VI

Account of the life and

Glafgow, and of which he always fpoke in termsol the warmeft admiration j had, it may be rea-fonahly prefumed, a confiderable effect in direftinghis talents to their proper objects.

I have not been able to col left any informationwith refpeft to that part of his youth which wasfpent in England. I have heard him fay, that heemployed htmfelf frequently in the praftice oftranflation, (particularly from the French, ) witha view to the improvement of his own ftyle-. andhe ufed often to exprefs a favorable opinion ofthe utility of fueh exercifes, to all who cultivatethe art of eompofition. It is much to be regret-ted, that none of his juvenile attempts in this wayhave been preferved; as the few fpecimens whichhis writings contain of his Ikill as a tranflator, arefufficient to fhow the eminence he had attained ina walk of literature, which, in our country, hasbeen fo little frequented by men of genius.

It was probably alfo at this period of'his life,that he cultivated with the greatefl care the ftudyof languages. The knowledge he polfelfed of thefe,both ancient and modern, was uncommonly ex-tenfive and accurate; and, in him, was fubfer-vient, not to a vain parade of taftelefs erudition,but to a familiar acquaintance with every thingthat could illuftrate the inftitutions, the manners,and the ideas of different ages and nations. Howintimately he had once been converfant with the