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Article MEMOIRS OF THE LATE DR. PAUL HIFFERNAN. ← Page 2 of 8 →
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Memoirs Of The Late Dr. Paul Hiffernan.
county . From this , at a proper age , he was removed to a seminary in Dublin , where the Classics were taught in good repute , and where he was educated for the profession of a Popish Priest , his parents being of the Roman Catholic persuasion . ¦* - For the better finishing his education in this line , he was afterwards sent to a College in the South cf Francewhere he became acquainted
, with several students , some of whom were afterwards much renowned in the Republic of Letters , and particularly the celebrated Rousseau and Marmontel . The first of these , he used to observe , gave at that time no promise of his future greatness , being very modest and simple in his manners , and more fond of retirement and contemplation than either study or conversation .
Of Marmontel he used to speak in preat praise . He was studious , inquisitive , and lively , was the very soul of his class for conviviality , good-humour , and wit , and scarce a day passed without his producing a sonnet , an epigram , or a bon mot , which gained him great applause , and prophesied his future reputation . He remained at this College and at Paris' for near seventeen , years , whichthough it gave him an opportunity of speaking and writing
, the French language with fluency and purity , accounts in some respect for his having so bad a style as an English writer , he having left his own country at so early an age , that he insensibly imbibed the French idioms in preference to those of his own . Most of the English and Irish students at this College being educated for the profession of physic , our Author followed the same
track , and , though contrary to the design of his parents , who intended him for a Romish Priest , he took out his Bachelor's Degrees of Physic , and soon after returned to Dublin , in order to practise his profession .
Why he did not fulfil his resolution on his arrival in . Dublin , can be readily accounted for by any person who knew his natural turn , which was that of an unconquerable love of indolence , and dissipation . The regularities of any profession were circles too confined for him , and the day that was passing over him was generally to decide what'he should do . With this temper , instead of cultivating his profession , he sought the receptacles and convivialities of his countrymen ; and as
he was a good scholar , abounded in anecdote , and mi ght , at that time , have imported some of the agreeable manners of the French , he found a ready chair at several respectable tables in Dublin . About this time a Dr . Lucas , a man who afterwards , was much celebrated for his opposition to the Government of Ireland , started up , a . nd by those bold measures that propose quick and sudden
reformation of abuses , gained so much of the popular attachment , that the citizens of Dublin returned him as one of their Members in Parliament . Another party opposed these measures , and Hiffernan being considered as a young man of good education and lively parts , he undertook to write against Lucas in a periodical paper which was called " The tickler . " VOL . II , * L . 1
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Memoirs Of The Late Dr. Paul Hiffernan.
county . From this , at a proper age , he was removed to a seminary in Dublin , where the Classics were taught in good repute , and where he was educated for the profession of a Popish Priest , his parents being of the Roman Catholic persuasion . ¦* - For the better finishing his education in this line , he was afterwards sent to a College in the South cf Francewhere he became acquainted
, with several students , some of whom were afterwards much renowned in the Republic of Letters , and particularly the celebrated Rousseau and Marmontel . The first of these , he used to observe , gave at that time no promise of his future greatness , being very modest and simple in his manners , and more fond of retirement and contemplation than either study or conversation .
Of Marmontel he used to speak in preat praise . He was studious , inquisitive , and lively , was the very soul of his class for conviviality , good-humour , and wit , and scarce a day passed without his producing a sonnet , an epigram , or a bon mot , which gained him great applause , and prophesied his future reputation . He remained at this College and at Paris' for near seventeen , years , whichthough it gave him an opportunity of speaking and writing
, the French language with fluency and purity , accounts in some respect for his having so bad a style as an English writer , he having left his own country at so early an age , that he insensibly imbibed the French idioms in preference to those of his own . Most of the English and Irish students at this College being educated for the profession of physic , our Author followed the same
track , and , though contrary to the design of his parents , who intended him for a Romish Priest , he took out his Bachelor's Degrees of Physic , and soon after returned to Dublin , in order to practise his profession .
Why he did not fulfil his resolution on his arrival in . Dublin , can be readily accounted for by any person who knew his natural turn , which was that of an unconquerable love of indolence , and dissipation . The regularities of any profession were circles too confined for him , and the day that was passing over him was generally to decide what'he should do . With this temper , instead of cultivating his profession , he sought the receptacles and convivialities of his countrymen ; and as
he was a good scholar , abounded in anecdote , and mi ght , at that time , have imported some of the agreeable manners of the French , he found a ready chair at several respectable tables in Dublin . About this time a Dr . Lucas , a man who afterwards , was much celebrated for his opposition to the Government of Ireland , started up , a . nd by those bold measures that propose quick and sudden
reformation of abuses , gained so much of the popular attachment , that the citizens of Dublin returned him as one of their Members in Parliament . Another party opposed these measures , and Hiffernan being considered as a young man of good education and lively parts , he undertook to write against Lucas in a periodical paper which was called " The tickler . " VOL . II , * L . 1