which are made the Conftituents of his Character, for a Man fo mild and gentle to temper his Rage was not difficult. The next Line is unharmonious in its Sound, and mean in its Conception, the Oppofition is obvious, and the Word lafh ufed abfolutely, and without any Modification, is grofs and improper. To be above Temptation in Poverty, and free from Corruption among the Great, is indeed fuch a Feculiarity as deferved Notice. But to be a fafe Companion is Praise merely negative, arising not from the Poffeffion of Virtue, but the Abfence of a Vice, and that one of the most odious. As little can be added to his Character, by afferting that he was lamented in his End. Every Man that dies is at leaft, by the Writer of his Epitaph, supposed to be lamented, and therefore this general Lamentation does no Honour to Gay. The eight firft Lines have no Grammar, the Adjectives are without any Subftantive, and the Epithets without a Subject. The Thought in the laft Line, that Gay is buried in the Bofoms of the Worthy and the Good, who are diftinguished only to lengthen the Line, is fo dark that few understand it; and fo harfh, when it is explained, that ftill fewer approve. XII. Intended for Sir ISAAC NEWTON. In Westminster- ISAACUS NEWTONIUS: Hoc marmor fatetur. Nature, and Nature's Laws, lay hid in Night: Gon faid, Let Newton be! And all was Light.' Of Of this Epitaph, fhort as it is, the Faults feem not to be very few. Why Part fhould be Latin and Part English, it is not eafy to difcover. In the Latin, the Oppofition of Immortalis and Mortalis, is a mere Sound, or a mere Quibble, he is not Immortal in any Senfe contrary to that in which he is Mortal. In the Verfes the Thought is obvious, and the Words Night and Light are too nearly allied. XIII. On EDMUND Duke of Buckingham, who died in the 19th Year of his Age, 1735. If modeft Youth, with cool Reflection crown'd, And ev'ry opening Virtue blooming round, Could fave a Parent's jufteft Pride from Fate, • Or add one Patriot to a finking State; This weeping Marble had not afk'd thy Tear, Or fadly told, how many Hopes lie here! The living Virtue now had fhone approv'd, The Senate heard him, and his. Country lov'd. Yet fofter Honours, and lefs noisy Fame • Attend the Shade of gentle Buckingham: • In whom a Race, for Courage fam'd and Art, Ends in the milder Merit of the Heart; And Chiefs or Sages long to Britain giv'n, Pays the last Tribute of a Saint to Heav'n.' This Epitaph Mr. Warburton prefers to the reft, but I know not for what Reafon. Το Crown with Reflection is furely a Mode of Speech approaching to Nonfenfe. Opening Virtues blooming round, is fomething like Tautology; the fix following Lines are Poor and Profaic.Art is in another Couplet ufed for Arts, that a Rhyme may be had to Heart. The fix laft Lines are the best, but not excellent. The The rest of his fepulchral Performances hardly deferve the Notice of Criticism. The contemptible Dialogue between HE and SHE, fhould have been fuppreffed for the Author's Sake. In his laft Epitaph on himself, in which he attempts to be jocular upon one of the few Things that make wife Men ferious, he confounds the living Man with the Dead: Under this Stone, or under this Sill, • Or under this Turf, &c.' When a Man is once buried, the Queftion, under what he is buried, is easily decided. He forgot that though he wrote the Epitaph in a State of Un certainty, yet it could not be laid over him till his Grave was made. Such is the Folly of Wit when it is ill employed. THE HERMAN BOERHAAV E. HERMAN BOERHAAVE was born on the last Day of December, 1668, about One in the Morning, at Voorhout, a Village two Miles diftant from Leyden. His Father, James Boerhaave, was Minifter of Voorhout, of whom his Son, in a fmall Account of his own Life, has given a very amiable Character, for the Simplicity and Opennefs of his Behaviour, for his exact Frugality, in the Management of a narrow Fortune, and the Prudence, Tenderness, and Diligence with which he educated a numerous Family of nine Children. He was eminently skilled in Hiftory and Genealogy, and well verfed in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew Languages. His Mother was Hagar Daelder, a Tradesman's Daughter of Amfterdam, from whom he might perhaps derive an hereditary Inclination to the Study of Phyfic; in which fhe was very inquifitive, and had obtained a Knowledge of it, not common in female Students. This Knowledge, however, she did not live to communicate to her Son; for fhe died in 1673, ten Years after her Marriage. His Father finding himself incumbered with the Care of feven Children, thought it neceffary to take 5 a fecond a fecond Wife, and in July, 1674, was married to Eve du Bois, Daughter of a Minifter of Leyden, who, by her prudent and impartial Conduct, fo endeared herself to her Hufband's Children, that they all regarded her as their own Mother. Herman Boerhaave was always defigned by his Father for the Miniftry, and with that View inftructed by him in grammatical Learning, and the first Elements of Languages; in which he made such a Proficiency, that he was, at the Age of eleven Years, not only Master of the Rules of Grammar, but capable of tranflating, w th tolerable Accuracy; and not wholly ignorant of critical Niceties. At Intervals, to recreate his Mind, and ftrengthen his Constitution, it was his Father's Cuftom to fend him into the Fields, and employ him in Agriculture, and such Kind of rural Occupations, which he continued through all his Life to love and prac tife; and by this Viciffitude of Study and Exercife, preferved himself, in a great Measure, from thofe Distempers and Depreilions, which are frequently the Confequences of indifcreet Diligence, and uninterrupted Application; and from which Students, not well acquainted with the Conftitution of the human Body, fometimes fly for Relief to Wine, inftead of Exercife, and purchase temporary Ease, at the Hazard of chronical Diftempers. The Studies of young Boerhaave were about this Time interrupted by an Accident, which deferves a particular Mention, as it firft inclined him to that Science, to which he was by Nature fo well adapted, and which he afterwards carried to fo great Perfection. In the twelfth Year of his Age a stubborn painful, and malignant Ulcer hroke out upon his left Thigh, which, for near five Years, defeated all the Art of the Surgeons and Phyûcians, and not only afflicted him with the moft excruciating Pains, but VOL. II. P ex |