This disclosure is not now made, out of any disrespect to the memory of the learned Professor; since of Greek and Latin verses an illustrious authority has pronounced, that they must either be a dexterous cento, or nothing.'* A good memory, and a happy knack of managing metres, constitute in fact their principal merit; and though *See Kidd's Edition of Porson's Tracts. The late Rev. Joseph Milner, Master of the Grammar-School at Kingston upon Hull (never to be named by me without grateful reverence) obtained the Chancellor's Second Classical Medal in 1766, though he is said to have declined the making of Latin verses, in which the alumni of public schools usually possess a great superiority. To prove that Dr. Lort found the English Muse less unpropitious, the following free paraphrase of Horace's Eheu fugaces, &c. (Od. II. 14.) written apparently soon after the victory of Culloden, hitherto perhaps circulated only in manuscript, is here subjoined. 1. One short revolving year is done; Another, see, is just begun : That other with unslacken'd pace Will soon, my Posthumus, it's course have run: Nor shall thy conscious innocence (And what can't conscious innocence effect?) Or interpose in thy defence, And from th' uplifted hand of Fate thy life protect. 2. What though, on each successive day, Thou dost whole hecatombs bestow On the grim monarch of the shades below, He'll not one hour the stroke delay. Prometheus' sons of clay To native dirt again must pass, Together blended in one common mass: Even GEORGE himself, who fills the British throne In common dust with thee and I. they will perhaps justly, as criteria of school-industry, continue to form a part of the classical emulations and exercises of the Universities, they surely cannot be regarded as essential to the character of a sound Scholar. My sole object has been, to exhibit the estimate formed of the attainments of Mr. Zouch by one, who had en 3. What, though in Trinitonian grove And, free'd from danger and alarm, Hear how the rebel rout Flies from the thunder of great WILLIAM's arm: Nor dares the Gallic squadron venture out, Whilst VERNON's dreaded name Alone their insolence can tame, Strikes every dastard Gaul with fear, And from their insults keeps the ocean clear. 4. Exposed though WILLIAM lies To frosts severe and northern skies; Yet still the arbitrary will of Fate May sooner, if it please, cut short our date, 5. These lofty structures, swelling domes, Dear conscious scenes of happiness, Which we exchange for hollow tombs, Shall some succeeding youths possess. Nay, what more grating still we find, Delia the charming maid must be resign'd, And to some happier rival left behind: And he shall revel in the fair one's charms, Whilst we lie clasp'd in death's cold shrivell'd arms. joyed ample means of ascertaining them in his College and University-examinations.* In 1762, he was elected Fellow of Trinity College. † Two years afterward, he took the degree of M. A.; and was appointed Assistant, with a salary of £60 per ann., to the Rev. Thomas Postlethwaite, who had succeeded (on Mr. Whisson's resignation) to the office of Principal Tutor, and was eventually placed at the head of his College. This function Mr. Zouch discharged with great credit; and as he undertook at the same time the care of several private pupils, who have I am not unaware of Mr. Mason's objection to publishing adulatory verses of this kind, nor convinced by the reason upon which it is founded. In proof of the classical proficiency of the writer, they may surely be admitted; and they are, usually, only meant for such. As vaticinations, I fear, they seldom run the risk of being confounded with history. Nor is his apology for Mr. Gray, 'extreme youth,' a satisfactory one; unless we allow twenty to fall within that description. Mason reprinted his own Il Pacifico, written upon the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 (when he was only three and twenty) in the third volume of his Works. The Electors (or eight Senior Fellows) were Walker V. M., Hooper, Mason, Whisson, Meredith, Backhouse, Goodwin, and Wilson. On the back of a copy of his Latin letter sent upon this occasion, he had written, O the misery of life! O the vanity of fame! O the folly of learning! O the madness of ambition! O the plague of wealth! O the distress of want! O the pageantry of pleasure! O the emptiness of pride! O the wretchedness of suspense ! T. Z. Sept. 22, 1762. T. C. C. Posidippus himself, with his Ποιην τις βιοτοιο ταμοι τριβον ; hardly surpasses this accumulated despondency. subsequently reflected high honour upon their literary guide, his assiduity was so injurious to his health, that he deemed it advisable to seize the first opportunity of resigning his academical situation. From various memoranda, however, it appears that the performance of his different duties did not wholly intercept his private studies. † In a list of books belonging to the Public Library, at one time in his possesion, occur among others Demosthenes, Voltaire, Corneille, Marsham's Canon Chronicus, Le Timeé de Platon, Temora, Burgh's Dignity of Human Nature, the three Greek Tragedians with Meursius, Hedelin, and Goldoni on Theatrical Matters, various editions of Epictetus, Pindar with different Commentators, Boëthius, Juvenal, Cave's Lives of the Fathers, &c, &c. And a tabulated Report of the merits of the more distinguished students of 1767 (including the names of Turner, Dutens, Pearce, Carr, Byron, Williams, and Raikes) under the heads of Algebra, Geometry, Philosophy, Newton, Fluxions, and Morals and Metaphysics attests the deep interest which he continued to take in University-concerns. Upon the death of Dr. Robert Smith, Master of Trinity College, to whom the world is indebted for his valuable works on Optics and Harmonics, and Cambridge for the institution of two Annual Prizes of * Among these I find the names of Arden (afterward Lord Alvanley) Creyke, Chairman of the Quarter-Sessions for the East Riding of Yorkshire, Graham (Sir Robert), Rook, and Rose-all, afterward, Fellows of Trinity College. Non multiplex atque operosa docendi ratio publicis adeò curis implicuit, ut non daretur etiam privatis locus: id autem spatii ferè totum ab horis subsecivis exigebatur, et legitimâ muneris sui vacatione. (Barford Orat. habita in Fun. George, 1756.) Twenty-Five Pounds each (to be given "to two commencing Bachelors of Arts, the best proficients in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy") Mr. Zouch was appointed to deliver a Funeral Oration in honour of his .* memory. In 1770, he was presented by the University to the rectory of Wycliffet in Yorkshire, a village pleasantly situated on the southern bank of the Tees, and celebrated for having given birth to our primary Reformer; and, in this agreeable retirement, he divided his hours between the duties of his profession, the care of his pupils, and his pursuits in Natural History. His botanical excursions more particularly, amidst the romantic scenes of his new neighbourhood, contributed at once to enrich his collection, and to strengthen his health. Thus happily his days glided by, For ever changing, unperceived the change. + His establishment of pupils usually consisted of three, nearly of the same age, whose studies (from a scrupulous regard to their respective qualifications) were carried on separately, to the engrossing of his whole time for the interval between 1770 and 1780. Among those, who See the Appendix. + This patronage being vested in the Catholic family of Constable, who appear to have resisted it's transfer, his nomination cost him considerable trouble and expense. ‡ I cannot help transcribing in a note, from the Petrarcha Redivivus of Tomasinus, the praises of learned and pious solitude:-Laborum quies est, civilium seditionum obex, &c.-Surgit solitudinis amans è lecto, somno brevi recreatus, non fracto curis domesticis sed expleto. -nec multùm interesse arbitratur quam diù, sed quam benè vivat; nec ubi aut quando moriatur magni existimat, sed qualiter; in id unum summo studio intentus, ut benè actam vitæ fabulam pulcro fine concludat. (XIV.) |