look. There is alfo a certain enlargement of mind, which is loft in the narrow habits and confined views of those who take an active part in a lucrative profeffion. He who furveys life in an extenfive profpect, may fee a variety of magnificent objects which efcape the eye, which is conftantly fixed on a few fingle circumftances, and confined within a narrow circle. It is the business of the moralist to inspect every part of human life, to endeavour to correct its errors, and promote all the excellence and happiness of which it is capable.

It has been justly remarked, that they who enter on the profeffion of medicine, in any of its branches, have commonly depended for fuccefs, rather on the cultivation of the graces than the fciences. And it is certain, that many perfons whofe folid attainments were very moderate, have run away with the greatest share of wealth and popularity, with few other recommendations, than a fine perfon, a fhewy dress, a fingular equipage, and an undaunted effrontery.

But fince internal fatisfaction, a consciousness of having done all that was poffible to prepare for a profeffion, and of having pretended to no more than we are able to perform, is a furer fource of happinefs than the applaufe, and even the guineas of the ignorant multitude; I advife every pupil, who values fubftantial happinefs more than the phantom of it, to devote the first period of his life to a very ferious purfuit of every part of knowledge which contributes to give him, not only a practical, but a theoretical skill in his profeffion; not only the contracted ideas of a mercenary practitioner, but the comprehenfive fentiments of a student in philofophy.

The foundation fhould be laid in an education truly liberal. It is really lamentable to obferve the extreme ignorance of thofe among medical practitioners, who are applied to in the firft inftance, and who conftitute the most numerous clafs. They are taken from a writing fchool, or perhaps a grammar-fchool, at the age of fourteen, and bound apprentices. They have ufually acquired a good hand-writing; but their knowledge of the claffics is feldom worth mentioning; and, upon the whole, their education may be faid to be about equal

to that of a pauper in a parith charity school. Their bufinefs is to stand behind the counter, and compound medicines by the prefcriptions of the doctor. These are ufually in Latin, written very badly, and full of affected abbreviations. They are, indeed, often fo ænigmatical, that nothing less than the fagacity of an Oedipus can refolve their difficulties. The poor lad, if he has time, will toil at his dictionary, where, however, he often toils in vain; but if he has not time, which is ufually the cafe, he takes the most expeditious method of doing bufinefs. He is afhamed to confefs his ignorance, and therefore puts up any medicine which his conjecture fuggefts; the phial is wrapt up, difpatched with all expedition, and the patient poifoned.

After having spent feven years in a fhop pounding drugs and spreading plafters; and after having acquired a little paltry portion of mechanical knowledge by conftant habit, he is difmiffed as complete; and goes into the country a bold profeffor of chirurgery and pharmacy. With a fmart drefs, an unblufhing countenance, and a voluble tongue, he is fure of fuccefs, and bids defiance to all the learning in the world. In his own opinion he is another Hippocrates or Heberden; and, indeed, he is an object of real wonder to the country people; for he collects a few hard words from bis dictionary, which he utters with great gravity among goffips and farmers, who confider him as a very learned man, as well as prodigioufly clever in his profeffion. Thofe who could bear witness against his skill, are all fecured and filenced, in the church-yard.

I affert, that a knowledge of Greek as well as Latin is really neceffary to the apothecary, if he would perform his bufinefs with that accuracy which is certainly required in fo important an employment. A boy, deftined to this employment, fhould by no means leave his fchool till the age of fixteen or feventeen. The knowledge of the learned languages, acquired before that time, is merely elementary; it is only of ufe as it leads to farther improvement in the languages. It cannot qualify for any profeffion, much lefs for the apothecaries, the names of whofe inftruments, medi

cines, and operations, are, for the most part, either wholly Greek, or of Greek extraction.

But, indeed, if he wishes to raise his profeffion above the level of an empiric, or a farrier, he thould acquire a liberal education for its own fake, independently of its use in a mercenary view; for the fake of polishing his mind, and elevating his fentiments. With a liberal education and an extenfive practice, he is in fact a phyfician, though called an apothecary; and though he should neither have purchased a diploma, nor have earned a regular degree by fpending his time, money, and health, in an English univerfity, he is a gentleman; and the peculiar utility of his employments, when judicioufly and humanely conducted, entitle him to the company and converfation of all who deferve that diftinction.

There never was an age in which they who intend to fupport the dignified character of graduated phyficians, had better opportunities for improvement in phyfiology. Lectures, as well as books, in anatomy, chemistry, and every part of science and natural philofophy, never more abounded. Let the ftudent devote himfelf to these with long and ferious application, and depend more upon them, than on the caprice of fashion, or any fingularity in his chariot and livery. A popular phyfician in a great capital, and indeed any where, is a very important member of fociety, confidered merely in a political view. The lives, limbs, health, and fpirits, of a very great part of the fubjects of a kingdom, depend upon his skill and honesty. A man who undertakes this office, and recommends himself by addrefs and artifice, without qualifying himself with every preparatory knowledge, and who abuses the confidence of thofe who fly to him as to a guardian angel, in the deepeft diftress, has very little claim to the title of an honeft man; and deferves to be ftigmatized and punished with the worst of villains, and the vileft of sharpers.

It has been obferved, and regretted, that fome individuals in this liberal profeffion have exhibited fuch an attention to intereft, as is incompatible with the common feelings of humanity. Such perfons are their own enemies; for no gratifications of fordid avarice can equal the delicious fenfations of him, who delights in exercifing

exercifing his kill, in diffufing joy through the haunts of mifery, and in relieving the fick, the maimed, the halt, and the blind.

There is, indeed, fomething godlike in the medical profeffion, when it is humanely and difinterestedly exercifed. Every one, it is true, ought to pay that regard to intereft, which prudence, and a love of his own family demand; but he who alfo delights in relieving, from the fatisfactions of fympathy and a fenfe of duty, may be faid to resemble the great model of every perfection, Jefus Chrift, who went about doing good, and healing all manner of sickness and diseases among the people.

No. CVIII.

THE COMPLAINTS AGAINST MODERN LITERATURE PROBABLY ILLFOUNDED.

O complain of the prefent, and to praise the past, has fo long been the favourite topic of difappointment, or of ignorance, that every ftricture on the degeneracy of the times is looked upon as the effusion of ill-nature, or the refult of fuperficial obfervation: but the abfurdity of declamatory invective, ought not to preclude the cool remarks of truth, reason, and experience.

The practice of vice, or virtue, has indeed varied at different periods, rather in the mode, than in the degree; but the ftate of literature has fuffered more violent revolutions; it has fometimes fhone with the brighteft luftre, and at others has been totally overshadowed with the darkness of barbarifm.

To review the ftate of learning from the earliest pe-riods, and to inveftigate the caufes of its fluctuation, is a tafk that requires much labour, fagacity, and erudition. More fuperficial enquiries will, however, fuffice to examine the juftice of the charge of literary degeneracy in the prefent age, and, if it be well founded, to difcover the caufes of it.

It has been obferved by an ingenious writer, that as every age has been marked by fome peculiarity, from

which it has derived its characteristic appellation; fo the prefent, were it to be diftinguifhed by a name from its moft prevalent humour, might be called, the age of authors. Of late years, almoft every man has felt an ambition of appearing in print, from the voluminous lexicographer, down to the fcribbler, in a pamphlet or a newspaper. It is, indeed, natural to fuppofe, that of a a great number of competitors, fome would reach the prize; and that the univerfal combination of intellects would effect fome ftupendous work, which fhould exceed all the productions of our predeceffors, and demand the admiration of the latest pofterity. It has, however, been obferved, that the learning of the prefent age is not deep, though diffufive; and that its productions are not excellent, though numerous.

The multiplicity of compofitions is an argument of their hafty production; and hastiness is, at least, a prefumptive proof of their want of merit. In this point, the literary and the natural world resemble each other. The productions of nature, whether vegetable or animal, as they are either of a flow or speedy growth, are known to be durable or tranfitory, folid or unfubftantial. The oak and the elephant are long before they attain perfection, but are ftill longer before they decay; while the butterfly and the floweret perifh as they arife, almoft within a diurnal revolution of the fun. The works of Virgil coft him much time and labour; but they have exifted near two thousand years univerfally admired, while the compofitions of that poet, who boafted he could write two or three hundred verfes while he stood on one leg, were lost in a space almost as thort as that in which they were produced.

But the hafty formation of literary works in modern times, is not a greater obftacle to their excellence, than the mercenary motives of their authors. The office of inftructing mankind in morality, and of informing them in fcience, was once referved for those alone who were particularly adapted to the task by the impulfes of genius, by peculiar opportunities, and by fingular application. In thefe times, however, the profeffion of an author is become a lucrative employment, and is practifed rather by those who feel the inconvenience of

hunger,