in India, to devote himself more especially to oriental learning, he extended his researches a great way even beyond these ample limits. In addition to the tongues already enumerated, he made himself not only master of Sanscrit, as well as less completely of Hindostanee and Bengalee, but to a considerable extent also of the other Indian dialects, called the Tibetian, the Pâli, the Phalavi, and the Deri; to which are to be added, among the languages which he describes himself to have studied least perfectly, the Chinese, Russian, Runic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Coptic, Dutch, Swedish, and Welsh.

It is only when an individual commences the study of foreign languages in his maturer years, that we are entitled to quote him as an example of the peculiar sort of perseverance and intrepidity we are at present considering. Thus the old Roman, CATO the Censor, in all respects an extraordinary man, showed his force of character very strikingly, by setting himself to learn Greek in his old age. The study of that language was as yet very rare at Rome; and this makes the determination of Cato, and his success, the more remarkable. In so far as his native literature was concerned, Cato was before this one of the most learned of his countrymen; but he certainly had never experienced what it was to study a foreign language till now. Our own ALFRED THE GREAT-one of the most perfect characters in history-affords us a still more illustrious example of what may be done by those who are not only advanced in life before they have an opportunity of acquiring what is commonly called learning, but even by those whose most elementary education has been begun comparatively late. An interesting anecdote is told of Alfred's first acquaintance with books. His mother, it is said, had shown him and his brothers a small volume of Saxon poetry, illuminated or adorned in different places with coloured letters, and other such embellishments, as was then the fashion. Seeing it excite the admiration of the children, she promised she would give it to him who should first learn the verses by heart. Alfred, although the youngest, was the only one of the four, perhaps, who had spirit even to attempt getting possession of the prize on such conditions-at least, it was he who actually won it; for he immediately, we are told, went and procured a teacher, that is, apparently, some one to read the poetry to him till he had learned it, and in this way, in a very short time, he was enabled to perform the task set him by his mother, and to claim the promised reward. At this time he cannot have been more than four years old; for at that early age he lost his mother. It was not till long afterwards that he found it possible to extend his acquirements beyond the mere elements of book knowledge. The miseries to which his kingdom was for so many years exposed from the invasion of the Danes, and the incessant labours and privations to which he was in consequence compelled to submit, left him no leisure, till he had passed at least the twentieth

Cato-Alfred the Great-Moliere.

45 year of his age, to improve his acquaintance with books; and even after he had regained his throne, and re-established his country in peace and independence, he had nearly as many impediments to contend with from the extreme difficulty of procuring the necessary instructors. Nearly all those possessed of any degree of learning had disappeared, or been destroyed, during the late confusions. He himself states, that when he came to the throne, he knew but few priests in the northern part of the kingdom, and not one to the south of the Thames, who could translate the Latin prayers of the Church service. By searching about, however, in all directions, and sending to foreign countries for what his own could not supply, he at last collected at his court some of the ablest men whom that dark age afforded; and he set himself immediately to profit by their instructions, with a docility and zeal that can never be enough admired. In spite of all his public duties and cares, and a tormenting disease, which scarcely ever left him a moment of rest, it was his custom, we are told, day and night, to employ his whole leisure time either in reading books himself or in having them read to him by others. Still, however, although he used to have such Latin books as he could procure interpreted to him by his learned friends, his native language was long the only one he knew. According to the interesting biography attributed to Bishop Asser, one of his instructors, he had reached his thirtyninth year before he began to attempt translating anything from the Latin tongue himself. He and Asser, we are informed, were one day conversing together as usual, when, the latter taking occasion to introduce a quotation from a particular author, the king was so much struck with the passage, that he desired it might be immediately inscribed on one of the blank leaves of a small religious manual, which he was wont to carry about with him in his bosom. This became the commencement of a collection of favourite sentences from the Latin writers, which Alfred, ever aspiring after excellence, soon became ambitious to be able to peruse himself: and so proceeded at once to the acquirement of the language in which they were written. In no long time he attained to a great proficiency in his new study, as several translations from Latin authors which he has left behind him sufficiently testify. Among these are a version of Boethius's "Consolations of Philosophy," which he has rendered exceedingly interesting, by the introduction into the original work of many new ideas and illustrations of his own; another of Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of the English ;" and another of Orosius's "Ancient History and Geography," in which he inserts a very curious account of a voyage made in that age towards the North Pole by two Norwegians, which he expressly states he had heard from the lips of the navigators themselves.

The celebrated French dramatist, MOLIERE, could only read and write very indifferently when he was fourteen years of age. It had been in

tended that he should follow the profession of his father, who was an upholsterer; but upon being taken on one occasion, about the time we have mentioned, by his uncle to the theatre, his passion for literature was so much excited, that he would hear of nothing but going to college, to which he was accordingly soon after sent. Another well-known French writer, SAINTE PALAYE, the author of the "History of the Troubadours," had, from the delicacy of his health, been so much indulged by his mother, that he had been allowed to pass his fifteenth year before beginning either Greek or Latin; but his progress afterwards was so rapid, that he abundantly made up for the time he had lost. Dr. CARTER, the father of the celebrated Miss Carter, had been originally intended for a grazier, and only began his studies at the age of nineteen or twenty. He eventually, however, became a distinguished scholar; and he was so enthusiastically attached to literature, that he gave his daughters too a learned education. Valeriano Bolzani, who lived in the earlier part of the sixteenth century, and is better known by the Latinized name of JOANNES PIERIUS VALERIANUS (the epithet Pierius having been given him by one of his masters, in allusion to the Greek term Pierides, one of the names of the Muses), was fifteen years old before he began to learn to read; his parents, indeed, having been so poor, that he was obliged to commence life as a domestic servant. He afterwards became one of the most learned and elegant scholars of his time, and wrote many books, several of which are still well known and esteemed, particularly a curious treatise on the misfortunes of literary men, which has been often reprinted; the last edition having been brought out at Geneva, in 1821, under the care of our countryman, Sir Egerton Brydges. Valerianus merits particular commemoration in literary history on another account -for his disinterestedness, namely, in twice refusing a bishopric, when pressed upon his acceptance by his patron, Pope Clement VII., in order that he might devote himself entirely to literature. The famous Dutch poet, JoosT VAN DEN VONDEL, whose works fill nine quarto volumes, commenced learning Latin only in his twenty-sixth year, and Greek not till some years afterwards. Vondel, like many of the other literary men of Holland, had begun life as a commercial man, and originally kept a hosier's shop at Amsterdam; but he gave up the management of his business to his wife when he commenced his career as an author. He died in extreme old age in 1679, having occupied, during a great part of his life, the very highest place in the literature of his country. The French mathematician, HENRY PITOT, the author of several ingenious works, and particularly of a treatise on the management of vessels at sea, which was long adopted by the French Government as the textbook for the instruction of the navy, and, being translated into English, procured the writer the honour of admission into the Royal Society, had

reached his twentieth year before he began to pay attention to learning. About this period of his life, when he used to spend his time only in idleness and dissipation, he chanced one day, upon going into a bookseller's shop, to open a volume on geometry, the figures in which attracted his attention, and excited his curiosity so much, that he determined to study the work. This was the beginning of his fondness both for mathematics and for reading; and he soon grew so much attached to his new occupation, that he abandoned his old habits entirely, and now spent every hour in study, or in watching the stars, by means of instruments of his own invention, from the top of an old tower in his father's house. This mode of employing his time obtained for him, at first, it is related, among his ignorant and astonished neighbours, the reputation of being a magician. He was afterwards sent by his father to complete his studies at Paris, where he was introduced to Réaumur, the celebrated naturalist (whose work on insects is still one. of the most philosophical guides to the student of entomology), and the inventor of the thermometer known by his name; and he soon became, under Réaumur's guidance, an adept in the different departments of his favourite science. It is a curious circumstance, however, and shows at once his ardour in the pursuit of knowledge, and the penalty he was long afterwards obliged to pay for his early negligence, that he actually submitted, when more than fifty years old, to take his first lessons in Latin from his son's tutor, in order to be able to read some mathematical works written in that language, which he wished to consult.

Another French mathematician, the ingenious PAUCTON, whose "Metrology," or treatises on weights and measures, although first published more than half a century ago, is still considered one of the most valuable extant, had, owing to the poverty of his parents, scarcely received any education at all, till after he had reached his eighteenth year. He was at last noticed by a charitable ecclesiastic, who gave him lessons for about two years; after which he completed his studies at Nantes. Paucton eventually obtained the professorship of mathematics at Strasburg; but his labours here must have been but indifferently recompensed, for when the city was threatened with a blockade by the Austrians, and the magistrates had issued orders that every inhabitant who could not supply himself beforehand with a sufficient store of provisions for the siege, should quit the place, Paucton, being too poor to afford the necessary outlay, was obliged to take his departure with his wife and three children. He was afterwards, however, patronised by the French Government; and had the prospect of passing his latter days in comfortable circumstances, when he died, in 1768, at the age of sixty-two. We shall at present mention only another example. JOHN OGILBY, the well-known translator of Homer, was originally a dancing-master. He had apprenticed himself to that profession on finding himself re

duced to depend upon his own resources, by the imprisonment of his father for debt in the King's Bench. Having succeeded in this pursuit, he was very soon able to release his father, which he did, very much to his credit, with the first money he procured. An accident, however, put an end to his dancing, and he was left again without any permanent means of subsistence. In these circumstances, the first thing he did was to open a small theatre in Dublin; but just when he had fairly established it, and had reason to hope that it would succeed, the rebellion of 1641 broke out, and not only swept away all his little property, but repeatedly put even his life in jeopardy. He at last found his way back to London, in a state of complete destitution: but, although he had never received any regular education, he had before this made a few attempts at verse-making, and in his extremity he bethought him of turning his talent in this way, which certainly was not great, to some account. He immediately commenced his studies, which he was enabled to pursue chiefly, it is said, through the liberal assistance of some members of the university of Cambridge; and although then considerably above forty years of age, he made such progress in Latin that he was soon considered in a condition to undertake a poetical translation of Virgil. This work was published in the year 1650. In a very few years a second edition of it was brought out with great pomp of typography and embellishments. Such was its success that the industrious and enterprising translator actually proceeded, although now in his fifty-fourth year, to commence the study of Greek, in order that he might match his version of the Æneid by others of the Iliad and the Odyssey. In due time both appeared; and Ogilby, who had in the meanwhile established himself a second time in Dublin in the management of a new theatre, was in the enjoyment of greater prosperity than ever, when, having unfortunately disposed of his Irish property, and returned to take up his residence in London, just before the great fire of 1666, he was left by that dreadful event once more entirely destitute. With unconquerable courage and perseverance, however, he set to work afresh with his translations and other literary enterprises; and was again so successful as to be eventually enabled to rebuild his house, which had been burned down, and to establish a printing-press; in the employment of which he took every opportunity of indulging that taste for splendid typography to which his first works had owed so much of their success. He was now also appointed cosmographer and geographic printer to Charles II.; and at last, at the age of seventy-six, terminated a life remarkable for its vicissitudes, and not uninstructive as an evidence both of the respectable proficiency in literature which may be acquired by those who begin their education late in life, and also of what may be done by a stout heart and indefatigable activity in repairing the worst injuries of fortune. Ogilby was no great poet, although his translations were very