under the character of Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft; -that the worthip of three perfons and one God is exprefly contrary to the folemn determination of Chrift and his Apoftles;-and in numbers of inftances in the New Teftament it is declared, that the one God and Father of all is the only fupreme object, to whom all religious worship Thould be directed:-that for these reafons, I renounced the received doctrine of a co-equal trinity, and believed our great and learned divines, who laboured to prevent people from feeing the truth as it is in Jefus, would be in fome tribulation at Chrift's tribunal; where they are to appear ftripped of all worldly honours, dignities, and preferments, poor, naked, wretched mortals, and to answer for their fupplement to the gospel, in an invented heresy of three Gods. When my father heard thefe things, and faw the religious cafe of his son, his paffion was very great. He forbid me his table, and ordered me to fhift for myfelf. He renounced me, as I had done the triune God.

The doctor wondered not a little at the account I had given him, (as my father was reckoned a man of great abilities,) and taking me by the hand, faid, I had acted moft glorioufly that what loft me my father's affection, was the very thing that ought to have

induced

induced him to erect a ftatue to my honour in his garden: that fince I was pleased to accept of his offer, his friendship I might depend on :-that if I would, I should begin the next day the study of phyfic under his direction, and at the end of two years, he would give me his daughter, who was not yet quite twenty.

Julia Fitz

§. 5. Juft as he had faid this, Mifs Fitz- The picgibbons entred the room, and her father in- ture of troduced me to her. The fight of her afto- gibbons. nifhed me; tho' I had before feen fo many fine women, I could not help looking with wonder at her. She appeared one of thofe finished creatures, whom we cannot enough admire, and upon acquaintance with her, became much more glorious.

What a vaft variety of beauty do we fee in the infinity of nature. Among the fex, we may find a thousand and a thousand perfect images and characters; all equally striking, and yet as different as the pictures of the greatest masters in Italy. What amazing charms and perfections have I beheld in women as I journeyed through life. When I have parted from one; well I faid, I shall never meet another like this inimitable maid; and yet after all, Julia appeared divinely fair, and happy in every excellence that can Ff3 adorn

adorn the female mind. Without that exact regularity of beauty, and elegant foftnefs of propriety, which rendered Mifs Dunk, whom I have defcribed in thefe Memoirs, a very divinity, Julia charmed with a graceful negligence, and enchanted with a face that glowed with youthful wonders, beauties that art could not adorn but always diminished. The choice of drefs was no part of Julia's care, but by the neglect of it fhe became irrefiftible. In her countenance. there ever appeared a bewitching mixture of fenfibility and gaiety, and in her foul, by converfe we discovered that generofity and tenderness were the first principles of her mind. To truth and virtue fhe was inwardly devoted, and at the bottom of her heart, tho' hard to difcover it, her main bufinefs to ferve God, and fit herself for eternity. In fum, fhe was one of the finest originals that ever appeared among womankind, peculiar in perfections which cannot be defcribed; and fo inexpreffibly charming in an attractive sweetness, a natural gaiety, and a ftriking negligence, a fine understanding, and the moft humane heart; that I found it impoffible to know her without being in love with her: Her power to please was extenfive indeed. In her, one had the lovelieft idea of woman,

ac- thor marhad Fitzgib and bons his

ries Mifs

feventh

§. 6. To this fine creature I was married The Auat the end of two years from my firft quaintance with her; that is, after I ftudied phyfic fo long, under the care inftruction of her excellent father; who died wife. a few weeks after the wedding, which was in the beginning of the year 1734, and the 29th of my age. Dying, he left me a handfome fortune, his library, and house; and I imagined I fhould have lived many happy years with his admirable daughter, who obliged me by every endearing means, to be exceffively fond of her. I began to practife upon the old gentleman's death, and had learned fo much in the two years I had studied under him, from his lecturing and my own hard reading, that I was able to get fome money among the opulent round me; not by art and collufion, the cafe of too many doctors in town and country, but by practifing upon confiftent principles. The method of my reading, by Dr. Fitzgib bon's directions, was as follows; and I fet it down here for the benefit of fuch gentlemen, as chufe to ftudy in the private manner I did.

A METHOD of Studying PHYSIC in a private Manner: By which means a Gentleman, with the Purchase of a Diploma, may turn out DOCTOR, as well as if he went to PADUA, to bear MORGANNI,

THE first books I got upon my table, were the lexicons of Caftellus and Quincy; one for the explication of antient terms; and the other of modern. Thefe, as Dictionaries, lay at hand for ufe, when wanted,

I then opened the last edition of Schelhammer's Herman Conringius's Introductio in univerfam artem medicam, fingulafque ejus partes; I fay the last edition, 1726, because that has an excellent preface by Hoffman. This book, which comes down to the beginning of the 17th century, I read with great care; especially Gonthier Christopher Schelbammer's notes, and additions, which have enriched the work very much. (By the way, they were both very great men, and bright ornaments to their profeffion. They writ an amazing number of books on medicine, Conringius died December 1681, aged 75. Schelhammer, in January 1716, in the 67th year of his age.)

The next introductory book to the art, was Lindenius renovatus de fcriptis medicis,