James Harris, an English philologist, born in Salisbury, July 20, 1709, died Dec. 22, 1780. He was educated at Oxford as gentleman commoner, and thence passed as a student of law to Lincoln's Inn. His father died when he was 24 years of age, leaving him a fortune, so that he abandoned the law, retired to his native town, and devoted himself to more congenial pursuits. He was elected to parliament for the borough of Christchurch in 1761, and tilled that seat during the rest of his life. In 1762 he was appointed one of the lords of the admiralty, and in the following year a lord of the treasury, but went out of office with the change of administration in 1765. In 1774 he was appointed secretary and comptroller to the queen. In 1744 he published "Three Treatises : I. Art; II. Music, Painting, and Poetry; III. Happiness;" and in 1751 his famous work, "Hermes, or a Philosophical Inquiry concerning Universal Grammar," which has been con-sidered a model of ingenious analysis and clear exposition, Lowth claiming for it that it is the best specimen of analysis since the time of Aristotle. In 1775 Harris published "Philosophical Arrangements," as part of a projected work upon the "Logic" of Aristotle. His "Philological Inquiries" was published after his death, in 1781. His collected works were published in 1792; a fine edition, with a biography, was published by his son, Lord Malmes-bury, in 1801 (2 vols. 4to, London).