BRYANT, JACOB, au eminent classical scholar, was born at Plymouth, where his father filled an office in the customs.
He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cam bridge, and gave early proofs of that proficiency in classical literature, which afterwards ranked him as one of the first scholars in Europe. His attainments were so conspicuous, that they recommended him to the at tention of the Duke of Marlborough, who chose him for his secretary, and afterwards appointed him as tutor to his sons, whom he accompanied in this capacity to Eton.
His friendship with the various branches of that illus trious family, for the honour of all parties, continued unabated till the latest period of his long life; and he was received on the footing of a highly valued friend, not of a humble dependent. Through the influence of the duke, he obtained a lucrative situation in the ord nance department, which enabled him to prosecute his studies without molestation; and to enjoy, what falls to the lot of few scholars, riches, friends, books, and lei sure. He lived to the advanced age of 89, and may be said to have flourished during the greater part of the last century. He died at Cypenham near Windsor, where he had long resided, on the 14th of November 1804, of a mortification in his leg, in consequence of a hurt which he received from a chair, in reaching down a book from the shelves of his library.
The life of a scholar is seldom distinguished by any of those bustling incidents which attract the attention of the world : his researches are prosecuted in retirement ; and he can explore with greatest advantage the hidden springs of human conduct, or reconcile most readily the anomalous leatures of human history, when withdrawn from the concerns and ordinary pursuits of the world. It is in his works that we are to trace the progress of those discoveries, which, in many instances, are more useful and interesting to society, than those of the far lamed traveller, or hardy navigator. Whether the speculations of Mr Bryant shall be generally viewed in this light, may perhaps be doubted. They are of too
recondite a nature for popular use, but they will never fail to he interesting to the scholar, with all the licence of imagination which sometimes accompanies them. Mr Bryant was not of the number of those scholars who have too frequently issued from the English universi ties, whose minds are made the receptacle of mere vocables, or the measures of rythmical quantities : he endeavoured to apply his great erudition to some useful purpose, and to benefit the world, whilst he indulged his propensity for literary and philological investigations.
His first work was entitled " Observations and enqui ries relating to various parts of ancient history, containing Dissertations on the wind Euroclydon, and on the Wand Melite : together with an account of Egypt in its most an cient state, and of the Shepherd Kings." This work was published in 1767. The account of the shepherd kings is extremely curious ; and it is much to be regretted, that the deficiency of materials prevented him from prosecuting the subject so far as could be wished, whilst it compelled him to fill up many chasms with in genious, but unauthorised conjectures. Indeed the excellencies and defects of Mr Bryant's works are to be ascribed to the same cause, viz. that fearlessness of dis cussion, which prompted him, on the one hand, to shoot beyond the timid investigations of his predecessors, and on the other, made him too little scrupulous in admitting his own conjectures, when facts were wanting to con firm his theory. It had been doubted whether Melite, the island on which St Paul was shipwrecked, is the modern Malta ; because it is said, Acts xxvii. 27. that Melite is situated in Adria, or the Adriatic. But Mr Bryant has shown, by conclusive evidence, that the name Adria was applied to almost all the sea lying be tween Sicily and Africa, and that, therefore, we ought not to argue on the restricted meaning which we now assign to that term.