is now at St. Petersburg, his executors received from her Imperial Majefty fifteen hundred guineas."

Though nothing remarkable occurred between 1770 and 1780, the productions of his pencil will fufficiently acquit him from the charge of indolence or inactivity during that period..

The years between 1769 and 1790, inclufive, he exhibited at the Royal Academy two hundred and forty-four pictures; at the exhibitions previous to the inftitution of the academy, between 1760 and 1768, twenty-five: total 269. In the whole of this period, the year 1767 was the only one in which he exhibited nothing.

The fingle portraits of this indefatigable artist are innumerable; and in the higher ftyle of historypainting and fancy pieces, Mr. Malone has given a lift of nearly 100; with which, he truly obferves, not only various cabinets at home have been enriched, but the fame of the English school extended to foreign

ed fragment of an intended difcourfe, in which his friend defigned to comprise a hiftory of his mind; which, indeed, all his printed difcourfes feem to have done fo completely, as far as his art is concerned, that nothing is left to his biographer's ingenuity and penetration on the fubject. The ingenuous manner in which Sir Joshua confeffes, in this fragment, his inconftancy and frequent failures in colouring, is characteristic of the frankness and probity of his nature.

For a very long period, Sir Jofhua Reynolds enjoyed an uninterrupted ftate of good health, to which his cuftom of painting, ftanding (a practice which, we believe, he first introduced) may be fuppofed in fome degree to have contributed; at least by this means he efcaped thofe diforders which are incident to a fedentary life. He was indeed, in the year 1782, diftreffed for a fhort time by a flight paralytic affection; which, however, made fo little impreffion on him, that in a few weeks he was perfectly restored, and never afterwards fuffered any inconvenience from that malady. But in July 1789, when he had very nearly finished the portrait of Lady Beauchamp (now Marchionefs of Hertford) the laft female portrait he ever painted, he for the first time perceived his fight so much affected, that he found it difficult to proceed; and in a few months afterwards, in ipite of the aid of the moft skilful oculifts, he was entirely deprived of the fight of his left eye.

misfortune,

misfortune, fince he was thus deprived of an employment that afforded him conftant amufement, and which he loved much more for its own fake than on account of the great emoluments with which the practice of his art was attended. Still, however, he retained his ufual fpirits; was amu.fed by reading, or hearing others read to him; and partook of the fociety of his friends with the fame pleasure as formerly: but in October, 1791, having strong apprehenfions that a tumor, accompanied with an inflammation, which took place over the eye that had perified, might affect the other alfo, he became fomewhat dejected. Meanwhile he laboured under a much more dangerous difcafe, which deprived him both of his wonted fpirits and his appetite, though he was wholly unable to explain to his phyficians the nature or feat of his diforder. During this period of great affliction to all his friends, his malady was by many fuppofed to be imaginary; and it was conceived that, if he would but exert himfelf, he could fake it off. This inftance, however, may ferve to fhew, that the patient beft knows what he fuffers; and that few long complain of bodily ailments without an adequate caufe; for at length (but not till about a fortnight before his death) the feat of his diforder was found to be in his liver, the inordinate growth of which, as it afterwards appeared, had incommoded all the functions of life; and of this disease, which he bore with the greatest fortitude and patience, he died, after a confinement of near three months, at his house in Leicefter-Fields, on Thursday evening, February 23d, 1792.

Differtations and Miscellaneous Pieces re lating to the Hiftory and Antiquities, the Arts, Sciences, and Literature of Afia. By the late Sir William Jones, and others. Vols. 3 and 4, London.

IN the third volume of this publi

cation, are extracted the most ufeful and entertaining differtations contained in the Afiatic Referches; among which the editors have done juftice to their own taste, and to that of the public, by a well-judged partiality to the eflays of the late learned and ingenious Sir William Jones. They have alfo inferted his admirable preface to the Hindu law, though not contained in the volume from which the other pieces are felected.

The fourth volume, from the difficulty and expence of obtaining books from India, is reprinted verbatim from the Calcutta quarto edition; and does infinite credit to the industry and learning of our countrymen in the Eaft Indies; whofe ardour in the pursuit of useful knowledge has not been relaxed by the lofs of their late amiable and ever to be lamented prefident.

To enumerate all the articles that compofe thefe volumes would be tedious; to mention the beft, invidious: we can only fay that the perutal of them cannot but afford great pleature to every clafs of readers, from the variety of fubjects treated on, and from the general intereft that must be excited by the accounts of the manners and cuftoms of a people, though diftant, yet living under the fame happy government as ourselves,

We think we cannot pay a better tribute, to the memory of Sir William Jones, than by giving our

readers.

readers an account of his various ftudies and publications, extracted from the eulogium on his life and writings pronounced by his fucceffor Sir John Shore, on the 22d of May, 1794, and addrefled to a meeting of the Society.

To define with accuracy the variety, value, and extent of his literary attainments, requires more learning than I pretend to poffefs; and I am therefore to folicit your indulgence for an imperfect sketch, rather than expect your approbation for a complete defeription of the talents and knowledge of your late and lamented prefident.

"I fhall begin with mentioning his wonderful capacity for the acquifition of languages, which has never been excelled. In Greek and Roman literature, his early proficiency was the fubject of admiration and applaufe; and knowledge of whatever nature once obtained by him, was ever afterwards progreffive. The more elegant dialects of modern Europe, the French, the Spanish, and the Italian, he fpoke and wrote with the greatest fluency and precifion; and the German and Portuguese were familiar to him. At an early period of life, his application to oriental literature commenced; he studied the Hebrew with cafe and fuccefs; and many of the most learned Afiatics have the candour to avow, that his knowledge of Arabic and Perfian was as accurate and extenfive as their own: he was alfo converfant in the Turkish idioms; and the Chinese had even attracted his notice fo far as to induce him to learn the radical characters of that language, with a view perhaps to farther improvements. It was to be expected, af

ter his arrival in India, that he would eagerly embrace the opportunity of making himself mafter of the Sanferit; and the moft enlightened profeffors of the doctrines of Brahma confefs with pride, delight, and furprife, that his knowledge of their facred dialect was moft critically correct and profound. The Pandits, who were in the habit of attending him, when I faw them after his death at a public Durbar, could neither fuppress their tears for his lofs, nor find terms to exprefs their admiration of the wonderful progrefs he had made in their fciences.

"Before the expiration of his twenty-fecond year, he had completed his Commentaries on the Poetry of the Afiatics, although a confiderable time afterwards elapfed before their publication; and this work, if no other monument of his labours exifted, would at once furnish proofs of his confummate skill in the oriental dialects, of his proficiency in thofe of Rome and Greece, of taste and erudition far beyond his years, and of talents and application without example."

But the judgment of Sir William Jones was too difcerning to confider language in any other light than as the key of fcience; and he would have defpifed the reputation of a mere linguift. Knowledge and truth were the object of all his ftudies; and his ambition was to be useful to mankind. With thefe views he extended his refearches to all languages, nations, and times.

Such were the motives that induced him to própofe to the government of this country, what he juftly denominated a work of na-' tional utility and importance, the compilation of a copious Digeft of Ii2

Hindu

Hindu and Mahommedan Law, from Sanferit and Arabic originals, with an offer to fuperintend the compilation, and with a promife to tranflate it. He had forefeen, previous to his departure from Europe, that, without the aid of fuch a work, the wife and benevolent intentions of the legislature of Great Britain, in leaving to a certain extent the natives of thefe provinces in poffeffion of their own laws, could not be completely fulfilled; and his experience, after a fhort refidence in India, confirmed what his fagacity had anticipated, that, without principles to refer to in a language fa-, miliar to the judges of the courts, adjudications amongst the natives muft too often be subject to an uncertain and erroneous expofition, or wilful misinterpretation of their laws.

"To the fuperintendance of this work, which was immediately undertaken at his fuggeftion, he affiduously devoted thofe hours which he could fpare from his profeffional duties. After tracing the plan of the Digest, he prefcribed its arrangement and mode of execution, and felected from the most learned Hindus and Mahommedans fit perfons for the talk of compiling it.. Flattered by his attention, and encouraged by his applaufe, the Pundits profecuted their labours with cheerful zeal to a fatisfactory conclufion. The Molavees have alfo nearly finished their portion of the work; but we must ever regret, that the promifed tranflation, as well as the meditated preliminary differtation, have been fruftrated by that decree, which fo often intercepts the performance of human purposes."

During the courfe of this compi

lation, and as an auxiliary to it, he was led to study the works of Menu, reputed by the Hindus to be the oldeft and holieft of legiflators; and finding them to comprife a fyftem of religious and civil duties, and of law in all its branches, so comprehenfive and minutely exact, that it might be confidered as the inftitutes of Hindu law, he presented a tranflation of them to the government of Bengal. During the fame period, deeming no labour exceffive or fuperfluous that tended in any refpect to promote the welfare or happiness of mankind, he gave the public an English verfion of the Arabic text of the Sirajiyah, or Mahommedan law of inheritance, with a commentary. He had already publifhed in England, a tranflation of a tract on the fame fubject by another Mahommedan lawyer, containing, as his own words exprefs, a lively and ele gant epitome of the law of inheritance of Zaid.'

The vanity and petulance of Anquetil du Perron, with his illiberal reflections on fome of the learned members of the university of Oxford, extorted from him a letter in the French language, which has been admired for accurate criticifin, juft fatire, and elegant compofition. A regard for the literary reputation of his country, induced him to tranflate, from Perfian original, into French, the life of Nadir Shah, that it might not be carried out of England with a reflection, that no perfon had been found in the Britifh dominions capable of tranflating it. The ftudents of Perfian literature muft ever be grateful to him for a grammar of that language, in which he has flown the pothibility of combining taste and elegance.