The English scheme of education, which, with regard
to academical studies, is more rigorous, and sets
literary honours at a higher price than that of any
other country, exacts from the youth, who are initiated
in our colleges, a degree of philological knowledge
sufficient to qualify them for lectures in philosophy,
which are read to them in Latin, and to enable them
to proceed in other studies without assistance; so
that it may be conjectured, that Burman, at his entrance
into the university, had no such skill in languages,
nor such ability of composition, as are frequently
to be met with in the higher classes of an English
school; nor was, perhaps, more than moderately skilled
in Latin, and taught the first rudiments of Greek.
In the university he was committed to the care of
the learned Graevius, whose regard for his father
inclined him to superintend his studies with more
than common attention, which was soon confirmed and
increased by his discoveries of the genius of his pupil,
and his observation of his diligence.
One of the qualities which contributed eminently to
qualify Graevius for an instructor of youth, was the
sagacity by which he readily discovered the predominant
faculty of each pupil, and the peculiar designation
by which nature had allotted him to any species of
literature, and by which he was soon able to determine,
that Burman was remarkably adapted to classical studies,
and predict the great advances that he would make,
by industriously pursuing the direction of his genius.
Animated by the encouragement of a tutor so celebrated,
he continued the vigour of his application, and, for
several years, not only attended the lectures of Graevius,
but made use of every other opportunity of improvement,
with such diligence as might justly be expected to
produce an uncommon proficiency.
Having thus attained a sufficient degree of classical
knowledge to qualify him for inquiries into other
sciences, he applied himself to the study of the law,
and published a dissertation, de Vicesima Haereditatum,
which he publickly defended, under the professor Van
Muyden, with such learning and eloquence, as procured
him great applause.
Imagining, then, that the conversation of other men
of learning might be of use towards his further improvement,
and rightly judging that notions formed in any single
seminary are, for the greatest part, contracted and
partial, he went to Leyden, where he studied philosophy
for a year, under M. de Volder, whose celebrity was
so great, that the schools assigned to the sciences,
which it was his province to teach, were not sufficient,
though very spacious, to contain the audience that
crowded his lectures from all parts of Europe.
Yet he did not suffer himself to be engrossed by philosophical
disquisitions, to the neglect of those studies in which
he was more early engaged, and to which he was, perhaps,
by nature better adapted; for he attended at the same
time Ryckius’s explanations of Tacitus, and
James Gronovius’s lectures on the Greek writers,
and has often been heard to acknowledge, at an advanced
age, the assistance which he received from them.
