and univerfity at Dublin; which was soon after confented to by her majefty; and, being perfected, hath ever fince continued a famous nursery for learning and good manners.

His uncle, by the father's fide, was Henry Ufher, fometime archbishop of Armagh, a wife and learned prelate. His uncle, by the mother's fide, was Richard Stanihurft, a learned man, of the Romish perfuafion, an excellent hiftorian, philofopher, and poet, as appears by several of his works ftill extant; though fome of them, for that reason, written against his nephew; yet, notwithstanding their difference in judgment, they had frequent correfpondences by letters.

He often mentioned two of his aunts, who were blind from their cradle, and fo continued to their deaths, and yet were bleffed with admirable underftandings and inspection in 1 matters of religion; and of fuch tenacious memories, that whatever they heard read out of the fcriptures, or was preached to them, they always retained; and became fuch profici ents, that they were able to repeat much of the Bible by heart, and were the firft that taught Ufher to read English.

He had but one brother, Ambrofe Ufher, who, though he died young, yet attained to great kill and perfection in the Oriental tongues; and rendered much of the Old Testament, from the original Hebrew, into English before king James's tranflation was made. He also tranflated out of the Latin VOL. VI.

H

into

into English, that book written by his brother Mr. James Ufher, De Ecclefiarum Chriftianarum fucceffione et ftatu; which translation is yet only in manuscript and of this Ambrofe, being a very young man, the learned Mr. William Fyre, in a letter to Dr. James Ufher, writes thus: "Interea vero ægnofco me valde obæratum effe tibi, et doctifimo juweni, fratri tua Ambrofio, qui peritiffima manu fue quædam in meum ufum ex Alcorano Arabice excripfit:" which knowledge in the Arabic tongue, in those days, was very rare, efpecially in that country. But our James Ufher, as God had furnished him with excellent endowments of nature, a tractable difpofition, a ftrong memory, and a ready invention; fo, by God's bleffing, on his improve ment of them, by his learning and industry, he arrived to that admirable perfection that gave him a reputation fuperior to all that he could derive from his family; and rendered his name famous beyond the narrow bounds of his own country, even throughout the Chriftian world, wherever true piety and ufeful learning were held in any esteem and veneration.

After he had learned to read of his aunts, he entered on the Bible (that book of books, as he ever called it) in which he made a happy beginning, and a more happy progrefs. When he became fit for a grammar-fchool, it happened that two eminent perfons of the Scottish nation (tho' their business and quality were then

unknown

unknown) came to Dublin, being fent over thither by king James (then king of Scotland) to keep a correfpondence with the English proteftant nobility and gentry about Dublin, in order to fecure his intereft in that kingdom, when queen Elizabeth fhould come to die; thefe, for a colour, undertook the employment of schoolmasters to inftruct and difcipline youth in learning and good education (for the want of fuch was very great there at that time). The one was James Fullerton; (afterward knighted, and of the bed chamber to king James,) the other was James Hamilton, (afterward alfo knighted and created by the king viscount Clandebois). To their inftruction and tuition was our James Ufher committed by his parents, with whom he made fo great a proficiency in a fhort time, that he be came the best scholar of the school for Latin, poetry and rhetoric (all this being within the fpace of five years).

He would ufually fay, when he recounted the providences of God towards him, That he took this for one remarkable instance of it, That he had the opportunity and advantage of his education from thofe men, who came thither by chance, and yet proved fo happily ufeful to himself and others. In this firft fcene of his life he was extremely addicted to poetry, and much delighted with it, but afterwards growing to more maturity and confideration, he fhook it off, as not fuitable to the great end of his more refolved, ferious, and profitaH 2

ble

ble ftudies; and then fet himfelf industriously to purfue learning of a higher nature: yet he always loved a good poem that was well and chaftely writ and lighting once upon a paffage in Tully, viz. "Nefcire quid antea quam natus fis acciderit, id eft, femper effe Pucrum ;" and also reading Sleidan's history of the four empires, he prefently refolved on the ftudy and fearch of antiquity, and all forts of learning, and how he might contribute to the advancement thereof: this was a brave and a manly attempt for a lad, but of twelve or thirteen years of age; yet as he attempted, fo he conquered all the difficulties which he met with in the fearch after, and bringing to light thofe many things, which ignorance had corrupted, and time well-nigh buried in oblivion; efpecially in a country where there was then fo great a fcarcity of good books, and learned men.

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In the year 1593 was Trinity-college in Dublin finished, and James Ufher, then in the thirteenth year of his age, adjudged by his fchool-mafters fufficiently qualified for an admittance into that univerfity; and fo was entered accordingly: Dr. Loftus (fometime fellow of Trinity-college in Cambridge) afterwards archbishop of Dublin, being first provoft of that college, and Mr. Hamilton was one of our Ufher's school-masters, fenior fellow, and tutor to this early ripe youth; whofe name (as the firft fcholar there) ftands to this day in the first line of the

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