resolution equal to his abilities, and a spirit
not so depressed and shaken, he determined to break through the
obstacles of poverty, and supply, by diligence, the want of fortune.

He, therefore, asked, and obtained the consent of his guardians, to
prosecute his studies, so long as his patrimony would support him;
and, continuing his wonted industry, gained another prize.

He was now to quit the school for the university, but on account of
the weakness yet remaining in his thigh, was, at his own entreaty,
continued six months longer under the care of his master, the learned
Winschotan, where he was once more honoured with the prize.

At his removal to the university, the same genius and industry met
with the same encouragement and applause. The learned Triglandius, one
of his father's friends, made soon after professor of divinity at
Leyden, distinguished him in a particular manner, and recommended him
to the friendship of Mr. Van Apphen, in whom he found a generous and
constant patron.

He became now a diligent hearer of the most celebrated professors, and
made great advances in all the sciences, still regulating his studies
with a view, principally, to divinity, for which he was originally
intended by his father; and, for that reason, exerted his utmost
application to attain an exact knowledge of the Hebrew tongue.

Being convinced of the necessity of mathematical learning, he began to
study those sciences in 1687, but without that intense industry with
which the pleasure he found in that kind of knowledge, induced him
afterwards to cultivate them.

In 1690, having performed the exercises of the university with
uncommon reputation, he took his degree in philosophy; and, on that
occasion, discussed the important and arduous subject of the distinct
natures of the soul and body, with such-accuracy, perspicuity, and
subtilty, that he entirely confuted all the sophistry of Epicurus,
Hobbes, and Spinosa, and equally raised the characters of his piety
and erudition.

Divinity was still his great employment, and the chief aim of all his
studies. He read the scriptures in their original languages; and when
difficulties occurred, consulted the interpretations of the most
ancient fathers, whom he read in order of time, beginning with Clemens
Romanus.

In the perusal of those early writers [35], he was struck with the
profoundest veneration of the simplicity and purity of their
doctrines, the holiness of their lives, a