The works of the Rev. William Thom, late minister ... - waughfamily.ca

414 LETTERS, TRACTS, ^C,111 liiftory, he confines his reading to the Byzantinehiftoriansj and declares them infinitely fupcrior toTacitus and Livy. He talks about numbers of Greekand Latin authors as well known to him, v/hom nobodyever heard of. In fhort, all his reading lies infuch books as nobody elfe reads •, and, for fome caufeor other, he never gives his opinion concerning anymodern book. He conceals his want of difcernment,by an affe6led contempt of every thing written fincei-ht -days of Procopius, except (oint things of Vidaand Fracaftor. In com.mon life, he is a ftranger to ^iail the forms of bufmcfs. All his ideas are extrava-,gant and wide cf truth and nature. IJe affects totalk of agriculture, and pronounces Virgil's Georgicsto be the only complete treatife upon the fubje6c,'(.xid. pities our pioughm.en that they cannot read it inLatin. In laying out a farm, he fagely propofes fiftyacres to be fown with onions, and forty for cabbageplants. To make five thoufand pounds a-year by at.airy, he will tell you, is the eafieft matter in theworld j he talks of it with a careiefs certainty ; Torhe fav/ it in the Phllofophical Tranfa£lions. His converfationis dry and iniipid ; and turns upon a fewuuecdctes about Bentley, and Burman, and Julian the.'vpoftate, and Jam.bliclius the Pythagorean. Sequeftcredfrom the world, and convcriing chiefly with muftyauthors, he becomes equally callous in his feeling andini^gnificant in his perfon. If to fuch ufelefs attainmentsand plumbeity of intellect, a four and morofetemper happens to be united, his character is deteftediiS well as defpifed ; but if he poflefTeth a quiet andfedate difpofiiion, or what Swift calls an aidermaniydifcretion, which isgenerally the cafe with men ofa heavy underftanding, he pafTeth among his acquainta'.iceas a good enough fort of man ; and, am.ong theilliterate part of m.ankind, his grave and humdrumafpe£l procures him the reputation of a deep fcholar.