JONES, SIR WILLIAM, was born in London, September tho 28th, 1746. William Jones, his father, who was a mathematician of some eminence, was born in 1680, and died iu 1749. Ile was the author of ' A New Compendium of Navigation,' 8vo, London, 1702; ' Synopsis Palwariorum Matheseos, or a New Introduction to the Mathematics,' 8vo, London, 1706; ' Analysis per Quautitatum Series, Fluxioues, ae Differeutias,' Itc., 4to, London, 1711; besides some papers in the 'Philosophical Transactions.' William Jones having died when his son was only three years of ago, the care of the child's education devolved upon his mother, who appoars to have been a sensible and intelligent woman. Jones was remarkable iu his early years for his progress iu learning. At the age of seven he was scut to tho grammar-school at Harrow, and though his classical studies were suspended for a twelvemonth when ho was nine years old, in consequence of an accident which kept hint from the school, he surpassed almost all his schoolfellows in learning; and so high an opinion had Dr. Thackeray, at that time head-master of the school, formed of the talents of his pupil, that he used to say that "if Jones were left naked and friendless on Salisbury Plain, he would nevertheless find the road to fame and riches." Dr. Thackeray was succeeded by Dr. Sumner, who had an equally high opinion of the abilities of Jones ; he has been known to declare " that Jones knew more Greek thau himself, and was a greater proficient in the idiom of that language." During the last two years of his residence at Harrow Jones did not confine himself to the study of the classical writers ; he learned the Arabic characters, and made some progress in Hebrew. He devoted a considerable part of his time to composition in Latin, Greek, and English; some of his juvenile pieces have been printed iu the fragment of a work which he began at school, and entitled 'Limon,' in imitation of a lost work of Cicero. During the vacations he studied the French and Italian languages.
In 1764, at the age of seventeen, he entered at University College, Oxford, where he continued to prosecute his studies with the greatest diligence. He especially directed his attention to the study of Arabic and Persian; and employed his vacations in reading the best authors in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. In 1765 he left Oxford, and went
to reside in the family of Earl Spencer, in order to superintend the education of Lord Althorp. In 1770 he resigned this situation with the intention of going to the bar, but he did not immediately commence his legal studies. During the five years that he resided in Earl Spencer's family he made great acquirements in Oriental literature, and obtained by his publications the reputation of being one of the first Oriental scholars of his age. In 1768 he was requested by the king of Denmark to translate the 'Life of Nadir Shah' from the Persian into French ; this translation was published in 1770, with a treatise on Oriental poetry, also written in French, in which he has translated several of the Odes of Hafiz into French verse. In the following year he published an excellent grammar of the Persian language : it has been republished of late years with many additions and improvements by the late Professor Lee, of Cambridge. In his twenty-first year Jones began his Commentaries on Asiatic Poetry' in imitation of Bishop Lowth's Prelectiona on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews.' This work, which was written iu Latin, and was published in 1774 under the title of 'Pocseos Asiaticao Commentariorum Libri Sex,' contains many excellent remarks on Oriental poetry in general, and translations from the most celebrated Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish poets. It was republished by Eichhorn, at Leipzig, 1776. He also began, during his residence with Earl Spencer, a Dictionary of the Persian language, in which the principal words were illustrated by quotations from the most celebrated Persian authors. In 1771 he replied anonymously in French to Anquetil du Perron, who bad attacked the University of Oxford and soma of its learned members in his introduction to the Zend-Avesta.' This reply was written in such good French that Biorn Sthal, a Swedish Orientalist, says, "that he had known many Frenchmen so far mistaken in the writer as to ascribe it to some bel-esprit of Paris." In 1772 Mr. Jones published a small volume of poems consisting chiefly of translations from the Asiatic languages.