"The following hort Letter to Lord Afhburton, written a few weeks after his embarkation, may not be unacceptable to the reader.

"SIR WILLIAM JONES to LORD ASHBURTON.

* April 27, 1783. "Your kind letter found me on board the Crocodile; I thould have been very unhappy had it miffed me, fince I have long habituated myself to fet the highest value on every word you speak, and every line you write. Of the two enclosed letters to our friends, Impey and Chambers, I will take the greatest care, and will punctually follow your directions as to the first of them. My departure was fudden indeed; but the Admiralty were fo anxious for the failing of this frigate, and their orders were fo peremptory, that it was impoffible to wait for any thing but a breez Our voyage has hitherto been tolerably pleafant; and, fince we left the Channel, very quick. We begin to fee albicores about the fhip, and to perceive an agreeable change of climate. Our days, though fhort, give me ample time for - ftudy, recreation, and exercife; but my joy and delight proceed from the furprising health and fpirits of Anna Maria, who joins me in affectionate remembrance to Lady Ashburton. As to you, my dear Lord, we confider you as the fpring and fountain of our happinefs, as the author and parent (a Roman would have added what the coldness of our northern language will hardly admit) the god of our fortunes, It is poffible indeed, that by inceffant labour, and irkfome attendance at the bar, Inight in due time have attained all that my very limited ambition could aspire to; but in no other station than that which I owe to your friendship, could I have gratified at once my boundless curiofity concerning the people of the Eaft, continued the exercife of my profeflion, in which I fincerely delight, and enjoyed at the fame time the comforts of domestic life. The grand jury of Denbighfhire have found, I understand, the bill against the Dean of St. Afaph, for publishing my dialogue; but, as an indictment for a theoretical effay on government was I believe never before known, I have no apprehenfion for the confequences. As to the doctrines in the tract, though I fhall certainly not preach them to the Indians, who mult and will be governed by abfolute power; yet I fhall go through life with a perfuafion, that they are just and rational, that fubftantial freedom is both the daughter and parent of virtue, and that virtue is the only fource of public and private felicity. Farewell." P. 227.

3. Britain Discovered, an Heroic Poem on the Conftitution of England. Machinery, Hindu Gods

Model-Plato.

6. Letters. Model Demofthenes and Plato.

12th July, 1783. Crocodile Frigate."

In

In December, 1783, he entered upon his judicial functions, and almost immediately became principally inftrumental in founding the Afiatic Society, of which he was himself the most fplendid ornament. For his literary purfuits, attainments, and productions, we muft, from this period, look to the Annals of this Society, and to his correfpondence with the moft illuftrious characters of India, which is here introduced. We now come to the melancholy part, in which the biographer records the laft fcene of his friend's life, which is thus reprefented.

"I now turn to the laft fcene of the life of Sir William Jones. The few months allotted to his existence after the departure of Lady Jones were devoted to his ufual occupations, and more particularly to the difcharge of that duty which alone detained him in India, the completion of the digeft of Hindu and Mahommedan law. But neither the confeioufnels of acquitting himself of an obligation which he had voluntarily contracted, nor his inceffant affiduity, could fill the vacuity occafioned by the abfence of her, whofe fociety had fweetened the toil of application, and cheered his hours of relaxation. Their habits were congenial, and their purfuits in fome refpects fimilar: his botanical researches were facilitated by the eyes of Lady Jones, and by her talents in drawing; and their evenings were generally paffed together, in the perufal of the best modern authors in the different Janguages of Europe. After her departure, he mixed more in promifcuous fociety; but his affections were tranfported with her to his native country.

"On the evening of the 20th of April, or nearly about that date, after prolonging his walk to a late hour, during which he had imprudently remained in converfation, in an unwhole fome fituation, he called upon the writer of thefe fheets and complained of agueish fymptoms, mentioning his intention to take fome medicine, and repeating jocularly an old proverb, that an ague in the fpring is medicine for a king". He had no fufpicion at the time of the real nature of his indifpofition, which proved in fact to be a complaint common in Bengal, an inflammation in the liver. The diforder was, however, foon difcovered, by the penetration of the phy fician, who, after two or three days, was called in to his affiftance: but it had then advanced too far to yield to the efficacy of the medicines ufually prefcribed, and they were adminiftered in vain. The progrefs of the complaint was uncommonly rapid, and terminated fatally on the 27th of April, 1794. On the morning of that day, his attendants, alarmed at the evident fymptoms of approaching diffolution, came precipitately to call the friend who has now the melancholy tafk of recording the mournful event: not a moment was loft in repairing to his houfe. He was lying on his bed in a pofture of meditation; and the only fymptom of remaining life was a fall degree of motion in the heart, which after a few feconds ceafed, and he expired without a pang or groan. His bodily fuffering, from the complacency of his features, and the cafe of his attitude, could not have been fevere; and his mind

mutt

must have derived confolation from those fources where he had been in the habit of feeking it, and where alone in our last moments it can ever be found.

"The deep regret which I felt at the time, that the apprehenfions of the attendants of Sir William Jones had not induced them to give me earlier notice of the extremity of his fituation, is not yet oblite rated. It would have afforded me an opportunity of performing the pleafing but painful office, of foothing his laft moments; and I fhould have felt the fincerelt gratification in receiving his lateft commands; for would it have been lefs fatisfactory to the public, to have known the dying fentiments and behaviour of a man, who had fo long and defervedly enjoyed fo large a portion of their esteem and admiration.

"An anecdote of Sir William Jones, upon what authority I know not, has been recorded, that immediately before his diffolution, he retired to his closet, and expired in the act of adoration to his Creator. Such a circumstance would have been conformable to his prevailing habits of thinking and reflection, but it is not founded in fact: he died upon his bed, and in the fame room in which he had remained from the commencement of his indifpofition.

"The funeral ceremony was performed on the following day with the honours due to his public ftation; and the numerous attendance of the most refpectable British inhabitants of Calcutta evinced their forrow for his lofs, and their respect for his memory.

"If my fuccefs in deferibing the life of Sir William Jones has been proportionate to my wishes, and to my admiration of his character, any attempt to delineate it must now be fuperfluous. I cannot, however, refilt the impulfe of recapitulating in fubitance what has been particularly detailed in the course of this work."

1.

"In the short space of forty-feven years, by the exertion of rare intellectual talents, he acquired a knowledge of arts, fciences, and languages, which has feldom been equalled, and perhaps never farpaffed. If he did not attain the critical proficiency of a Porfon or Parr in Grecian literature; yet his knowledge of it was most extenfive and profound, and entitled him to a high rank in the first clafs of fcholars, while as a philologift he could boast an univerfality in which he had no rival. His skill in the idioms of India, Persia, and Arabia has perhaps never been equalled by any European; and his compofitions on Oriental fubjects difplay a taste which we feldom find in the writings of those who had preceded him in these tracts of literature. The language of Conftantinople was alfo familiar to him, and of the Chinese characters and tongue he had learned enough to enable him to tranflate an ode of Confucius. In the modern dialects of Europe, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguete, and German, he was thoroughly converfant, and had perufed the most admired writers in those languages. I might extend the lift by fpecifying other dialects which he understood, but which he had lefs perfectly ftudied.

"But mere philology was never confidered by Sir William Jones as the end of his ftudies, nor as any thing more than the medium through which knowledge was to be acquired: he knew that "words were the daughters of earth, and things the fons of heaven," and

would

would have difdained the character of a mere linguift. In the little fketch of a treatise on education, which has been inserted in thele Memoirs, he defcribes the ufe of language, and the neceflity of atquiring the languages of thofe people who in any period of the world have been distinguished by their fuperior knowledge, in order to add to our own refearches the accumulated wifdom of all ages and nations, Accordingly, with the keys of learning in his poffeffion, he was qualified to unlock the literary hoards of ancient and modern times, and to difplay the treasures deposited in them, for the use, entertainment, or infruction of mankind. In the course of his labours we find him elacidating the laws of Athens, India, and Arabia; comparing the philo fophy of the Porch, the Lyceum, and Academy, with the doctrines of the Sufis and Bramins, and by a rare combination of tafte and erudition, exhibiting the mythological fictions of the Hindus in ftrains not unworthy the fublimeft Grecian bards. In the eleven difcourfes which be addreffed to the Afiatic fociety, on the hiftory, civil and natural, the antiquities, arts, fciences, philofophy, and literature of Afia, and on the origin and families of nations, he has difcuffed the fubjects which he profeffed to explain, with a perfpicuity which delights and inftructs, and in a ftyle which never ceafes to please, where his arguments may not always convince. In thefe difquifitions he has more particularly difplayed his profound Oriental learning in illuftrating topics of great importance in the hiftory of mankind; and it is much to be lamented, that he did not live to revife and improve them in Eng, land, with the advantages of accumulated knowledge and undisturbed leifure.

"A mere catalogue of the writings of Sir William Jones would fhew the extent and variety of his erudition; a perufal of them will prove, that it was no lefs deep than miscellaneous. Whatever topic he difcufies, his ideas flow with eafe and perfpicuity; his ftyle is always clear and polished; animated and forcible when his fubject requires it. His philological, botanical, philofophical, aud chronological difquifitions, his hiftorical researches, and even his Perfian grammar, whilst they fix the curiofity and attention of the reader, by the novelty, depth, or importance of the knowledge difplayed in them, always delight by elegance of diction. His compofitions are never dry, tedious, nor difguiting; and literature and science come from his hands, adorned with all their grace and beauty.

No writer perhaps ever difplayed fo much learning, with fo little affectation of it. Inftead of overwhelming his readers with perpetual quotations from ancient and modern authors, whofe ideas or infor mation he adopts, he tranfmutes their fenfe into his own language; and, whilft his compofitions, on this account, have a pleafing uniformity, his lefs learned readers are enabled to reap the fruits of his laborious ftudies." P. 373.

In our progrefs through this work, which we have perused with the trueft fatisfaction, the reader will find all the various publications of Sir William Jones mentioned in their order, and with many fagacious and valuable remarks. It will be perceived that his mind was capacious and profound; his at.~

tainments

tainments various, almost beyond example; he will be seen at one time immerfed in the moft intricate receffes of legal in veftigation; developing the perplexities of philology; in folemn communication with the fages of Greece and Rome exploring the minute difcriminations of the Linnæan Syftem; or playfully folacing himfelf in the bowers of the Mufes. As a lawyer he was profound, as a claffical scholar admirable, as a man of general attainments most elegantly accomplished, as a poet delightful. Of his poetical compofitions, many will here be found published for the first time, and we regret: that we cannot give fome of them admiffion in our page. They will all be read in their place with the molt refined fatisfaction by every lover of poetry.

The noble editor has performed his part well, and produced a volume, which, at the fame that it exhibits an elegant and enduring monument of fincere friendship, will entitle its au thor to an honourable place among those who have promoted and adorned the literature of their country.

ART. II. Philofophical Tranfactions of the Royal Society of London, for the Year 1803, Part II. 4to. 238 pp. G. and W. Nicol. 1803.

THIS

HIS fecond Part of the Philofophical Transactions for the year 1803, contains fix papers, the subjects of which will be fpecified in the following pages.

XI. Account of fome Experiments on the Defcent of the Sap in Trees. By Thomas Andrew Knight, Efq.

Three years ago Mr. Knight prefented to the Royal Society a paper (which is published in the volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions for the year 1801) containing an account of fome experiments on trees, which tended to prove that their fap, having been abforbed by the bark of the root, is carried up by the alburnum or white wood of the root, the trunk, and the branches; that it paffes through what are there called the central veffels, into the fucculent part of the annual fhoot, the leaf-flalk, and the leaf; and that it returns to the bark, through the returning veffels of the leaf-ftalk. His object in the prefent paper is to point out the causes which occafion the defcent of the fap through the bark, and the confequent formation of wood.

"Thefe