Perhapa, however, only the words printed in Italics can ftrictly be called fuperfluous, even here. We must fuppofe that Mr. Alexander was reftrained as to the fize of his delineations, and that had he had his own option, he would not have prefered fo fmall a fcale: and we must add, that confidering the minutenefs of the objects, mere outlines would, in our opinion, have been lefs operofe, and equally, if not more, fatisfactory both to artifts and amateurs.

ART. IV. Memoirs of the Life of Thomas Beddoes, M. D. with an analytical Account of his Writings, by John Edwards Stock, M. D. 4to. pp. 413. Murray. 1810.

IN

N all Biographical publications, the Reviewer must be fuppofed to have two objects before him, the subject of the history, and the Biographer. We have in the present work, an account of the Life and Writings of an eminent physician, written by a brother physician of reputation and abilities, and were we to go regularly through the book, in order to prefent the reader with a critical commentary on its contents, we should have perhaps nearly as much to fay of the hiftorian, as of the person whose history he writes. We do not mean to intimate that Dr. Stock really writes about himself, but in giving an account of the writings, remarks and difcoveries of his friend, he interfperfes further remarks of his own, fo as to render his history a kind of review of Dr. Beddoes's writings and opinions. Now it fo happens that almost all the writings of Dr. Beddoes, mentioned in this volume, have already been reviewed by ourfelves, nor do we fee any particular occafion to alter our opinions, fo that in our account of the work before us, we shall have more to do with the man than with the phyfician and Philofopher. The lives of literary men, Stock obferves, feldom fupply the biographer with much diverfity of incident; we are bound, however, at the fame time to acknowledge, that what they may want of this popular attraction, is for the most part likely to be compenfated by the importance and utility of the researches and occupations to which fuch perfons may have devoted their time, and from the nature and character of the particular purfuits in which D.. Beddoes engaged, we are very ready to admit, that no man's life could well have been more uninterruptedly, zealously and enthufiaftically applied to the advantage of his fellow creatures, than that of

Dr.

the

the learned perfon here preferved from oblivion. In faying this, we lay out of the queftion, the actual utility, and confequences of his labours and researches; were they to turn out ultimately of no account at all to mankind in general, the Doctor would ftill deserve the fair praise due to every one who beftows his time and attention wholly upon pursuits fo intimately and immediately connected with the welfare, happiness, and good of his brethren. We think it incumbent on us to fay this, openly and explicitly, becaufe having before us the teftimony of very refpectable perfons, to the difinterestedness and purity of all his aims and intentions, we cannot regard him in any lower light, than as a moft ardent philofopher, and fincere friend of man. We are the more difpofed to say this, because in our former reviews of his writings and opinions, we have frequently found occafion to differ from him, and fometimes have been led to efpoufe the oppofite fide with an earnestnefs and warmth of feeling, called for as we then thought, by the strong terms in which Dr. B. himself was wont to affert his own opinions; not always (undoubtedly,) with that liberality of fentiment and decorum of manners, the want of which he was forward to resent in all cafes that applied to himself. He was undoubtedly an eccentric man, but eccentricity may lead to good as well as harm. It is not therefore any pofitive fault in itfelf; and it is well to have fhown, as the present biographer has done, that the eccentricity of Dr. Beddoes always tended towards the good and happiness of man, however attainable; these were the objects he conftantly had in view.

The Doctor was by defcent of Welch extraction, though born himself at Shiffnall, in Shropshire, April 15, 1760, where he received the first rudiments of his education, but was foon removed to Brood [or Brewood] in Staffordshire; he very early difplayed a thirst for knowledge, and, as is frequently the cafe, appears to have been determined rather by accident. than defign, to adopt the line in which he afterwards most diftinguished himself. From Brood he was removed to the free grammar-fchool at Bridgenorth, which he quitted again at the age of thirteen. His manners and habits at school were peculiar. He feemed early to give way to deep thought and reflection, and this, added to a natural fhynefs of dif pofition, gave him an air of referve, which diftinguished him from his young affociates. In May, 1773, he was placed under the tuition of the Rev. Samuel Dickenfon, rector of Blym-hill, in Staffordshire, who fupplied the bio. grapher

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BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXVII. JUNE, 1311.

grapher with fome particulars of his character, highly creditable to him. In 1776, he was removed to Pembroke College, Oxford; here he applied himself with remarkable induftry and diligence to the ftudy of modern languages, chemistry, mineralogy, and botany. In 1781, he visited the metropolis, and ftudied anatomy, under Sheldon. In the course of these studies it was, that he undertook to translate and publish the works of Spallanzani, which appeared in 1784. Dr. Stock is inclined to think he was undoubtedly the perfon who fupplied the notes to Dr. Cullen's edition of Bergman's Phyfical and Chemical Effays; in 1786, he edited Scheele's Chemical Effays. In 1783, he took the degree of master of arts. In 1784, he went to Edinburgh, where he diftinguifhed himself, not only as a member, but for fome time Prefident of the Royal Medical and Natural Hiftory Societies; he was highly gratified with his refidence at this place. In 1786, he returned to Oxford and took his Doctors degree; in the fame year he visited the Continent, and became acquainted with various eminent naturalists, &c. It was shortly after his return from the Continent, that he received the appointment to the Chemical Lectureship at Oxford, in which fituation he certainly distinguished himself much, and was generally attended by a clafs, not only nu merous, but particularly refpectable. Mineralogy at this time appears to have occupied much of his attention; his Theory of the Earth, Dr. Stock tells us, was conformable to that of Hutton, and he was a zealous Vulcanift. We know this to have been the cafe; but we also know, that at this time he was particularly hafty in his conclufions, and would frequently acknowledge that he had been milled in the judgment he had formed of certain foffils, especially in regard to the operations of fire; and we can cite a very remarkable inftance of this, which happened very foon after his firft opinions had been publicly declared and maintained before a large audience *. At this time nothing feemed to interest

him

*The cafe was fimply this. The writer of this article had brought to Oxford from the fummit of one of the mountains furrounding Coniston Lake, in Lancashire, fome fpecimens which had evidently undergone the operation of fire, but which happened to abound near a hollow on the top of the mountain, which fome Italian gentlemen had not long before pronounced to be the crater of an extinct Volcano. Upon fhowing them to Dr. Beddoes, he was fo perfuaded of the fact, that he even fummoned a particular affembly of the members of the University, by an

him more than the account of the Two Giants Causeways, or groups of prifmatic bafaltine columns, in the Venetian ftates, in Italy, in the LXVth Vol. of the Philofopical Tranfactions, communicated by Mr. Strange, long his Majefty's Refident at Venice, a circumftance incidentally mentioned by himself in the work before us, and to which, from an acquaintance at the very time, with both the learned perfons alluded to, the writer of this article can bear ample teftimony.

Many pages of the work before us are taken up with a poetical attempt of Dr. Beddoes in the ftyle of Dr. Darwin, and fome difcuffion is entered into, upon the merits of the latter gentleman's productions. As our opinions upon this fubject are ftated elfewhere, we need not enter upon it again; Dr. Stock is evidently a great admirer of Dr. D., but he admits, that the public has been much divided in regard both to the Poetry and Philofophy of the celebrated phyfician and bard of Derbyshire.

Dr. Beddoes's retirement from Oxford, which we believe took place in the year 1792, feems to have been accelerated by his intemperance in politics, occafioned by the remarkable circumstances of the times. Dr. Stock has taken fome pains to foften and palliate every thing that was exceptionable in the Doctor's conduct, and to give a fair and candid account of the motives by which he was probably actuated *.

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extraordinary notice, before whom he delivered a long Lecture on the fpecimens fupplied, as indicative of the natural operations of fire in thofe parts of England. A very fhort time after, the writer of this article having reafon to think he had changed his opinions, queftioned him again about the fame fpecimens, when he protested that they were evidently nothing better than mere flags from fome old furnace, and that he had fince difcovered a criterion by which he could diftinguish between the productions of natural and artificial fire, but this discovery, and the confequent change of his fentiments, he could not be prevailed on to annouuce as publicly as he had delivered his former opinions; in fact, he had engaged in new purfuits, and he concluded the Univerfity would difcover the mistake without being told of it by himself.

* We are bound to believe that Dr. Beddoes was far from wishing ever to inculcate "more than constitutional refiftance," for he pofitively afferts it himself in the work before us, p. 117, that he was fincere alfo in "deprecating all violence," and could "fhudder at the idea of confufion," we are likewife difpofed to believe, not only from his awn declarations, but from

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It was in the year 1793, that the Doctor removed to Briftof, where he began that career of medical and phyfiological researches, experiments, and lectures, which made him fo generally confpicuous, and which appear to have been continued with the moft ftriking zeal and perfeverance to the last moment of his fhort life, varied according to cir cumftances, but never wholly abandoned.

At Bristol Dr. Beddoes firft formed a connection with the family of Mr. Edgeworth, the author of the popular work on Practical Education, whofe daughter he afterwards married. In the year 1798, the two elder fons of W. H. L. Efq. M. P. (we prefume Mr. Lambton, member for Durham) were placed under the care of Dr. B. in confor mity, as it would feem, with the exprefs wifh of their deceafed parent, to be brought up on Dr. B.'s own plan of education. They continued with him four years, and the learned hiftorian remarks, that upon this occafion "he realized very happily, in his mode of inftruction, many of his former theories on the fubject of education; and the refults were highly gratifying." This is certainly as much as the editor could be expected to fay, and we are not inclined to difpute it, not being ourfelves in the way of appreciating the effects alluded to.

In the fame year, the Pneumatic Inflitution was opened, which is certainly particularly memorable as an æra in philofophy, if for no other reafon, yet for this, that it was almost the first flage on which Mr. Davy began to exhibit his extraordinary talents. We are not unwilling, however, to affign to this Inftitution a credit of its own. Though ap parently forgotten and done with at the prefent moment, we confefs we feel inclined to agree with Dr. Stock, that perhaps," Pneumatic medicine has fallen into premature and unmerited oblivion," p. 814. Gafeous remedies appear to us undoubtedly to be capable of confiderable effects, and we fee no reason why they may not by judicious methods of modification and exhibition, fimple or combined, be fome time or other brought to bear no inconfiderable fhare, in the alleviation certainly, and poffibly in the perfect cure of some of the worst difeafes to which mankind is liable. We

what we knew of the private temper and amiableness of the man; but undoubtedly he often spoke and often wrote of public men and public measures, in a ftrain, which was, to say the leaft of it, liable in the nature of things to produce an irritation, which might have much exceeded the bounds he would have bimfelf prefcribed: a cafe by no means uncommon.

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