which contribute to the luxury of their tables, or supply the "juleps and catholians" which the consequences of luxury make necessary. Botany, we have already mentioned, was Dr. Fothergill's favourite relaxation; and in regard to his professional researches, his attention was particularly turned to the Materia Medica. He was at great pains to procure accounts of the Cortex Winteranus,* and of the tree that produces the Terra Japonica (catechu). He had correspondents in all parts of the world, who were continually furnishing him with new plants, shells, and insects. But his great assistant and congenial friend in his investigations of nature, was that honour to Westmorland, Peter Collinson. From 1751 to 1756, he was a constant correspondent to * The original discovery of the Cortex Winteranus, or Winter's Bark, was a collateral consequence of Sir Francis Drake's voyage. Captain John Winter, who sailed with Sir Francis in the year 1577, as commander of the Elizabeth, destined for the South Seas, but after entering the Streights or Magellan, stress of weather obliged him to put back, and on some part of the coast of the Streight he collected a quantity of an aromatic and medicinal bark, which Clarias named after him, Cortex Winteranus. Though the trees producing it were noticed by many succeeding voyagers to those parts, as Van Nort in 1600, and Handasyd in 1691, yet the bark was frequently confounded with the Canella alba of the West Indies, and the black Cinnamon of Virginia. (See the account of Amada and Barlow's discovery of Virginia, in Hackluyt, vol. 3, p. 246.) Captain Wallis, in 1768, gathered a quantity of the true Cortex Winteranus; and Dr. Solander and Sir Joseph Banks, in the following year, drew up the first correct botanical account of the tree, which they found on the Streight le Maire, and in Tierra del Fuego. It is a large forest tree, sometimes, exceeding fifty feet in height. Its outward bark is on the trunk grey, and very little wrinkled; on the branches quite smooth and green. By the accounts of Captain Wallis, and the minute botanical description of Dr. Solander, it must be very beautiful; the branches curving upwards so as to form an elegant oval head, the leaves large, eliptical, evergreen, of a dark, shining, laurel-like verdure above, and a pale bluish colour underneath; the flowers small, white, and delicate, but evanescent. Captain Wallis made an unsuccessful attempt to propagate it in the Falkland Isles. When first discovered, the bark was celebrated as an antiscorbutic, but it does not appear to have kept its place in the pharmacopoea. It is astringent, aromatic, with something of a cinnamon flavour, but much less palatable. + Peter Collinson was of an ancient and honourable Westmorland family, a stock still growing in that land of lakes, from which, ni fallor, sprung the late Septimus Collinson, Provost of Queen's College, Oxon, and Margaret Professor of Divinity. Peter, who was born in the parish of Staveley, hard by the "river-lake Winander," while yet a boy, discovered the passion of a naturalist. The wonderful economy of nature in the metamorphoses of insects, strongly attracted his juvenile attention; and it was his recreation, his play, to hunt for those minute animals, so marvellous in their conformations, and in some instances so human in their architecture and their civil polity, so more than human in their prophetic instincts. Nor was he less curious in examining the varieties of vegetable life: though his commercial occupation carried him young to London, he found opportunities to cull and arrange the plants which 712 the Gentleman's Magazine. His contributions were chiefly on the weather, and diseases, and were designed to induce other physicians to grow in the vicinity of the metropolis; he found access to the best gardens, and early Congeniality of pursuits, and manners peculiarly pleasing, soon made him the friend of Derham, Dale, Woodward, Sir Hans Sloane, and others, whose enthusiastic devotion to natural knowledge excited the ridicule of Pope, Swift, and the rest of the Scriblerus club, only to prove how impotent is all wit against sincere goodness and true philosophy. In fact, the ill effects of satire have been as much exaggerated as its moral benefits. Satire on virtue or on knowledge never diminished the number of the virtuous or of the learned; at worst, it only flatters the self-complacency of the vicious and the ignorant. Whom has the "Tale of a Tub" either cured of fanaticism or alienated from piety? Who ever renounced mathematics or natural philosophy, in apprehension of being taken for a Laputan? Peter Collinson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1728, and proved a most useful member, not only by the information he contributed from his personal stock to the general fund, but by his extensive correspondence. His mercantile affairs being connected much with foreigners, he turned this necessary intercourse to the benefit of science. To him Franklin communicated his earliest discoveries in electricity. As much of his commercial engagements were with America, he kept up a constant epistolary intercourse with the colonies, and felt a peculiar anxiety for their welfare. From a letter addressed by Franklin to Michael Collinson, Esq. it appears subscription library being set afoot in Philadelphia, he encouraged the design by "that in 1730, a making several very valuable presents to it, and procuring others from his friends; and as the Library Company had a considerable sum arising annually, to be laid out in books, and needed a judicious friend in London to transact the business for them, he voluntarily and cheerfully undertook that service, and executed it for more than thirty years successively, assisting in the choice of books, and taking the whole care of collecting and shipping them, without ever charging or accepting any consideration for his trouble. The success of this library," continues Franklin, "(greatly owing to his countenance and good advice), encouraged the erecting others in different places on the same plan, and it is supposed that there are now upwards of thirty subsisting in the several colonies, which have contributed greatly to the spreading of useful knowledge in that part of the world; the books he recommended being all of that kind, and the catalogue of this first library being much respected and followed by those libraries that succeeded. During the same time he transmitted to the directors of the library the earliest accounts of every new European improvement in agriculture and in the arts, and every philosophical discovery; among which, in 1745, he sent over an account of the new German experiments in electricity, together with a glass tube, and some directions for using it, so as to repeat those experiments. This was the first notice I had of that curious subject, which I afterwards prosecuted with some diligence." Thus it was to Collinson's suggestions that the modern science of electricity in some measure is indebted for its origin. For the Americans he appears to have felt a singular affection. He was never supply the like materials for Meteorological and Nosological History. Finding that his example had not the intended effect, he discontinued his communications, on these heads at least; but he was a frequent writer in public papers on subjects of public utility, lending his pen to the aid of every improvement and every good work. It is said, that his papers of this kind, if collected, would fill many volumes. He wrote upwards of a hundred letters to the Gazetteer on the new pavement. He was one of those happy men, who are interested about every thing, and anxious about nothing. He was somewhat of a projector, and spared not words or money to promote what he esteemed beneficial. But, content with the ample income which his practice afforded, he never speculated in improvement, therefore his donations never impoverished him. Many anecdotes of his beneficence remain, but three must suffice in this place. The object of the first was a poor clergyman, a class who, considering the rank they are expected to support, the expense of their education, and the wealth of their more opulent brethren, which operates as a direct tax upon the laborious and slenderly-provided, may be called the poorest of the poor. This door-keeper of the Temple weary of giving them good advice. Did he regard them as his fellow Englishmen, or did he foresee that they were to become a great and rival nation? He constantly urged the Virginians, in particular, to make a better use of their soil, "to bethink themselves in time of a more permanent staple than a plant whose consumption only depends on custom and caprice, and this custom daily declining." His suggestion would at least beautify their country. "Vines," said he, "will thrive well in your country; but imitate nature in their cultivation; don't keep them close to the ground, as we are forced to do in this and other northern European climates, for the sake of a little sun and heat to ripen the grape; your summer heats exceed, as much as ours fall short; allow them, therefore, longer stems, let them he trained to, and supported by trees, and hide their fruit among the foliage, as in the warmer countries of Europe." From the picturesque eye which he evinced in this and other short touches, and from his enamoured attachment to plants, we doubt not that Peter Collinson, had he possessed or acquired the accomplishment of verse, might have written a very respectable Georgic. Gardening, indeed, was his hobby. He had correspondents in all parts of Europe, in America, in Asia, even at Pekin, and they all sought to oblige him by presents of rare seeds. Had he been a monarch, a present of seeds would have purchased his alliance. Having arrived at his 75th year with little sickness, barring an occasional attack of gout, he died of a painful malady frequently incident to old age, at the seat of Lord Petre, in Essex, on the 11th of August, 1768. Inclosed in his will was found a paper, importing," that he hoped he should leave behind him a good name, which he valued more than riches: that he had endeavoured not to live uselessly; and that all his days, he constantly aimed to be a friend to mankind." A very minute life of Collinson is in Kippis's Biographia Britannica, a work which ought not to have concluded at the 5th volume. (how much better off is a college porter!) was seated in London on a curacy of fifty pounds per annum, with a wife and a numerous family. An epidemical disease, which was at that time prevalent, seized upon his wife and five of his children: in this scene of distress he looked towards Fothergill-perhaps the sick matron herself put faith in him— but how was the fee to be raised? Every guinea had already to perform the work of two, and a poor curate with a large family has no hopes in contingency. The turns of the market, the increase of business, peace or war-nothing promises him anything. Very possibly this curate may have had a patron once (the only lever that can raise a churchman from the dust), but many a man, somewhat above legal pauperism, has given deadly offence by having a large family. In general, patrons are lost by nothing so hopelessly as by an imprudent marriage, an offence which parents, who alone have a right to be angry, are for the most part the readiest to forgive. Yet, if the poor London curate had no patron, he had a friend, who lent him a guinea, and introduced him to Dr. Fothergill. They attended at the usual hour of audience, gave an account of the several cases, and after some consultation offered the fee, which was rejected; but a note was taken of the clergyman's residence. The Doctor called assiduously the next and every succeeding day, till his attendance became unnecessary. The curate anxious to display his gratitude, or perhaps thinking that his cloth was stained by a debt to a schismatic, pinched or starved up a sum, which he proffered to the Doctor, with many apologies for his inability to do more. Fothergill put it back gently, and at the same time slid ten guineas into the curate's hand, bidding him to remember where he had a friend in case of future need. It is agreeable to record that the poor clergyman afterwards attained church preferment to the value of one hundred pounds a year, a hungry stipend enough for the servant of an aristocratic church, but still twice as good as fifty. This was a kind act of the doctor, but we believe such kindnesses of the medical profession to be by no means rare. Seeing much of that distress which would fain hide itself, and which should therefore be relieved in secret, they perform many good deeds which others do not, not from disinclination to well-doing, but because the occasions do not cross their path. And few indeed are those who will hunt misery out of its lurking places into the light of consolation. Perhaps this anecdote has been repeated the oftener on account of the sectarian relations of the parties as Quaker and Parsons. The scene would make an excellent subject for a good humoured humorous painting. * Could the curate in the midst of his gratitude forbear discontented reflections on the disproportionate regard of men for their souls and for their bodies, as exemplified in the wordly condition of the Leech and of the Pastor. * * The miseries of the inferior clergy, (a phrase which we hope is, or will be banished from all good society) are not now what they were when they furnished conversation to Parson Adams at the country inn: but there are still numbers, who, if above penury, are not above care. This is the point to which the emoluments of a christian minister should always be raised, and which they never need surmount. The pictures of poverty and wretchedness drawn by some writers on the church in the earlier ages of protestanism almost exceed belief, and yet they must have been matters of public notoriety, if true. Thus discourseth old Thomas Drant in his famous Spittle Sermon: "Howbeit, I am not ignorant how many a poor minister of these times is like Elizas. (Elisha, See 2 Kings, c. iv. verse 10.) He had not pen, nor ink, nor table, nor candlestick, but as his hosts allowed him; and these poor God's men must be helped by their host or hosts, or one friend or another, with coat and cap, and cup and candle, and study and table, or else they shall be harbourless and helpless, and needs must I further yet say, that in many a poor scholar in the universities, Christ himself is full of hunger and necessity. These be the noble sons of the prophets, and most apt of all others to be the builders of God's temple; yet have I seen many a good wit many a long day kept low and lean, or to be made broken with hunger and abject with poverty. I do not know the liberality of this city towards both these places, only this I can say, that less than the tenth part of that which is nothing but surfeit and sickness to the great excessive eaters of this town, would cherish and cheer up hungry and thirsty Christ in those his hunger starved members right well." Some in this age will be surprised, if not offended at the boldness with which this old divine appropriates to the clergy of his own church the declaration of the Saviour"I was hungry and ye gave me no meat, I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink,” and ❝inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." And still more at his imputing to the glorified Lord an instinct state of extenuation and inanition. His reproaching the city for gluttony is less remarkable, though few modern clergy would have been so very plain in the presence of the civic authorities, or so coursely graphic in his delineations. "Lord here is the rich glutton to be seen up and down and round about the town. Their horses chew and sper upon gold and silver, and their mules go under rich velvet. Dogs are dear unto them, and feed much daintily. Here is scarcely anything in the upper sort, but many a foolish Nabal scruping and scoutching, eating and drinking, and suddenly and unworthily dying. The eyes of Judah are said to be red with drinking, but much of this people have their faces fire-red with continual quaffing and carousing. Sodom and Gomorrah were said to be full of bread, but these Londoners are more than full, for they are even bursten with banquetting, and sore and sick with surfeiting. Lord, thou whistlest to them and they hear thee not; thou sendest thy plague among them, and they mind thee not. Lord, we are lean; Lord, we are faint; Lord, we are miserable; Lord, we are thy members. Lord, therefore, thou art lean; Lord, thou art faint; Lord, thou art miserable!!" Drant was The sermon from which this extract is taken was preached about 1569. the first metrical translator of Horace in the English language. Refined Critics have pretended to be much offended with the tragi-comedy of the stage. What would they say to the tragi-comedy of the pulpit, and yet there is in many ancient discourses such an incongruous mixture of sublimity. The quaintness of the pulpit was gradually reformed, but the poverty of the country parsons, and we might add, of the city parsons also, long continued to be complained |