any one, who ftudies him in his genuine works, will eafily know to be unworthy of him. ་ And now, when these disadvantages which have been mentioned are confidered, fince they are no more than what sensible people will eafily make allowance for, 'tis prefumed there may be in the world fome perfons, who will notwithstanding think these sermons to be of worth, and may perhaps difcover in them fome peculiar beauties, fuch as are not to be despised for want of that ornament which might have accompanied them. I know that there are now growing up in the world too many, who are prejudiced against all pulpit-discourses; and who, in this prophane age, are led to think not only the inftitution of A preaching, but even the gospel itself, and our holy religion to be a fraud. But, notwithstanding all the prejudice of this kind, 'tis to be hoped that even some of these perfons, if they have any candour left, may be induced to applaud fome things that they may meet with here: fo as from hence, perhaps, to like Chrif tianity the better, This we may with aflurance fay, that were there befides ours any religion, ancient or modern, that had to divine a man as this to fhew, these very men would admire and reverence him; and though a priest of that religion, and bound to comply with established superstition, would praise his virtue; and, perhaps, be the forwardeft to extol his fentences and works, in oppofition to our facred religion. But this is hard, that even heathen religion and paganism can be more mildly treated, and cause less averfion than Christianity. To fuch men as thefe I can fay nothing further. But if they who are thus fet against Christianity, cannot be won over by any thing that they may find here; yet we may affure ourselves at least of this good effect from hence, that the excellent fpirit which is fhewn here, and that vein of goodnefs and humanity which appears throughout these difcourfes, will make fuch as are already Christians, to prize and value Chriftianity the more! and the fairness, ingenuity and impartiality which they may learn from hence, will be a fecurity to them against the contrary temper of those other irreconcileable enemies to our holy faith." N. B. This is the Dictionary of Lives, now republishing in monthly volumes. S. Biographia Britannica: Or, the Lives of the most eminent Perfons who have flourished in Great Britain and Ireland, from the earliest Ages, down to the prefent Times; collected from the beft Authorities, both printed and manufcript, and digefted in the Manner of Mr. Bayle's Hiftorical and Critical Dictionary, Vol. VI. Part I. Folio. 20s. in Sheets. Ofborne, Davis, &c. A T length this elaborate, useful, and entertaining Compilement draws toward a conclufion; the remainder of the prefent 1 prefent. Volume, which is to finish the work, being, as we are informed by the advertisements, in great forwardness. Having twice had occafion to mention the progrefs of this undertaking, and even to lay before our Readers fome specimens. of the manner wherein it is executed, we have little to add concerning that part of it now published; which brings on the alphabet as far as the letter U, concluding with the life of the learned archbishop Ufher. Of entire new lives, not before inferted in the well-known General Dictionary, in ten volumes folio, we have obferved a confiderable number, in this new volume of the Biographia, or part of a volume, as the proprietors chufe to entitle it. Among the rest we have that of Sir Hans Sloane †, an abstract of which may be very acceptable to fuch of our Readers as are not purchasers of the Biographia itself. This preat phyfician, we find, though born in Ireland, was of Scottish extraction. His father, Alexander Sloane, was at the head of that colony of Scots, which K. James I. fettled in the North of Ireland, at Killileagh, in the county of Down, where Sir Hans was born, April 16, 1660. He difcovered a ftrong inclination for the ftudy of natural hiftory, 'even in his infancy; which being encouraged by a fuitable education, he applied thofe hours, which youth is apt to fquander in trifling amufements, to the ftudy of nature and the admiration of her works. At the age of fixteen, he was feized with a spitting of blood, which interrupted the regular courfe of his studies, and confined him to his chamber for three years. He had already learned enough of phyfic, to know that such a malady was not to be fuddenly cured; and his prudence directed him to abstain from wine and other liquors that were likely to increase the diforder. By this regimen, which he obferved, in fome meaiure, ever after, he was enabled to prolong his life beyond the ordinary bounds prescribed for the age of man; being himself example of the truth of his favourite maxim, that fobriety, temperance, and moderation are the best prefervatives that nature has vouchsafed to mankind. He had hardly recovered this firft attack, when his defire of perfecting himself in the several branches of phyfic, which he had chofen for his profeffion, led him to London, where he might receive thofe helps that he could not hope to obtain in his own country. With this view, presently after his arrival in that metropolis, he entered himfelf as a pupil to the great Stafforth, an excellent chemift, bred * See Review, vol. XVII. p. 577, and vol. XXIII. p. 160. an + Among others, however, the life of Lord Somers, in particular, is newly drawn up, and executed with great judgment. It is an excellent piece. 2 under under the illuftrious Stahl; and, by his inftructions, he gained a perfect knowlege of the compofition and preparation of the different medicines of that kind, which he was to make ufe of in the course of his future practice. At the fame time, he ftudied Botany at the famous Garden at Chelfea, then newly prepared for this ufe by the company of apothecaries. He likewife affiduously attended the public lectures of anatomy and phyfic; and, in fhort, neglected nothing which had the leaft relation to his profeffion. But his moft diftinguished merit was that of a naturalift; it was this part of his character that introduced him early into the acquaintance of the moft eminent perfons, in that way, of the age, Mr. Boyle and Mr. Raye, whofe friendship he was very careful to improve, by communicating to them every ftrikng object of curiofity or ufe that fell under his obfervation; and his intimacy with these two great men continued till their death. After four years ftudy at London, Mr. Sloane refolved to vifit foreign countries for farther improvement. In that view he fet out for France, in company of two other ftudents, one of whom was Mr. (afterward Sir) Tancred Robinson, physician in ordinary to King George I. In their way to Paris, they were elegantly entertained by the famous Mr. Lemery, the father; and, in return, Mr. Sloane obliged that eminent chemist with a specimen of four different kinds of Phofphorus, of which, upon the credit of other writers, Mr. Lemery had treated in his book, but had never feen any of them before. At Paris Mr. Sloane lived as he had done in London; he attended the hospitals, heard the lectures of Meffrs. Tournefort, Duverny, and other eminent mafters; vifited the Learned of every faculty; and employed himself wholly in improving his ftudies. From Paris he went to Montpelier; and having letters of recommendation from Mr. Tournefort to Mr. Chirac, then Chancellor and Profeffor of that Univerfity, he found an easy accefs, through his means, to all the learned men of the pro "At a meeting of the Royal Society, May 6. 1685, Mr. Sloane, then a member of that society, obferved to them, that all the cerebrum, and not the cerebellum, of a dog had been cut out at Montpelier, by Mr. Chirac, and the cranium filled with earth; and the dog had lived twenty-four hours; but another dog, by cutting out the cerebellum, died .prefently." We give this as a fpecimen of the nature and importance of the fide-nates, with which our Biographers have illuftrated this life of Sir Hans. In the larger notes, at the bottom of the page, they have abstracts of the lives of the most confiderable perfons occafionally mentioned in the article; as of Lemery, Tournefort, Du Verny, &c. which We have not thought it neceffary to tranfcribe. vince, vince, particularly to Mr. Magnol, whom he always accompanied in his botanical excurfions about the neighbourhood of that famous city, where he beheld, with pleasure and admiration, the fpontaneous productions of nature in that happy climate; and under the inftructions of Mr. Magnol, he learned to clafs them in their proper order. Here, having found an ample field for contemplation, entirely fuited to his taste, he spent a whole year in collecting plants; at the end of which he travelled through Languedoc, with the fame view, and paffing through Thoulouse and Bourdeaux, returned to Paris, where he made a fhort stay, and fet out for England, in the latter end of the year 1684, with intent to fettle, and follow his pro feffion. On his return to England, he made it his firft business to' vifit his friends, Mr. Boyle and Mr. Ray, in order to commu nicate to them the difcoveries he had made in his travels. To' the latter, who was then retired into Effex, he tranfmitted a great variety of feeds and plants, which Mr. Ray has defcribed in his Hiftoria Plantarum, with proper acknowledgments t. About this time, Dr. Sloane (who is fuppofed to have been created M. D. at Montpelier, became acquainted with the celebrated Dr. Sydenham; who foon contracted fo warm a friendship for him, that he took him into his houfe, and earnefily recommended him to his patients. He had not been long in London, before he was propofed, by Dr. Martin Lifter, for a candidate, to be admitted a member of the Royal Society; and he was accordingly elected in November 1684; after which we find him communicating feveral curiofities to the Society in 1685, In July the fame year, he was a candidate for the place of their Affiftant-Secretary; but was obliged to give way to the fuperior intereft of Dr. Halley. In April 1687 1, he was chofen Fellow of the College of Phyficians in London. In + The correfpondence between Sloane and Ray continued till the death of the latter; who, but ten days before he died, wrote to him in the following affecting terms: "Dear Sir, the best of friends, There are to take a final leave of you in this world. I look upon myfelf as a dying man. God requite your kindnefs expreffed any ways towards me an hundred fold: blefs you with a confluence of all good things in this world, and eternal life and happiness hereafter: grant us an happy meeting in heaven. Black-Notley, Jan. 7, 1704. I am, Sir, This election happened on a very extraordinary occafion. At a meeting of the Society, in October 1685, the Prefident, Sir Thomas REV. Jan. 1763. Ε Withorley, In September 1687, the Doctor embarked with Chriftopher, Duke of Albemarle, for Jamaica, of which ifland the Duke was appointed Governor; and the Doctor attended him in quality of his Grace's phyfician: they arrived * at Jamaica on the 19th of December following. Here a new field was opened for fresh difcoveries in natural productions, the profpect of which might be one motive for his undertaking the voyage. The medical world, however, had been deprived of the fruits of it, had not our Author, by incredible application, converted, as we may fay †, his minutes into hours. The Duke died almoft as foon as he landed, and the Duchefs, his confort, determined to return to England, as foont as anfwers could be received to the letters fhe fent to court on that melancholy occafion. Dr. Sloane could not entertain a thought of leaving her Grace in her diftrefs; but whilst the reft of her retinue fpent the time in preparing for their departure, he improved it in making his collections of natural curiofities; infomuch that, though his whole ftay in Jamaica was fcarce fifteen months, yet he brought together fuch a prodigious number of plants at his return to England, that Mr. Ray was aftonifhed, that one man could' procure in one island, in fo fhort a fpace, fo vaft a variety. Witherley, one of the King's phyficians, acquainted them, that a quo warranto was to come forth against their charter, in the next term. Оп this it was voted, nem. con. that the College fhould themselves deliver up their Charter, &c. into his Majefty's hands.-In March following, the Prefident acquainted the College, that it was the pleasure of their Superior, that the number of the fellows of the College fhould be fixty or eighty, inftead of forty. In April 1687, the diploma of King James II. was brought to the College, and folemnly accepted by the Prefident and Fellows; and thirty rew Fellows were that day admitted, among whom were Dr. Sloane and Dr. John Radcliffe.-Our Authors have added to this note a circumftance which, though fomewhat foreign to the fubject, we fhall likewife infert, as it ferves to evince the regard which Sloane afterwards had for Radcliffe; of whofe merit he took an opportunity to testify his good opinion, in his introduction to the fecond volume of his Natural hiftory of Jamaica. In order to express more emphatically his contempt of fuch perfons as fpend the best part of their time in niceties of language, and verbal criticifms, he obferves, that one of this turn would needs perfuade him, that Dr. Radcliffe could not, cure a difeafe, becaufe he had feen a Recipe of his, where the word "Pilula was ipelt with ' * In their paffage they called at Madeira, where the Doctor was conulted; and, among others, prefcribed for one of the nuns in the abbey of St. Clara, who had a final tumour on the os fuis. He alfo collected fome curious plants here. + Eloge de Sloan, in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, for 1713 Од 5 1 |