CHARACTERS,
251
h was the name of fome fcience of great importance and extent, with which he was as yet wholly unac- quainted; he becanie therefore im- patient in the higheft decree to get acquainted with philosophy ; and being continually upon the watch for fuch afiiflance as offered, he at laft picked up a book, called y^n in- trcduciion to the kno-j^ledge ofQcd, of vian, andofthe u};tijer/e. In reading this book he was ftruck with a va- riety of objeds that VJ^re equally interefting and new.
But as this book contained only general principles, he went toDref- den,and enquired among the book- fellers who was the mcft celebrated author that had written on philofo- phy. By the bookfellers he was recommended to the works of Wol- fius written in the German lan- guage; and Wolfius having been mentioned in feveral books he had read, as one of the mofl able men of his age, he readily took him for bis guide in the regions of philofo- phy.
The firftpurchafethathemadeof Wollius's works, was his logic, and at this he laboured a full year, ftill attending to his other ftudies, fo as not to lofe what he had gained before. In this book he found fcimfelf referred to another, written by the fame author, called Mathe- inatical Principles, as the fitteft to give juft ideas of things, and facili- tate the practice of logic ; he there- fore enquired after this bock vyith a defign to buy it. but finding it too dear for his finance?, he was obliged to content himfelf with an abritig- inent of it, which he parchafed in the autumn of 1743. From this book he derived much pieafure and much prohr, and it employed him from Oclobsx J743 to February J745
He then proceeded to metaphy- fics, at which he laboured till the Odober following, and he would fain have entered on the ftudy of phyfics, but his indigence was an inhiperable impediment, and he was obliged to content himfelf with his author's morality, politics, and remarks on metaphyfics, v/hich employed him to July 1 746 ; by this lime he had fcraped together a fum fufiicient to buy the phylics, which he had fo earneftly defired, and this work he read twice within the year.
About this time a dealer in old books fold him a volume of Wol- iius's Mathematical Principles at large, and the fpherical trigonome- try which he found in this book was a new treafure, which he was very defirous to make his own. This however coft him incredible labour, and filled every moment that he could fpare from his bufinefs and his fleep for fomething more than a year.
He proceeded to the ftudy of Kahrel's Law of Nature and Nati- ons, and at the fame time procured a little book on the terreftrial and celeftial globes. Thefe bvoks with a few that he borrowed were the fources from which he derived fuch a Hock of knowledge, as is feldom found even among thofe who have affociated with the inhabitantsof an univerruy,2nd had perpetual accefs to public libraries.
Mr. Hoffman, curing Ludwig's refidence at his hcufe, dreifed him in his own gown, with other proper habiliments, and he obferves that this alteration of his drefs had fuch an effeft, that Hoffman could not conceive the man's accent or dia- led to be the fame, and he felt himielf fecretly inclined to treat him with more deference than
when
