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It would be an injury to the memory of Boerhaave not to mention what was related by himself to one of his friends, that when he lay whole days and nights without fleep, he found no method of diverting his thoughts fo effectual as meditation upon his ftudies, and that he often relieved and mitigated the sense of his torments by the recollection of what he had read, and by reviewing those stores of knowledge which he had repofited in his memory.

This is perhaps an instance of fortitude and steady compofure of mind, which would have been for ever the boaft of the Stoick schools, and increased the reputation of Seneca or Cato. The patience of Boerhaave, as it was more rational, was more lafting than theirs; it was that patientia Chriftiana which Lipfius, the great master of the Stoical Philofophy, begged of God in his laft hours; it was founded on religion, not vanity, not on vain reasonings, but on confidence in God.

In 1727 he was feized with a violent burning fever, which continued fo long that he was once more given up by his friends.

From this time he was frequently afflicted with returns of his diftemper, which yet did not fo far fubdue him, as to make him lay afide his studies or his lectures, till in 1726 he found himself fo worn out, that it was improper for him to continue any longer the profefforfhips of botany and chemistry, which he therefore refigned April 28, and upon his refignation spoke a "Sermo Academicus," or oration, in which ho afferts the power and wisdom of the Creator from the wonderful fabric of the human body; and confutes all

thofe

thofe idle reafoners, who pretend to explain the formaẹ tion of parts, or the animal operations, to which he proves that Art can produce nothing equal, nor any thing parallel. One inftance I fhall mention, which is produced by him, of the vanity of any attempt to rival the work of God. Nothing is more boafted by the admirers of chemistry, than that they can, by artificial heats and digeftion, imitate the productions of Nature. "Let all thefe heroes of fcience meet together," fays Boerhaave; " let them take bread and wine, the food that forms the blood of man, and by afsimilation contributes to the growth of the body: let them try all their arts, they fhall not be able from thefe materials to produce a fingle drop of blood. So much is the most common act of Nature beyond the utmost efforts of the most extended Science !"

From this time Boerhaave lived with lefs publick employment indeed, but not an idle or an ufelefs life; for, befides his hours spent in inftructing his scholars, a great part of his time was taken up by patients which came, when the diftemper would admit it, from all parts of Europe to confult him, or by letters which, in more urgent cafes, were continually fent, to enquire his opinion, and afk his advice,

Of his fagacity, and the wonderful penetration with which he often difcovered and defcribed, at the first fight of a patient, fuch diftempers as betray themfelves by no fymptoms to common eyes, fuch wonderful relations have been fpread over the world, as, though attefted beyond doubt, can fcarcely be credited. I mention none of them, because I have no opportunity of collecting teftimonies, or diftinguishing between

thofe

thofe accounts which are well proved, and those which owe their rise to fiction and credulity.

Yet I cannot but implore, with the greatest carnestness, such as have been converfant with this great man, that they will not fo far neglect the common interest of mankind, as to fuffer any of these circumftances to be loft to pofterity. Men are generally idle, and ready to fatisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impoffible which is only difficult. The fkill to which Boerhaave attained, by a long and unwearied obfervation of nature, ought therefore to be tranfmitted in all its particulars to future ages, that his fucceffors may be ashamed to fall below him, and that none may hereafter excufe his ignorance by pleading the impoffibility of clearer knowledge.

Yet fo far was this great mafter from prefumptuous confidence in his abilities, that, in his examinations of the fick, he was remarkably circumftantial and particular. He well knew that the originals of distempers are often at a distance from their vifible effects; that to conjecture, where certainty may be obtained, is either vanity or negligence; and that life is not to be facrificed, either to an affectation of quick difcernment, or of crowded practice, but may be required, if trifled away, at the hand of the phyfician.

About the middle of the year 1737, he felt the first approaches of that fatal illness that brought him to the grave, of which we have inserted an account, write ten by himself Sept. 8, 1738, to a friend at London *; which

"tas, labor, corporifque opima pinguetudo, effecerant, ante annum, ut inertibus refertum, grave, hebes, plenitudine turgens

corpus,

which deferves not only to be preferved as an hiftorical relation of the difeafe which deprived us of fo great a man, but as a proof of his piety and refignation to the divine will.

In this laft illnefs, which was to the laft degree lingering, painful, and afflictive, his conftancy and firmnefs did not forfake him. He neither intermitted the neceffary cares of life, nor forgot the proper preparations for death. Though dejection and lowness of fpirit was, as he himself tells us, part of his diftemper, yet even this, in fome measure, gave way to that vigour which the foul receives from a consciousness of inno

cence.

About three weeks before his death he received a vifit at his country houfe from the rev. Mr. Schultens, his intimate friend, who found him fitting withoutdoor, with his wife, fifter, and daughter: after the compliments of form, the ladies withdrew, and left them to private converfation; when Boerhaave took occafion to tell him what had been, during his illness, the chief fubject of his thoughts. He had never

corpus, anhelum ad motus minimos, cum fenfu fuffocationis, pulfu mirificè anomalo, ineptum evaderet ad ullum motum. Urgebat præcipuè fubfiftens prorfus & intercepta refpiratio ad prima fomni initia: unde fomnus prorfus prohibebatur, cum formidabili ftrangulationis moleftia. Hinc hydrops pedum, crurum, femorum, fcroti, præputii, & abdominis. Quæ tamen omnia fublata. Sed dolor manet in abdomine, cum anxietate fumma, anhelitu fuffocante, & debilitate incredibili: fomno pauco, eoque vago, per fomnia turbatiffimo: animus vero rebus agendis impar. Cum his luctor feffus nec emergo: patienter expectans Dei jussa, quibus refigno data, quæ fola amo, & honoro unicè." Orig. Edit,

doubted

doubted of the spiritual and immaterial nature of the foul; but declared that he had lately had a kind of experimental certainty of the distinction between corporeal and thinking fubftances, which mere reafon and philofophy cannot afford, and opportunities of contemplating the wonderful and inexplicable union of foul and body, which nothing but long fickness can give. This he illuftrated by a defcription of the effects which the infirmities of his body had upon his faculties, which yet they did not fo opprefs or vanquish, but his foul was always master of itself, and always refigned to the pleasure of its Maker.

He related with great concern, that once his patience fo far gave way to extremity of pain, that, after having lain fifteen hours in exquifite tortures, he prayed to God that he might be fet free by death.

Mr. Schultens, by way of confolation, anfwered, that he thought fuch wifhes, when forced by continued and exceffive torments, unavoidable in the prefent state of human nature; that the beft men, even Job himself, were not able to refrain from fuch starts of impatience. This he did not deny; but faid, "He that loves God, ought to think nothing defirable but what is moft pleafing to the fupreme goodnefs."

Such were his fentiments, and fuch his conduct, in this state of weaknefs and pain: as death approached nearer, he was fo far from terror or confufion, that he feemed even lefs fenfible of pain, and more chearful under his torments, which continued till the 23d day of September 1738, on which he died, between four and five in the morning, in the 70th year of his age.

Thus

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