King George I. He loft his father when very young, and the whole care of his education devolved upon his mother, who was a woman of found judgment and exemplary virtue and piety. Soon after his father's death, he was removed from Winchefter to Eton fchool; and thence he was placed at the university of Oxford, and became one of the ftudents of Christ Church. He had been defigned for the service of the church, but his uncle, lord Cobham, feduced him to a more airy mode of life, and gave him a commiffion in his own regiment with promifes of preferment.

He continued fome time in the army, though it is reafonable to suppose he never funk into a mere foldier, or neglected the pursuit of learning. Afterwards finding himself more inclined to civil employment, he laid down his commiffion, and engaged in bufinefs under lord Townfend, then fecretary of ftate, with whom he attended the king to Hanover.

His adherence to lord Townsend ended in nothing but a nomination, (May 1729) to be clerk extraordinary of the privy council, which produced no immediate emolument; for it only placed him in a state of expectation and right of fucceffion, and it was very long before a vacancy admitted him to profit.

Soon afterwards he married, and fettled in a very pleafant houfe at Wickham in Kent, where he lived in tranquil, domeftic happiness, and devoted himself to learning and piety. He published a verfion of Pindar; and in 1747, the world was favoured with his " Observations on the Refurrection," for which the univerfity of Oxford created him doctor of laws. In his delightful retirement,

he was often vifited by Lyttleton and Pitt, who when they were fatigued with faction and debates, amused themselves at Wickham with books and literary conver fation. There is in this retreat a well made walk by Pitt; and what is of far more importance, at Wickham Lyttleton received that conviction, which produced his "Differtation on the Converfion of St. Paul."

These two illuftrious friends had for a while liftened to the blandishments of infidelity, and when Mr. Weft's book was published, it was bought by fome, who did not know his change of opinion, in expectation of new objections against christianity; and as infidels do not want malignity, they revenged the disappointment by calling him a methodift.

Mr. Weft's income was not large; and his friends endeavoured, but without fuccefs, to obtain an augmentation. It is reported, that the education of the young prince was offered to him, but that he refused it, because he was not allowed a more extenfive power of fuperintend

ance.

In time however his revenue was improved; he lived to have one of the lucrative clerkships of the privy council, (1752) and Mr. Pitt at laft had it in his power to make him treasurer of Chelsea hofpital.

He was now fufficiently rich; but wealth came too late to be long enjoyed, nor could it fecure him from the calamities of life; he loft, in 1758, his fon, an only child, who died at the age of twenty. This affecting difpenfation was feverely felt by his parents, but their chriftian fortitude and refignation were noble; and Mr. West, with pious hopes, faid, "He was gone to a better father, who

by a merciful difpenfation had fecured his fon a happy retreat from a world of evils."

Towards the latter end of his life, he wholly applied himself to the ftudy of the Scriptures, being extremely anxious to use his utmost endeavours to reconcile the feeming inconfiftencies, which gave the enemies of revealed religion a pretence to doubt and difcredit its divine authority. In thefe researches he felt the higheft fatisfaction, and often remarked that "light broke in upon his mind, and discovered divine truths, which filled him with the strongest hopes that his pleafing labours might prove

a benefit to mankind."

Mr. Weft had fome time meditated writing upon the evidences of the truth of the New Teftament; but he did not live to complete this work. In 1756, a ftroke of the palfy brought him to the grave. "He was," fays Dr. Johnson," one of the few poets, to might be without its terrours."

whom the grave

This excellent man, in the introduction to his "Obfervations on the Refurrection of Jesus Christ," makes the following remarks, "It may poffibly be demanded why, being a layman, I presume to intermeddle in a province commonly thought to belong peculiarly to the clergy? To which I answer, that befides the motives above fuggefted, this very prejudice was a powerful inducement to me to publish the following obfervations, and to prefix my name to them. The clergy, I am sensible, are both ready and able to maintain the caufe of chriftianity, as their many excellent writings in defence of it fufficiently demonftrate ; but as the generality of mankind are more governed by prejudice than reason, the writings of the

clergy are not fo univerfally read, or fo candidly received as they deferve." "The greatest service, fays he, that the most zealous patriot can do his country, is to promote the faith, and thereby encourage the practice of the truly divine virtues, recommended by Chrift and his apoftles."

Johnson's Lives of the Poets.-Weft's Obfervations on the Refurrection.

LEONARD EULER.

LEONARD EULER, an eminent philofopher and mathematician, was born at Bafil, on the 14th of April, 1707. His father, who was a proteftant clergyman, had applied himself with fuccefs to the mathematics; and though he intended his fon for the miniftry, he initiated him in this fcience.

When young Euler was fent to the university of Bafil, he attended regularly the different profeffors, and as his memory was prodigious, performed his academical tasks with uncommon rapidity, and all the time thus gained was confecrated to geometry, which foon became his favourite ftudy. The early progrefs he made in this fcience only added new ardour to his application. After he had, at his father's defire, ftudied theology, and the oriental languages, he returned to geometry as his principal object.

About the year 1727, he was chofen member of the imperial academy of Petersburg; and in 1738, he was promoted to the professorship of natural philofophy. In 1735, a problem was propofed by the academy of Peters

burg, which required expedition, and for the folution of which feveral celebrated mathematicians had demanded the space of fome months. This problem was folved by Euler in three days, to the great aftonishment of the academy; but the violent and laborious efforts it cost him threw him into a fever, which endangered his life, and deprived him of the use of his right eye.

In 1741, Euler received an invitation from Frederick III. to affift in forming an academy of fciences at Berlin. And while he was enriching this academy with effays on the deepest parts of mathematical fcience, he continued. his philofophical contributions to the academy of Petersburg, which granted him a pension in 1742.

It was with much difficulty that this great man obtained in 1766, permiffion from the king of Pruffia to retire to Petersburg, where he determined to pass the remainder of his days. Soon after his return, he was feized with a violent disorder, which terminated in a total lofs of his fight. Even in this diftreffing fituation, he dictated to his fervant, "His Elements of Algebra," a work which excited aftonishment and applaufe.

About this time he was honoured by the academy of fciences at Paris with the place of one of the foreign members of this learned body. In 1772, he undertook to collect into one fyftematical and continued work, the important discoveries which he had been making for thirty years, which lay difperfed in the memoirs of the different academies. This laborious performance was published when he was totally blind, and confequently obliged to arrange all his compofitions by the fole powers of his memory and genius. It was completed when he was em

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