sessed genius; my memory was bad; I made dictionaries and tables of my own invention, to assist memory; I formed indexes of what I read; and by industry acquired something. I came to London, and saw Dr. Fothergill; my ambition was inflamed, and I dared then to say, London shall be my theatre; but having no more money than to carry me through the hospitals, I could not attend many lectures, and upon this depended my improvement; for instead of hearing and learning of lecturers, I was compelled to learn at the bed of sickness. Here I saw nature, and learnt my art without the leading-strings of professors. I acquired an early habit of behaving with kindness to the sick, and having known want, I knew how to sympathize with distress. After two years in an hospital, I went to the West Indies to get assistance to bring me upon the theatre I now act. Six months abroad enabled me to revisit London, Edinburgh, and Leyden, and ultimately to sit down in the first city; and I know not why any other person, with £500, may not do the same. Yours, respectfully, J. C. LETTSOM. LETTER XCII. From the same. Dear Sir Mordaunt, London, April 27, 1792. Thy letter of the 20th of January, makes me blush, when I find another of the 30th of March, still unanswered. Both were acceptable, and both accumulating upon me new and additional obligations. Accept my thanks for the gigantic turkey, which faced with gallantry and undismay a group of different nations and sects. I had Sir John Peter, Consul at Ostend, Professor Blumenbach from Göttingen, besides a Scotchman, an Irishman, a Dane, an American, a West Indian, a Papist, a Presbyterian, a Quaker, a No Religion, a Sandemanian, and a Staunch Churchman, who all agreed in one Creed, that the dead Philistine or Titan merited their united benediction. It was an entertainment that afforded me much gratification, perhaps more so, from the admired philanthropy of the donor. Happy sacrifice to the appetite of man, that thou shouldst effect more concord among different nations and sects, than even Reason, the proudest and sublimest of all man's gifts! My eldest son leaves me next Monday, to spend two years on the Continent of Europe. He travels under the care of my worthy friend Dr. Sims, President of the Medical Society of London. They will visit Flanders, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Prussia, &c. He will remain under Professor Blumenbach, about two years, at Göttingen. I shall afterwards send him to Edinburgh, Leyden, and perhaps Paris again. After this plan is effected, I do not care how soon he pushes me out of business. I remain, Thine, &c. J. C. LETTSOM. LETTER XCIII. Sir M. MARTIN, Bart. to Dr. LETTSOM. Dear Doctor, May 17, 1792. Notwithstanding the tenets of your persuasion do not inculcate any care about steeple houses, yet the commendations you have, on different occasions, so liberally bestowed upon the respectable part of our clergy, and the sublime wish you have expressed of seeing all the different modes of worshipping the Deity, assure me that you had rather see the ceremonies of the established religion of this country performed in decent places of worship, than in such miserable hovels as it is in too many of our country parishes. I therefore presume the inclosed "Outlines of a Plan for alleviating the -- Poor's Rates, &c." will not meet with the less of your warm support for including a view to the repair of Churches. And to the more rigid members of your society, it may recommend itself by its tendency to lower (and in time prevent) church rates. I ain aware that the money cannot be collected without time and attention, which we are apt to undervalue when they are required (perhaps in larger portions) for our amusements, but when demanded on account of business, they often appear inestimable. For by miscalling this trouble, it conveys the idea of the most frightful bugbear imaginable, and we run behind every screen to endeavour to avoid it. I am flattered by being deemed expert (that is rational) in trimming a vine or a gooseberry-bush. I can leave such buds as will furnish wood for branches, or with a prospect of fruit when I wish for it, and can remove such shoots as would deprive them of nourishment. May not this be compared to that part of my plan which relates to the distribution of the money? I have also a practice by which I furnish juices to the fibres of new-planted trees, or such as, by being overloaded with fruit, or too much crowded by other plants, would not be able to support themselves. I take a common garden-pot of a size proportioned to the occasion, and making a little puddle, rub the bottom of the pot into it, and then let it dry, until it forms such a bed for itself, as prevents more water escaping than what settles into the earth from the hole in the centre of the pot, which I keep replenishing with water as I find it absorbed. By these means the exhalation being less, the supply constant, a small quantity of water is furnished with more efficacy than a much larger quantity in the common way. I wish to compare these drops of water to the half-pence which strangers would, by my plan, bring to every parish. But, alas! in my plan I have to guard against the illiberal selfishness of mankind, and in my practice I have nothing to consult but the regular effects of nature. And if men will not concur in measures which have an evident tendency to promote the public good, I fear that no arguments, nor any powers of the legislature, can drive them to it. I am not, however, aware of any mischief which can attend a trial of this plan; and unless I knew of any imposts which bear equally on all, and are not evaded in some degree by individuals, I think I have reason to hope that the regulations proposed by my plan are capable of being sufficiently enforced to answer the very desirable ends for which they are proposed. I am sure it is needless to urge your friendship to point out any faults which partiality to this bantling of mine has prevented my seeing, and to improve it by any additions which your more extensive information may enable you to make to it, before it is submitted to the public by Your obliged and sincere Friend, |