I here attached myself strongly, as well as to other studies, to electricity, anatomy, chemistry, and natural history, and furnished myself with a considerable apparatus. The college being too full to supply me with chambers, I boarded at an inn, where I engaged a large room with two fire places; the room I divided by screens into different parts. I had a turning machine, to the assistance of which, my optical tutor several times applied. With the electrical machine I kept constantly a Ley. den phial charged, and having spread under the carpet on the outside of the door, a brass chain, with a sufficient length of it within, I was prepared to repel such visitors as I did not wish to see. One day I saw a man entering the house who had been very troublesome to me. I had then charged a very large bottle; I had a friend with me, and desired him to retire for a moment to the upper stairs, if he was inclined to see some fun. He was out of the room just time enough for me to lock the door, and prepare my apparatus. The man came, and knocking at my door, I cried come in, and while he had his hand applied to the handle of the lock, endeavouring to open the door, I fastened the brass chain to the outside of the bottle, applied the ball of it to the handle of the lock, and passed the whole contents through him. The man started, as I was afterwards told by my friend, with horror and astonishment; and rushing down stairs, ran immediately home. As I mean these memoirs as a general confession of my errors, I shall mention all that delicacy will permit. My obstinacy was the ground-work of my cha them racter, my passions swayed considerably; I gave Having once so done I indulged in a frolic in the evening, sat up the whole night, went to chapel in the morning at six, attended my mathematical tutor at eight, and my classical tutor at ten. I was not in either situation provided with a book. I appeared unprepared, but was really perfect, and ready to answer any At the lecture at ten I question they could ask me. was called upon to translate a difficult passage in Sophocles, which some of my classmates had bungled at; I rejoiced at it. I borrowed a book, and not only translated it, but expatiated considerably upon it, and obAfter served upon the nature of the Greek accents. the lecture was over, I retired to my room, and presently afterwards was honoured by a visit from my tutor, with a desire of conversing with me on the subject before mentioned. I observed before that I was a member of the True Blue Club; its anniversary approached, and I was applied to, like the other members, on all sides for tickets of invitation. Each member had a right to issue two, but no more. The anniversary was this year kept at Newmarket. We attended with our respective visiters, and had a sumptuous dinner. The custom after dinner was that each person present should call for such sort of wine as he pleased to drink, and only take care that his bottle was empty when the president's was so. When that took place, the president called for a new supply. and the merriment began again. The Newmarket races were about to commence; the Craven, the first and second spring meeting; I had never attended any. When the first day advanced, I hired a postchaise, and on my arrival on the ground I desired the postboy to drive me as near the inningpost as he could. I had been well guarded against those they call blacklegs. My chaise had scarcely been fixed, when a gentleman's carriage was driven up by the side of, and close to mine. He immediately let down the window, which I considered as an invitation to me to do the same. I did so, and we entered inte conversation. He asked me if I was inclined to bet on the races. I told him I was a stranger, was visiting them now for the first time, and knew but little about them, or the merits of the horses. He observed that perhaps I considered him as one of those whom my guardians had cautioned me against; but to prove that he was not so, I might take my own horse, and name the bet. I then told him I would stake five guineas on a horse named Anville, who was one of the first to run: he accepted the bet; the race took place, and I won. He then asked me to name my horse and sum on the next race; I did so, and won it; the same on the third and fourth. After this we drove about the ground, where we had better views, and in the course of the morning I won near sixty guineas. I returned to Cambridge, and the next day I went on horseback with my servant, that I might have more free communication with the persons assembled. I betted and won about eighty pounds that morning, on the third near a hundred. On the Thursday, after having absented. myself from chapel in the morning for four days, I returned. My tutor sent for me; told me that he had understood that I had been at Newmarket, and that I had won a considerable sum of money, which he was sorry for, for he dared say that my father would have been better pleased if I had lost as much. I confessed that I had done wrong, for the softness of my amiable tutor's manners brought me to what compulsion could never have effected. After some very friendly conver sation, he asked me if I did not think it would be proper for me to call on the dean, to make some explanation of the cause, or apology for my absence from chapel. I told him I would go to the dean instantly: I went, and voluntarily confessed my faults; he, the dean, told me that the necessary discipline of the college required that certain inflictions should be imposed on those who broke its rules, and he trusted I would willingly submit. I told him that I would with cheerfulness, for my tutor's and his behaviour had been so noble to me, that I would do any thing cheerfully to please either. This was the way to subdue obstinacy. He then asked me if I would do him the favour of reciting the Ars Poetica of Horace on a certain day to him; I told him whenever he pleased. He having appointed the day, I called upon him. Now let tutors take example by this noble man; but I need not expatiate. I entered his room at the time appointed; he asked me if I was prepared to recite the Ars Poetica. I told him I was. Are you perfect in it? Yes sir. Then said the dean, your word is sufficient; I thank you for the will, but cannot trouble you with the execution of it. Some days after this we were all ordered to attend the sacrament. Many of us declined attendance. We were consequently fined, and ordered to translate some of Locke's chapters on the human understanding into Latin. This was one of the hardest tasks that could have been imposed on us, for the style of Locke and the Latin idiom could hardly be brought together; like Voltaire's bungling at Shakspeare, in his endeavour to translate him, the conception of the author could not be transmitted, in its full embracings to another language. I got through mine, in a round about way, and assisted some of my fellow collegians, till the fine of a shilling, and our separate exertions paved the way to reconciliation. This Voltaire, by the by, was one of the most jealous men that ever lived. Proud of the patronage of the king of Prussia, he warred with talent of every nature that did not spring from himself, he dared revile the Saviour of the world, but dreaded him, when on his death bed he sought in vain for refuge in those flatteries which had supported his air-borne mind. He pretended to criticise our Shakspeare, but did not understand him; did he forget that Shakspeare had an Elizabeth, while he had a king as patron? The ridiculous fulsome praise that Boileau bestowed on the boy Louis XIV, when he addresses him thus: Et qui seul, sans ministre, à l'example des dieux, was pardonable in comparison of Voltaire's making the Old Testament a jest book. Let any one examine Vol. taire's countenance, he will find it perpetually at war |