Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/275

218 As none of the Commissioners understood the subject much, it was of prime importance to the applicant, that the first clock and watchmaker in London (as Graham was) should come forward to verify the correctness of his allegations. But it brings under observation at a subsequent period, those Collegians whose conduct, with all the advantages of a learned education, was totally at variance with the bright example of this excellent person.

The rivalry alluded to (from which Dr. Halley must always be excepted, who, like Newton, preferred a Timekeeper) may be dated from the importation of Professor Mayer's Tables, in 1756, from the aid of which wonders were expected, while it was entirely forgotten that, while their utility is so much circumscribed by the laws of nature, the seaman is often not much better off than before. But waiving this consideration, what can be said to the moral attributes of these luminaries from Cam and Isis? Were they natives of Gotham ("born in thick Ræotian air") who were incapable of profiting by the extraordinary merit of a layman thus recorded on their own minutes? They might concoct passable discourses for the spiritual rostrum, yet they were "but as