pared, from which, those whose neces fities or bodily infirmities keep at a diftance, might derive almost an equal benefit with those who enjoy them at the fountain-head. The treatife is divided into XIII. Chapters. Chap. I. Of the Bath Waters. In this chapter, the writer is both jocofe and ferious, he pays no great respect to the memory of King Bladud, because he was a king; but thinks his hogs were to be commemorated for the dif covery of the waters in preference to his Majesty. He advances as a certainty, that drinking them is never of any fervice, (on the contrary, is often dangerous,) but when they act either laxatively by the bowels or kidneys, or are accompanied with medicines that do. Chap. II. Of Apothecaries. In this chapter, he treats Dr. Graham and Mrs. Macaulay with fome pleafantry. He fpeaks of Phyficians, whofe patients. are too far gone to receive any relief themfelves, who prefcribe merely for the benefit of the Apothecaries; and of Apothecaries, who, trufting to the fkill of their apprentices, have fent patients to the grave, not from the dif orders they laboured under, but from the diforder in which their medicines have been prepared. He, therefore, cautions all who come to Bath to be careful to employ a phyfician who is above prefcribing for an apothecary, and an apothecary, who is not above fuperintending his medicines himself. The Chap. III. Of Phyficians. greatest excellence of a phyfician, he Tays, is to know when he can do nothing, and to have honefty enough. to fay fo. He does not pay any great compliment to the Bath Physicians hut, as he takes upon himself the of fice of a guide, he advises those, who come to Bath to drink the waters, to proceed with caution. He had, he says, the misfortune to lofe a beloved bro. ther in the prime of life, by hastily drinking as much in three weeks, as formerly had relieved him by drinking moderately of them in fix. He dropt: down dead, after drinking plentifully of Bath waters, and eating a hearty breakfast of spongy rolls. Chap. IV: Of Bathing. He joins with Dr. Oliver in opinion, that bathing is the most general folvent of all obftructions in the human body, whether natural or acquired; and, therefore, thinks it highly beneficial in all gouty and rheumatic complaints; but cauGENT. MAG. March 1780, tions against bathing early in the moraing, and taking the full force of the heat, which, instead of opening the pores, often huts them up. In this chapter the writer indulges a kind of. humour (which feems natural to him), of fparting with his readers, which thofe of a graver turn will think might have been spared. Chap. V. Of Long Life and Health. He is in this chapter what some people may think no less waggyb. He mentions an ancient infcription, the purport of which is, that Marcus Claudius Hermippus lived to 115 years and five days, by the falutary breath of young virgins; and, as a proof of the reality of the receipe, the writer confirms it by his own experience. I am, myfelf, fays he, now turned of fixty, and, in general, though I have lived in various climates, and fuffered feverely both in body and mind, yet, having always partaken of the breath of young women, whenever they lay in my way, I feel none of thofe infirmities which fo often strike my eyes and ears in this great city, by men much younger than myfelf." In this chapter he quotes many inftances of longevity, and makes no doubt but that every man who has attained the age of 40, has it in his power to double that period. Chap. VI. Of Surgeons. The writer expreffes the highelt refpect for men of this profeffion, and mentions feveral at Bath who are and may be of infinite fervice to the community. Chap. VII. Of Bilious Disorders, The Bath waters, the writer fays, are confidered as particularly ferviceable in all bilious complaints; and adds, that he is as well qualified to give his advice in that particular cafe as any man living; for which he affigns his reafons, having, he fays, for more than twenty years, fuffered at times the most excruciating pains, by voiding innumerable gall - ftones. Thouga the duct from the gall-bladder is no bigger than a crow quill, he voided one 6-8ths of an inch one way, by 5-8ths the other. This chapter is full of folid reafoning and valuable inftruction, and is of more worth than whole treatifes on the fubject founded on theory without experiment. Chap. VIII. Remarks on Dr. Oliver's Effay on the Ufe and Abuse of Warm Bathing in Gouty Cafes. In this chapter the writer detects a practice, which it is furely of the utmo confequence to difcountenance, viz that by feeling the pulfe of a ferjeant, a guide, or a fomebody about the King's Bath, or any of the public baths, the patient can procure a violent hot one, a moderately hot one, or a warm one, and all his fellow-bathers must take it according to his mind. This certainly demands regulation. Chap. VIII. Of the Antiquity and ancient Baths of the City. This chapter is rather curious than useful. Chap. IX. Of Wine, and drinking to excefs. Good wine, of a proper age, the writer afferts, is not only an excellent cordial, but to men of a certain age, it tends to the prolonging of life. "A man," fays he," who loves his bottle in Switzerland, is highly efteem-ed: At Naples, or Madrid, he is dreaded; but I hardly ever knew one in England who loved it, who was not at bottom a generous, honeft, and wellmeaning, if not a brilliant man." Chap. X. Remarks on Dr. Charleton's Analysis of Bath Waters. The writer does not feem to have much faith in the Doctor's Analysis, as it differs from that of the late Dr. Lucas, who was the author's intimate friend. Chap. XI. Of the promifcuous Bathing of both' Sexes." Here the writer takes occafion to correct himself to the fibres of the body what tuneing is to the harp. Chap. XIII. Of the cure of the Dropfy, by Dr. Bacher. Mr. Thickneffe concludes his mifcellaneous performance with ftrongly recommending Dr. Bacher's recipe, which was pur-' chafed by the French King, and published for the benefit of his fubjects. The recipe is as follows: R Extract. noftr. hellebor. Card. Benedict. pulverifat. 3 iij. DjM. F. S. A. Maffa aere ficco exficcanda donec formandis pillulis apta fit fignal ad femiff. gran. Of thefe pills ten are to be taken at once, and the dofe repeated three times, an hour between each. They firft open the belly, and then carry off the diforder by urine. Thefe chapters are followed by an appendix, containing a compariton of: fome experiments made by different phyficians to afcertain the contents of Bath waters. will find this performance worth the patient to get cafe; and those who la- 17. Letters of the late Lord Lyttelton. for holding forth, in his IVth Chap-narian will find in it the means pointter, the picture of a country damne, who found herself uncommonly agitated by treading on a particular fpot. He tells alfo the well-known ftory of Nath's toffing a little gentleman into the bath to his own wife, who looked, he faid, fo much like an angel in the watery element that he wished to be there with her; which he had no fooner faid, than foufe he came in, and both fell a flouncing together, to the no finall diverfion of the numerous fpectators. This chapter is clofed with a ferious remark, that the promifcuous bathing of the fexes did not prevail in Rome, till effeminacy, the forerunner of the downfal of all empires, had become general; and it has been obferved alfo, that the profligacy of women has been another ftrong mark of the approaching diffolution of kingdoms. Chap. XII. Of Mufic. To the power of mufic Mr. Thickneffe afcribes many exhilarating virtues. He obferves its effects on the youthful and gay, and fees no reason why it fhould not have a fimilar influence on the hypochondriac and valetudinarian. It is a cordial to the troubled breaft, and is NOTWITHSTANDING what has been laid by the noble Lord's exe-* cutors to impeach the authenticity of thefe letters, they do him much more credit than his (pretended) poems, having feveral lively ftrokes of wit and fancy, and even of good sense and' found thinking, from which we should have prognofticated better fruits. They are in number 32, and all without dates or names. Some of them are written before, and others after, his acceffion to the peerage, which is thus announced in the 15th: "And I awoke, and behold I was a Lord!" As a fpecimen of his fkill in portraits, we will exhibit one of his family-pictures; thofe who knew the original mutt judge of the likeness. He had before been been speaking of his father, and of the falfe but natural fufpicion of fome infidel dialogues of the dead (in MS. French) being composed by him as a ridicule on those by his father. "As tò my Right Reverend uncle, I shall con fider him with lefs ceremony. He alfo may be a good christian; but I recolleft to have heard him make a better difcourfe upon the outside ornaments of an old Gothie pulpit, I think it was at Wolverhampton, than he ever delivered in one, throughout the whole course of his evangelical labours. He feems much more at home in a little barangue on fome doubtful remnant of a Saxon tombitone, than in urging the performance of Chriftian duties, Br guarding, with his lay-brother, the Christian fortress against infidel invas fion. I well remember alfo to have heard his Right Reverence declare, that he would willingly give one. of his fingers, that was his expreffion, to have a good Natural Hiftory of Worceftershire. What holy ardour he may poffefs as an antiquarian, I canhot tell; but, in my conscience, I think he would make a forry figure as a Chriflian martyr, and that a zeal for our holy religion would not inflame him to risk the lofing of a nail from his finger." In the 17th letter, where he meets at an inn with "a Presbyterian hymn-book, entitled Hora Lyrica, by a Dr. Watts," he makes a whimfical comment on "Few Happy Matches, and confoles himself on that principle for his own failure. In the 18th, he fettles very archly the feveral pretentions to wit of [the late] Chafe Price, Lord C-e, Charles Fox, [the late] Lord Chatham (to whom he gives the palm), Lord Mansfield, on whom he apoftrophifes with Pope, How fweet an Ovid was in Murray last! George Selwyn, Mrs. M-, Mr. Wyndham, &c. He has the confidence, in more than one letter, to ftile himfelf the victim of the vanity of his family, and of that good man's ignorance of the world," being fo childish, (he fays) in its concerns, though he wrote fo well and ably on its manners, &c. as to deferve the coral that amufed, and the go-cart that fuftained him fixty years ago." More pleafing and more juft are the following traits: "You knew my father, and I am fure you will applaud me in declaring that his character did real honour to his rank and his nature. A grateful fame will wait upon his me mory, till, by fome new change in human affairs, the great and good men of this country and period fhall be loft to the knowledge of diftant generations. In the republic of letters, he rose to a very confiderable eminence; his deep political erudition is univerfally acknowledged; and, as a senator both of the lower and higher order, his hame is honoured with diftinguished veneration. In his private, as well as public life, he was connected and in friendfhip with the first men of the times in which he lived; and, as a cha racter of ftrict virtue and true piety, he has been univerfally held forth as the most striking example of his age. The idea of uncommon merit accompanies all opinion of him; and to mention his name is to awaken the meft pleafing and amiable fentiments. As you read this fhort and imperfect outline of his character, fill it up and do it justice. Now, it will perhaps furprife you, when you are informed, that the poft in government which this great and good man most desired, and could never obtain, was Chief Justice hip in Eyre, &c. &c. The reverfe of this picture is as follows: that your bumble servant, and his gracious * for, whofe character you perfectly know, has been appointed to this very poft, in the infancy of his peerage, without any previous fervice performed, hint given, or requifition made on his part; and without the propofition of any conditions on the part of the minifter. When I was furprized by the offer, I was furprized also by a fudden and unufual fuffufion on my cheeks, at the contralt of mine and my father's character,.--of mine and my father's lot." The 25th letter (though it names him not) is on the fubject of his (late) coufin Ayscough, the editor of his father's Works, of which he fays, "the dedication to myfelf is a wretched bu finefs, and difgraces the volume to which it is prefixed. You wonder I did not write a better for him myself; and I would moft furely have done it, but, among many excellent qualities which this dedicator poffeffes, he is a blab of the first delivery, and I dared not venture to truft him. The tettamentary arrangement which appoint ed him to the honourable labours of an editor, took its rife from three motives: 1. To mark a degree of parental refentment against an ungracious fon : * Graceless" no doubt. -2. From an opinion that a great nephew's well-timed flattery had created of his own understanding; and, 3. From a design of bestowing upon this fame gracious nephew, a legacy of honour from the publication, and profit from the fale of the volume, He is as proud of the bufinefs as a new made knight of his title," &c. In his laft letter he regrets (with great reafon) the lofs of "fome biographical sketches" by his father. 18. Biographia Britannica, Vol. II. (continued from p. 35). IN the Addenda on Atterbury, "Save my country, heaven !" in Pope's Epitaph, alludes to the Efto perpetuo of father Paul, adopted by the Bishop in his fpeech on his trial, In Dr, Birch's Life is a flight inaccuracy, which occurs thrice in one page (317), of inducted" for "inftituted," the former not being an epifcopal office. In the article of the great Earl of Corke, p. 464, it is faid, that "he had intereft enough to obtain that this high post [of Lord High Treafurer] fhould be made hereditary in his family." In this there is fome miftake; if not, the Earl of Corke would have fucceeded to it. But certain it is, that, on the death of the last Earl of Burlington,in 1753,it was conferred by his late Majefty on the then Marquets of Hartington, who was not of the Boyle family; and his fon, the present Duke of Devonshire, who defcends from a female branch, now enjoys it. It might have been obferved, p. 471, on the barony of Clifford, that this ancient barony is now vefted in his Grace in right of his mother, her anceftor, the first Earl of Burlington's fon, being called up to the House of Lords by writ. Of Henry, grandfon of the first Earl of Orrery, p. 493, it might have been added, that he was created Earl of Shannon in 1756, and that, of his fons, Richard, the prefent Earl, and Robert, who took the name of Walfingham, Capt. of his Majesty's fhip the Thunderer, only are living, Dr. Borlafe was alfo Vice-warden of the Stannaries. From this excellent work we can now only extract a few more detached pafages. From the Life of the Rev. Thomas Bott, of Norwich. "Our author used to relate, what we have likewife heard from other quarters, that Dr. Samuel Clarke was not only of napful, but of a playful difpofition. Once, when Mr. Bott called upon him, he found him fwimming upon a table. At another time, when the two Dr. Clarkes, Mr. Bott, and feveral men of ability and learning, were together, and amusing themselves with diverting tricks, Dr. Samuel Clarke, looking out at the window, faw a grave blockhead approaching to the houfe; upon which he cried out, Boys! boys! be wife; here comes a fool." "These little anecdotes," Dr. Kippis justly observes, "will not leffen that great man's reputation in the opinion of any but those whofe folemnity is fuperior to their wisdom." "In 1742, Mr. Samuel Boyfe (who "Infcription for St. Lazarus Cave, Ex Gehenna debitoriâ, ALCEUS. "Sir, I wrote you yesterday an account of my unhappy cafe. I am every moment threatened to be turned out here, because I have not money to pay for my bed two nights paft, which is ufually paid before hand; and I am loth to go into the Compter till I can • fee if my affairs can pofbly be made up: I hope therefore you will have the humanity to fend me half a guinea for fupport, till I finish your papers in my hands.---The Ode on the Briti Nation § I hope to have done to-day, and want a proof of that part of Storve you defign for the prefent Magazine, that it may be improved as far as poffible from your affistance. I agree. It does not appear how Mr. B. ob tained the degree of M. A. The original is in the poffeffion of This and (Y) were his ufual figna tures. See the Index to our Vols. XI2 XII, XIII. § See Vol. XII. p. 383. with with "With fincere regard, Sir, to Crown "Humble Servant, Coffee-Houle, Grocer's Alley, Poultry, July 21, 1742: S: Boyft. "Received from Mr. Cave; the fum of half a guinea, by me, in confineS. Boyfe:" "I fend Mr. Van Haren's Ode on Britain. ment. "To Mr. Cave, at St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell." Mr. Blackwell, foon after the publication of his "Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer," being at Cambridge, paid a vifit to Dr. Bentley, and the difcourfe turning upon the book, the Doctor being asked his opinion of it, anfwered, "that, when he had gone through half of it, he had forgotten the beginning; and when he had finished the reading of it, he had forgotten the whole !" This volume is infcribed" to the Earl of Shelburne, a diftinguished patron of Science and Art in general, and a zealous encourager of historical and biographical knowledge in particular." 19. Dr. Watson's Sermon on the Faft before the Univerfity of Cambridge. 4to. 15. Rivington. Ifaiah, ii. 4. "Nation fhall not lift up fword agains nation, neither Shall they learn ar any more.” WERE it not for this text, and Tome other fcripture annotations, this might pais for an harangue delivered by a professor of politicks, in St. Stephen's chapel, rather than a fermon preached by a Profeffor of Divinity, before an Univerfity: though he dif claims "entering into the labyrinth of politics." Corfica, Poland, Heffe Caffel, as well as the bounds of refiftance, the influence of the crown, &c. are fome of the fubjects here difcuffed, in a ftyle which we cannot but think much too inflated and oratorical for Sorry politicians and dirty profpects, are expreffions by no means confonant with be elegance of the rest of this dif course. the pulpit, where we feldom expect to meet with the temple of Janus, the Roman fenate, finging a requiem, or quotations from heathen poets. The following is part of a prayer with which it concludes: "Thy judgments, O Lord, are true and righteous; intereft cannot sway them; paffion cannot pervert them; nor ignorance mislead them. If in thy judgment we are engaged with our brethren in an unrighteous cause, we fhould deem it an impious mockery of thy majefty to fupplicate protection; we afk inftruction, befeeching thee to illumine the understandings of our rulers with the knowledge of what is right, and to influence their hearts, that knowing they may do it. But if our caufe be just in thy fight, with all our enemies, and it be for our iniquities that thou haft brought these evils upon us, in thy wrath we pray thee to remember mercy; Niniveh repented, and was forgiven; we repent and implore pardon. Thou haft broken the pride of our power: we accept the punishment of our iniquity. Thou halt humbled our uncircumcifed hearts, we return in fafting and prayer to thee, the God of our ftrength. Hear us, O Lord, from heaven thy dwelling place, maintain our cause, hear and forgive thy people." |