Page images
PDF
EPUB

He could, with uncommon readinefs and certainty, make a conjecture of mens inclinations and capacity by their aspect.

His method of life was, to ftudy in the morning and evening, and to allot the middle of the day to his publick business. His ufual exercife was riding, till, in his latter years, his diftempers made it more proper for him to walk; when he was weary, he amused himself with playing on the violin.

His greatest pleasure was to retire to his houfe in the country, where he had a garden ftored with all the herbs and trees which the climate would bear; here he used to enjoy his hours unmolefted, and profecute his ftudies without interruption.

The diligence with which he purfued his ftudies, is fufficiently evident from his fuccefs. Statefmen and generals may grow great by unexpected accidents, and a fortunate concurrence of circumftances, neither procured nor forefeen by themfelves: but reputation in the learned world muft be the effect of industry and capacity. Boerhaave loft none of his hours, but, when he had attained one fcience, attempted another: he added phyfick to divinity, chemistry to the mathematicks, and anatomy to botany. He examined fyftems by experiments, and formed experiments into fyftems. He neither neglected the obfervations of others, nor blindly fubmitted to celebrated names. He neither thought fo highly of himfelf as to imagine he could receive no light from books, nor fo meanly as to believe he could difcover nothing but what was to be Jearned from them. He examined the obfervations of other men, but trusted only to his own.

VOL. IV.

A a

Nor

Nor was he unacquainted with the art of recom mending truth by elegance, and embellishing the philofopher with polite literature; he knew that but a final part of mankind will facrifice their pleasure to their improvement, and thofe authors, who would find many readers, muft endeavour to please while they instruct.

He knew the importance of his own writings to mankind, and left he might by a roughness and barbarity of ftyle, too frequent among men of great learning, difappoint his own intentions, and make his labours lefs useful, he did not neglect the politer arts of eloquence and poetry. Thus was his learning at once various and exact, profound and agreeable.

But his knowledge, however uncommon, holds, in his character, but the fecond place; his virtue was yet much more uncommon than his learning. He was an admirable example of temperance, fortitude, humility, and devotion. His piety, and a religious fenfe of his dependance on God, was the bafis of all his virtues, and the principle of his whole conduct. He was too fenfible of his weakness to afcribe any thing to himself, or to conceive that he could fubdue paffion, or withftand temptation, by his own natural power; he attributed every good thought, and every laudable action, to the Father of good nefs. Being once afked by a friend, who had often admired his patience under great provocations, whether he knew what it was to be angry, and by what means he had fo entirely fuppreffed that impetuous and ungovernable paffion? he anfwered, with the utmoft franknefs and fincerity, that he was naturally quick of refentment, but that he had,

by

by daily prayer and meditation, at length attained to this mastery over himself.

As foon as he rofe in the morning, it was, throughout his whole life, his daily practice to retire for an hour to private prayer and meditation; this, he often told his friends, gave him spirit and vigour in the bufinefs of the day, and this he therefore commended as the best rule of life; for nothing, he knew, could fupport the foul in all diftreffes but a confidence in the Supreme Being, nor can a steady and rational magnanimity flow from any other fource than a confcioufnefs of the divine favour.

He afferted on all occafions the divine authority, and facred efficacy of the holy fcriptures; and maintained that they alone taught the way of falvation, and that they only could give peace of mind. The excellency of the Chriftian religion was the frequent fubject of his converfation. A ftrict obedience to the doctrine, and a diligent imitation of the example of our Bleffed Saviour, he often declared to be the foundation of true tranquillity. He recommended to his friends a careful obfervation of the precept of Mofes concerning the love of God and man. He worshiped God as he is in himself, without attempting to enquire into his nature. He defired only to think of God, what God knows of himself. There he stopped, left, by indulging his own ideas, he fhould form a Deity from his own imagination, and fin by falling down before him. To the will of God he paid an abfolute submiffion, without endeavouring to difcover the reafon of his determinations; and this he accounted the first and most inviolable duty of a Chriftian. When he

[blocks in formation]

heard of a criminal condemned to die, he used to think, who can tell whether this man is not better than I or, if I am better, it is not to be aferibed to my felf, but to the goodness of God.

Such were the fentiments of Boerhaave, whofe words we have added in the note *. So far was this man from being made impious by philofophy, or vain by knowledge, or by virtue, that he afcribed all his abilities to the bounty, and all his goodnefs to the grace of God. May his example extend its influence to his admirers and followers! May thofe who ftudy his writings imitate his life! and thofe who endeavour after his knowledge afpire likewife to his piety!

He married, September 17, 1710, Mary Drolen veaux, the only daughter of a burgo-mafter of Leyden, by whom he had Joanna Maria, who furvives her fa ther, and three other children who died in their infancy.

The works of this great writer are fo generally known, and fo highly esteemed, that, though it may

*Doctrinam facris literis Hebraicè & Græcè traditam, folam animæ falutarem & agnovit & fenfit. Omni opportunitate profitebatur difciplinam, quam Jefus Chriftus ore & vita expreflit, unicè tran quilitatem dare menti. Semperque dixit amicis, pacem animi haud reperiundam nili in magno Mofis præcepto de fincero amore Dei & hominis bene obfervato. Neque extra facra monumenta ufpiam inveniri, quod mentem fercnet. Deum pius adoravit, qui ett. In telligere de Deo unicè volebat id, quod Deus de fe intelligit. Eo contenus ultra nihil requifivit, ne idololatria erraret. In voluntate Dei fic requiefcebat, ut illius nullam omnino rationem indagandam putaret. Hanc unicè fupremam omnium legem effe contendebat; deliberata conftantia perteétiffime colendam. De aliis & feipfo fen tiebat: ut quoties criminis reos ad poenas letales damnatos audiret, femper cogitaret, fæpe diceret; Quis dixerat annon me fint "meliores? Ungo iple melior, id non mihi auctori tribuendută "cile palam aio, confiteor; fed ita largienti Deo." Orig. Edit.

61

not

not be improper to enumerate them in the order of time in which they were published, it is wholly unneceffary to give any other account of them.

He published in 1707, "Inftitutiones Medicæ," to which he added in 1708 "Aphorifmi de cognofcendis " & curandis morbis."

1710, "Index ftirpium in horto academico."

1719, "De materia medica, & remediorum for"mulis liber;" and in 1727 a fecond edition.'

1720,"Alter index ftirpium," &c. adorned with plates, and containing twice the number of plants as the former.

1722, "Epiftola ad cl. Ruifchium, quâ fententiam Malpighianam de glandulis defendit.”

1724, "Atrocis nec prius defcripti morbi hiftoria

"illuftriffimi baronis Waffenariæ."

1725, Opera anatomica & chirurgica Andreæ "Vefalii," with the life of Vefalius.

1728, Altera atrocis rariffimique morbi mar"chionis de Sancto Albano hiftoria."

"Auctores de lue Aphrodifiaca, cum tractatu "præfixo.”

1731, "Aretaei Cappadocis nova editio."

[blocks in formation]

1734, "Obfervata de argento vivo, ad reg. foc. &

"acad. fcient."

These are the writings of the great Boerhaave, which have made all encomiums useless and vain, fince no man can attentively peruse them without admiring the abilities, and reverencing the virtue of the

author

* Gent. Mag. 1739, p. 176.

A a 3

BLAKE.

« PreviousContinue »