shall endeavour to promote their cultivation in Russia; as will, I make no doubt, my learned friends Professor Pallas, and your entomological correspondent Mr. Boeber (who is inspector to one of the Imperial cadet corps, to which I am physician), as I have furnished them both with the seeds. Your zealous endeavours to promote useful literature, and to diffuse plenty amongst the more indigent ranks of the community, do you much honour, and must procure you many admirers and well-wishers, amongst the foremost of whom I beg you will rank, Dear Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, LETTER CLXXXVIII. Dr. HAMILTON to Dr. LETTSOM. Ipswich, Sept. 6, 1793. Tristram Shandy says, as you know, my dear Doctor, "that to write a book, is for all the world like the humming of a song; be but in tune with yourself, 'tis no matter how high, or how low you take it," vol. IV. p. 162. If the paper on Temperance, now on its journey to you, be plumbed and squared by this rule, I fear you may find it now and then not quite true to the perpendicular; but the foundation is good, however ill I may have raised the superstructure. In one place I have deviated about a page or two, just to say a word or two to the materialists, and to tell them, they appear to me a set of flimsy, cobweb gentry, and though their metaphysical reasonings are curious and nicely wire-drawn, they cannot overturn a number of stubborn facts, that blunter and less learned folks can bring against them; but I fear they are incorrigible, and glory much in their own mightiness; and it is, perhaps, imprudent in me, weak and debilitated as I am, just getting on my legs, after a nine months' sickness, to curl the nose, or pout the lip at them at all. I know not but they may hurl at my devoted head, some huge new hypothesis, enough to crush the brain, medulla oblongata, spinal marrow and all, breaking their texture, and the thread of my life, to boot, thus proving their doctrine by my destruction. But should they do so, I will foretell, that a hundred stronger heads than mine will rise up, in a short time, against them, defying them to the combatyes, and shall prevail over them too. Believe me, dear Doctor, with much respect and esteem, Your most obedient and very R. HAMILTON. LETTER CLXXXIX. Mr. RICH. How to Dr. LETTSOM. Respected Friend, Aspley, 22, 10 mo. 1785. Thy account of the late worthy Dr. Fothergill will transmit his character to posterity with the honour due to his memory; and confer an obligation on the public in general, but particularly on the Society of which he was so illustrious a member. The unfavourable prejudices, that many have conceived against the Quakers, are concisely, yet clearly accounted for, by pointing out the source whence they were derived. Thou hast defended their principles against Guthrie's misrepresentations, and shewn that their polity justly entitles them to admiration; but, in quoting the sentiments of a modern writer on the continent, thou seemest to have been misled by the authors of the Encyclopédie who adopted them, as appears from Trenchard's Essay on Enthusiasm, in Cato's Letters, No. 124 (vol. IV. p. 158), viz. "Having mentioned this last sect (the Quakers), I think myself obliged to declare, that I esteem them to be a great, industrious, modest, intelligent, and virtuous people, and to be animated with the most beneficent principles of any sect which ever yet appeared in the world. They have a comprehen sive charity to the whole race of mankind, and deny the mercies of God to none. They publicly own, that an universal liberty is due to all; are against impositions of every kind, yet patiently submit to many themselves; and perhaps are the only party amongst men, whose practices, as a body, correspond with their principles. I am not ashamed to own, that I have with great pleasure read over Mr. Barclay's Apology for Quakerism; and do really think it to be the most masterly, charitable, and reasonable system that I have ever seen." Permit me to remark, the words, godlike compassion, and the French les misericordes des dieux, do not in my opinion, convey the sense of the original, which, if I mistake not, alludes to the doctrine of universal grace, a noble, distinguishing tenet of the Quakers. Les Impots, is likewise a misconstruction; the author, I believe, meant, by impositions, infringement of religious and civil rights; not all taxes, as the French translator understood it, who adds, ils les payent, which thou hast omitted, and by a necessary explanation, corrected his mistake. Benevolence and beneficence dignify human nature, and constitute the genuine spirit of Quakerism; those professors are its brightest ornaments, in whom these virtues most conspicuously shine such was Fothergill! And I could not resist the temptation of expressing how truly I honour the generous disposition that dictated the Letters in Gent. Mag. Jan. Apr. and June 1780; the writer may justly apply to himself the expression of Chremes in Terence; nor is this the first Letter wherein I have styled him, The Friend of Mankind. I rely on thy candour to excuse the liberty of this intrusion; and with pleasure take the opportunity of assuring thee, that (however personally a stranger) I am, with great truth, Thy very respectful friend, RICHARD HOw. LETTER CXC. From the same. Respected Friend, Apsley, 11, 10 mo. 1786. It is with diffidence I presume (in compliance with thy desire) to offer my sentiments respecting John Howard and the subscription. Last year that gentleman was so obliging as to call on me; I was delighted with the honour of a visit from a man, for whose transcendant merit I had justly entertained a high veneration. The projected Crescent (in the Sept. Magazine) is a grand design; but I am doubtful of its being carried into execution. The subscription will scarcely be adequate to the expence; and that private persons should enter so |