The fecond fon, CHARLES BURNEY, LL.D. is mafter of a refpectable academy at Greenwich, and well known in the learned world by his profound knowledge of the Greek language, and his mafterly and claffical criticisms in the Monthly Review.

For many years Doctor BURNEY refided in the house (No. 36, St. Martin's-street, Leiceficr-fields), formerly occupied by Sir Ifaac Newton; during the laft ten, having been appointed organist of Chelseahofpital, he has inhabited an elegant fuit of apartments in that college, and enjoys a handíome independency. He still spends feveral hours every day in his library, which is stored with a great variety of valuable and curious books, many of them collected during his travels.

WILLIAM HERSCHEL, LL.D. F.R.S.

THIS country has the fairest right to enroll the fubject of the prefent article in the number of her ornaments, as his extraordinary abilities have been brought into action, ftrengthened, and properly directed, under the aufpices of the British sovereign.

Dr. William Herschel is a native of Hanover, and was born November 15, 1738. He was the second of four fons, all of whom were brought up to their father's profeffion, which was that of a mufician. In addition to thefe, Mr. Herfchel, fenior, had two daughters; and therefore, being burdened with fo large a family, and in a poor country too, it is not at all a matter of wonder that the education which he

beftowed

bestowed on his children was but fcanty. Finding, however, in William a lively and inquifitive genius, beyond what appeared in the other fons, he gave him the advantage of a French mafter, under whom he made a rapid progrefs in the attainment of that language. Luckily, the tutor had a metaphyfical head, and fo fond was he of his favourite ftudy, as well as thofe branches of fcience which are connected with it, that he was defirous of making his pupil alfo acquainted therewith. From this worthy man young Herschel gained a tolerable knowledge of logic, ethics, and metaphyfics; and his attainments therein excited in his mind a strong and infatiable thirst for learning, with the commendable refolution of exerting himself to the utmost to improve his ftock of intellectual treasures. Thefe, indeed, were all his inheritance, except a musical instrument, and fome manufcript mufic.

With this ftore, unpromifing as it was, our adventurer bade adieu to his native country while the flames of war were fpreading around it, and arrived in London in the year 1759, whither, it is faid, his father and himself accompanied fome Hanoverian troops, as part of their military band of mufic. With thefe the old man returned, leaving the young one behind to try his fortune in England.

Here, he was loft in the crowd of candidates for employment, and we may well fuppofe that his fituation in a strange country, without friends, and in but, indifferent circumftances, must have been both pain

ful and irkfome. Mr. Herfchel, however, had not only a fieady but a virtuous mind. Hereby he was enabled to bear up with fortitude against disappointments, and to perfevere with alacrity in improving himself in an occupation, which hardly feemed to promife him a comfortable fubfiftence.

Finding but little profpect of fucceeding to his wifh in the metropolis, he prudently refolved upon going into the country; where mufical profeffors being few, the chance of fuccefs must be the greater. After vifiting different places in the north of England, his good fortune brought him to Halifax, where an organift being wanted, his merits were tried, and he procured the appointment. Here he also taught mufic with approbation and profit. The love of learning however ftill prevailed, and at this place he devoted his fpare hours to the ftudy of the languages, beginning with the Italian, on account of its intimate connection with his profeffion. From the Italian he proceeded to the Latin, in which he made an eminent progrefs. He then attempted the Greek, but after a little application he abandoned the ftudy of this language, confidering it as too dry and abftracted for his purpose.

In thefe pursuits Mr. Herfchel was entirely felftaught; and he holds out, in confequence, an excellent and pertinent example to thofe young perfons whofe education has been circumfcribed within common limits, through the penury or narrow-mindedness of their friends.

A determined

A determined heart, and perfevering application, we fec, from this inftance, will overcome obftacles that are apparently infurmountable.

But it was not to the dead and living languages only that Mr. Herschel bent his ardent and refolute mind. He attempted to gain a knowledge of the moft abftrufe fciences. His firft effort was to make himself master of the theory of harmonies; and it is obfervable, that the book which he made choice of for this purpose, was no other than the profound and intricate treatife of the learned Dr. Smith upon that fubject. He got through this work, however, without any affiftance; and fo great was the pleasure which he derived from it, that he refolved upon ftudying the other branches of mathematical learning. He began with algebra, which he foon mastered; thence he proceeded to Euclid, and fo on to fluxions. The ground-work being thus laid, the study of the other fciences became eafy.

His fituation at Halifax was favourable to his grammatical and mathematical purfuits; and it is well that he thus laid in a thorough stock of found knowledge, in what may be called his retirement. In 1766 he exchanged this place for one of a very different description, being elected organift to the Octagon chapel at Bath. Here he entered at once upon a great round of profeffional bufinefs, performing at the rooms, theatre, oratorios, and public and private concerts, befides having a number of pupils. In fuch a hurry of employment, and in the immediate circle

of luxury and amusement, very few men of Mr. Herfchel's profeffion and age would have found time to purfue ftudies feemingly fo unprofitable and uninterefting as mathematics.

So far, however, from relaxing in his scientific fludies, he pursued them with increafing ardour, and after a day of hard labour, he commonly retired at night to his mathematical books, and spent many hours in an unwearied attention to the most abftruse queftions in geometry and fluxions.

In the Ladies' Diary, for 1783, appeared an elegant and profound anfwer by him to a very difficult prize-quefiion, refpecting the vibrations of a mufical chord loaded in the middle with a fmall weight.

About this time his ftudies were chiefly directed to optics and aftronomy. The pleasure which he had experienced from viewing the heavens through a two-feet Gregorian telescope, he had borrowed at Bath, made him defirous of poffeffing a complete set of aftronomical inftruments. His firft object was to get a larger telescope, and being ignorant of the price at which such inftruments are usually charged, he defired a friend in London to buy one for him. This gentleman, furprised at the fum demanded for the telescope, declined purchafing it till he had informed Mr. Herschel of the circumftance. Our aftronomer's aftonishment was equal to that of his friend's; but inftead of dropping his purfuit, he formed what many would have regarded as a moft romantic refolution, that of making a telescope for himself. He did not

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