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No. 55. TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1709.*

Paulo majora canamus.

'Begin a loftier strain.'

VIRG. Ecl. iv. 1.

WHITE'S CHOCOLATE-HOUSE, AUGUST 15.

WHILE others are busied in relations which concern the interests of princes, the peace of nations, and revolutions of empire', I think, though these are very

*STEELE'S.

f Steele, probably, drew up this pleasing narrative from some sketch communicated by the industrious operator of the cure, who was himself the author of a publication on the same subject, which this writer has not seen, intituled A full and true Account of a miraculous Cure of a young Man in Newington, who was born blind, and was, in five minutes, brought to perfect sight, by Mr. Roger Grant, Oculist.' 1709, 8vo.

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'La cure dont il s'agit dans cet article est réelle, et fit beaucoup bruit dans la ville, de même que beaucoup d'honneur à l'oculiste, dont elle augmenta considerablement la reputation et la pratique.'-Le Nouvelliste Philosophe.

The name of the young man, who is the principal subject of this paper, was William Jones, of Newington-Butts, who, it is said, was born blind, and brought to his sight at the age of twenty; his mother's name was Annabal; and the clergyman of the place, at that time, was not the reverend Mr. Caswell, as is said in the original edition in folio and in all the subsequent editions, but the reverend Mr. William Taswell, as undeniably appears from his signature to a certificate of the cure, printed and reprinted frequently. The evidences of all this, depending on advertisements too long to be inserted here, will be given at the end of the fourth volume of the Tatler.

The operator, Mr. Roger Grant, a pains-taking man in his way, seems to have been a writer in the British Apollo,' where his advertisements and his praises occur passim. A daughter of this person, Mrs. Mary Jeffries, a widow, died Oct. 13, 1784, at Tenbury in Wiltshire, aged above 106. She was born Oct. 12, 1671, and remembered distinctly eight sovereigns. She had practised midwifery at Tenbury upwards of 60 years, and retained her faculties and her cheerfulness to the last. Her father was sworn oculist and operator in extraordinary to queen Anne, Sept. 27, 1710; and, on the death of sir William Read, he was sworn oculist in

great subjects, my theme of discourse is sometimes to be of matters of a yet higher consideration. The

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ordinary to George I. in the end of June, or beginning of July, 1715.— 'Weekly Packet,' No. 159.

Mr. Roger, and, as he is also called, Dr. Grant, seems to have been more ingenious and reputable than most of his brother and sister oculists; perhaps he was rather a better scholar; but, if we may judge from his very numerous advertisements, he was not less vain or less indelicate. Indeed a pomposity that now subjects them to contempt, and an effrontery that excites disgust, seem to have been then considered as essential qualifications for exercising their employments successfully.

Sweet modesty! blissful are the bounds thou prescribest to man or woman; and unwise are all they who inconsiderately transgress them. Qui, vel quæ, semel verecundiæ limites transierit, eum vel eam, bene et gnaviter oportet esse impudentem.

London, indeed the whole kingdom, swarmed about this time with illiterate pretenders of this kind, of both sexes, as much at variance with each other as the astrologers of the same period. They were continually pestering the public with their ill-penned, ostentatious polemical advertisements; and, by mere dint of this compendious way of writing, operated so oddly on the understandings of the people, that an ingenious contemporary writer says, 'the whole nation seemed persuaded of the great skill and long experience of artists, who, but a little before, were totally ignorant themselves of their having either.' The same writer, Mr. Thomas Baker, says, "I never look on the grand oculist, and the so often repeated story of Jones at Newington-Butts, but I think on the cure of blindness, and often cry out, happy are they that can see to read it,' &c. Alluding to the cure which is the subject of this narrative, the same writer adds,' It is sufficient that it is not probable, if people had ever sight enough to distinguish one man from another by it, that their mothers, on the request of an oculist, should make oath before a magistrate that they could never see at all.'-' Female Tatler,' No. 58. Nov. 16-18, 1709.

This last passage alludes to an affidavit of Annabal Jones, the patient's mother, which may be seen, with the other advertisements, in Tatler, vol. iv. ad finem.

This circumforanean tribe, as Baker styles the oculists, had too long carried on a very lucrative trade, at the grievous expense, every way, of unfortunate people, who had their eyes injured by the small-pox, a disease long treated injudiciously. Fortunately their business began to decline about ten years after the date of this Paper; and, thanks to the ingenuity and patriotism of a fine lady, was in a short period happily circumscribed within very narrow bounds. Inoculation, one of the most beneficial discoveries of this century, and the wiser method of treating this horrible distemper which it introduced, soon diminished the number of their dupes, and has now superseded the multitude of such expensive and mischievous practitioners. Lady Wortley Montague lived to rejoice in her ingenuity; but for many years her beauty, her rank, and her superior understanding,

slow steps of providence and nature, the strange events which are brought about in an instant, are what, as they come within our view and observation, shall be given to the public. Such things are not accompanied with show and noise, and therefore seldom draw the eyes of the unattentive part of mankind; but are very proper at once to exercise our humanity, please our imaginations, and improve our judgments. It may not, therefore, be unuseful to relate many circumstances which were observable upon a late cure done upon a young gentleman who was born blind, and on the 29th of June last received his sight, at the age of twenty years, by the operation of an oculist. This happened no farther off than Newington: and the work was prepared for in the following manner :

The operator, Mr. Grant, having observed the eyes of his patient, and convinced his friends and relations, among others the reverend Mr. Caswell, minister of the place, that it was highly probable he should remove the obstacle which prevented the use of his sight; all his acquaintance who had any regard for the young man, or curiosity to be present when one of full age and understanding received a new sense, assembled themselves on this occasion. Mr. Caswell, being a gentleman particularly curious, desired the whole company, in case the blindness

struggled hard to bring the happy expedient she imported, into general use; it had many prejudices and obstructions to overcome, and was, in its infancy, subjected to the illaudable ridicule of inconsiderate wit. See Censor, Vol. ii. No. 44. But it had an early and an able friend in the ingenious Sanctorius, the inventor of the thermometer and weighing chair, and has since been established; owing in a great measure to the great skill, the generous assiduity, and prudent management of the late Dr. Archer, physician to the Small-pox hospitals. Variolous inoculation, however, undoubtedly useful as it has proved, is now (1805) almost wholly superseded by the still more extraordinary discovery of Vaccination, by the justly celebrated Dr. Jenner.

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should be cured, to keep silence, and let the patient make his own observations, without the direction of any thing he had received by his other senses, or the advantage of discovering his friends by their voices. Among several others, the mother, brethren, sisters, and a young gentlewoman for whom he had a passion, were present. The work was performed with great skill and dexterity. When the patient first received the dawn of light, there appeared such an ecstacy in his action, that he seemed ready to swoon away in the surprize of joy and wonder. The surgeon stood before him with his instruments in his hands. The young man observed him from head to foot after which he surveyed himself as carefully, and seemed to compare him to himself: and observing both their hands, seemed to think they were exactly alike, except the instruments, which he took for parts of his hands. When he had continued in this amazement some time, his mother could not longer bear the agitations of so many passions as thronged upon her; but fell upon his neck, crying out, My son! my son!' The youth knew her voice, and could speak no more than, 'Oh me! are you my mother?' and fainted. The whole room, you will easily conceive, were very affectionately employed in recovering him; but above all, the young gentlewoman who loved him, and whom he loved, shrieked in the loudest manner. That voice seemed to have a sudden effect upon him, as he recovered, and he showed a double curiosity in observing her as she spoke and called to him; until at last he broke out, 'What has been done to me? Whither am I carried? Is all this about me the thing I have heard so often of? Is this the light? Is this seeing? Were you always thus happy, when you said you were glad to see each other? Where is Tom, who used to lead

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me? But I could now, methinks, go any where without him.' He offered to move, but seemed afraid of every thing around him. When they saw his difficulty, they told him, until he became better acquainted with his new being, he must let the servant still lead him.' The boy was called for, and presented to him. Mr. Caswell asked him, what sort of thing he took Tom to be before he had seen him ?' He answered, he believed there was not so much of him as of himself; but he fancied him the same sort of creature.' The noise of this sudden change made all the neighbourhood throng to the place where he was. As he saw the crowd thickening, he desired Mr. Caswell to tell him how many there were in all to be seen. The gentleman, smiling, answered him, that it would be very proper for him to return to his late condition, and suffer his eyes to be covered, until they had received strength: for he might remember well enough, that by degrees he had from little and little come to the strength he had at present in his ability of walking and moving; and that it was the same thing with his eyes, which,' he said, 'would lose the power of continuing to him that wonderful transport he was now in, except he would be contented to lay aside the use of them, until they were strong enough to bear the light without so much feeling as, he knew, he underwent at present.' With much reluctance he was prevailed upon to have his eyes bound; in which condition they kept him in a dark room, until it was proper to let the organ receive its objects without farther precaution. During the time of this darkness, he bewailed himself in the most distressed manner; and accused all his friends, complaining that some incantation had been wrought upon him, and some strange magic used to deceive him into an opinion that he had enjoyed what they

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