VI

Account of the e i f e and

Glafgow, and of which he always fpoke in termsof the warmeft admiration, had, it may be rea-fonably prefumed, a confiderable elfe cl in dire£linghis talents to their proper objefls.

I have not been able to colle£l any informationwith refpedl to that part of his youth which wasfpent in England. I have heard him fay, that heemployed himfelf frequently in the practice oftranflation, (particularly from the French, ) witha view to the improvement of his own ftyle : andhe tiled often to exp refs a favorable opinion ofthe utility of fuch exereifes, to all who cultivatethe art of compofition. 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 fk.ilb as a translator, arefufficient to Ihow 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 greateft care the ftudyof languages. The knowledge he poffeffed of thefe,both ancient and modern, was uncommonly ex-tensive and accurate5 and, in him, was subser-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 conversant with the