The history of the babyism of a boy can never be sufficiently interesting to excite minute attention. Though it is said of some one that he never was a child, yet anecdotes of infancy, if attainable, should be confined to the nurseries, where they may, like the legends of fairies, make an intellectual repast for gossips and fond mothers,

It is now of little value to be informed, that Cato gave indications of his firmness by not evincing or shewing any signs of fear, when he was held out of a window: equally so to learn, that Pascall was flung out on a dunghill by his parents, doubtful, from his deformity, to what class of animals he properly belonged, till philo sophy decided, and claimed him as her own, Man, like history, has its obscure periods; Hume has passed by the early stages of society with a sweeping observation, that the records of such times are scanty and scarcely worth noticing, or if preserved, not worthy of attention.

There exists a parody by Mr. Curran, of the Seven Ages of Shakespear; some part of the order there adopted I mean to pursue in the divi sion of this labour, intending to use the freedom of being occasionally unconfined by the exact regularity of time. In the second stage, we find Mr. Curran in Trinity College, Dublin, and in all the green of youth. One of those works which

early attracted his attention, was Rousseau's Eloise. The romance of this extraordinary production fevered his imagination, and, aided by the warmth of its diction, he made some improvident and unhallowed engagements. The board of senior fellows, the moral and literary censors of that learned society, conceiving some great scandal offered to the purity of their moral, (and it being true as reported,) summoned the young delinquent before their Areopagus, who, in his own words, appeared as Horace did on his first introduction to the court of Augustus, pauca et singultim locutus. The culprit stood before them in all that may be conceived lacrymose in feature, penitent in exterior, yet internally unmoved. After a long lecture, delivered in Hebrew, and explained into Greek, the accusation amounted in plain English to this, that he kept idle women in his chambers, and concluded according to the form of the statute and good morals. He saw he had no way to escape but by the exercise of his wit, and he quickly made a somerset, by assuring them that the accusation was utterly unfounded, as he never in his life kept any women idle in his rooms.

An examination for fellowships about this time taking place, where the severest trial in logics, metaphysics, mathematics, natural and moral philosophy, the Newtonian system, &c. &c., as also

in history, chronology, the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew languages, and in whatever may be connected with those stupendous masses of science and literature, where the human mind is wrought to whatever at so early a period it is supposed to be, in the proudest boast and expectation of our faculties, capable of, Mr. Curran attending with Mr. Egan, afterwards an eminent barrister and member of parliament, these gentlemen, not exactly attentive to the precise costume of the Parisian or New Bond-street beaux, were negligent of their appearance. That animal which ladies never see upon themselves, but often on miss's bonnet, was observed on the black ground of Mr. Curran's napless and unbrushed coat; Mr. Egan, a good-natured friend, quickly pointed to the distress, and asked Mr. Curran Cujum pecus? Mr. C. looking at Egan, archly replied, "Non meus, sed Egonis; nuper mihi tradidit Egon."

There was a wrong quantity pronounced by one of the candidates for scholarship, in reading this line in Horace

Septimius, Claudi nimirum intelligit unus."

The candidate was much confounded at his mistake in pronouncing the word " nimirum.' Mr. Curran observed, he should feel nothing for the error, as there was but one man in Rome,

even at that time, where the language was best understood, who knew the word; for it appeared by the testimony of Horace, that Septimius alone understood nimirum.

A barrister of the name of Going had, among other pleasantries, a favourite story, which he so agreeably exaggerated every time he told it, that at length it became too monstrous for belief. He was charged with this in presence of Mr. Curran, who observed, that the story was not the worse for being enlarged, that it was an excellent story, and had the merit of proceeding like Fame;— "Nam vires acquirit eundo;" i. e. " it gathers strength by going."

A gentleman of very ordinary countenance, whose forehead was so prominent on the one side that it rose like a rugged hill, while on the other it was depressed like a valley, being charged by one of his friends with an affair of gallantry, blushed exceedingly, and defended himself from the imputation by good humouredly offering his deformity as a proof of his innocence; on which Mr. Curran observed:-" On the first blush I should think you ought to be acquitted, but the maxim is still strong against you-Fronti nulla fides, nimium ne crede colori."

Some early and happy pieces of his wit were

bandied about, and were considered to rival some of Dryden's; of whose the best appears to have arisen from a theme given him at school, on the disputed question whether Brutus did well or ill in killing Cæsar. It ran in these terms; "An Brutus occiso Cæsare, aut bene fecit aut male fecit ?" Dryden, too idle, forgot the task, and being suddenly called on, he immediately answered, " Brutus occiso Cæsare, nec bene fecit nec male fecit, SED INTERFECIT." This is preserved in some of the fragments of the works of Addison.

In college, Mr. Curran's attention to the deeper and graver studies met with frequent interruptions from the vivacity of his own temperament. Highly qualified as he was to impart the richest pleasures to society, his company was earnestly solicited; still, however, he made considerable advances in science, particularly in metaphysics and morality, and he cultivated classic learning with great eagerness; and there it was he laid the foundation of a solid and intimate acquaintance with the Greek and Latin authors; with those standard works of antiquity which ever after imparted a polish and taste, to be derived only from such great models, which shew out their simple and grand forces, in all the vigour of fresh feeling and hardihood. His favourite authors were Virgil, Homer, and Horace; these he never after laid down through the whole series of his life; they