tions from Sophocles, Theocritus, and Horace. If the
encouragement of Dr. Sumner had not been overruled by the dissuasion of
his more cautious friends, he would have committed to the press his
Greek and Latin compositions, among which was a Comedy in imitation of
the style of Aristophanes, entitled Mormo. Like many other lads whose
talents have unfolded in all their luxuriance under the kindness of an
indulgent master, he experienced a sudden chill at his first
transplantation into academic soil. His reason was perplexed amid the
intricacies of the school logic, and his taste revolted by the barbarous
language that enveloped it.

On the 31st of October he was unanimously elected to one of the four
scholarships founded by Sir Simon Bennet. But as he had three seniors,
his prospect of a fellowship was distant; and he was anxious to free his
mother from the inconvenience of contributing to his support. His
disgust for the University, however, was fortunately not of long
continuance. The college tutors relieved him from an useless and irksome
attendance on their lectures, and judiciously left the employment of his
time at his own disposal. He turned it to a good account in perusing the
principal Greek historians and poets, together with the whole of Lucian
and of Plato; writing notes, and exercising himself in imitations of his
favourite authors as he went on. In order to facilitate his acquisition
of the Arabic tongue, more particularly with regard to its
pronunciation, he engaged a native of Aleppo, named Mirza, whom he met
with in London, to accompany him to Oxford, and employed him in
re-translating the Arabian Nights' Entertainments into their original
language, whilst he wrote out the version himself as the other dictated,
and corrected the inaccuracies by the help of a grammar and lexicon. The
affinity which he discovered between this language and the modern
Persian, induced him to extend his researches to the latter dialect; and
he thus laid the foundation of his extraordinary knowledge in oriental
literature.

During the vacations he usually resorted to London, where he was
assiduous in his attendance on the schools of Angelo, for the sake of
accomplishing himself in the manly exercises of fencing and riding; and,
at home, directed his attention to modern languages; and familiarised
himself with the best writers in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese:
"thus," he observed, "with the fortune of a peasant, he gave himse