tance with the native tongues gained him numerous
friends. He was successively appointed surgeon to the commissioners for
surveying the provinces in Mysore, recently conquered from Tippoo
Sultan; professor of Hindostan in the College of Calcutta; judge of the
twenty-four pargunnahs of Calcutta; a commissioner of the Court of
Requests in Calcutta; and assay-master of the mint. His literary
services being required by the Governor-General, he left Calcutta for
Madras, and afterwards proceeded along with the army in the expedition
against Java. On the capture of the town of Batavia, having gone to
examine the library of the place, in which he expected to find some
curious Indian MSS., he caught a malignant fever from the tainted air of
the apartment. He survived only three days, terminating a life of much
promise, on the 28th of August 1811, in the thirty-sixth year of his
age.

In John Leyden an unconquerable perseverance was united to remarkable
native genius, and a memory of singular retentiveness. Eminent as a
linguist, he was an able and accurate philologist; in a knowledge of the
many languages of India he stood unrivalled. During his residence in the
East, he published a "Dissertation on the Languages and Literature of
the Indo-Chinese Nations," in the tenth volume of the "Asiatic
Researches," and he left numerous MSS. on subjects connected with
oriental learning. He was early a votary of the Muse; and, in youth, was
familiar with the older Scottish bards. In April 1795, he appeared in
the _Edinburgh Literary Magazine_ as author of an elegy "On the Death of
a Sister;" and subsequently became a regular contributor of verses to
the periodicals of the capital. His more esteemed poetical productions
are the "Scenes of Infancy," and the ballads which he composed for the
"Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border." Of the latter, the supernatural
machinery is singularly striking; in the former poem, much smooth and
elegant versification is combined with powerful and vigorous
description. There are, indeed, occasional repetitions and numerous
digressions; but amidst these marks of hasty composition, every sentence
bears evidence of a masculine intellect and powerful imagination. His
lyrical effusions are pervaded with simplicity and tenderness.

Like some other sons of genius, Leyden was of rather eccentric habits.
He affected to despise artificial manners; and, though frequenting
polished circles in Edinburgh, then in London, and