The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-11-13 00:00:00

Tuesday night. He had dined with a friend, returned home,
and retired without any symptom of indisposition ; but was
' -- ill

suddenly take. _ we learn, about five in the morning,
and expired about half-past six. On his complaining, his
amiable lady immediately despatched one of the servants for
Mr. Ortt, surgeon, who resides in the neighbourhood. and

that gentleman on his arrival soon afterwards, conceiving
the attack to be apoplectic, instantly attempted to bleed him,
but pulsation had too far subsided to render the operation
_ , awl Mr. Bickersteth, the family surgeon, who was
)n afterwards brought to the spot, found all human efforts
spark of life being then extinct.

avaiiabl

As the death of " an honest man
his failings of -

who, whatever were
s in general or domestic polity, had

interest in the promint
sketch of Mr. Curt

bioiraphiciii

necessarily brief, and from our paucity

somewhat imperfect (thot
will. we hone, be accent:

to our readers

it we assure t

we put aside all feelir

for consistency

William

James Currie, Esq., M.D., F.R.S., of Liverpool, Fellow of
the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, of the London
Medical Society, &c., a gentleman whose scientific and
literary acquirements, (the latter exemplified in his admirable

ana exertions as a scholar, physician, and conversationist,
have embalmed his memory in the minds of his posterity.
The subject of our sketch was a native of Liverpool—one of

ttev. James Currie, now or lately residing in the island of
Jersey. Two sisters, both married, are yet living
Of the_ early life of Mr. Currie we have ff

iarticula

as published in the memoir of the life, Writings,'•UUdcorre

,
pondenJenee of that eminent individual, by the now deceased,
a work held in deserved repute not only from its literary
merits, but from the characteristic vein of parental feeling
on the one hand, and the modest exemplification of filial
regard that breathe throughout its pages. Mr. Currie was a

native of Liverpool, and was born in f 784, in

month of March. He was consequently, at the time of his
demise, in the 57th year of his age. He was placed while yet
of tender age under the tuition of Dr. Valpy, of Reading, the
celebrated scholai.,. and compiler of some of the cleverest

ter addressed at that seminary to him .by his
!d Liverpool, April 23, 1796, and like all them

•
which characterised all his correspondence to his children,
couched in language suited to their juvenile apprehension,
• ••

pursuits, and to discriminate between right and wrong-.
There is a passage in this first letter so simple in argument,
yet so graphic and undeniable, that we cannot refrain from
quot.ing it. After expressing his happiness that his son lit
Homer and Vi--;1
too

I think, gives

a foolish thing

for. the Greeks to go into Asia and tight the
rojans for ten years, because Paris ran away with Helen.
Life is but short at the best, and it is a sad thing to see, in
all ages of the world, bow men have contrived to make it
kill;nz eacl- -" d sr 1

.16 other with swords, am, ~pears, anc
guns and bayonets. It is true, when a man's country is
in danger, nothing is more honourable than to arm for its
defence. When in after ages, the young men of Greece
turned out to meet the invading Persians at Marathon, Sala-
mis, and Platea, nothing could be more noble than their
principle, or more glorious than their conduct. But their
cause was more noble than their forefather, who. thp‘r

easily see

is a nobility of nature expressed in this passfige. It
not for war, for its own sake ; but simply war against
aggression, and that war we shall ever maintain, whe-

religious institutions. In his next letter, about 'six months
afterwards, Dr. Currie emphatically remarks, in reference to
Homer; with a view, doubtless, to restrain the probable en-
thusiasm of his youthful son :—" A great man is seldom or
never fairly rated by his contemporaries, and a very great man

noes not always reach tne neignt or ins reputation tai a cen-
tury or two after he is dead." In a letter addressed to him
when he was thirteen years of age, the Doctor says :
" ATv ennfirienre in vnnr annrl cence nnrl crnnrl heart rnalrec

me think of you with more satisfaction than anxiety, as I
said at first ; otherwise I can foresee that you will have oh_
stables to remove, and difficulties to surmount. No matter :
if you think rightly and act vigorously, you will be the better
and the happier for your necessary exertions. Look at the

greynounu as he hes by the tire : he has nothing to do ; his
eye is heavy, his skin is dirty, his hair probably covered with
vermin. How stupid and worthless he looks! lie is the
prototype of the man who has nothing to do, and nothing to
hope for: But look again ;—he is now in the field :—how

and all the v