MEMOIRS AND REMAINS OF EMINENT PERSONS. MEMOIR of the late JOHN FRANS- Norwich, March 20, 1811. daughter, and could not long afford to maintain this son in unproductive literary pastime. They induced him to write for Mr. Marshall, an attorney, which be MORE than a twelvemonth has did for a while with sufficient regularity, elapsed since the death of our learned and singular townsinan, Mr. John Fransham. Some account ought to be preserved of a life so devoted to philosophy. The substance of the following memoir would before now have been offered to the Monthly Magazine, but that the task of a biographic notice seemed most naturally to devolve on those who inherited the manuscripts of the deceased: and the writer has but lately learnt, that no un welcome usurpation on their piety will be committed by his interference. During March 1730, John Fransham, the son of John Fransham, was born at Norwich, in St. George's parish, of which his father was clerk. For the elements of reading, writing, and cyphering he was indebted to Mr. Wingfield; and for the rudiments of latin, to Mr. Pagan, an antiquary and Anglosaxon scholar of some eminence. Dr. John Taylor, the theologian, thought well of his early talents, and gave him gratuitous instruction, possibly with a view of suggesting and opening to him the ecclesiastic profession. To this plan Fransham did not lean. At fifteen he was bound apprentice to a Cooper at Wymondham; but in less than two years deserted the employment, moved by an internal conviction, which regarded toil, competence, and iguorance as refuse, when weighed against leisure, privation, and philosophy. parents A legacy of twenty-five pounds fell to him at this period. His first project was to buy a poney, which he told Sir Ben. jamin Wrench (a physician, whom his consulted about his eccentricity), he should not ride, but make a friend of, and lead about wherever it wished to stray and feed. Kindness to animals was one of his earliest instincts, and was always one of his favourite topics. His eventual determination, however, was to purchase lessons in mathematics from Mr. Hemingway, a land-surveyor of science. The pupil's proficiency did honour to his choice, to his capacity, and to his application. The parents of Fransham had also a and with exemplary neatness: but he was never articled to the profession, nor attached to it. * In 1748, Fransham again broke loose. He was then at an age, when those, who from principle, or frugality, practise continence, labour under an inquietude of temperament, and are often assailed with vehement enthusiasms of the mind, with a disposition to sally forth in quest of adventures. He obeyed the restlessimpulse, strolled to Yarmouth, and embarked for North Shields, intending to walk the tour of the Scotch Highlands, and to know by inspection a people, whose manners he imagined to resemble those of the free nations of antiquity. Arrived at Newcastle, he formed acquaintance with some soldiers belonging to the regiment of Old Buffs. He had always spoken of military excellence as the noblest accomplishment of man, and resolved to attempt this heroic line of life. He enlisted; but, being somewhat bandylegged, he was not retained in the service of his country. The gaiety of his new associates had made inroads on his pecuniary resources, which the bounty of the sovereign was not to replace. Finding his means unequal to his intended stretch of route, he relinquished the investigation of Scotland, turned back towards the south, marching almost incessantly alone, and managed to reach Norwich, with a residue of only three half-pence, and a plaid which he had bought on this excursion. Among the manuscripts left behind by Fransham, occurs a syllogistic treatise entitled" Metaphysicorum Ele menta," of which the English preface is. dated in 1718. The pamphlet is a pa rody That Fransham at a mature age thus explained his own gadding, appears from the thirty-fifth paragraph of his "Oestrum Orphicum." The ironical character of this string of Omnis substantia est necessario eterna. neces rody of Spinoza's mode of reasoning, and In the year 1750, Fransham was engaged as a private tutor for the young children of Mr. Leman, a farmer at Hellesdon: when his services were no Jonger necessary there, he refumed the Occupation of writing for attorneys, and for authors. The reverend Samuel Bourne, who came in 1754, to settle at Norwich, occasioually employed him as an amanuensis: an unpublished disser tation of that rational divine, on the Mosaic Dispensation, which espouses the scheme of the antisupernaturalists, was lately circulated, in Fransham's hand. writing, and is thought to be still ex tant. Fransham was now acquiring, or rather exercising, a marked distaste against the Christian religion. This was much the fashion of the time. At the court of George the Second, the literature of infidelity was not frowned down: it was thought to diminish the certainty and the necessaria: ergo eternum est (axiom. w1.) 4. e. d. Coroll. Omnis substantia est immutabilis. Coroll. ex precedentibus. Spatium, vel extensio, est (prop. VII.) non dependens, (prop. XIV.) unica substantia, solum (axiom. VIII.) absolute necessarium, solum (defin. v111.) a se existens, solum (coroll. 1.) non ab alio effectum, inSnitum (azion. VII.) simplex (prop xv.) immobile (coroll. 11.) eternum (coroll. 111) immutabile (coroll. prop. xvI.) essentia uni versalis (coroll. prop. XIV.), causaque omnium cæterorum existentium. authority of theologians, and thus their asperities and persecutions: it was thought to corroborate the impartiality,' discernment, and tolerance of the ma gistrate. Perhaps it was considered too as inculcating the natural and expedient doctrine of the military and literary classes; inasmuch as it unlocks the chaubers of pleasure, banishes the fear of death, bestows frankness and moral courage, strengthens the vigour, and enlarges the dominion of intellect. Religious indifference also favours a cosmopolite pliancy, or plasticity of character;. which, in colonial emigrants, and in ambitious sectaries, prepares an expedient conformity to contiguous opinion. With the calm repose of indifference the activity of Fransliain's mind was not content: he hated, as Porson says of Gibbon, our religion cordially. Those who knew him, (I am quoting a written do cument) observe: " Christianity and bull-baiting,-Christianity and horsedocking,-Christianity and hunting,-in fine, Christianity and cruelty, were with him inseparable ideas.". In à disposition so prone to compassionate the brute creation, these were expressions of the utmost abhorrence. Among Franshain's books may be remarked a copy of Thomas Chubb's Posthumous Works, carefully corrected throughout with the pen, is if intended for republication; and fringed with marginal annotations, which imbitter the scattered sarcasm, strengthen the boldness of the arguments, and shake with sceptical doubts the narrow isthutus of retained creed. In the humble origin and rank of Chubb, in his self-taught Franshan most have fet a parallelism excellence and intellectual clearness, of condition, which probably instigated this project for editing anew the writings of the glover of Salisbury. "As a metaphysician," continues the manuscript document, on which I rely, "Frausham was an ardent admirer of Hume, whom he cake the prince of phidosophers, and whose dialogue On Natural Religion,' he considered as among the most exquisite and masterly produc Ens non dependens quod etiam causa est omnium cæterorum existentium Deus appel- the Natural History of Religion, the tions of the human mind. This with Sceptic, and the Essay on Miracles, ́are in fact the only portions of the works latur. Scholium. Hinc sequitur: Spatium esse (prop. VIII. et coroll, prop. XIV.) Deum. Porro. Spatium (prop. XIV.) solum esse Deum Coroll. Deus, vel spatium, est solidum. " of He would cite, in illustration, the punish ment of sodomy with death, as a cruelty pe culiar to Christian countr.ss. of Hume, which, in Fransham's copy, have been accompanied with verbal and marginal emendation: the precision is instructive, which these minute criticisms display. Middleton and Shaftesbury were retained in his select, though narrow library, but "Hume was the only author among the moderns on the subject of metaphysics, whom he profess ed to read with perpetual satisfaction. Among the ancients, Plato and Cicero were his favourites, and the arguments of Cotta in" De Naturâ Deorum," always afforded him an intellectual feast." Some patronage was shown to Fransham by the Chute family, with whom his sister lived as housekeeper. They allowed him to sleep in their Norwichhouse, and to use their library. One night in bed he imagined that bis patron, who was ill at Pickenham, would not live to return to Norwich, and related his ideal terror to the servants. Young Mr. Chute that night died; and Fransham always described this act of divination, as if he were no less favoured than the seers of antiquity. After the loss of this patron, Fransham hired a garret in St. Clement's parish, kept a school there, and was attended by fifteen or twenty scholars. At this time his confinement was close, and his income barely sufficient for wants narrowed to monastic privation. His health suffered: he took rapid solitary walks, in his plaid, during the evening and morning twilight, with a broad hat slouched over his eyes, and his hands behind him, and was supposed often to sleep on Mosswold heath, which was his usual stroll. II's choice luncheon was a plum cake. To drum, and to blow the hautboy,were, in wet weather, his relaxations; military tunes, his favourite rhythms. A head-ache, for which he coveted strong tea as a remedy, induced him, in a want of fuel, to burn this hautboy, which he never replaced. To his drum he substituted a cane-chair, which supplied the exercise without the noise to the neigh bourhood, and equally excited, by association, a martial ardor, or military reminiscences, in his fancy. Sometimes he would play at marbles alone in his apartment: then, no doubt, mathema tical truths would cluster in his recollection, and a delight analagous to that of solving problems, would arise, from observing in his trickling spheres the equality between the angle of incidence, and the angle of seflection. In 1769 he gave to the press his "Qestrum of Orpheus," the earliest of his dissertations containing any trace of the Platonic opinions which he finally professed. Born, like Ammonius Saccas, of Christian parents, having also rejected the religion of his fathers, and confining his studies almost exclusively to the ancient writers, Fransham's mind, like that of Ammonius, insensibly filled up the blank, occasioned by the effacement of hereditary notions, with ideas derived from Greek mythology. Like the Platonists of Alexand. ia, he endeavoured to give an allegoric turn to the fables of paganism, which might enable him without inveracity to speak of them as truths. Such euphemisms abounded in his conș versation. Having been advised to take chicken-broth for a head-ache; he called it sacrificing a cock to Æ-culapius. He lost for a time, through inflammation, the sight of one eye, which recovered on a change of the weather from warm to cold This incident he described as a miracle, said that he had prayed for relief to Juno, (the power presiding over the atmosphere), and that she had given it.† In is made for cailing Orpheus a man, and not ą See paragraph xXXVII, where an apology god. + Thomas Chubb, in his "Author's Farewell," p. 168, observes: "If one infinite intelligence be sufficient to answer all the purposes, that are answered through the universe; there can be no reason for admitting an infinity of such intelligences; seeing there is nothing in nature which countenances such a supposition." To which sentence Fransham has attached "Yes; the infinitely this marginal note: of infinite minuteness, worlds beyond worlds various parts of nature; worlds within worlds of infinite extent, systems indefinitely multitudinous both microscopic and telescopic, each seeming to require a distinct attentive regulating artist Apparently Fransham had adopted the opinion of Spinoza, that the first cause is indeed uncreated and indestructible, but not intelligent; and is no other than the entire, eternal, finite, mass of matter, of which the universe is composed: but he had not adopted the opinion of Philo and of the is shapened and animated by a single coUnitarian philosophers, that the great whole appears to have hels, that there were innu eternal soul, On the contrary, Fransham merable intelligent powers, or powerful intelligences, which conspired to shape and animate the parts of nature, and that these all-pervading, plastic, and designing minds, might In the year 1770, a stranger undertook to publish, every Tuesday, in Norwich, a satyrical paper called "Robin Snap," which was modelled after the Tatler, and sold at one penny.. The editor engaged Fransham's assistance, and obtained from him several contributions; but the work soon expired of neglect. Fransham, however, was pleased with the task, and continued weekly to provide his paper, long after the publication had ceased. There are thirty numbers, with this superscription, among his manuscripts. In 1771 the gad-fly, to use his own expression, stung again. With the little accumulations of his pædagogic industry, Fransham suddenly set off for London, and established himself near Hyde-Park corner; wishing deliberately to compare our modern metropolis and what he had read of Athens and of Rome. He awarded to the cast of its civilization a resemblance with that of the ancient Alexandria. The A part of his object also was the publication of several manuscripts, which he had prepared in that view. principal among them were: (1) The Life and Institutes of Lycurgus, digested from Xenophon, Plutarch and others. (2.) Aristopia, or the Scheme of a Perfect Government. (3) A Synopsis of might most fitly be classed by means of the nomenclature employed in Greek mythology. Thus he received a plurality of deities, calling them Pan, Juno, Asculapius, and the like; but his system of polytheism was peculiar. His opinion concerning the attributes of these divinities may best be taken from the manuscript note attached by him to p. 520, of Hume's Dialogue on Natural Religion, "There may be four hypotheses concerning the first causes, or presiding principles, of the universe: 1. That they have perfect goodness; 2. That they have perfect malice; 3. That they are opposite, having both goodness and malice; 4. That they have neither goodness nor malice. Mixt phænomena can never prove the two former unmixt principles; and some uniformity, or steadiness of a general course, may seem to oppose the third. In consequence, the fourth appears most probable." Under the title " Antiqua Religio," Fransham leaves a collection of solemn hymus, addressed to Jupiter, Minerva, Venus, Hercules, and the other deities. These are not transcripts from the analogous compositions of Mr. Thomas Taylor, but were versified by Fransham himself, in his moments of devout inspiration Classical Philosophy. These manuscripts, still unpublished, remain among his pa pers, carefully corrected for the press, and provided with a minute index; they were willingly lent about among the young to encourage a spirit of enquiry. The Lycurgica (such is the first running title) include a philosophic biography of Lycurgus, in which the laws of that sage are described and discussed in the historic order of their presumed origin. His early life is so narrated as to favour the interesting theory, that his friend, the poet Thales, was the real Ilomer; the latter name being an epithet resulting from eventual blindness. The Laconic Institutions are praised with a characteristic, if excessive, sympathy. "The Aristopia," is not a work of history hut of fiction. Had Plato flou rished at Sparta, instead of Athens, and there acquired a love of discipline and controul; instead of devising such a plan of republic as to accommodate the licentiousness of an Athenian army, he would perhaps have recommended in stitutions, in which order was preferred to liberty, and in which a systematic discipline of the magistrate was extended over the dress, diet, and domestic conduct of every citizen. This sort of compreconised monwealth Fransham has in his Aristopia. All citizens are embodied as a militia; military grades confer personal nobility; and a limited monarch, circumscribed by the aristocracy of rank, directs the whole machine, of which the details in some respects resemble those in the beautiful German romance of Count Stolberg, called" Die Insel." The " Philosophical Synopsis" is expanded from that English Epistle against the Fear of Death, attached to one of the more jejune and juvenile productions of Fransham. It is composed with care; and in a manner which recals the writ ings of Harris; where the argumentative parts are usually written with simplicity, and the perorations with eloquence. A sceptical philosophy, inclining towards the doctrine of the soul's natural immortality pervades the treatise, which im. breathes contentment and philanthropy. Not succeeding with the booksellers, Fransham attempted private tuition. He was called in by Mr. afterwards Dr. Leeds, who had left the schools insufficiently prepared for graduation. Through this pupil, Fransham became acquainted with Foote, and other gay livers, and frequented the comic theatre; but had to pay the penalty of public ridicule; for Foote is said, in Dr. Last and Johnny Macpherson, to have caricatured the pupil and the tutor. This merry society seems to have infused an unfortunate comic turn into the subsequent writings of our philosopher. In 1772, Fransham returned to Norwich, and taught the Coopers, an emisent family, then resident at Brooke. On their removal he applied for his stipend. This, he observed, was the first letter he had ever written. To the hospitality of Counsellor Cooper Mr. Fransham was indebted about the year 1780, for long-remembered notice. The occupations of his leisure at this period consisted in the composition of several dialogues, entitled, "Socratica Charta Hodierna," wherein the forms of ancient discussion are applied to topics frequently modern. These dialogues treat of 1. Miracles; 2. Pleasure and Pain; 3. Industry; 4. Government; 5. Plato; 6. Laconic Institutions; 7. Modern Education; 8. Singularity; and, 9. The Changes of Time. Some Ironical Panegyrics, which, by attempting humour in antique forms, may remind the reader of Ben Jonson's comedies, eke out the ensuing volumes of his lucubrations; but, like the masks in Terence, the laboured grin often fails of exciting laughter. Fransham resided from 1784 to 1794, with Mr. Thomas Robinson, in St. Peter's Hungate, and kept an evening school. The friendship of Mr. Robinson conferred on every subsequent period of Franshan's life, the comforts of easy converse, and the services of prudent attention. In 1785, the nephew of Mr. Robinson was attacked with pulmonary consumption. Fransham, who could observe the progressive decline, ventured to prognosticate the death, and guessed with a medical exactness which aftonished. In this instance he again boasted of his divinatory power, comparing in conversation his deihon with that of Socrates. This was, perhaps, practical irony, and not done in order to excite a belief of any supernatural intelligence from his genius; but rather in order to do away, among his thinking friends, any traditional remnant of superstition, by supplying an instance analogous to what had been superstitiously interpreted, where no such interpretation was protable: yet the wonder of his sister, and of the unleained, was a part of the exhibition which gratified him. Having borrowed of his pupil, Mr. Saint, Thomas Taylor's Proclus on Euclid, be made a mark against a note, where the author justifies a belief in heathen miracles. Being asked the reason of this marginal interjection, he noted the inconsistency of giving wag to a belief in Pagan miracles, and rejecting them in the case of Christianity. Marvellous narration he considered as exoteric forms of preserving real facts; and said that Mr. Thomas Taylor showed himself initiated only into the lesser mysteries of Paganism, by putting upor such legends a construction intended for the vulgar alone, About the year 1790, Counsellor Frith, now the attorney-general of Upper Canada, refreshed, under Fransham's care, his classical attainments. At his house the writer of this memoir formed an acquaintance with Fransham, which was not afterwards discontinued. His physiognomy was thought to resemble the portraits of Erasmus; it had this in commion with the busts of Plato— there were two tips to the nose; his countenance was sedate, and expressive of intellect; his complexion dusky; his grey hair hung loose about his shoulders, and gave a picturesque, or antique air to the bust: he wore a short green jacket, drab-coloured breeches, worsted stock. ings, and large shoes; and seldom, if ever, varied his attire. He did not sacrifice to the Graces; he was not even a worshipper of Nausicaa, if that may be taken for the name of the nymph who presides over cleanliness. This cynical negligence was an error of Frausham's philosophy. He would have had more pupils of the higher rank, and would thus, with less labour, have earned a competence, if he had attended duly to personal appearance. He would also have been a more welcome and frequent guest in the fa milies of the polished citizenry. His conversation was interesting by its singularity, by its studiously Socratic cha racter, by its carrying back the imagination to the porticoes of the Serapeum, by its disdain of transient topics, and by its courageous antipathy to prejudice and superstition: yet it depended, latterly at least, rather on remembered, than on immediate resource, and drew from the cistern more than from the well. The democratic character of the French revolution he disliked, not its antichristian character. He blamed the philosophers for not adhering to the nobility of the country. The aristocracy,. be |