walking entirely taken away, till at length his left foot became motionlefs. The violence of his pain produced irregular fevers, deprived him of reft, and entirely debilitated his whole frame. This tormenting disease he bore, though not without fome degree of impatience, yet without any unbecoming or irrational defpondency, and applied himself in the intermiffion of his pains to feek for comfort in the duties of religion. While he lay in this state of mifery he received an account of the promotion of two of his grandfons, and a catalogue of the king of France's library, prefented to him by the command of the king himself, and expreffed fome fatisfaction on all thefe occafions; but foon diverted his thoughts to the more important confideration of his eternal ftate, into which he paffed on the 31st of March 1741, in the 73d year of his age. He was a man of moderate ftature, of great strength and activity, which he preferved by temperate diet, without medical exactnefs, and by allotting propor. tions of his time to relaxation and amufement, not suffering his ftudies to exhaust his strength, but relieving them by frequent intermiffions; a practice confiftent with the most exemplary diligence, and which he that omits will find at last, that time may be-loft, like money, by unfeasonable avarice. In his hours of relaxation he was gay, and fometimes gave way fo far to his temper, naturally fatirical, that he drew upon himself the ill-will of those who had been unfortunately the fubjects of his mirth; but enemies fo provoked he thought it beneath him to regard or to pacify; for he was fiery, VOL, XII. N but but not malicious, difdained diffimulation, and in his gay or serious hours preferved a fettled deteftation of falfehood. So that he was an open and undisguised friend or enemy, entirely unacquainted with the artifices of flatterers, but fo judicious in the choice of friends, and fo conftant in his affection to them, that thofe with whom he had contracted familiarity in his youth, had for the greatest part his confidence in his old age. His abilities, which would probably have enabled him to have excelled in any kind of learning, were chiefly employed, as his ftation required, on polite literature, in which he arrived at very uncommon knowledge, which, however, appears rather from judicious compilations than original productions. His ftyle is lively and mafculine, but not without harfhnefs and constraint, nor, perhaps, always polifhed to that purity which fome writers have attained. He was at least inftrumental to the inftruction of mankind, by the publication of many valuable performances, which lay neglected by the greatest part of the learned world; and, if reputation be estimated by usefulness, he may claim a higher degree in the ranks of learning than fome others of happier elocution, or more vigorous imagination. The malice or fufpicion of those who either did not know, or did not love him, had given rife to fome doubts about his religion, which he took an opportunity of removing on his death-bed by a voluntary declaration of his faith, his hope of everlasting falvation from the revealed promises of God, and his confidence in the merits of our Redeemer, of the fincerity of which declaration his whole behaviour in his long illness was an incontestable proof; and he concluded his life, which had been illuftrious for many virtues, by exhibiting an example of true piety. Of his works we have not been able to procure a complete catalogue: he published, Ovidius," 3 vols. 4to. "Poetæ Latini Minores," 2 vols. 4to. Cum notis variorum. SYDENHAM*, HOMAS SYDENHAM was born in the year 1624, at Winford Eagle in Dorsetshire, where his father, William Sydendam, Efq. had a large fortune. Under whofe care he was educated, or in what manner he paffed his childhood, whether he made any early difcoveries of a genius peculiarly adapted to the study of nature, or gave any prefages of his future eminence in medicine, no information is to be obtained, We must therefore reprefs that curiofity which would naturally incline us to watch the first attempts of fo vigorous a mind, to pursue it in its childish enquiries, and fee it ftruggling with ruftick prejudices, breaking on trifling occafions the fhackles of credulity, and giving proofs, in its cafual excursions, that it was formed to shake off the yoke of prescription, and difpel the phantoms of hypothesis. That the ftrength of Sydenham's understanding, the accuracy of his difcernment, and ardour of his curiofity, might have been remarked from his infancy by a diligent obferver, there is no reason to *Originally prefixed to the New Tranflation of Dr. Sydenham's Works, by John Swan, M. D. of Newcastle in Staffordshire, 1742. doubt. doubt. For there is no inftance of any man, whose history has been minutely related, that did not in every part of life difcover the fame proportion of intellectual vigour; but it has been the lot of the greatest part of those who have excelled in science, to be known only by their own writings, and to have left behind them no remembrance of their domestick life, or private tranfactions, or only fuch memorials of particular paffages as are, on certain occafions, neceffarily recorded in public registers. From these it is difcovered, that at the age of eighteen, in 1642, he commenced a commoner of Magdalen-Hall in Oxford, where it is not probable that he continued long; for he informs us himself, that he was withheld from the univerfity by the commencement of the war; nor is it known in what. state of life he engaged, or where he refided during that long series of publick commotion. It is indeed reported that he had a commiffion in the king's army, but no particular account is given of his military conduct; nor are we told what rank he obtained when he entered into the army, or when, or on what occafion, he retired from it. It is, however, certain, that if ever he took upon him the profeffion of arms, he spent but few years in the camp; for in 1648 he obtained at Oxford the degree of batchelor of phyfick, for which, as fome medicinal knowledge is neceffary, it may be imagined that he spent fome time in qualifying himself. His application to the study of phyfick was, as he himself relates, produced by an accidental acquaintance with Dr. Cox, a physician eminent at that N 3 time |