as "exceedingly elegant and amusing." They include a multitude of parallel passages, from Persian, Arabic, Greek, Latin, Spanish, and Italian poets, to many of which are appended new versions by Mr Good. pre His philological study of the Jewish Scriptures occupied much of his attention, at intervals, during the remainder of his life; and the result of his researches appeared in translations and illustrations of several parts of the Old Testament; the book of Job, however, was the only biblical version which he published subsequently to that already noticed. This work was not printed till 1812. It is executed in much the same manner with the ceding, except that the secondary, or rhymed translation, does not extend beyond the first five chapters. An introductory dissertation, and a copious commentary of miscellaneous matter, accompany the text. In the former, Mr Good states it as his opinion, that the author of the book of Job must have been a Hebrew by birth, and a resident in Arabia, who lived between the time of Abraham and the Israelitish Exodus; and these characters agreeing in Moses, he concludes that it was composed by him during some part of his forty years residence in Midian. 6 The versatility of talent which Mr Good exhibited in his various publications, and his peculiar taste for the accumulation and display of miscellaneous intelligence, qualified him considerably for an undertaking in which he engaged with his friend Dr Gregory and another gentleman, about the end of the year 1804. This was the publication of a work, intitled, Pantologia; or, an Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and Words,' 12 vols. 8vo. The Pantologia' was commenced by Dr Gregory, and Mr Newton Bosworth of Cambridge, in 1802. On the removal of the former to Woolwich, in January 1803, another gentleman was associated in the scheme, who, however, in consequence of an unexpected accession of property, retired from the labour in about twelve months. Shortly afterwards, a speculating bookseller (Sir Richard Phillips) who had ascertained that thisUniversal Dictionary' was in preparation, with a view to anticipate the plan, both in object and name, commenced the publication of a new Cyclopædia,' of which Dr George Gregory was announced as the editor; while, in fact, the Rev. Jeremiah Joyce was the principal, if not the only person engaged upon the work. This manœuvre suggested the expediency of new arrangements, as well as of a new title, for Dr O. Gregory's Encyclopædia;' and Mr Good, having recently published his Song of Songs,' at Mr Kearsley's, the bookseller, who was the chief proprietor of the new undertaking, his high reputation for erudition, and for punctuality in the execution of his engagements, occasioned an application to him, as an individual admirably qualified to co-operate in the important enterprise. Some time elapsed before his 6 6 objections could be obviated to the placing his name first on the title-page of a work of which he was not to take the general superintendence: but at length the scruple was removed; and from 1805, when the joint preparations commenced, to the spring of 1813, when the task was completed, he continued with the utmost promptness, regularity and ability, to supply the various articles and treatises that were comprehended in the extensive portion of the 'Dictionary' which he undertook to compose. * In the autumn of 1810, Mr Good engaged in the office of a public lecturer. He was invited, by the managers of the Surrey Institution (now extinct) to deliver a series of lectures "on any subject, literary or scientific, which would be agreeable to himself." He acceded to the request, and delivered his first course in the ensuing winter to crowded audiences with general approbation. He was entreated to persevere; and his second and third series of discourses occupied the two succeeding winters. The first series, in fifteen lectures, treated of the "Nature of the Material World; and the Scale of unorganised and organic Tribes that issue from it:" the second series, in thirteen lectures, developed the "Nature of the Animate World; its peculiar powers and external relations; the means of communicating ideas; and the formation of society:" and the third, in fifteen lectures, was devoted to the "Nature of the Mind; its general faculties and furniture." This plan is sufficiently extensive, but the topics of discussion would have been augmented in subsequent years, had not the increasing circle of his professional engagements compelled Mr Good, notwithstanding the most urgent persuasions to the contrary, to relinquish the occupation of a philosophical lecturer. Among the multiplicity of literary undertakings in which Mr Good was involved, we must not omit to notice his labours as a contributor to the British Review. That critical journal, which was a quarterly publication, was carried on from the beginning of 1811 till nearly the end of 1822, under the superintendence of Mr Roberts, a barrister, the author of a series of essays, intitled the 'Looker-on.' With this gentleman Mr Good was in habits of the closest intimacy, and he supplied him with several articles of importance, among which are specified A Review of the Phrenological System of Gall and Spurzheim,' in No. 2; An Account of Townsend's Character of Moses as an Historian;' and of Adelung's Mithridates,' in No. 12; A Review of Dr Marshman's Chinese Grammar;' and another of Sismondi on Spanish Literature,' in No. 13. Several other articles were the joint productions of these literary friends. 6 6 In the year 1820, Mr Good relinquished the business of a surgeon and apothecary, to engage in professional practice as a physician. His diploma of M.D., which was from the Marischal College, Aberdeen, is dated July 10, that year; and it is said to be "expressed in terms of peculiar honour, differing from the usual language of that class of formularies.”* He was also, on the 2nd of November 1820, elected an honorary member of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of Aberdeen.t 6 In this new direction of his talents, Dr Good appears to have been very fortunate, and his time was more occupied than it had ever previously been, in giving advice and attending consultations for the benefit of his patients. The pressure of business did not however interrupt his literary studies, though they were more exclusively directed to objects connected with his profession. In 1808 he published an essay on Medical Technology,' which served as a kind of prelude to a larger and more detailed treatise, the fruit of subsequent observations and experience, which appeared in 1820, under the title of A Physiological System of Nosology, with a corrected and simplified Nomenclature,' with a dedication to the President and Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of London. This is necessarily a theoretical work, which from its nature can be but little interesting to any except medical readers. It comprises a review of the nosological systems of Sauvages, Linnæus, Cullen, Darwin, and other physicians, together with a new nomenclature, and a classification of diseases, by Dr Good; and the whole is illustrated with abundance of notes, forming "a running commentary," which the author "has endeavoured to render replete with interesting cases, valuable hints or remarks, and singular physiological facts, gleaned from a pretty extensive perusal of the most approved authorities, collective or individual, ancient or modern; occasionally interwoven with similar illustrations, as they have occurred to the writer in his own private walk and intercourse of life." This work was followed in 1822 by a more elaborate and comprehensive performance, called The Study of Medicine,' in four volumes octavo. Dr Good describes his object in this work to be to unite the different branches of medical science, which, when carried to any considerable extent, had in general been * Idem, p. 109. + Dr Good belonged to several other scientific associations, English and foreign; the dates of his admission into which are thus given by his biographer: Fellow of the Royal Society, 1805 or 1806. New York Historical Society, October 26, 1813. Literary and Philosophical Society of New York, May 9, 1816. Royal College of Physicians, London (Licent.) June 25, 1822. Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, April, 1824. 6 6 treated separately by previous writers. The departments of knowledge thus combined are-1. Physiology,' or the doctrine of the natural action of the living principle.-2. Pathology,' or the doctrine of its morbid action.-3. Nosology,' or the doctrine of the classification of diseases.-4. Therapeutics,' or the doctrine of their treatment and cure. The extensive reading, insatiable spirit of investigation, practical experience, and professional judgment of the author, qualified him highly for the production of a work of this kind; and it was honoured with flattering testimonies of approbation from many eminent physicians both in Great Britain and America. A sufficient proof of its merit appears in the fact, that a second edition was speedily called for, which issued from the press, in five volumes, in 1825; and no less than three editions have been published in the American United States. 6 In the spring of 1826, Dr Good found leisure to publish the lectures he had delivered at the Surrey Institution in 18101813. They were comprised in three volumes, and appeared under the title of The Book of Nature,' forming a popular compendium of natural, intellectual, and moral philosophy. This work terminates the series of his printed productions, as he did not long survive the period of its publication. During the greater part of his life his health had been remarkably good; an advantage doubtless arising as much from his habitual temperance and activity as from the natural strength of his constitution. The indulgence of a carriage, to which he accustomed himself in his later years, probably induced a degree of corporeal debility, which, in conjunction with other causes, issued in a fatal disease. His too assiduous application to study, in preparing for the press the two great medical works already noticed, was perhaps more immediately injurious to his health. Towards the close of the year 1826, his strength so rapidly declined, as to excite much solicitude in the minds of Mrs Good and other members of his family; but the symptoms of danger did not become alarming till the approach of Christmas. Even then he was able to take a journey from his own house in Guildford street, Russell square, to the residence of his daughter Mrs Neale, at Shepperton, Middlesex, about eighteen miles from the metropolis. He arrived there the 23rd of December, when the complaint, inflammation of the bladder, had already commenced, which after some alternations of comparative ease and severe suffering, terminated in death, January 2, 1827. His mental faculties were not materially deranged by the progress of the disease, till near its close; and in his confident expectation of recovery, he exhibited an instance of the common inaccuracy with which medical men are accustomed to estimate their own danger, in similar circumstances. But a few days before his dissolution he was competent to the exercise of his judgment, in prescribing for a patient. The circumstance is thus stated, in a letter from his daughter:-" On Friday, December 29, Mr Cooper* held a consultation with Dr Good, who saw and wrote a prescription with his usual accuracy for his patient, the niece of his friend, the Rev. Mr Russell, rector of the parish. A more striking scene can scarcely be conceived. The young lady, who was extremely ill, and supposed to be in immediate danger, was, at her own earnest request, brought into the house, and placed by the bedside of her kind physician, who gathered up all his strength to attend to her symptoms, which were stated with extreme difficulty. At this time his own danger began to be apprehended by his afflicted family, and the friends of both parties listened, with no common interest, to what was passing before them. The exertion, however, was too much for Dr Good. The excitement it produced occasioned through the whole of the same night and succeeding day much confusion of thought."+ By his second wife Dr Good had a son, John Mason Good, who died of fever, November 26, 1803, in the thirteenth year of his age; and two daughters, Susanna and Margaret. The former of these ladies was married to the Rev. Cornelius Neale, an episcopal clergyman, and the author of a volume of poems, who died, in consequence of a pulmonary disease, in August 1823. In his moral and domestic character Dr Good appears to great advantage, as the object of general respect and esteem. He had derived from nature an active disposition, calmness of temper, and a spirit of industry and research, which are qualifications calculated to insure the happiness and prosperity of their possessor in a much greater degree than the more rare and dazzling endowments of refined sensibility and extraordinary genius. In reference to the general estimate of the talents of our author, the following observations of his biographer are too important to be omitted: "Those habits of order, the formation of which constituted a part of his education, and the consolidation of which was so greatly aided by the circumstances of his apprenticeship, were evinced through life. The arrangements of his wardrobe, his books, his accounts, his papers, his manuscripts, his time, all bore the stamp of this peculiarity. Giving as he did, from principle, to his medical engagements his first thoughts and chief care in the arrangements of each day, and finding, from the very nature of the profession, that it presented hourly interruptions to his best-formed schemes; still he had the power of smoothing down the irregularities thus incessantly occurring, and of * The medical friend and attendant of Dr Good. + Memoirs of Dr M. Good, p. 454. |