vation, be exalted to a degree beyond what their pof"feffor prefumes to believe. There is scarce any man but has found himself able, at the instigation of neceffity, to what in a state of leisure and deliberation he would have concluded impossible; and some of our species have fignalized themselves by such acthievements, as prove that there are few things above human hope.

It has been the policy of all nations to preserve, by some public monuments, the memory of those who have. ferved their country by great exploits; there is the same reason for continuing or reviving the names of those, whose extenfive abilities have dignified humanity. An honest emulation may be alike excited; and the philosopher's curiofity may be enflamed by a catalogue of the works of Boyle or Bacon, as Themistocles was kept awake by the trophies of Miltiades.

Among the favourites of nature that have from time to time appeared in the world, enriched with various endowments and contrarieties of excellence, none feems to have been more exalted above the common rate of humanity, than the man known about two centuries ago by the appellation of the Admirable Crichton; of whose history, whatever we may suppress as furpassing credibility, yet we shall, upon incontestible authority, relate enough to rank him among prodigies.

"Virtue," says Virgil, " is better accepted when " it comes in a pleasing form:" the person of Crichton was eminently beautiful; but his beauty was confiftent with such activity and strength, that in fencing he would spring at one bound the length of twenty feet upon his antagonist; and he used the sword in either hand with such force and dexterity, that scarce any one had courage to engage him.

Having! Having studied at St. Andrew's in Scotland, he went to Paris in his twenty-first year, and affixed on the gate of the college of Navarre, a kind of challenge to the learned of that university to dispute with him on a certain day: offering to his opponents, whoever they should be, the choice of ten languages, and of all the faculties and sciences. On the day appointed, three thousand auditors assembled, when four doctors of the church and fifty masters appeared against him; and one of his antagonists confesses, that the doctors were defeated; that he gave proofs of knowledge above the reach of man; and that a hundred years passed without food or fleep, would not be fufficient for the attainment of his learning. After a disputation of nine hours, he was presented by the president and professors with a diamond and a purse of gold, and dismissed with repeated acclamations...

From Paris he went away to Rome, where he made the fame challenge, and had in the prefence of the pope and cardinals the same success. Afterward he contracted at Venice an acquaintance with Aldus Manutius, by whom he was introduced to the learned of that city: then visited Padua, where he engaged in another public difputation, beginning his performance with an extemporal poem in praise of the city and the affembly then present, and concluding with an oration equally unpremeditatd, in commendation of ignorance.

He afterwards published another challenge, in which he declared himself ready to detect the errors of 'Ariftotle and all his commentators, either in the common forms of logic, or in any which his antagonists should propose of a hundred different kinds of verse.

These acquistions of learning, however stupendous, were not gained at the expence of any pleasure which youth generally indulges, or by the omission of any accomplishment in which it becomes a gentleman to excel: he practised in great perfection the arts of drawing and painting; he was an eminent performer in both vocal and instrumental music; he danced with uncommon gracefulness, and on the day after his dif putation at Paris exhibited his skill in horsemanship before the court of France, where, at a public match of tilting, he bore away the ring upon his lance fifteen times together.

He excelled in domestic games of less dignity and reputation; and in the interval between his challenge and disputation at Paris, he spent so much of his time at cards, dice, and tennis, that a lampoon was fixed upon the gate of the Sorbonne, directing those that would fee this monster of erudition, to look for him at the tavern.

So extensive was his acquaintance with life and manners, that in an Italian comedy, composed by himself, and exhibited before the court of Mantua, he is said to have perfonated fifteen different characters; in all which he might fucceed without difficulty, fince he had such power of retention, that once hearing an oration of an hour, he would repeat it exactly, and in the recital follow the speaker through all his variety of tone and gesticulation.

Nor was his skill in arms less than in learning, or his courage inferior to his skill: there was a prizefighter at Mantua, who travelling about the world, according to the barbarous custom of that age, as a general challenger, had defeated the most celebrated masters in many parts of Europe; and in Mantua, where he then resided, had killed three that appeared against him. The duke repented that he had granted him his protection; when Crichton looking on his fanguinary success with indignation, offered to stake fifteen hundred pistoles, and mount the stage against him. The duke, with fome reluctance, consented, and on the day fixed the combatants appeared: their weapon feems to have been single rapier, which was then newly introduced in Italy. The prize-fighter advanc ed with great violence and fierceness, and Crichton contented himself calmly to ward his passes, and fuffered him to exhaust his vigour by his own fury. Crichton then became the affailant, and pressed upon him with such force and agility, that he thrust him thrice through the body, and faw him expire: he then divided the prize he had won among the widows whose husbands had been killed.

The death of this wonderful man I should be willing to conceal, did I not know that every reader will inquire curiously after that fatal hour, which is common to all human beings, however diftinguished from each other by nature or by fortune.

The duke of Mantua having received so many proofs of his various merit, made him tutor to his fon Vincentio di Gonzaga, a prince of loose manners and turbulent disposition. On this occafion it was, that he compofed the comedy in which he exhibited so many different characters with exact propriety. But his honour was of short continuance; for as he was one night in the time of Carnival rambling about the streets, with his guitar in his hand, he was attacked by fix

men

men masked. Neither his courage nor his skill in this exigence deferted him; he opposed them with fuch activity and spirit, that he foon dispersed them, and difarmed there leader, who throwing off his mafk, discovered himself to be the prince his pupil. Crichton falling on his knees, took his own sword by the point, and presented it to the prince, who immediately seized it, and instigated, as some say, by jealousy, according to others, only by drunken fury and brutal resentment, thrust him through the heart.

Thus was the admirable Crichton brought into that state, in which he could excel the meanest of mankind only by a few empty honours paid to his memory: the court of Mantua testified their esteem by a public mourning; the contemporary wits were prosuse of their encomiums, and the palaces of Italy were adorned with pictures, representing him on horseback, with a lance in one hand and a book in the other..

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