleffed me as the fole furviving pledge of their loves. The ftorm of paffion infenfibly fubfided into calmer melancholy. At a convivial meeting of his friends, Mr. Gibbon might affect or enjoy a gleam of cheerfulness; but his plan