"Soon after the death of my father," says this learned prelate, in his
Autobiography, published in 1816, "I was sent to the university, and
admitted a sizer of Trinity College, Cambridge, on the 3d of November,
1754. I did not know a single person in the university, except my
tutor, Mr. Backhouse, who had been my father's scholar, and Mr.
Preston, who had been my own school-fellow. I commenced my academic
studies with great eagerness, from knowing that my future fortune was
to be wholly of my own fabricating, being certain that the slender
portion which my father had left to me (300_l._) would be barely
sufficient to carry me through my education. I had no expectations
from relations; indeed I had not a relative so near as a first cousin
in the world, except my mother, and a brother and sister, who were
many years older than me. My mother's maiden name was Newton; she was
a very charitable and good woman, and I am indebted to her (I mention
it with filial piety) for imbuing my young mind with principles of
religion, which have never forsaken me. Erasmus, in his little
treatise, entitled _Antibarbarorum_, says, that the safety of states
depend upon three things, _a proper or improper education of the
prince, upon public preachers, and upon school-masters_; and he might
with equal reason have added, _upon mothers_; for the code of the
mother precedes that of the school-master, and may stamp upon the
_rasa tabula_ of the infant mind, characters of virtue and religion
which no time can efface. Perceiving that the sizers were not so
respectfully looked upon by the pensioners and scholars of the house
as they ought to have been, inasmuch as the most learned and leading
men of the university have even arisen from that order (_Magister
Artis ingenique largitor venter_,) I offered myself for a scholarship
a year before the usual time of the sizers sitting, and succeeded on
the 2nd of May, 1757. This step increased my expenses in college, but
it was attended with a great advantage. It was the occasion of my
being particularly noticed by _Dr. Smith_, the master of the college.
He was, from the examination he gave me, so well satisfied with the
progress I had made in my studies, that out of the sixteen who were
elected scholars, he appointed me to a particular one (Lady Jermyn's)
then vacant, and in his own disposal; not, he said to me, as being
better than other scholarships, but as a mark of his approbation; he
recommended _Saunderson's Fluxions_, then just published, and some
other mathematical books, to my perusal, and gave, in a word, a spur
to my industry, and wings to my ambition. I had, at the time of my
being elected a scholar, been resident in college two years and seven
months, without having gone out of it for a single day. During that
period I had acquired some knowledge of Hebrew, greatly improved
myself in Greek and Latin, made considerable progress in mathematics
and natural philosophy, and studied with much attention Locke's works,
King's book on the Origin of Evil, Puffendorf's Treatise _De Officio
Hominis et Civis_, and some other books on similar subjects; I thought
myself, therefore, entitled to some little relaxation. Under this
persuasion I set forward, May 30, 1757, to pay my elder and only
brother a visit at Kendal. He was the first curate of the New Chapel
there, to the structure of which he had subscribed liberally. He was a
man of lively parts, but being thrown into a situation where there was
no great room for the display of his talents, and much temptation to
convivial festivity, he spent his fortune, injured his constitution,
and died when I was about the age of thirty-three, leaving a
considerable debt, all of which I paid immediately, though it took
almost my all to do it. My mind did not much relish the country, at
least it did not relish the life I led in that country town; the
constant reflection that I was _idling away my time_ mixed itself
with every amusement, and poisoned all the pleasures I had promised
myself from the visit; I therefore took a hasty resolution of
shortening it, and returned to college in the beginning of September,
with a determined purpose to make my _Alma Mater_ the mother of my
fortunes. _That_, I well remember, was the expression I used to
myself, as soon as I saw the turrets of King's College Chapel, as I
was jogging on a jaded nag between Huntingdon and Cambridge. I was
then only a _Junior Soph_; yet two of my acquaintances, the year below
me, thought that I knew so much more of mathematics than they did,
that they importuned me to become their private tutor. I undoubtedly
wished to have had my time to myself, especially till I had taken my
degree; but the narrowness of my circumstances, accompanied with a
disposition to improve, or, more properly speaking, with a desire to
appear respectable, induced me to comply with their request. From that
period, for above thirty years of my life, and as long as my health
lasted, a considerable portion of my time was spent in instructing
others without much instructing myself, or in presiding at
disputations in philosophy or theology, from which, after a certain
time, I derived little intellectual improvement. Whilst I was an
under-graduate, I kept a great deal _of what is called_ the best
company--that is, of idle fellow-commoners, and other persons of
fortune--but their manners never subdued my prudence; I had strong
ambition to be distinguished, and was sensible that wealth might plead
some excuse for idleness, extravagance and folly in others; the want
of wealth could plead more for me. When I used to be returning to my
room at one or two in the morning, after spending a jolly evening, I
often observed a light in the chamber of one of the same standing with
myself; this never failed to excite my jealousy, and the next day was
always a day of hard study. I have gone without my dinner a hundred
times on such occasions. I thought I never entirely understood a
proposition in any part of mathematics or natural philosophy, till I
was able, in a solitary walk, _obstipo capite atque ex porrecto
labello_, to draw the scheme in my head, and go through every step of
the demonstration without book, or pen and paper. I found this was a
very difficult task, especially in some of the perplexed schemes and
long demonstrations of the twelfth Book of _Euclid_, and in
_L'Hôpital's_ Conic Sections, and in _Newton's_ Principia. My walks
for this purpose were so frequent, that my tutor, not knowing what I
was about, once reproved me for being a lounger. I never gave up a
difficult point in a demonstration till I had made it out _proprio
marte_; I have been stopped at a single step for three days. This
perseverance in accomplishing whatever I undertook, was, during the
whole of my active life, a striking feature in my character. But
though I stuck close to abstract studies, I did not neglect other
things; I every week imposed upon myself a task of composing a theme
or declamation in Latin or English. I generally studied mathematics in
the morning, and classics in the afternoon; and used to get by heart
such parts of orations, either in Latin or Greek, as particularly
pleased me. Demosthenes was the orator, Tacitus the historian, and
Persius the satirist whom I most admired. I have mentioned this mode
of study, not as thinking there was any thing extraordinary in it,
since there were many under-graduates then, and have always been many
in the University of Cambridge, and, for aught I know, in Oxford, too,
who have taken greater pains. But I mention it because I feel a
complacence in the recollections of days long since happily spent,
_hoc est vivere bis vita posse priori frui_, and indulge in a hope,
that the perusal of what I have written may chance to drive away the
spirit of indolence and dissipation from young men; especially from
those who enter the world with slender means, as I did. In January,
1759, I took my Bachelor of Arts' degree. The taking of this first
degree is a great era in academic life; it is that to which all the
under-graduates of talent and diligence direct their attention. There
is no seminary of learning in Europe in which youth are more zealous
to excel during the first years of their education than in the
University of Cambridge. I was the second wrangler of my year. In
September, 1759, I sat for a Fellowship. At that time there never had
been an instance of a Fellow being elected from among the junior
Bachelors. The Master told me this as an apology for my not being
elected, and bade me be contented till the next year. On the 1st of
October, 1760, I was elected a Fellow of Trinity College, and put over
the head of two of my seniors of the same year, who were, however,
elected the next year. The old Master, whose memory I have ever
revered, when he had done examining me, paid me this compliment, which
was from him a great one:--'You have done your duty to the College; it
remains for the College to do theirs to you.' I was elected the next
day, and became assistant tutor to Mr. Backhouse in the following
November." Every body knows his subsequent career embraced his
appointment to the several dignified University offices of Tutor,
Moderator, Professor of Chemistry, and Regius Professor of Divinity,
and that he died Bishop of Llandaff. I may here, as an apposite tail
piece, add from Meadley's Life of that celebrated scholar and divine,