Imatges de pàgina
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But as to our travels, the 10th of August we got fafe to London, and the confequence of the journey was, that the last day of the fame month, I had the honour and happiness of being married to this young lady.

SECTION

SECTION IX.

I am thinking with myself every day, (fays one of the philofophers) how many things are dear to me; and after I have confidered them as temporary and perishable, I prepare myself, from that very minute, to bear the lofs of them without weakness.

CLEANTHES. (14)

The death of the S. 1. WISE is the man,

author's fourth who prepares wife, and his both for his own death and behaviour there- the death of his friends; upon.

who makes ufe of the forefight of troubles, fo, as to abate the uneafinefs of them, and puts in practice this refolu

(14) Cleanthes was a native of Affus in Lyfia, in Afia Minor, and fo very poor, when he came to Athens to ftudy, that, for his fupport, he wrought at nights in drawing water for the gardens, and in grinding behind the mill. He attended the lectures of Zeno, fucceeded him in his school, and grew into very high efteem with the Athenians. He lived to 99, but the year he died we know not. His mafter Zeno died 342 years before Chrift, and had converfed with Socrates and Plato.

The

tion of the philofopher. I thought of this the morning I married the beautiful and ingenious Mifs Spence, (as related in the latter end of my eighth fection,) and determined if I lost her, to make the great affliction produce the peaceable fruits of righteousness. The man must feel, in such a cafe; the christian will submit. Before the end of fix months, fhe died, and I mourned the loss with a degree of forrow due to fo much excellence, endearment and delight.

The antient academics were Plato (the difciple of Socrates,) Speucippus, Zenocrates, Polemo, Crates, and Crantor; and from Crates, the fifth academic, fprung the old ftoics, to wit, Crates, Zeno, Cleanthes, Chryfippus, and Diogenes the Babylonian; not he that was furly and proud. Cicero in his works often mentions this Babylonian, the ftoic. We find in the Roman history, that he was living in the year of Rome 599, that is, 155 years before Chrift; but when he died we know not. Thefe gentlemen of the two old Schools were to be fure great philofophers, -excellent men: but then, to be strictly impartial, we must own, that all they knew in relation to the will of God, and a kingdom to come, was but poor moral learning, in respect to what is written in the New Teftament for our instruction, if we will lay afide our fancies and fyftems, and let reafon explain revelation. The Chrif tian religion is really more for the glory of God, and the good of mankind, than reafon, without infpiration, has been able to teach. Chriftianity, without the additions and fupplements of monks, is not only above all juft except on, but preferable to any other fcheme.

VOL. IV.

D

My

cup

My complaint was bitter, in proportion to the defires of nature. But as nature fays, let this cup pafs: grace fays, let thy will be done. If the flower of all my comfort was gone the glory departed! yet thy glory is, O man, to do the will of God, and bear the burthen he lays upon thee. Let nature, grace, and time, do their part, to close the wound, and let not ignorance impeach the wifdom of the Moft High. The which my father hath given me: fhall I not drink? I will. I will not quarrel with Providence. In fhort, I refigned, and not long after I had buried this admirable woman, (who died at her feat in Westmoreland,) I went into the world again, to relieve my mind, and try my fortune once more. What happened there, I will report, when I have related the extraordinary cafe of my wife, Mifs Spence, and the four physicians I had to attend her. It is a very curious thing.

The cafe of a lady in a fever,

and an account of

four phyficians who attended ber.

S.

§. 2. This young lady was feized with that fatal

diftemper, called a malignant fever: Something foreign to nature got into her blood, by a cold, and other

accidents, it may be, and the luctus or ftrife to get clear thereof became very great. The

effor

effervefcence or perturbation was very foon fo violent as to fhew, that it not only endangered, but would quickly fubvert the animal fabrick, unless the blood was fpeedily difperfed, and nature got the victory by an exclufion of the noxious fhut-in particles. The thirst, the dry tongue, the coming caufus, were terrible, and gave me too much reafon to apprehend this charming woman would fink under the conflict. To fave her, if poffible, I fent immediately for a great physician, Dr. Sharp, a man who talked with great fluency of medicine and diseases.

This gentleman told me, the Akaline was the root of fevers, as well as of other dif tempers, and therefore, to take off the effervefcence of the blood in the ebullitions of it, to incide the viscous humour, to drain the tartarous falts from the kidnies, to allay the preternatural ferment, and to brace up the relaxed tones, he ordered orange and vinegar in whey, and prescribed spirit of fulphur, and vitriol, the cream, chrystals, and vitriolate tartar in other vehicles. If any thing can relieve, it must be plenty of acid. In acidis pofita eft omni curatio. But these things gave no relief to the sufferer.

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