From the time of his marriage till the year 1760, Mr Harris lived entirely in Salisbury during winter, and retired in the summer to his country house at Durlord, in the neighbourhood of that city. Besides attending to the pur suits of literature and the duties of a magistrate, he devoted an adequate proportion of his time to the sacred task of su perintending the intellectual and moral education of his chil dren; and he zealously promoted a refined taste in music and other elegant pursuits in the circle of society in which he lived.
In 1761, he was elected member of parliament for the burgh of Christchurch, which seat he retained till his death. In the following year, he was made one of the lords of the admiralty ; and in two years after a lord of the treasury ; In 1765, he went out of office with the ministry with which he was connected. In 1774, however, he was, much to his gratification, appointed secretary and comptroller to the Queen.
During the hours of leisure which the duties of public life allowed him, he prosecuted, with great regularity, his literary labours. In 1774, he published his Philosophical Arrangements, a work in which he displayed all his former admiration of the Peripatetic logic, and combatted the doc trines of chance and materialism, animated by a zealous re gard for the happiness of mankind,—an object of which, many who have espoused the opposite side of these ques tions, have betrayed an unfeeling neglect, by the style and manner in which they have published their opinions.
In 1780, the same year in which lie died, he printed for the use of his circle of private friends a work, which was published immediately after his death, entitled Philological Inquiries, containing a popular summary of the conclusions to which the philosophical investigations of the ancients conducted them, accompanied with pleasing illustrations and examples. It contains also some affectionate expres
sions of personal attachment to his friends, and, on the whole, furnishes a good example of talents retaining at a very advanced age their former vigour, as well as of can dour and benevolence continuing undiminished. His health, however, was now much impaired, and he died on the 22d of December 1780, in the 72d year of his age, beloved and regretted by all who knew him.
His private character appears to have been thoroughly amiable. With a mind well disciplined to severe thought, he united an unrestrained freedom and cheerfulness of cha racter, which inclined him to take a ready part in all the subordinate interests and common amusements of life. He exhibited on all occasions a temper the most humane, gen tle, and forgiving. As a critic, he was candid and indul gent ; and, with a sagacity which enabled him to discern deformities, he had a sense of justice and of gratitude which made him chiefly delight in acknowledging literary beau ties. Those who dispute the accuracy of some of his con clusions, would do well to copy the tender solicitude which he expressed for the general interests of his species, and the delicacy with which he communicated to the world the fruits of his researches.
His son Lord Malmesbury, published an edition of his works in two quarto volumes, to which he prefixes a brief account of his life. He seems to value his father's memo ry, chiefly for the steady resistance which he made to those opinions on general subjects which have prevailed in mo dern France, and which, from their harsh collision with pre viously existing systems, and, as he thinks, from their in trinsic repugnance to the interests of society, gave rise to that political discord, and those consequent ravages of war, with which Europe has in our age been visited. (H. D.)