hundred Latin verses, in which he described the mass with proper sarcasms. But it should seem that he was but indifferently paid for his poems there; for all on a sudden he returned to Paris, and to the mass which he had so much cried down in his Latin He died in 1573, aged forty one, and in 1574, his friends published a volume of his works, which contain Eulogies, Odes, Sonnets, Songs, Inscriptions and Canticles.

verses.

JOHNSON, (DR. SAMUEL) was born at Litchfield in 1709, where his baptism is recorded in St. Mary's Register, to have been performed on the 7th September, and he is styled, "Samuel, the son of Michael Johnson, gentleman." His father was a reputable bookseller in Litchfield, as the writings of the son have recorded, and as is well remembered by many now living. The house in which he was born, is still remaining in good condition. In the earlier part of his life, he was an assistant to the famous Anthony Blackwell, in the grammar school of Market-Bosworth. Mr. Johnson was entered at Pembroke College, Oxford, October 31, 1728, but left the university without taking any degree in the church. The biographer of Garrick fixes the beginning of the year 1733 as the period when he undertook, as a private scholar, to instruct Mr. Garrick and some other youths in the Belles Lettres. In March 1737, he came to London; where he appears to have met with disappointments which disgusted him with the town; for, in August, we find him desirous of returning again into his native country to take upon himself the office of master of a charity school in Shropshire, then vacant, the salary of which was sixty pounds a year. But the statutes of the school requiring the person who should be elected, to be a master of the arts, this attempt seems to have

been frustrated. In 1740, he began to write the "Debates in the Senate of Lilliput ;" and after producing some poems, translations, and biographical works, which met with a good reception (particularly "London," the "Vanity of Human Wishes," and "The Life of Savage," he brought forth "Irene" in 1749. His not meeting with the success he expected, he set about his "Dictionary." The execution of this plan cost him the labours of many years; but he was amply repaid by the fame he acquired. During the recess of this stupenduous labour, he published his "Ramblers." The reputation of these works gained him honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, in the university of Dublin College, which was soon after followed by the same degree from Oxford. To this succeeded his "Idlers." His next publication was, that of the "Prince of Abyssinia," a beautiful little novel in the Eastern style, abounding with the most useful and moral maxims, suited to the several conditions of life. Of his political works, which followed at distant intervals, the public are more divided about their merits; it is, however, but fair to presume, they were his candid opinions upon the subjects, and as such, deserving of no censure from the judgment of impartiality. His last undertaking,

"The Lives of the British Poets," would alone have been sufficient to immortalize his name amongst his countrymen, as it by far excells any thing executed upon a similar plan. It is said he was executing a second part of "The Prince of Abyssinia," and was in hopes to have finished it before his death; but, he was cut off from this and every other mortal labour, in the 76th year of his age, to the loss of his friends. and the world, whose unremitting friend he had ever been. During the last five or six days of his life, he saw but few, even of his most intimate friends. Every hour that could be abstracted from his bodily pains and infirmities, was spent in prayers, and the warmest ejaculations; and in this pious, praise worthy,

and exemplary manner, he closed a long life begun, continued and ended, in virtue, Dec. 13, 1784, being long oppressed by a complication of disorders.

JOHNSON, (JOHN) a learned Polish naturalist and physician, was born at Sambler in Great Poland, in 1609. He travelled all over Europe, and was esteemed every where by the learned. He afterwards bought the estate of Ziebendorf in the duchy of Leignitz, in Silesia, where he died in 1675, having published "A natural history of birds, fishes, quadrupeds, insects, serpents, and dragons," in 1653, folio: as also a piece upon the Hebrew and Greek festivals in 1660; "A Thaumatography" in 1661, and some poems.

.

JONES, (WILLIAM) one of the last of those genuine mathematicians, admirers, and cotemporaries of Newton, who cultivated and improved the sciences in the present century, was a teacher of the mathematics in London, under the patronage of Sir Isaac; and had the honor of instructing the late earl of Hardwich in that science; who gratefully enabled him to lay aside his profession, by bestowing on him a sinecure place of about 2001. a year; and afterwards obtained for him a more beneficial office in his majesty's exchequer, which he enjoyed for the last twenty years of his life. The friendship of Sir Isaac Newton he obtained by publishing, when only twenty-six years old, the "Synopsis Palmaliarum Matheceos," a masterly and perspicuous abstract of every thing useful in the science of number and magnitude. Some papers of Collins falling afterwards into his hands, he there found a tract of Newton's which had been communicated by Barrow to Collins, who had kept up an extensive correspondence with the best philoso

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phers of his age. With the author's consent and as+ sistance, Mr. Jones ushered this tract into the world, with three other tracts on analogical subjects; and thus secured to his illustrious friend the honor of hav ing applied the method of infinite series to all sorts of curves, some time before Mercator published his quadrature of the hyperbola, by a similar method.These admirable works, containing the sublimest speculations in geometry, were very seasonably bro't to light in 1711, when the dispute ran high between Leibnitz and the friends of Newton, concerning the invention of fluxions; a dispute which this valuable publication helped to decide. Mr. Jones was author of" A new Epitome of the Art of Practical Naviga tion ;" and of several papers which appeared in the Philosophical Transactions." The plan of another work was formed by this eminent mathematician, intended to be of the same nature with the "Synopsis," but far more copious and diffusive, and to serve as a general introduction to the sciences, or, which is the same thing, to the mathematical and philosophical works of Newton. The ingenious author was conscious how arduous a task he had begun; but his very numerous and respectable acquaintances never ceased importuning and urging him to persist, till he had finished the whole work, the result of all his knowledge and experience through a life of near seventy years, and a standing monument, as he had reason to hope, of his habits of industry. He had scarcely sent the first sheet of it to press, when a fatal illness obliged him to discontinue the impression; and a few days before his death, he intrusted the MS. fairly transcribed, to the care of Lord Macclesfield, whose instructor he had formerly been. His Lordship promised to publish it, as well for the honor of the author, as for the benefit of his family, to whom the property of the work belonged. The earl survived his friend many years; but, like many other Lords, he forgot his promise, and the " Introduction to the VOL. III. No. 19. S

mathematics" was neglected; and, after his death, the MS. was not to be found.

Mr. Jones left a son, Sir William Jones, who was a judge in the East-Indies. This gentleman was not less distinguished by his zeal for science in general, than by his own great pre-eminence in many important branches.

JONES (HENRY) a native of Drogheda in Ireland, was bred a brick-layer, but having a natural inclination for the muses, pursued his devotion to them even during the labors of his more mechanical avocations, and composing a line of brick and a line of verse alternately, his walls and poems rose in growth together; but which of his labors will be most durable, time alone must determine. His turn, as is most generally the case with mean poets, or bards of humble origin, was panegyric. This procured him some friends, and in 1745, when the Earl of Chesterfield went over to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, Mr. Jones was recommended to the notice of that nobleman.His Lordship, delighted with the discovery of this mechanic muse, not only furnished him with his own notice and generous munificence, but also thought proper to transplant this opening flower into a warmer and more thriving climate. He brought him with him to England, recommended him to many of the nobility there, and not only by his influence and interest procured him a large subscription for the publishing of his "Poems," but it is said, even took upon himself the alteration and correction of his tragedy, and also the care of prevailing on the managers of Covent Garden Theatre, to bring it on the stage.This nobleman also recommended him in the warmest manner to the late Colley Cibber, whose friendly and humane disposition induced him to shew him many acts of friendship, and even made strong efforts