SECTION IX.

I am thinking with myself every day, (fays one of the philofophers) how many things are dear to me; and after I have confidered them as temporary and perishable, I prepare myself, from that very minute, to bear the loss of them without weakness.

§. I.

CLEANTHES. (14)

ISE is the man, who prepares The death both for his own death and the of the au death of his friends; who makes ufe of the wife, and

forefight

(14) Cleanthes was a native of Affus in Lyfia, in Afia Minor, and fo very poor, when he came to Athens to ftudy, that, for his fupport, he wrought at nights in drawing water for the gardens, and in grinding behind the mill. He attended the lectures of Zeno, fucceeded him in his fchool, and grew into very high efteem with the Athenians. He lived to 99, but the year he died we know not. His mafter Zeno died 342 years before Christ, and had converfed with Socrates and Plato.

The antient academics were Plato, (the difciple of Socrates), Speucippus, Zenocrates, Polemo, Crates, and Crantor; and from Crates, the fifth academic, fprung the old floics, to wit, Crates, Zeno, Cleanthes, Chryfippus, and Diogenes the Babylonian; not he that was furly and proud. Cicero in his works often mentions this Babylonian, the floic. We find in the Roman hiftory, that he was living in the year of Rome 599, that is, 155 years before Chrift; but when he died we know not. These gen

tlemen

thor's 4th

his behavi our thereupon.

forefight of troubles, fo, as to abate the uneafiness of them, and puts in practice this refolution of the philofopher. I thought of this the morning I married the beautiful and ingenious Mifs Spence, (as related in the latter end of my eighth fection), and determined if I loft her, to make the great affliction produce the peaceable fruits of righteoufnefs. The man muft feel, in fuch a cafe; the chriftian will fubmit. Before the end of fix months, fhe died, and I mourned the lofs with a degree of forrow due to so much excellence, endearment and delight. My complaint was bitter, in proportion to the defires of nature. But as nature fays, let this cup pass: grace fays, let thy will be done. If the flower of all my comfort was gone-the glory departed! yet thy glory is, O man, to do the will of God, and bear the burthen

tlemen of the two old fchools were to be fure great philofophers, excellent men but then, to be ftrictly impartial, we must own, that all they knew in relation to the will of God, and a kingdom to come, was but poor moral learning, in refpect to what is written in the New Teftament for our inftruction, if we will lay afide our fancies and fyftems, and let reafon explain revelation. The Chriftian religion is really more for the glory of God, and the good of mankind, than reafon, without infpiration, has been able to teach. Chriftianity, without the additions and fupplements of monks, is not only above all juft exception, but preferable to any other scheme.

he

he lays upon thee. Let nature, grace, and time, do their part, to close the wound, and let not ignorance impeach the wisdom of the moft high. The cup which my father hath given me fhall I not drink? I will. I will not quarrel with providence. In fhort, I refigned, and not long after I had buried this admirable woman, (who died at her feat in Westmoreland,) I went into the world again, to relieve my mind, and try my fortune once more. What happened there, I will report, when I have related the extraordinary cafe of my wife, Mifs Spence, and the four phyficians I had to attend her. It is a very curious thing.

fever, and

of four

tended her.

§. 2. This young lady was feized with that The cafe of fatal distemper, called a malignant fever: a lady in a Something foreign to nature got into her blood, an account by a cold, and other accidents, it may be, phyficians and the luctus or ftrife to get clear thereof who atbecame very great. The effervefcence or perturbation was very foon fo violent as to fhew, that it not only endangered, but would quickly fubvert the animal fabrick, unless the blood was fpeedily difperfed, and nature got the victory by an exclufion of the noxious fhutin particles. The thirft, the dry tongue, the coming caufus, were terrible, and gave me too much reafon to apprehend this charming

woman

woman would fink under the conflict. To fave her, if poffible, I fent immediately for a great physician, Dr. Sharp, a man who talked with great fluency of medicine and diseases.

This gentleman told me, the Alkaline was the root of fevers, as well as of other diftempers, and therefore, to take off the effervefcence of the blood in the ebullitions of it, to incide the viscous humour, to drain the tartarous falts from the kidnies, to allay the preternatural ferment, and to brace up the relaxed tones, he ordered orange and vinegar in whey, and prescribed spirit of fulphur, and vitriol, the cream, chryftals, and vitriolate tartar in other vehicles. If any thing can relieve, it must be plenty of acid. In acidis pofita eft omnis curatio. But these things gave no relief to the sufferer.

Our

I fent then in all hafte for Dr. Hough, a man of great reputation, and he differed fo much in opinion from Sharp, that he called an acid the chief enemy. It keeps up the luctus or ftruggle, and if not expelled very quickly, will certainly prove fatal. fheet anchor then must be the teftacea, in vehicles of mineral water, and accordingly he ordered the abforbent powders to conflict with this acidity, the principal cause of all difeafes. Pearl and coral, crab's eyes, and crab's claws, he prefcribed in diverfe forms;

but

but they were of no use to the fick woman. She became worfe every hour.

Dr. Pym was next called in, a great practitioner, and learned man. His notion of a fever was quite different from the opinions of Sharp and Hough. He maintained that a fever was a poifonous ferment or venom, which feized on the animal fpirits: it breaks and smites them; and unless by alexipharmics the fpirits can be enabled to gain a victory in a day or two, this ferment will bring on what the Greeks call a fynochus, that is, a continual fever. In that ftate, the venom holds fast the animal spirits, will not let them expand, or difengage themfelves, and then they grow enraged, and tumultuating, are hurried into a state of explofion, and blow up the fabric. Hence the inflammatory fever, according to the diverse indoles of the venom; and when the contagious miafms arrive at their highest degree, the malignant fever arifeth. The fpirits are then knocked down, and the marks of the enemies weapons, the spots, &c. appear. This (the Doctor continued) is the cafe of your lady, and therefore the thing to be done is, to make the malignant tack about to the mild, and produce an extinction of the ferment, and relief of the symptoms. This I endeavour to do by alexipharmics and veficatories, and by fubduing the poifon by the bark and the warmer antidotes. Thus did my Doctor mar