little in phyfic ftuff, but cures his patients with fafting and water-gruel, whereby he can't expect the pothecary to be his friend. You knows, mafter, one muft live, and let live, as the faying is. I muft fay, he, for the value of three guíneas, fet up my wife's conftitution in fuch a manner, that I have faved within these two years, I believe, forty pounds in pothecary's bills. But what of that? Every man must eat, thof at another's expence; and I fhould be in a deadly hole myself, if all my customers fhould take it in their heads to drink nothing but water-gruel, because it is good for the conftitution. Thank God, I have as good a constitution as e'er a man in England; but for all that, I and my whole family bleed and purge and take a diet-drink twice ayear, by way of ferving the pothecary, who is a very honeft man, and a very good neighbour."

Their converfation was interrupted by the return of the apothecary with the doctor, who had very little of the faculty in his appearance. He was dreffed remarkably plain; feemed to be turned of fifty; had a careless air, and a farcaftical turn in his countenance. Before he entered the fick man's chamber, he asked fome questions concerning the difeafe; and when the apothecary, pointing to his own head, faid, "It lies all here;" the doctor, turning to Sir Launcelot, replied, "If that be all, there's nothing in it."

Upon a more particular enquiry about the symptoms, he was told that the blood was feemingly vif cous, and falt upon the tongue; the urine remarkably acrofaline; and the faces atrabilious and fetid.

When the doctor faid he would engage to find the fame phænomena in every healthy man of the three kingdoms; the apothecary added, that the patient was manifeftly comatous, and moreover afflicted with griping pains and borborygmata.— "A ft for your borborygmata, (cried the phyfician.) What has been done?" To this question he replied, that venæfection had been three times performed: that a vesicatory had been applied inter fcapulas: that the patient had taken occafionally of a cathartic apozem, and, between whiles, alexipharmci bolufes and neutral draughts."Neutral, indeed, (faid the doctor;) fo neutral, that I'll be crucified if ever they declare either for the patient or the difeafe." So faying, he brushed into Crabfhaw's chamber, followed by our adventurer, who was almoft fuffocated at his firft entrance. The day was clofe, the window-fhutters were faftened; a huge fire blazed in the chimney; thick harateen curtains were clofe drawn round the bed, where the wretched fquire lay extended under an enormous load of blankets. The nurfe, who had all the exteriors of a bawd given to drink, fat ftewing in this apartment, like a damned foul in fome infernal bagnio: but rifing, when the company entered, made her curtfies with great decorum. "Well, (faid the doctor) how does your patient, nurse?" "Bleffed be God for it, I hope in a fair way to be fure his apozem has had a bleffed effect-five and twenty ftools fince three o'clock in the morning. But then a'would not fuffer the blifters to be put upon his thighs.-Good lack! a'has been mortally obftropolous, and out of

his

his fenfes all this bleffed day.". "You lie, (cried the fquire) I a'n't out of my feven fenfes, thof I'm half mad with vexation."

The doctor having withdrawn the curtain, the hapless fquire appeared very pale and ghaftly; and having furveyed his matter with a rueful afpect, addreffed him in these words: "Sir knight, I beg a boon: be pleased to tie a ftone about the neck of the apothecary, and a haiter about the neck of the nurse, and throw the one into the next river, and the other over the next tree, and in fo doing you will do a charitable deed to your fellow-creatures; for he and she do the devil's work in partnership, and have fent many a fcore of their betters home to him before their time." "Oh, he begins to talk fenfibly." "Have a good heart, (faid the phyfician.) What is your disorder?" Phyfick." "What do you chiefly complain of?" "The doctor." " Does your head ake?" "Yea, with impertinence." "Have you a pain in your back?" "Yes, where the blifter lies." "Are you fick at ftomach ?" "Yes, with hunger." "Do you feel any fhiverings?" "Always at fight of the apothecary." "Do you perceive any load in your bowels?" "I would the apothecary's confcience was as clear." "Are you thirty?" "Not thirty enough to drink barley-water." "Be pleafed to look into his fauces, (faid the apothecary :) he has got a rough tongue, and a very foul mouth, I'il affure you." "I have known that the cafe with fome limbs of the faculty, where they food more in need of correction than of phyfick.-Well, my honeft friend, fince you have already un

dergone the proper purgations in due form, and fay you have no other difeafe than the doctor, we will fet you on your legs again, without further queftion. Here, nurfe, open that window, and throw thefe vials into the ftreet. Now lower the curtain, without fhutting the cafement, that the man may not be ftifled in his own fteam. In the next place, take off two thirds of thefe coals, and one third of these blankets.- How do'ft feel now, my heart?" "I fhould feel heartwhole, if fo be as yow would throw the noorse a'ter the bottles, and the pothecary a'ter the noorfe, and oorder me a pound of chops for my dinner; for I be fo hoongry, I could eat a horse behind the faddle."

The apothecary, feeing what paffed, retired of his own accord, holding up his hands in fign of aftonishment. The nurfe was dif miffed in the fame breath. Crabfhaw rofe, dreffed himself without affiftance, and made a hearty meal on the first eatable that prefented itfelf to his view. The knight paffed the evening with the phyfician, who, from his first appearance, concluded he was mad; but, in the courfe of the converfation, found means to refign that opinion, without adopting any other in lieu of it, and parted with him under all the impatience of curiofity. The knight, on his part, was very well entertained with the witty farcafm's and erudition of the doctor, who appeared to be a fort of cynic phi lofopher, tinctured with mifanthropy, and at open war with the whole body of apothecaries, whom, however, it was by no means his intereft to difoblige.

Next day, Crabfhaw being to all

ap

hands by the gloves of a trooper. Sir Launcelot would not lofe time in examining particulars, as he perceived that fome mischief had been done, and that the enemy had rallied at a distance: he therefore commanded Crowe to follow him, and rode off with great expedition; but he did not perceive that his squire

from

IF F we confider Lord Bacon and Defcartes merely as philofophers, they bear a ftrong refemblance in many particulars, bue chiefly in this, that both, though they never thoroughly understood or explained the fyftem of Nature, paved the way to the true, that is, the Newtonian philofophy, and laid the foundations upon which it was afterwards erected. It appears the works of Lord Bacon, that he had fome faint glimmering idea of attraction, the bafis upon which the whole superstructure of the Newtonian philofophy is founded; and Descartes, by applying mathematicks to the investigation of natural caufes, pointed out the path wherein Newton walked with perfeverance, till he had brought Nature and its laws to light. But Defcartes, though the greatest mathematician of his age, foon neglected the mathematical fcience, the only key whereby the fprings of Nature can be unlocked; and had recourfe to constructing systems, which are merely the offspring of invention, and, Jike bubbles, vanish into air, when examined by the touchstone of true philofophy. He feems to have neglected things for ideas, and to have dropt the character of the mathematician and philofopher to affume that of the metaphyfician. This appears evidently from his fyftem of the vortices, which, though a fublime metaphyfical idea, is intirely unfupported by experiment, and unphilofophical of confequence. It appears still further, from his metaphyfical meditations, which contain feveral profound and fagacious obfervations upon fpirit and matter, and are looked upon by many as the greateft efforts of his genius. In this circumftançe

he refembles Lord Bacon, who, in his Logick and Novum Organum, has difcovered a genius for metaphyficks, by fome called the first philofophy, fuperior to that of Defcartes or Aristotle himself.

As thefe celebrated philofophers refembled each other in their abilities, they refembled each other likewife in their weakneffes. They both feem to have been strongly tinctured with fuperftition. The French philofopher thought he knew, by a fupernatural impulfe, what turn every change of his fortune would take; for which reafon he for a long time declined going over to Christina, queen of Sweden, notwithstanding her munificent offers, alledging, that his heart foreboded that his voyage would have a bad issue. This was, indeed, verified by the event; for foon after his arrival he died of a fever, attended by a physician who was his mortal enemy. That Lord Bacon had a turn to superstition, appears from many paffages of his works; particularly from one in his Er fays, where he afferts, that people often prophecy unknown to themselves, and utter predictions which are afterwards fulfilled. But whatever the weaknesses of thefe great men might be, they were both possessed of fhining talents; upon a comparison of which, it will be acknowledged, by all the impartial, that our countryman deserves the preference, as he was at once a philofopher, a ftatesman, and an hiftorian; whereas Descartes can be confidered only as a philofopher, and perhaps his neglecting to cultivate his mathematical talents fhould cause him to be ranked amongst poetical philofophers.

AFTER his deceafe, Mr. Tickell, who

had the author's commands and in

Aructions, collected and published his works in four volumes in quarto, In this edition there are feveral pieces hitherto unmentioned, of which it is neceffary we fhould fpeak. The first, in order of time, is the Differtation upon Medals; and though published after his death, yet the materials for it were collected in Italy, and he actually began to digeft them into order, when at Vienna, in the year 1702. These Dialogues are every way worthy of Mr. Addison; the design is just and ufeful, the manner correct, beautiful, and in the true tafte of antiquity. All the elegance of Plato, all the good fenfe and mafculine gravity of Tully, with a becoming air of humour, in which Mr. Addison was truly an original, are confpicuous in this little work. The editor took a great deal of pains in tranflating the Latin quotations; and the verses prefixed to it by Mr. Pope, are as perfect in poetry, as the piece itfelf is in profe.

In November, 1707, there came abroad a pamphlet under the title of, The prefent State of the War, and the Neceffity of an Augmentation confidered. It is now printed among Mr. Addifon's works, and nobody who reads it will doubt that it is his. The fpirit in which it is writ, the weighty obfervations contained therein on the ftrength and intereft of foreign nations, and the comprehenfive knowledge fhewn of all things relating to our own, evince it the work of no ordinary hand. The Whig Examiner came out on the fourteenth of September 1710, for the first time. There were five papers in all attributed to Mr. Addison. These are by much the feverest things he ever wrote. Dr. Sacheverel, Mr. Prior, and many other perfons, are in them very harshly treated. The Examiner had done the fame thing on the part of the Tories, and the avowed defign of this paper was to make reprifals. In 1713 there was published a little pamphlet, intituled, The late Trial and Cerviction of Count Tariff. It was intended to expofe the Tory miniAtry on the subject of the French commercebill, and is likewife a very fevere piece. These are all that are included in Mr. Tickell's edition, which were published in the life-time of Mr. Addison, without his March 1761.

name; as alfo was the Drummer, or the Haunted Houfe, a comedy, not taken notice of in this edition; but published afterwards as Mr. Addison's by Sir Richard Steele.

This play had been written by Mr. Addifon many years before he died; and Sir Richard Steele, coming to an accidental perufal of it, prevailed on the author to make fome additions and alterations, and let it appear on the stage; where it was presented, but with no great fuccefs. Sir Richard thereupon published it with Mr. Addifon's confent, and wrote a preface to it, wherein he accounts for this comedy's being not well received, or at least not fo well as it deserved, by observing, that the ftrokes therein are too delicate for every tafte in a popular affembly; it being like a picture, in which the ftrokes were not ftrong enough to appear at a distance. Mr. Tickell, publishing Mr. Addison's works in 1721, omitted this play; which Sir Richard Steele fo much refented, that he quickly after published a fecond edition of it, with an epiftle to Mr. Cong eve thereto prefixed. In this epifle he afferts, that he recommended it to the flage, and carried it to the prefs: he likewife tells us the price it was fold at, viz. fifty guineas. He refers himself to his former preface, for a proof of his zeal on that occafion, which, he obferves, could flow from nothing elfe than his affection for the author. For as to the fhare any one elfe had in it, he is pofitive it very little exceeded that of an amanuenfis. But, indeed, continues he, had I not known it at the time of the tranfaction concerning the acting on the stage and fale of the copy, I should, I think, have feen Mr. Addifon in every page of it; for he was above all men in that talent called humour, and enjoyed it in such perfection, that I have often reflected, after a night spent with him, apart from all the world, that I had had the pleasure of converfing with an intimate acquaintance of Terence and Catullus, whe had all their wit and nature, heightened with humour more exquifite and delightful than any other man ever poffeffed. They who fhall read this play, after being let into the fecret that it was written by Mr. Addison, or under his direction, will

pro