of those extraordinary manifestations of divine power, which were to distinguish this eventful period. Mr. Cappe has employed much serious attention, and laborious investigation on this subject; and the result has been so successful, as to give great precision to many of the discourses of Christ, which on any other plan of interpretation, are not easy to be understood; to demonstrate their superior wisdom, and to shew, in the clearest light, the actual fulfilment, whether of his awful threatenings, or encouraging promises. Added to this, by accurately fixing the period, when the age of miracles should cease, these principles of interpretation would entirely destroy the delusive impositions of interested or enthusiastic pretenders in succeeding times; and would, if generally admitted, effectually repress the extensive evil, resulting from the insidious sarcasms of unbelievers, whether historians or others, so poisonous to the minds of the uninstructed, when speaking of the pretended prodigies of the dark ages of barbarous and monkish superstition. This mode of interpretation supplies also very powerful additional evidence, both external and internal, of the genuineness of these writings, and of the truth of the wonderful events they record; in the precision given by it, to the language of our divine Master, and in the striking accomplishment of his many awful predictions; an evidence, such as I am persuaded, we shall look for in vain, on any other principles.

Y

CHAPTER 39.

Dr. Cappe's increasing celebrity....His declining health.... Marriage of his second sister....His voyage to Italy, accompanied by his unmarried sisters.... His death in the Mediterranean, on board the Astrea....Letter of his eldest sister....Hardships to which consumptive patients are subjected in long sea voyages.

DR. Robert Cappe, was now coming into great practice, but his health rapidly declined. Without mentioning the subject to himself, I consulted with two of his medical friends, and it was their decided opinion, that his removal to a warmer climate was the only chance left for his recovery. This was a most distressing alternative, which however it became my painful duty to state to him and I determined to do it by letter, immediately after the marriage of his second sister, which took place on the 23rd of June, 1802.

Dr. Cappe was thoroughly aware of his own situation, and that it was not probable he should survive another winter in England; yet to leave a situation of great respectability and extensive usefulness, in which his fortune would soon become independent, to incur very great expense, and of course to encounter considerable pecuniary difficulties, for the mere possibility of protracting a feeble existence, seemed to him scarcely justifiable. It devolved therefore upon me to convince him that the trial ought to be made, and

I promised that his two unmarried sisters should accompany him to whatever place he should decide to remove. At length, a voyage to Italy was determined upon; the remainder of the summer was occupied in anxious preparation, and they took ship at Liverpool, on the 14th of October. Their other brother accompanied them twelve miles out to sea, returning in the pilotboat, and would gladly have shared their difficulties and their dangers, through the whole voyage, had it been practicable for him to have left the business in which he was engaged.

As a proof of the high estimation in which Dr. Robert Cappe was held in this city and neighbourhood, and of the great interest, which his state of health, and the necessity of his going abroad, had excited; I shall subjoin an article relating to it, which appeared in one of our provincial newspapers, about the time of his leaving Liverpool. I do not know by whom it was inserted; not by any of his particular connexions certainly, the place of his immediate destination being Leghorn, not Naples, which they would have known; but by whomsoever it might be written, it did not go beyond what was at that time felt and expressed by all ranks of people in the city.*

«That he whose science others' ills could cure,
Hard, that those ills he should himself endure."

"It is with deep regret we have to state, that the ingenious and truly worthy Dr. Cappe of this city, a gentleman, whose abilities in his profession, are held in the first estimation, is

How truly thankful was I now, when three of his children were compelled to embark on so hazardous an enterprize, that their dear father had been previously removed from this scene of discipline, and by that means, saved from an overwhelming anxiety, which it was not probable, that in his feeble state, he could have supported! But so I believe it ever is, such at least, has been my own uniform experience, through the course of a comparatively long life, that He who alone can proportion our trials to our strength, dispenses them in weight and measure, and never afflicts any of his creatures beyond the

obliged to visit Naples, for the recovery of his health: we believe that he has sailed from Liverpool by this time.-Dr. Cappe, whose every wish and action was directed to the good of his fellow-mortals, much to his credit, and the benefit of mankind, was the first to recommend and enforce, by his practice, in this city and neighbourhood, the Vaccine Inoculation. Several very ingenious letters, on its safety and usefulness, appeared in this paper, and were held in much esteem by the public, and the gentlemen of the faculty. The loss the public will sustain by Dr. Cappe's absence, is unquestionably great; not only because his talents were so eminent, and his attention to patients of every rank, so kind and unremitted, but because his success in the treatment of some very dangerous cases, had excited that confidence in his skill, which it is well known, so essentially contributes to aid the effect of medicine. We hope, however, and we believe that hope is accompanied by that of a large majority of the public, that his recovery will take place, and that he will return to his native soil, fully invigorated to resume that profession for which he is so eminently qualified."-York Herald, Oct. 12, 1807.

To this, it may be added, that prayers were publicly offered, for his recovery, in the Methodist Chapel.-Ed.

precise degree, in which it is good both for themselves and for others, that they should be tried and afflicted!

The first intelligence I received of the voyagers, was a letter written by my eldest daughter from Leghorn, dated Nov. 26th, and received on the 21st of December. I shall transcribe part of this letter. "At length, my dearest mother, our distressful voyage is at an end-but the dear object of our fond affection is no more; he expired on the 16th, six days before our arrival here-his grave is the Mediterranean, between Minorca and Corsica. My beloved mother, be not distressed for us-the trial is now over, and we will be resigned-indeed we will. It is a heavy affliction, but I trust we are not unmindful of the blessings we have received."

"Our captain, and John, our faithful black servant, are two of the most benevolent and affectionate of human beings. God grant I may sometime have it in my power to testify to them my gratitude! Surely a kind Providence has watched over us, and raised us up a friend in every stranger. The two first days of our being on board, were the last our darling Robert was able to leave his bed. His complaints increased daily, almost hourly; notwithstanding which, to the time of his death, he had sanguine hopes of recovery-he retained his cheerfulness and composure to the last. The day before he died, I asked him, whether if he had foreseen what he must suffer, from the discomforts and harrass of a long voyage, he would have tried the experi