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ness of his intellect, the fire of his imagination, and the value of his doctrines, has been long settled. It is affirmed, that in the latter part of his life he began to doubt the solidity of metaphysical speculations; and had for that reason turned his thoughts to politics and medicine, as studies of more apparent and immediate utility. The activity, indeed, of his disposition was such, that he not only dealt in the general positions of science, but was also intimately acquainted with the arts and businesses of common life. Mechanic operations, and the processes by which crude materials are ameliorated and manufactured, the maxims of trade, and it's connexion with agriculture were all familiar to him. That his genius was capable of embracing those scenes and emotions, of which the lively conception forms poetical ability, is evident from his animated Letters preserved in the Collection of Pope's Works, as well as from his various compositions in verse. The Utopian romance however, entitled The Adventures of Signor Gaudentio di Lucca,' which is generally attributed to him, was certainly not the production of his pen.

At Cloyne, he constantly rose between three and four o'clock in the morning,* and summoned his family to a lesson on the base-viol by an Italian master, whom he kept in the house for the instruction

"As to myself, by regular living and rising very early, which I find the best thing in the world, I am very much mended: insomuch that, though I cannot read, yet my thoughts seem as distinct as ever. do therefore, for amusement, pass my early hours in thinking of certain mathematical matters, which may possibly produce something." (Letter to Mr. Prior, dated Jan. 7, 1734.)

of his children, though he had himself no ear for music. The rest of the morning, and often a great part of the day, he spent in study: his favourite author, from whom many of his notions were borrowed, was Plato. He left behind him a large, and valuable, collection of books and pictures.

The excellence of his moral character, even if it were less conspicuous in his writings, might be inferred from the blessings with which his memory was followed by the numerous poor* of his neighbourhood,

* One instance of his attention to his poor neighbours may deserve relating. Cloyne, though it gives name to the see, is in fact little better than a village: it is not reasonable, therefore, to expect much ingenuity in it's inhabitants. Yet, whatever article of clothing they could possibly manufacture, the Bishop invariably purchased for his own use; choosing to wear bad clothes, and worse wigs, rather than suffer the poor of the town to remain unemployed.

Thomas Prior, Esq. of that deanery (who followed a similar plan, by publicly recommending the use of linen scarfs at funerals, and whose memorial in his own parish-church is recorded on a slab of Kilkenny marble) having been frequently referred to as his valued correspondent, the following inscription on a cenotaph erected by his friends to his memory in the nave of Christ Church, Dublin, is here inserted. It is from the pen of Dr. Berkeley:

Memoriæ sacrum

THOME PRIOR,

Viri, si quis unquam alius, de patriâ
Optimè meriti:

Qui, cùm prodesse mallet quàm conspici,
Nec in senatum coöptatus,

Nec consiliorum aulæ particeps,
Nec ullo publico munere insignitus,
Rem tamen publicam

Mirificè auxit et ornavit

Auspiciis, consiliis, labore indefesso

as well as from the testimony of his yet-surviving acquaintance, who cannot even to this day speak of him without a degree of enthusiasm abundantly justifying the well-known line of Pope :

"To Berkeley every virtue under heaven."

In 1784, a new edition of his entire works was

Vir innocuus, probus, pius;
Partium studiis minimè addictus,
De re familiari parùm solicitus,
Cùm civium commoda unicè spectaret :
Quicquid vel ad inopia levamen,

Vel ad vitæ elegantiam facit;
Quicquid ad desidiam populi vincendam,
Aut ad bonas artes excitandas pertinet,
Id omne pro virili excoluit ;
Societatis Dubliniensis
Auctor, institutor, curator.
Quæ fecerit,

Pluribus dicere haud refert:
Quorsùm narraret marmor
Illa, quæ omnes nôrunt ;
Illa quæ, civium animis insculpta,

Nulla dies delebit?

This monument was erected to Thomas Prior, Esquire, at the charge of several persons, who contributed to honour the memory of that worthy patriot, to whom his own actions and unwearied endeavours in the service of his country have raised a monument more lasting than marble.

*

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Atterbury once declared, that he did not think so much understanding, so much knowledge, so much innocence, and so much humility had been the portion of any but angels—until he saw Mr. Berkeley.'

His plan for Saving Lives at dangerous Fires,' may be usefully here inserted:

"Into the upper part of a window-frame drive a staple, or screw, in an iron bolt with an eye. Provide two blocks with two or three pulleys in each (which may be had cheap, at any

published at Dublin and in London, in two volumes, 4to.

ship block-maker's). Pass a rope through each pulley, of a length sufficient to reach the ground from the top of the window. Provide also a strong bag or sack, of about four feet deep and eighteen inches wide, with a wooden bottom and a few hoops to keep the sack open, as in a hoop-petticoat. When an unhappy occasion requires the use of these, let the hook of the upper block be hung in the staple: then the party must stand on the wooden bottom, and draw the sack up about them, and hang the string of the sack on the hook of the under block, when any one person may, with the greatest ease and safety, let them down to the street; and drawing up the sack again may, in like manner, let down a whole family, women, children, sick, old, and infirm; and at last lower himself down, by only holding. the same rope in his own hand.

"The most tender and timorous must be convinced of the ease and safety of this operation, by recollecting that it is the very same with that, by which the most delicate ladies when they make a visit on board large ships, without any danger are hoisted up in a chair from their boat, and replaced there again."

104

MAJOR-GENERAL

JAMES WOLFE.

[1726-1759.]

JAMES WOLFE, the son of Lieutenant General Edward Wolfe (an officer of great merit, who had served under the Duke of Marlborough, and was extremely active in suppressing the Scottish rebellion of 1715) was born at Westerham, in Kent, January 11, 1726. It is to be lamented, that we have no memoirs of his juvenile years; for, in the first dawnings of reason, men of genius often discover indications of their future eminence.

He must have been educated for the army almost from his infancy, as mention is made of his personal bravery at the battle of Lafeldt, in Austrian Flanders, fought in 1747, when he was only in the twenty first year of his age. We are not told, what rank he held at that time; but by the Duke of Cumberland, the Commander in Chief, his behaviour was highly extolled. Of the gradations of his rise there exists no accurate information; it is only recorded, that, during the whole war, he was present at every engagement, and never passed undistinguished. His promotion, however, must have been deservedly rapid; as he became Lieutenant Colonel of Kingsley's regi

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