scovery of Britain by the
Prince of Tyre. The suggestion and advice of his friends, who thought
that abilities and attainments like his required a more extensive sphere
of action than was afforded him by the discharge of his duties as a
private tutor, strengthened, probably, by a consciousness of his own
power, induced him to relinquish that employment, and henceforward to
apply himself to the study and practice of the law. An almost
enthusiastic admiration of the legal institutions of his own country, a
pure and ardent zeal for civil liberty, and an eminent independence and
uprightness of mind, were qualifications that rendered this destination
of his talents not less desirable in a public view, than it was with
reference to his individual interests. He accordingly entered himself a
member of the Temple, on the 19th of September, 1770. To faculties of so
comprehensive a grasp, the abandonment of his philological researches
was not indispensable for the successful prosecution of his new pursuit.
Variety was perhaps even a necessary aliment of his active mind, which
without it might have drooped and languished. Indeed, the cultivation of
eastern learning eventually proved of singular service to him in his
juridical capacity.

In 1771 he published in French a pamphlet in answer to Anquetil du
Perron's Attack on the University of Oxford, in the discourse prefixed
to his "Zind-Avesta;" and entered on "A History of the Turks," the
introduction to which was printed, but not made public till after his
death. He had a design to apply for the office of minister at
Constantinople, in the event of a termination of the war with Russia,
and looked forward with eagerness to an opportunity of contemplating the
Turkish manners at their source. A small volume of his poems, consisting
chiefly of translations from the Eastern languages, with two prose
dissertations annexed, made their appearance in the following year, when
he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. From the preface to the
poems, it appears that his relish for the Greek and Roman writers had
now returned; and that he justly regarded them as the standard of true
taste. His terms not having been regularly kept in the University,
(where his mother and sister had still continued to reside) he did not
take his degree of Master of Arts till the Easter of 1773. In the
January following he was called to the bar. At the conclusion of the
preface to his Commentaries de Poesi Asia