CLARKE, Edward Daniel, a celebrated traveller and philosopher, was born at Willingdon, Sussex, June 5, 1769. He received his education at Uckfield, and at the grammar-school of Tunbridge; but he does not appear to have made very satisfactory progress. In 1786 he obtained the office of chapel clerk at Jesus College, Cambridge, but the loss of his father at this time involved him in many difficulties. In 1790 he took his degree, and soon after became private tutor to the Honourable Henry Tufton, nephew to the Duke of Dorset. In 1792 he obtained an engagement to travel with Lord Berwick, through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy; and was thus fortunately enabled to gratify that passion for travelling which had long predominated in his mind over
every other. After crossing the Alps and visiting a few of the principal cities of Italy, including Rome, he repaired to Naples, where he remained nearly two years. During his stay he made several excursions to Vesuvius, in one of which he narrowly escaped the fate of Pliny the Elder, having ascended to the edge of the crater during an eruption.
Mr Clarke finally returned to England in the summer of 1794, having been disappointed in the expectation of undertaking a journey to Egypt and the Holy Land. After unsuccessfully attempting a periodical work, he became tutor in several distinguished families, and studiously kept up the practice of journalizing even during short excursions. In 1799 he set out with Mr Cripps, a gentleman of fortune, on a tour through the continent of Europe. From Cambridge they proceeded direct to Norway and Sweden; thence through Russia and the Crimea to Constantinople, Rhodes, and afterwards to Egypt—where, however, their stay was short, as that country was still in the hands of the French. From Egypt they set out for Palestine; and, after visiting Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, and other places of interest, they returned to Aboukir Bay. Subsequent to the capitulation of Alexandria, Mr Clarke was of considerable use in securing for England the statues, sarcophagi, maps, manuscripts, &c., which had been collected by the French savans. Greece was the next country visited by the two friends. From Athens they proceeded by land through ancient Thrace to Constantinople; and, after a short stay in that city, directed their course homewards through Rumelia, Austria, Germany, and France, and arrived in England after an absence of three years and a half.
Clarke, who had now obtained considerable reputation, took up his residence at Cambridge, and there continued chiefly to reside till the day of his death. He received the degree of LL.D. shortly after his return, on account of the valuable donations, including a colossal statue of the Eleusinian Ceres, which he had made to the university. In 1805 he published a "Dissertation on the Sarcophagus in the British Museum," and endeavoured, with much ingenuity, to show that it was the coffin of Alexander the Great; but the deciphering of the hieroglyphics upon it since Dr Clarke's time has proved that it was the soros of a monarch named Her-necht-heli (Amyrtæus), of the twenty-eighth dynasty. Towards the end of 1808 Dr Clarke was appointed to the professorship of mineralogy, then first instituted. Nor was his perseverance as a traveller otherwise unrewarded. The MSS. which he had collected in the course of his travels were sold to the Bodleian Library for £1000; and by the publication of his travels he realized altogether a clear profit of £6596.
Besides lecturing on mineralogy, and discharging his clerical duties, Dr Clarke eagerly prosecuted the study of chemistry, and made several discoveries, principally by means of the gas blow-pipe, which he had brought to a high degree of perfection. His health, however, soon began to give way under ardent study and long-continued excitement; and after a short illness he expired at London, March 9, 1821. He was buried in Jesus College, Cambridge, where his fellow-collegians erected a monument to his memory. In all the relations of life Dr Clarke was a most amiable man. The leading qualities of his mind were enthusiasm and benevolence, united with a characteristic capacity of enduring long-continued mental as well as physical exertion. The following are his principal works:—
Testimony of different Authors respecting the Colonial Status of Ceres placed in the vestibule of the Public Library at Cambridge, 8vo, 1801-1803; The Tomb of Alexander, a Dissertation on the Sarcophagus brought from Alexandria, and now in the British Museum, 4to, 1805; A Methodical Distribution of the Mineral Kingdom, fol., 1807; A Letter to the Gentlemen of the British Museum, 4to, 1807; A Description of the Greek Marbles brought from the shores of the Euxine, Archipelago, and Mediterranean, and deposited in the vestibule of the University Library, Cambridge, 8vo, 1809; Travels in various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa—Part I., containing Russia, Tur-
Clarke. tary, and Turkey, 4to, 1810—Part II., containing Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land, section first, 4to, 1812; section second, 1814; the last volume was published in 1819. In this year also appeared his octavo volume on the Gas Blow-pipe; and in the year following a Dissertation on the Litmus. Besides these works, Dr Clarke wrote a number of articles for scientific journals.