in the Russian agrees with the Welsh, as Budu, budesh, budet-budem, &c. which, in Welsh, is Byddav (pronounced budhav,) byddi, bydd-byddwm, byddwch, byddant.

The verb to eat coincides ulmost as closely :

as Jivāmi jivāsi jivāti

jivamah jivāthah jivānti, with Vivo vivis vivit vivimus vivitis vivunt.

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Dadami, dadasi, dadate, with διδωμι, διδῶς, διδῶσι, &c.

Possessing such means of exfoliating the affinities of language, and growing collections of classified facts, Mr. Good turned to the study of a new language with delight. A dictionary, a standard grammar, his own tables, and an excellent memory, enabled him to set to work upon one or two of the best authors in the language selected. Perhaps he made but little progress at first; but so soon as he had unveiled enough of the structure and genius of the language to apply to it his principles of generalization and association, the remaining task was comparatively easy, and he soon accomplished his wishes. This process, it is true, did not make him critically master of every language to which he directed his attention; but it gave him the capacity of detecting and relishing the beauties of the best authors in those which he was

most anxious to explore; and it supplied him with views of the general analogies of language, as well as of the diversities and peculiarities which prevented those general analogies from becoming universal, more comprehensive and more practical than any other person (except he were a linguist merely) whom I have had the happiness to know.

But it is time I should pursue my narrative. From the year 1797 to 1803 or 1804, Mr. Good contributed largely to some of the Reviews and other periodical publications. The Analytical and Critical Reviews were those in which his productions usually appeared: though there are a few very interesting specimens of his taste and erudition in the British and the Monthly Magazines. Thus, in the latter magazine for August for 1800, there is a paper on German Literature, with two translations from Klopstock's Messias. And in the number for January 1801, there is an elegant communication on the resemblance of Persian and Arabic poetry to the Greek and Roman, with several spirited versions. But, during greater part of this, and even a longer period, his principal communications were to the Critical Review; of which, indeed, he was for some time the editor, and the labour of preparing the most elaborate articles often devolved upon him. It has not been in my power to obtain a list of these; so that I am only able to specify the critiques upon Hindley's Persian Lyrics, Allwood's Literary Antiquities of Greece, and of some poems by Sir B. Burgess and Mrs. Cowley. In the beginning of 1803 his labours were still more multifarious. He was finishing his translation of Solomon's "Song of Songs," carrying on his life of Dr. Geddes, walking from twelve to fourteen miles a day

that he might see his numerous patients: nor was this all. In a letter to Dr. Drake, (dated Jan. 29, 1803,) after speaking of these engagements, and adverting with thankfulness to the state of his business as a surgeon, (which then produced more than £1400 per annum,) he proceeds thus:

"I have edited the Critical Review, besides writing several of its most elaborate articles-I have every week supplied a column of matter for the Sunday Review-and have for some days had the great weight of the BRITISH PRESS upon my hands; the Committee for conducting which having applied to me lately, in the utmost consternation, in consequence of a trick put upon them by the proprietors of other newspapers, and which stopped abruptly the exertions of their editor and several of their most valuable hands."

So great a variety of occupations would have thrown most men into confusion: but such was the energy of Mr. Good's mind, such his habits of activity and order, that he carried them all forward simultaneously, suffering none to be neglected, left in arrear, or inadequately executed.

Towards the end of this busy year, Mr. and Mrs. Good were called to sustain a heavy trial, in the death of their only son; a child who evinced a most cheerful and amiable disposition, manners that were remarkably fascinating, with precocious, yet constantly aspiring intellectual powers. Mr. Good, for a season, sunk under the pressure of his affliction, in a way that greatly alarmed his friends. He felt all the agony that such a stroke was likely to inflict on an affectionate heart; a stroke whose magnitude can only be duly estimated by those who have sustained it; but

G

neither in his own judgment, nor in that of his family, did he derive from it the salutary lesson, even as to the precarious tenure of earthly blessings, which it was calculated to impart; and long indeed was it before he could acquiesce in the Divine dispensation, and adopt the language, " It is well."* Nearly eight years afterwards, it pleased the Supreme Disposer of events to visit the writer of these pages with a similar affliction and among the letters of condolence and sympathy which he received on that mournful occasion, was the following from his valued friend Mr. Good, which presents the most striking evidence of the state of deep feeling with which he, even then, contemplated his own loss.

Caroline Place, May 7th, 1811.

"My very dear Friend,

"With no common feeling do I sympathize with you. Your letter has touched upon a string which vibrates with so much agony through my heart and brain, and I fear ever will continue to do so, that I fly

The following is the Inscription which the weeping father prepared for the tomb of his beloved child:

Sacred to the Memory of
JOHN MASON GOOD,
only surviving son of

JOHN MASON and SUSANNA GOOD,
of Guilford Street in this Parish:
Who died of a violent fever, Nov. 26th, 1803,
in the 13th year of his age;

having equally captivated and surprised all who knew him,
by the possession of
Talents the most extraordinary

And disposition the most amiable:

Early, bright, transient, chaste, as morning dew,
He sparkled and exhaled, and went to heaven.

from it upon all occasions like the stricken deer from the hunter. You have indeed conjectured right, and the similarity of our trials is peculiarly remarkable. I, like you, had every thing I could wish for in one-one only. I enjoyed the present, I feasted on the future;— at the age of twelve, the same fatal disease made its attack-the result was the same-and my arms, like yours, formed a pillow during the last gasp: there was the same sense of piety while living, and the same prominent shoot of genius. The master of the Charter House, in a letter to me on the occasion, bewailed the loss of one of their most promising blossoms; and a variety of little effusions both in prose and verse found in the well-known hand afterwards, but never shewn to any one, and written for personal amusement alone, seemed sufficiently to justify the opinion so generally entertained.

"But here, my dear friend, I am afraid I must drop the parallel: for in the weakness of my heart I freely confess I have not yet acquired that strength of duty which you are already enabled to manifest.

"I dare not examine myself as to what I should wish for, if it were in my power-all I have hitherto been able to say is, "Thy will be done!'

"Mr. L- was with us when your letter arrived: we were listening to a new and most sweetly impressive anthem, 'My song shall be of judgment and of mercy! to thee, O Lord, will I sing.' What could be more appropriate, even if we had been aware of the melancholy fact, and could have foreseen your distressing communication? It struck us forcibly,—and we dwelt upon the coincidence.-The judgment is unquestionable: but is not the mercy, my excellent friend,