Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/620

 616 WADDING. Mr. Walker not only approved the plan, but joined him as a partner in the business, and they opened a school under this firm at Kensington Gravel-pits. Mr. Usher's acquaintance with Mr. Walker commenced during the former's excursions from Dublin to Bristol, which latter place Mr. Walker's business led him to visit occasionally. Their acquaintance soon grew into a friendship, which continued unbroken and undiminished to the close of Mr. Usher's life. But the school these gentlemen were em barked in, did not altogether answer Mr. Walker's pur poses. Whether the profits were too little to divide, or whether he thought he could do better as a private teacher, it is difficult to say; but Mr. Walker, after trying it for some time, quitted the connection, and commenced a private teacher, which he very successfully continued to the last. They parted, however, with the same cordiality they commenced, and the civilities and friendships of life were mutually continued. Mr. Usher being now sole master of the school, he cul tivated it with diligence and ability, and with tolerable success, for about four years; when he died of a consump tion, at the age of fifty-two, in 1772. He wrote a pamphlet, entitled, “A New System of Philosophy;” “Clio; o r , a Discourse o n Taste;” “An Introduction t o the Theory o f the Human Mind;” and some letters i n the Public Ledger, signed “A Freethinker.” LUKE WADDING, An eminent Roman Catholic, and a man o f great learning, was born October 16th, 1588, a t Waterford. His first studies were commenced a t home, under the tuition o f his brother Matthew, who took him t o Portugal i n the fif teenth year o f his age, and placed him i n a seminary established for the Irish a t Lisbon, where h e studied phi losophy for six months under the Jesuits. I n 1605, after having passed his noviciate, h e was admitted among the Franciscans, and afterwards continued his studies a t their