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Sir Isaac, when a boy, was often enough employed in servile offices, as is still customary with children even of superior parentage brought up in the country, but his amusements were then of a different and superior cast from his playmates of the same age. The elements of mechanism seem to have been born with him. In the humble office of a shepherd-boy, and while watching the sheep, he is said to have been found poring on books of geometry. And instead of associating with others of his own age, in their juvenile sports and pursuits, he was fond of being alone, and always busy, executing some ingenious contrivance. The nicknacks and various models in miniature, of his invention and fabricating, by little saws, hatchets, hammers, and other appropriate tools, render his youthful operations no unsuitable anticipation of the incomparable productions which distinguished his riper

years.

The singular bias of his genius, thus early displayed, shaped his education, and selected his studies and pursuits through life. It was on finding him working a mathematical problem in a hay-loft at Grantham, and observing his strong aptitude for that science, that his uncle, a clergyman of the name of Ayscough, prevailed on his sister, Sir Isaac's mother, to send him to the university for the completion of his studies. So much was he engrossed by this noble science from the first, that he had its elements, not from Euclid which he deigned not to consult, but from nature, which endowed him with such an original cast of mind as raised him above all the forms of art.

The figure he made at Trinity-College, Cambridge, under the famous Dr. Barrow is well known. This great man soon perceived the transcendent intellect of his young pupil, and had the magnanimity to make it as public as possible. The invincible modesty of Sir Isaac, but for the care and attention of his masterly tutor, might have kept his talents long hid from the world, and in some degree useless. But Dr. Barrow seemed insensible to his own worth, in proportion as he was alive to that of Sir Isaac; he resigned the professorship of mathematics in his favour, and was many ways instrumental in bringing him forward.

There is not a trace of imitation or servility in any of his works. He gives to the public nothing but what is his own. He thought always for himself; and enlightened

the world, only from the resource of his own mind, almost unaided by the labours of his predecessors. And whatever engaged his faculties, struck him in a new light and derived from his genius somewhat like a new form.

It has often been observed of superior minds, that their merit is tarnished and obscured by the pride and arro gance that accompany them. To this weakness of our nature, Sir Isaac was an eminent exception. Few men ever possessed such speculative powers, and no man was ever less proud of his distinctions. The humility of his temper was equal to his superiority of intellect. No accident or provocation ever betrayed him into rashness or temerity. The innate meekness of his nature resisted every temptation to intemperance and never forsook him. And he was not more great in the exertion of his uncommon powers, than in the perfect command of his passions. His mind was as much the seat of virtue as of genius, Always cool and collected, he listened to others with patience, committed himself on nothing beyond the bounds of moderation, and never once discovered in speech or demeanour, the least propensity to dispute or dictate. He had none of that silly captious malignity which usually tinctures little fastidious cankered minds, his good-nature surmounted all the cross occurrences of life, he retained to the last the simplicity of a child, and the purity of his heart, as well as his serenity of intellect, proved ultimately unconquerable,

The humble tenement where this illustrious man first drew breath, is a simple farm-house in the village of Woolsthorpe, consisting of a few messuages of equal simplicity, about half a mile west of Collersworth, on the great north road between Stamford and Grantham, known to every peasant in these parts. And he breathed his last in that agreeable part of Kensington, called Pitt's Buildings. His academic time was spent in Trinity-College, Cambridge, where some of his apparatus still remain; and his apartments are even now mentioned to strangers with a degree of laudable exultation. Here he made many of his discoveries, composed most of his works, and enjoyed the intimacy of his tutor and friend, the celebrated Doctor Bentley, so noted for his critical talents, and profound literature. It was said, Sir Isaac availed himself of the doctor's Latinity, and the doctor of Sir Isaac's physical theories, and that the publications of both were benefited by their mutual assistance,

Sir Isaac's town-house, where he occasionally resided, was in St. Martin's Street, in the corner of Long's Court, Leicester-Fields. Here may still be seen a small observatory which he had erected on the roof for the conveniency of his studies. The same house was also occupied by Dr. Burney, a celebrated master of music, an elegant writer, and the father of Dr. Burney, the academician of Greenwich, universally deemed one of the best Greek scholars in England.

Sir Isaac's paternal inheritance, with all his improvements, fell to the share of his second cousin Robert Newton, a low illiterate man, who being also dissolute and extravagant, soon dissipated the whole, dying at Collersworth about the 30th year of his age, by a tobacco-pipe breaking in his throat, in a fall occasioned by ebriety.

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DESULTORY NOTES &c, ON THE ESSAY ON THE NILE.

If the Bahar el Azergue was not the Nile of Ptolemy, or the Arabic geographers led or misled by his authority, the Bahar el Abiad has as little claim to that honour. .. If the knowledge of these geographers was founded on observation, or derived from the inhabitants of interior Africa, it can apply only to the two great rivers Joliba (improperly in the essay called Jollabola) and Senegal, since these only will correspond to the description of the great streams flowing in opposite directions from the Jibbel Kumri or Mountains of the Moon. Indeed the similarity betwixt these and the descriptions of certain ancient geographers, will induce many to suppose, that the writers had derived information from the inhabitants of the western part of Africa, to have availed themselves of their accounts, and to have supposed the river flowing eastward to be the Nile. The Joliba and Senegal flow from a vast range of hills at no great distance from each other, and both I believe have lakes, at least marshes, at or very near their source, The Joliba, improperly, in that case, termed the Niger, flows N. E, and certainly forms most immense lakes, perfectly corresponding to those into which the Nile was said to flow. Large towns, and various tribes, are scattered throughout all its banks. The Senegal, as has been already stated, rises from or nigh to the same range of hills; it takes a course opposite to that of the Joliba, and discharges itself into the

Atlantic ocean, near Cape Verd. This river therefore must be the Niger of those geographers; indeed no other African stream can be found so suitable to the descriptions of this river. Nay, what seems to put the point beyond doubt, is the very important fact, that the name of this river was and is to this day in the language of the inhabitants" the Black River." It is well known, that Arabian geographers describe towns as situated on the banks of the Niger, which are only to be found on this river.

If the Senegal therefore was the Niger, then the river Joliba must be the Nile of Ptolemy, at least of those geographers who followed him. I am convinced that it was from some information picked up froin the natives regarding the sources of the Senegal and Joliba, and from supposing the latter to be the Nile, that have flowed all those accounts of the Mountains of the Moon; the two great rivers flowing from the same lake to the ocean and Mediterranean; and those other fables respecting the source of the Nile so abundant in geographical writings coeval with and after the age of Ptolemy.

Horneman asserts, and it is still alledged in Africa, that the Joliba communicates with the Bahar el Abiad. If this were true, we must look for the source of the Nile near two thousand miles westward of Abyssinia, and not eastward of Alexandria, as was imagined by all ancient writers. But in fact the Joliba neither has nor can have any connection with the Bahar el Abiad, which rises in or near Dar Fur, in a mountainous region, where are neither lakes nor other great rivers running westward. If therefore the Bahar el Azergue was not the Nile of the ancients, neither was or could be the river of Dar Fur : the Joliba of Park and the Senegal must be the Nile and Niger of some writers. I think it clear that the Joliba must have been the river mentioned by Herodotus and described to him, &c. &c. notwithstanding the gross, illiberal, impertinent remarks of the French translator, and the vulgar brutal abuse of Mr. Bruce by a dull German, named, I think, Hartman.

Note 2. Bruce's Travels, (2d edition), have been most ably edited by a gentleman of Edinburgh, of the name of Murray, who has corrected many errors, and added much valuable and important information regarding oriental literature, history, &c. to that communicated by Bruce. It is (2d edition) in many respects, one of the very best edited works of modern times-would that

the learned editor had made a little more free with his author's text!! Still it is covered, in many places, with deformed specks. Many instances of this night be adduced, but I have not the book at hand. I recollect, however, that in the voyage up the Nile from Cairo, there are gross inaccuracies, owing in all probability to Bruce having (a thing not unusual with travellers) condensed into one journey the events of other and subsequent journies. He corrects an author respecting the scite I think of Dendera, who was perfectly in the right. In the journey from Masnah too, and that from Gondar homewards, are many inaccuracies. The editor has given a dissertation on the Nile, in which he thoroughly vindicates Bruce from the abuse of Pinkerton, Hartman, and their crew.

Note 3. It is a melancholy fact, that from Tombuctoo, to Dar Fur, between twenty and thirty degrees of longitude, a space containing various great states, numerous and large cities, and fertile territories swarming with inhabitants; these countries too abounding in a great variety of the richest articles of cominerce, and connected by a vast navigable river or rivers, perfectly fitting them for a great inland trade; it is, I say, a melancholy consideration that all those vast regions are unknown, many of them even by name, in Europe. Yet frequent caravans yearly cross over all this country to the Red Sea, Mecca, and even much farther, from the most western limits of Africa. Notwithstanding the exertions, truly praiseworthy, of the African Association, I fear a long period must elapse, before we shall attain a thorough knowledge of those remote states and countries. The undertaking is not I think either impracticable, or even very dangerous, if prosecuted with ardour, circumspection, and propriety. Why do the European travellers, always announce, that they are, nay even seem to plume themselves upon being Christians? this too among people mortal enemies to the very name :-to load themselves with articles to these people of incalculable value, though perfectly acquainted with their avarice and rapacity? in a word, to conduct themselves among nations of rude barbarous Africans as Europeans would do while making a tour of pleasure? Surely people can be found, who have perseverance enough to acquire thoroughly the Janguage to restrict themselves to the simple habit, fare, and accommodation of the rudest natives of Africa. Such individuals, to promote useful knowledge, and the

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