Star.
London, England, 1808-10-07 00:00:00

• **‘l";

THE LATE PROFESSOR PORSON.

Tuesday last the remains of this pro rgy of leain-
ing were interred at Cambridge with academical ho
nours, all the Members of the University having
accompanied him to the grave. The following sketch
of his life will be atzeptible to such of our Readers
as are accustomed to regard a Scholar with becoming

respect :
Mr. Pontos: was born at East Ruston, in Norfolk,
on Christmas day, 1759 ; so that he was only in his
49th year. His father, Mr. FIUGGIN PonsoN, who
was parish clerk of East Ruston, and who, though
in humble life, and without the advantages himself of
early education, laid the basis of his son's unparallel-
ed acquirements. From the earliest dawn of intel-
lect, Mr. PORSON began the task of fixing the atten-
tion of his children, three sons and a daughter, and he
had taught RICHARD, his eldest son, all the common
rules of arithmetic, without the use of a hook or
slate, pen or pencil, up to the cube root, before he
was nine years of age. The memory was thus in-
cessantly exercised ; and by this early habit of work-
ing a question in arithmetic by the mind only, he ac-
quired such a talent of close and intense thinki:-.g, and
such a power of arranging every operation that occu-
pied his thought, as in process of time to render
the most difficult problems, which to other men re-
quired the assist.:nce of written figures, easy to the
retentive faculties of his memory. He was initiated
in letters by a process equally efficacious. His father
taught him to read and write at one and the same
time. He drew the form of the letter either with
chalk on a board, or with the finger in sand ;—and
Rumann was made at once to understand and imi
tate the impression. As soon as he could speak he
could trace the letters ; and this exercise delighting
hit fancy, an ardour of imitating whatever was put
before him was excited to such a degree that the
walls of the house were covered with characters which
attracted notice, from their neatness and fidelity of

delineation.
At nine years of age, he and his youngest brother,
Thomas, were sent to the village school, kept by a
Mr. Sestmens, a plain but most intelligent and wor-
thy man, who having had the misfortune in infancy
to cripple his left hand, was educated for the purpose
of teaching, and he discharged his duties with the
most examplary attention. He professed nothing be:
yond English, writing, and arithmetic—bat he was
a good accountant, and an excellent writing master.
He perfected the Professor in that delightful talent of
penmanship, in which he so peculiarly excelled ; but
which we are doubtful whether to consider as an ad-
vantage or a detriment to him in his progress through
life. It certainly had a considerable influence on his
habits, and made him devote many precious mo-
ments to copying, which might have been better em-
ployed in composition. It has been the means, how-
ever, of enriching his library with annotations, with
such perfect imitation of the original manuscript or
printing, as to embellish every work which his erudi-
tion enabled him to elucidate. He continued under
Mr. SUMMERS for three years ; and every evening
during that time he had to repeat by heart to his fa-
ther the lessons and the tasks of the day ; and this
not in a loose or desultory manner, but in the rigorous
order in which whatever he had been occupied ahput
had been done ; and thus again the process of recol-
lection was cherished and strengthened, so as to be-
come a quality of his mind. It was impossible that
such a youth should remain unnoticed, even in a
place so thinly peopled, and so obscure as the parish
of East Ruston. The Rev. Mr. Pisiwarr heard of
his extraordinary propensities to study, his gift of at-
tention to whatever was taught him, and the wonder-
ful fidelity with which he retained whatever he had
acquired. He took him and his brother THOMAS un-
der his care, and instructed them in the .classics. The
progress of both was great, but that of RICHARD was
most extraordinary. It became the topic of astonish-
ment beyond the district, and when he had reached
his fourteenth year, had engaged the notice of all the
Gentlemen 'n the vicinity. Among others he was
mentioned as a prodigy to an opulent and liberal man, •
the late Mr. Nou's, who, after having put the youth
under an examination of the severest kind, and from
which an ordinary boy would have shrunk dismayed,
he was sent to Eton. This happened in the mouth
of August, 177+, when he was in his 15th year :
And in that great seminary, he almost, from the
commencement of his career, displayed such a supe-
riority of intellect ; such facility of acquirement ;
such quickness of perception, and such a talent of
bringing tiirward to his purpose all that he had ever
• read, that the upper boys took him into their society,
and promoted the cultivation of his mind by their
lessons, as well, probably, as by imposing upon him
the performance of their own exercises. He se as
courted by them as the never-failing resource in every
difficulty ; and in all the playful excursions of the
imagination, in their frolics, as well as in their seri-
ous tasks, Ponsox was the constant.adviser and sup-
port. Ile used to dwell on this lively part of his
youth with peculiar complacency, and we have heard
him repeat a drama which he wrote for exhibition in
their Long Chamber, and other compositions, both
of seriousness and drollery, with a zest that the re-
eorection of his enjoyment at the time never failed to
vvive in him.
The death of Mr. NORRIS was the source of severe
erortification to him ; for though by the kindness of
some eminent and liberal persons he was continued at
Eton, he felt the loss he had sustained in the most
poignant degree. He was entered of Trinity College
towards the end of 1777, and his character having
gone before him to the University, he was from the
first regarded as a youtn whose extraordinary endow-
ments would keep up and extend the reputation of
the unrivalled society into which he had entered.—
Nor dial he disappoint the hopes that had been form-
ed of him. In every branch of study to which he
applied himself, his course was so rapid as to asto-
nish every competent observer. By accident he
was drawn first to read in mathematics, in which,
from his carly exercises, be was so eminently cal-
culated to shine, but from which he drew no
benefit ; and then by the prospect of a Scholar-
,,;l) p, which, however, did not become vacant till
long after, he sat down to the Classics. In this pur-
,uit he soon acquired undisputed pre-eminence. He
h•Ut the medal.of course, and was elected a Fellow in.
-7; 1. In 17f45 he took his degree of Master of
but long before the period head elapsed when ha