his sight was failing, so that he could scarcely distinguish one object from another. He then desired to be laid on his bed, where, with all the tranquillity and fervent piety of a christian, he expired without any pain or struggle, June 4, 1746. Dr. Monro, who pronounced his eulogium at the next meeting of the university, after displaying the acute intellectual powers and extensive learning of his deceased friend, observed that he was still more to be admired for his superior qualities of the heart, for his sincere love of God and men, his convivial benevolence and unaffected piety, and for the warmth and constancy of his friendship.

52

JOHN PICUS, OF MIRANDULA.

THIS illustrious scholar, who adorned his high birth by the most brilliant talents as well as by his pre-eminent virtues, was the son of John Francis Picus, Prince of Mirandula in Italy, and born there February 24, 1463.

He was but an infant when his father died; and the care of his education devolved upon his mother, who provided him with the best masters in every accomplishment which at that period was deemed necessary to form the gentleman and the scholar. His progress in polite learning was such as to surpass the most sanguine expecta

tions of his friends, who were astonished to perceive in a mere child, maturity of judgement, vigour of intellect, and correctness of taste in the composition both of prose and verse, which would have done credit to learned professors.

Such was his quickness of apprehension, that he understood at once; and such the strength of his recollection, that he retained with the greatest ease, all the instructions of his preceptors. Of the powers of his memory, indeed, the most surprising particulars are related. If he heard a poem once cited, he could not only repeat the whole exactly in order without missing a single word, but he could also repeat the same backwards, beginning with the last line, and so on to the first.

Being early designed by his mother for the church, Picus was sent at the age of fourteen, at which age he was well versed in the Latin language, to the university of Bologna to study the pontifical or canon law, which was deemed essential to form the character of an accomplished ecclesiastic.

To this dry and uninteresting study, grounded only on remote customs and obscure traditions, he applied with great patience and perseverance for two. years; thus setting a laudable example of dutiful obedience to parental judgement and partiality, even to the sacrifice of those inclinations which would have led his ardent mind to different and more pleasing pursuits.

During this period he composed an abbreviated digest of the pontifical letters or decrees of the popes, so well

arranged as to furnish an expeditious mode of deducing from these confused authorities the necessary conclusions.

But the vigorous and speculating mind of Picus was not to be confined to such narrow acquirements. Anxious to grasp all those branches of science. which in a great measure constituted the learning of the age in which he lived, he quitted Bologna, and visited the most celebrated universities of Italy and France, where he courted the acquaintance of every individual scholar and professor of distinction, with whom he entered into minute conversations, for the sake of acquiring knowledge: so that, before he had attained the years of manhood, he was no less universally than deservedly recognised as a most consummate philosopher and divine.