An account of his life, containing a more detailed description of his various inventions, as well as a relation of the struggles and difficulties which he encountered, is now, we are informed, in preparation for the press. The portrait from which our engraving is taken was copied from one painted by Robert Fulton, when studying the art under his countryman, Benjamin West. [Illustration] PORSON. It is perhaps not easy to invest the memoirs of a verbal critic with the interest which attaches itself to the lives of men distinguished in other departments of literature and science: the classical scholar has little sympathy, in respect of his peculiar vocation, with the world around him, and the world for the most part repays his indifference with interest. Nevertheless, it is due to the great reputation of the subject of this memoir to relate the principal events of his life. Richard Porson was born December 25, 1759. His father, Mr. Huggin Porson, was the parish-clerk of East Ruston, near North Walsham, in the county of Norfolk. Notwithstanding his poverty, Porson had the good fortune to obtain a first-rate education. Even in his childhood he was taught by a careful father more than is generally learned by the children of the rich; and after he had spent a short time at a village school, to which he was sent at the age of nine, his abilities attracted the notice of Mr. Hewitt, the vicar of his native place, who kindly undertook to teach the young prodigy the rudiments of Greek and Latin. In these elementary studies Porson passed his time till 1774, being also occasionally employed as a shepherd or a weaver. But his reputation had reached the ears of Mr. Norris, of Grosvenor Place, who in the summer of that year undertook the charge of maintaining him at Eton College. His name soon became favorably known beyond the circle of his admiring school-fellows. The interest which he excited was fortunate for him, for on the death of his kind patron Mr. Norris, he would have been unable to continue at Eton, had it not been for a subscription collected by Sir George Baker, then President of the Royal College of Physicians, from a number of gentlemen who had heard of Porson’s talents, and were desirous of giving him a fair opportunity to cultivate them to the uttermost. With this subscription, an annuity of 80_l._ for a few years was purchased for him; and thus he was enabled to finish his course at Eton, and to proceed thence to Trinity College, Cambridge. [Illustration: _Engraved by B. Holl._ PORSON. _From a Print engraved by W. Sharpe, after a Picture by Hoppner._ Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street._ ]