His Lordship was buried at Hagley; and the following inscription is cut on the side of his Lady's monument: This unadorn'd stone was placed here GEORGE LORD LYTTELTON, in the world, I had friends who endeavoured to | dying, but with very little uneasiness, till Tues shake my belief in the Christian religion. I saw | day morning, August 22, when between seven difficulties which staggered me; but I kept my and eight o'clock he expired, almost without mind open to conviction. The evidences and a groan." doctrines of Christianity, studied with attention, made me a most firm and persuaded believer of the Christian religion. I have made it the rule of my life, and it is the ground of my future hopes. I have erred and sinned; but have repented, and never indulged any vicious habit. In politics, and public life, I have made public good the rule of my conduct. I never gave counsels which I did not at the time think best. Lord Lyttelton's Poems are the works of I have seen that I was sometimes in the wrong, man of literature and judgment, devoting part but I did not err designedly. I have endeavour of his time to versification. They have nothing ed, in private life, to do all the good in my power, to be despised, and little to be admired. Of his and never for a moment could indulge malicious "Progress of Love," it is sufficient blame to or unjust designs upon any person whatsoever.' say that it is pastoral. His blank verse in "At another time he said, 'I must leave my "Blenheim" has neither much force nor much soul in the same state it was in before this ill-elegance. His little performances, whether ness; I find this a very inconvenient time for solicitude about any thing.' "On the evening, when the symptoms of death came on, he said, 'I shall die; but it will not be your fault.' When Lord and Lady Valentia came to see his Lordship, he gave them his solemn benediction, and said, 'Be good, be virtuous, my Lord; you must come to this.' Thus he continued giving his dying benediction to all around him. On Monday morning a lucid interval gave some small hopes, but these vanished in the evening; and he continued songs or epigrams, are sometimes sprightly, and sometimes insipid. His epistolary pieces have a smooth equability, which cannot much tire, because they are short, but which seldom elevates or surprises. But from this censure ought to be excepted his “ Advice to Belinda,” which, though for the most part written when he was very young, contains much truth and much pru dence, very elegantly and vigorously expressed and shows a mind attentive to life, and a power of poetry which cultivation might have raised to excellence. LIVES OF EMINENT PERSONS. FATHER PAUL SARPI. FATHER PAUL, whose name, before he entered into the monastic life, was Peter Sarpi, was born at Venice, August 14, 1552. His father followed merchandise, but with so little success, that, at his death, he left his family very ill provided for, but under the care of a mother, whose piety was likely to bring the blessing of Providence upon them, and whose wise conduct supplied the want of fortune by advantages of greater value. Happily for young Sarpi, she had a brother master of a celebrated school, under whose direction he was placed by her. Here he lost no time, but cultivated his abilities, naturally of the first rate, with unwearied application. He was born for study, having a natural aversion to pleasure and gayety, and a memory so tenacious, that he could repeat thirty verses upon once hearing them. Proportionable to his capacity was his progress in literature: at thirteen, having made himself master of school-learning, he turned his studies to philosophy and the mathematics, and entered upon logic under Capella of Cremona, who, though a celebrated master of that science, confessed himself in a very little time unable to give his pupil farther instructions. As Capella was of the order of the Servites, his scholar was induced, by his acquaintance with him, to engage in the same profession, though his uncle and his mother represented to him the hardships and austerities of that kind of life, and advised him with great zeal against it. But he was steady in his resolutions, and in 1566 took the habit of the order, being then only in his 14th year, a time of life in most persons very improper for such engagements, but in him attended with such maturity of thought, and such a settled temper, that he never seemed to regret the choice he then made, and which he confirmed by a solemn public profession in 1572. At a general chapter of the Servites, held at Mantua, Paul, (for so we shall now call him,) being then only twenty years old, distinguished himself so much in a public disputation by his genius and learning, that William Duke of Mantua, a great patron of letters, solicited the consent of his superiors to retain him at his court, and not only made him public professor of divinity in the cathedral, but honoured him with many proofs of his esteem. But Father Paul, finding a court life not agree able to his temper, quitted it two years afterwards, and retired to his beloved privacies, being then not only acquainted with the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldee languages, but with philosophy, the mathematics, canon and civil law, all parts of natural philosophy, and chemistry itself; for his application was unintermitted, his head clear, his apprehension quick, and his memory retentive. Being made a priest at twenty-two, he was distinguished by the illustrious Cardinal Borromeo with his confidence, and employed by him on many occasions, not without the envy of persons of less merit, who were so far exasperated as to lay a charge against him, before the Inquisition, for denying that the Trinity could be proved from the first chapter of Genesis: but the accusation was too ridiculous to be taken notice of. After this he passed successively through the dignities of his order, and in the intervals of his employment applied himself to the studies with so extensive a capacity, as left no branch of knowledge untouched. By him Aquapendente, the great anatomist, confesses that he was informed how vision is performed; and there are proofs that he was not a stranger to the circulation of the blood. He frequently conversed upon astronomy with mathematicians, upon anatomy with surgeons, upon medicine with physicians, and with chemists upon the analysis of metals, not as a superficial inquirer, but as a complete master. But the hours of repose, that he employed so well, were interrupted by a new information in the Inquisition, where a former acquaintance produced a letter written by him in ciphers, in which he said, "that he detested the court of Rome, and that no preferment was obtained there but by dishonest means." This accusation, however dangerous, was passed over on account of his great reputation, but made such impression on that court, that he was afterwards denied a bishopric by Clement VIII. After these difficulties were sur mounted, Father Paul again retired to his solitude, where he appears, by some writings drawn up by him at that time, to have turned his attention more to improvements in piety than learning. Such was the care with which he read the scriptures, that, it being his custom to draw a line under any passage which he intended more nicely to consider, there was not a single word in his New Testament but was underlined; the same marks of attention appeared in his Old Testament, Psalter, and Breviary. But the most active scene of his life began about the year 1605, when Pope Paul V. exasperated by some decrees of the senate of Venice that interfered with the pretended rights of the church, laid the whole state under an interdict. The senate, filled with indignation at this treatment, forbade the bishops to receive or publish the Pope's bull; and convening the rectors of the | Pope's dominions, but were pursued by divine churches, commanded them to celebrate divine justice, and all, except one man, who died in pri service in the accustomed manner, with which son, perished by violent deaths. This and other most of them readily complied; but the Jesuits attempts upon his life obliged him to confine him and some others refusing, were by a solemn edict self to his convent, where he engaged in writing expelled the state. the history of the Council of Trent, a work unBoth parties, having proceeded to extremities, equalled for the judicious disposition of the matemployed their ablest writers to defend their mea-ter, and artful texture of the narration, commended sures on the Pope's side, among others, Cardi- by Dr. Burnet as the completest model of historinal Bellarmine entered the rists, and with his cal writing, and celebrated by Mr. Wotton as confederate authors defended the papal claims equivalent to any production of antiquity; in with great scurrility of expression, and very so which the reader finds "Liberty without licenphistical reasonings, which were confuted by the tiousness, piety without hypocrisy, freedom of Venetian apologist in much more decent lan- speech without neglect of decency, severity withguage, and with much greater solidity of argu-out rigour, and extensive learning without osten ment. On this occasion Father Paul was most eminently distinguished, by his "Defence of the Rights of the supreme Magistrate," his "Treatise of Excommunication" translated from Gerson, with an "Apology," and other writings; for which he was cited before the Inquisition at Rome; but it may be easily imagined that he did not obey the summons. The Venetian writers, whatever might be the abilities of their adversaries, were at least superior to them in the justice of their cause. The propositions maintained on the side of Rome were these: that the Pope is invested with all the authority of heaven and earth. That all princes are his vassals, and that he may annul their laws at pleasure. That kings may appeal to him, as he is temporal monarch of the whole earth. That he can discharge subjects from their oaths of allegiance, and make it their duty to take up arms against their sovereign. That he may depose kings without any fault committed by them, if the good of the church requires it. That the clergy are exempt from all tribute to kings, and are not accountable to them even in cases of high treason. That the Pope cannot err: that his decisions are to be received and obeyed on pain of sin, though all the world should judge them to be false: that the Pope is God upon earth; that his sentence and that of God are the same; and that to call his power in question, is to call in question the power of God; maxims equally shocking, weak, pernicious, and absurd; which did not require the abilities or learning of Father Paal to demonstrate their falsehood, and destructive tendency. It may be easily imagined that such principles were quickly overthrown, and that no court but that of Rome thought it for its interest to favour them. The Pope, therefore, finding his authors confuted, and his cause abandoned, was willing to conclude the affair by treaty, which, by the mediation of Henry IV. of France, was accommodated upon terms very much to the honour of the Venetians. tation." In this and other works of less consequence he spent the remaining part of his life, to the beginning of the year 1622, when he was seized with a cold and fever, which he neglected till it became incurable. He languished more than twelve months, which he spent almost wholly in a preparation for his passage into eternity; and among his prayers and aspirations was often heard to repeat, Lord! now let thy servant depart in peace. On Sunday the eighth of January of the next year, he rose, weak as he was, to mass, and went to take his repast with the rest, but on Monday was seized with a weakness that threatened immediate death; and on Thursday prepared for his change by receiving the Viaticum with such marks of devotion, as equally melted and edified the beholders. Through the whole course of his illness to the last hour of his life, he was consulted by the senate in public affairs, and returned answers, in his greatest weakness, with such presence of mind as could only arise from the consciousness of innocence. On Sunday, the day of his death, he had the passion of our blessed Saviour read to him out of St. John's gospel, as on every other day of that week, and spoke of the mercy of his Redeemer, and his confidence in his merits. As his end evidently approached, the brethren of the convent came to pronounce the last prayers with which he could only join in his thoughts, being able to pronounce no more than these words, Esto perpetua, Mayest thou last for ever; which was understood to be a prayer for the prosperity of his country. Thus died Father Paul, in the 71st year of his age; hated by the Romans as their most formidable enemy, and honoured by all the learned for his abilities, and by the good for his integrity. His detestation of the corruption of the Roman church appears in all his writings, but particularly in this memorable passage of one of his letters: There is nothing more essential than to ruin the reputation of the Jesuits: by the ruin of the Jesuits, Rome will be ruined; and if Rome is ruined religion will reform of itself." But the defenders of the Venetian rights were, though comprehended in the treaty, excluded by the Romans from the benefit of it; some upon different pretences were imprisoned, some sent to the galleys, and all debarred from preferment. But their malice was chiefly aimed against Father Paul, who soon found the effects of it; for as he was going one night to his convent, about six months after the accommodation, he was attacked by five ruffians armed with stilettoes, who gave him no less than fifteen stabs, three of which wounded him in such a manner, that he was left for dead. The murderers fled for refuge to the nuncio, and were afterwards received into the 1 to his memory. He appears by many passages of his life to have had a high esteem of the church of England; and his friend, Father Fulgentio, who had adopted all his notions, made no scruple of administering to Dr. Duncomb, an English gentleman that fell sick at Venice, the communion in both kinds, according to the Common Prayer which he had with him in Italian. He was buried with great pomp at the public charge, and a magnificent monument was erected BOERHAAVE. THE following account of the late Dr. BOERHAAVE, so loudly celebrated, and so universally lamented through the whole learned world, will, we hope, be not unacceptable to our readers: we could have made it much larger, by adopting fying reports, and inserting unattested facts; a close adherence to certainty has contracted our narrative, and hindered it from swelling to that bulk at which modern histories generally arrive. students, not well acquainted with the constitu The studies of young Boerhaave were, about Dr. Herman Boerhaave was born on the last In the twelfth year of his age, a stubborn, painday of December 1668, about one in the morning, at Voorhout, a village two miles distant from Leyden; his father, James Boerhaave, was mi- ful, and malignant ulcer, broke out upon his left nister of Voorhout, of whom his son,* in a small thigh; which, for near five years, defeated all the account of his own life, has given a very amiable art of the surgeons and physicians, and not only character, for the simplicity and openness of his afflicted him with most excruciating pains, but exbehaviour, for his exact frugality in the manage-posed him to such sharp and tormenting applicaThen it was that his own pain ment of a narrow fortune, and the prudence, ten- tions, that the disease and remedies were equally derness, and diligence, with which he educated a insufferable. numerous family of nine children. He was emi- taught him to compassionate others, and his exnently skilled in history and genealogy, and perience of the inefficacy of the methods then in versed in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew lan-use incited him to attempt the discovery of others guages. His mother was Hagar Daelder, a tradesman's daughter of Amsterdam, from whom he might, perhaps, derive an hereditary inclination to the study of physic, in which she was very inquisitive, and had obtained a knowledge of it not common in female students. This knowledge, however, she did not live to communicate to her son; for she died in 1673, ten years after her marriage. His father finding himself encumbered with the care of seven children, thought it necessary to take a second wife, and in July 1674, was married to Eve du Bois, daughter of a minister of Leyden, who, by her prudent and impartial conduct, so endeared herself to her husband's children, that they all regarded her as their own mother. Herman Boerhaave was always designed by his father for the ministry, and with that view instructed by him in grammatical learning, and the first elements of languages; in which he made such a proficiency, that he was at the age of eleven years, not only master of the rules of grammar, but capable of translating with tolerable accuracy, and not wholly ignorant of critical niceties. At intervals, to recreate his mind, and strengthen his constitution, it was his father's custom to send him into the fields, and employ him in agriculture and such kind of rural occupations, which he continued through all his life to love and practise; and by this vicissitude of study and exercise preserved himself, in a great measure, from those distempers and depressions which are frequently the consequences of indiscreet diligence, and uninterrupted application; and from which Erat Hermanni Genitor Latine, Græce, Hebraice sciens: peritus valde historiarum et gentium. Vir apertus, candidus, simplex; paterfamilias optimus amore, cura, diligentia, frugalinate, prudentia. Qui non magna in re, sed plenus virtutis, novem liberis educan. dis, exemplum præbuit singulare, quid exacta parsimoaia polleat, et frugalitas.—Örig. Edit. more certain. He began to practise at least honestly, for he began upon himself; and his first essay was a prelude to his future success, for, having laid aside all the prescriptions of his physicians, and all the applications of his surgeons, he at last, by tormenting the part with salt and urine, effected a cure. That he might, on this occasion, obtain the assistance of surgeons with less inconvenience and expense, he was brought by his father, at fourteen, to Leyden, and placed in the fourth class of the public school, after being examined by the master: here his application and abilities were equally conspicuous. In six months, by gaining the first prize in the fourth class, he was raised to proof of the superiority of his genius, rewarded the fifth and in six months more, upon the same with another prize, and translated to the sixth : from whence it is usual in six months more to be removed to the university. : Thus did our young student advance in learning and reputation, when as he was within view of the university, a sudden and unexpected blow threatened to defeat all his expectations. On the 12th of November, in 1682, his father died, and left behind him a very slender provision for his widow and nine children, of which the eldest was not yet seventeen years old, This was a most afflicting loss to the young scholar, whose fortune was by no means sufficient to bear the expenses of a learned education, and who therefore seemed to be now summoned by necessity to some way of life more immediately and certainly lucrative; but with a resolution and shaken, he determined to break through the equal to his abilities, and a spirit not so depressed obstacles of poverty, and supply, by diligence, the want of fortune. He therefore asked and obtained the consent of his guardians to prosecute his studies, so long tinuing his wonted industry, gained another prize. as his patrimony would support him; and, con " He was now to quit the school for the univer- metaphysicians adopted as articles of faith. He sity, but on account of the weakness yet remain- found difficulties raised by niceties, and fomented ing in his thigh, was at his own entreaty continued to bitterness and rancour. He saw the simplicity six months longer under the care of his master, of the Christian doctrine corrupted by the private the learned Winschotan, where he once more fancies of particular parties, while each adhered was honoured with the prize. to its own philosophy, and orthodoxy was confined to the sect in power. At his removal to the university, the same genius and industry met with the same encouragement and applause. The learned Triglandius, one of his father's friends, made soon after professor of divinity at Leyden, distinguished him in a particular manner, and recommended him to the friendship of Mr. Van Apphen, in whom he found a generous and constant patron. He became now a diligent hearer of the most celebrated professors, and made great advances in all the sciences; still regulating his studies with a view principally to divinity, for which he was originally intended by his father, and for that reason exerted his utmost application to attain an exact knowledge of the Hebrew tongue. Being convinced of the necessity of mathematical learning, he began to study those sciences in 1687, but without that intense industry with which the pleasure he found in that kind of knowledge induced him afterwards to cultivate them. Having now exhausted his fortune in the pursuit of his studies, he found the necessity of applying to some profession, that, without engrossing all his time, might enable him to support himself; and, having obtained a very uncommon knowledge of the mathematics, he read lectures in those sciences to a select number of young gentlemen in the university. At length, his propension to the study of physic grew too violent to be resisted; and, though he still intended to make divinity the great employment of his life, he could not deny himself the satisfaction of spending some time upon the medical writers, for the perusal of which he was so well qualified by his acquaintance with mathe matics and philosophy. But this science corresponded so much with his natural genius, that he could not forbear making that his business which he intended only as his diversion; and still growing more eager as he advanced farther, he at length determined wholly to master that profession, and to take his degree in physic, before he engaged in the duties of the ministry. In 1690, having performed the exercises of the university with uncommon reputation, he took his degree in philosophy; and on that occasion discussed the important and arduous subject of the distinct natures of the soul and body, with It is, I believe, a very just observation, that such accuracy, perspicuity, and subtlety, that he men's ambition is generally proportioned to their entirely confuted all the sophistry of Epicurus, capacity. Providence seldom sends any into the Hobbes, and Spinosa, and equally raised the cha-world with an inclination to attempt great things, racters of piety and erudition. Divinity was still his great employment, and the chief aim of all his studies. He read the scriptures in their original languages, and when difficulties occurred, consulted the interpretations of the most ancient fathers, whom he read in order of time, beginning with Clemens Romanus. In the perusal of those early writers,* he was struck with the profoundest veneration of the simplicity and purity of their doctrines, the holiness of their lives, and the sanctity of the discipline practised by them; but, as he descended to the lower ages, found the peace of Christianity broken by useless controversies, and its doctrines sophisticated by the subtleties of the schools. He found the holy writers interpreted according to the notions of philosophers, and the chimeras of "Jungebat his exercitiis quotidianam patrum lectionem, secundum chronologiam, a Clemente Romano exorsus, et juxta seriem seculorum descendens: ut Jesu Christi doctrinam in N. T. traditam, primis patribus in terpretantibus, addisceret. who have not abilities likewise to perform them. To have formed the design of gaining a complete knowledge of medicine by way of digression from theological studies, would have been little less than madness in most men, and would have only exposed them to ridicule and contempt. But Boerhaave was one of those mighty geniuses, to whom scarce any thing appears impossible, and who think nothing worthy of their efforts but what appears insurmountable to common understandings. He began this new course of study by a dili gent perusal of Vesalius, Bartholine, and Fallopius; and, to acquaint himself more fully with the structure of bodies, was a constant attendan upon Nuck's public dissections in the theatre, and himself very accurately inspected the bodies of different animals. Having furnished himself with this preparatory knowledge, he began to read the ancient physi cians in the order of time, pursuing his inquiries downwards from Hippocrates through all the Greek and Latin writers. Finding, as he tells us himself, that Hippocrates was the original source of all medical knowledge, and that all the later writers were little more than transcribers from him, he returned to him with more attention, and spent much time in making extracts from him, digesting his treatises into method, and fixing them in his memory. Horum simplicitatem sincera doctrinæ, disciplina sanctitatem, vitæ Deo dicatæ integritatem adorabat. Subtilitatem scholarum divina postmodum inquinasse dole bat. Egerrime tulit, Sacrorum interpretationem ex sectis sophistarum peti: et Platonis, Aristotelis, Thoma Aquinatis, Scoti; suoque tempore Cartesii, cogitata me. taphysica adhiberi pro legibus, ad quas castigarentur sacrorum scriptorum de Deo sententia. Experiebatur acerba dissidia, ingeniorumque subtilissimorum acerrima certamina, odia, ambitiones, inde cieri, foveri; adeo contraria paci cum Deo et homine. Nihil hic magis illi whom none engaged him longer, or improved He then descended to the moderns, among obstabat; quam quod omnes asserant sacram scriptu-him more, than Sydenham, to whose merit he has OLOTOÉTovav singuli definiant ex placitis sua metaphysices. left this attestation, "that he frequently perused Horrebat, inde dominantis sectæ prævalentem opinio- him, and always with greater eagerness." nem, orthodoxiæ modum, et regulas, unice dare juxta ram ἀνθρωποπαθώς loquentem, θεοπρεπως explicandam, et dicta a metaphysicorum, non sacrarum literarum; unde His insatiable curiosity after knowledge en tamaris sententie de doctrina simplicissima."--Origin. gaged him now in the practice of chemistry, which he prosecuted with all the ardour of a plu Edit. |