A LETTER TO
T
P
,
Esq
FROM The AUTHOR of
SIRIS.
A LETTER TO
T
P
,
Esq
FROM THE AUTHOR of
SIRIS.
CONTAINING SOME FARTHER REMARKS on the VIRTUES of
TAR-WATER,
AND The METHODS for Preparing and Using of it.
Non sibi, sed toti.
To which is added, An ANSWER To a supposed Physician's LETTER
to the Right Reverend the Bishop of
CLOYNE,
occasioned by his Lordship's Treatise on the
VIRTUES
of
TAR-WATER.
DUBLIN Printed,
LONDON
Re-printed, For M. COOPER, at the
Globe
in
Pater-noster-row.
MDCCXLIV. [Price Six-pence.]
A LETTER TO
T
P
, Esq
FROM The AUTHOR of
SIRIS.
I.
AMONG the great Numbers, who drink Tar Water in
Dublin,
your Letter informs me, there are several, that make or use it in an undue Manner. To obviate those Inconveniences, and render this Water as generally useful as possible, you desire I would draw up some Rules and Remarks in a small Compass, which accordingly I here send you.
II.
Put a Gallon of cold Water to a Quart of Tar, stir and work them strongly together for about four Minutes; let the Vessel stand close covered for eight and forty Hours, that the Tar may subside; then pour off the clear Water, and keep it in Bottles, well corked, for Use: This is a good general Rule, but as Stomachs and Constitutions are so various, it may admit of some Latitude, the less Water or more stirring makes it stronger, as more Water or less stirring makes it weaker.
III.
The same Tar will not do so well a second Time, but may serve for common Uses: The putting off Tar that hath been used, for fresh Tar, would be a bad Fraud. To prevent which it is to be noted, that Tar already used is of a lighter brown than other Tar. The only Tar that I have used is that from our Northern Colonies in
America,
and that from
Norway,
the latter being thinner, mixeth easier with Water, and seems to have more Spirit. If the former be made use of (as I have sometimes known it with good Success) the Tar Water will require longer stirring to make it.
IV.
Tar Water, when right, is, not paler than
French
nor deeper coloured than
Spanish
White Wine, and full as clear; if there be not a Spirit very sensibly perceived in drinking, you may conclude the Tar Water is not good; if you would have it good, you must see it made yourself. Those who begin with it, little and weak, may by Habit come to drink more and stronger, according to the Season, or the Humour of the Patient. It may be drank either cold or warm; it lays under no Restraint as to Air, Exercise, Cloaths, or Diet, and may be taken at all times in the Year.
V.
As to the Quantity in common chronical Indispositions, one Pint of Tar Water a Day may suffice, taken on an empty Stomach, at two or four Times, to wit, Night and Morning, and about two Hours after Dinner and Breakfast; more may be taken by strong Stomachs. Alteratives in general, taken in small Doses, and often, mix best with the Blood; how oft or how strong each stomach can bear, Experience will shew. But those who labour under great and inveterate Maladies, must drink a greater Quantity, at least one Quart
per
Diem,
taken at four, six, or eight Glasses, as best suits the Circumstances and Case of the Drinker. All of this Class must have much Patience and Perseverance in the Use of this, as well as of all other Medicines, which, if sure and safe, must yet, from the Nature of Things, be slow in the Cute of inveterate Chronical Disorders. In acute Cases, Fevers of all Kinds, it must be drank in Bed warm, and in great Quantity, the Fever still enabling the Patient to drink, perhaps a Pint every Hour, which I have known to work surprising Cures.
VI.
As the Morning's Draught is most difficult to nice Stomachs, such may lessen, or even omit it, at the Beginning, or rather postpone it till after Breakfast, and take a larger Dose at Night; the Distance from Meal-time need not be more than one Hour, when the Stomach is strong, or the Glasses small: the Oil that swims on the Top, may either be drank with the rest of the Liquor, or skimmed off and kept for outward Sores. Whether there be any Difference between old Tar or new Tar, or which of all the various Tars, produced from different Trees, or in different Parts of the World, is most medicinal, future Trials must determine—I have made a second Sort of Tar Water, to be used externally, as a Wash for the Itch, Scabs, Ulcers, Leprosy, and all such foul Cases, which I have tried with Success, and recommend it to the Trial of others. For inveterate Cases of that Kind, Tar Water should be drank, a Quart every Day, at fix or eight Glasses; and at the same time the Wash applied Outwardly, and warm, by bathing, fomenting, and steeping, to heal and dry up the Sores, and this several Times in the twenty-four Hours. This Water, for external Use, must be made in the following manner: Pour two Quarts of hot boiling Water on a Quart of Tar, stir and work it strongly with a flat Stick or Ladle, for a full quarter of an Hour; let it stand eight Hours, then pour it off, and keep it close covered for Use. It may be made weaker or stronger as there is Occasion.
VII.
My Experiments have been made in various Cases, and on many Persons; and I make no doubt its Virtues will soon be more fully discovered, as Tar-water is now growing into general Use, tho' not without that Opposition which usually attends upon Novelty. The great Objection I find made to this Medicine is, that it promises too much. What, say the Objectors, do you pretend to a Panacea, a thing strange, chimerical, and contrary to the Opinion and Experience of all Mankind. Now to speak out, and, give this Objection or Question a direct Answer, I freely own that I suspect Tar-water is a Panacea. I may be mistaken, but it is worth trial; for the Chance of so great and general a Benefit, I am willing to stand the Ridicule of proposing it. And as the old Philosopher cried aloud, from the House-top, to his Fellow Citizens,
educate your Children
; so, I confess, if I had a Situation high enough, and a Voice loud enough, I would cry out, to all the Valetudinarians upon Earth,
drink Tar Water.
VIII.
Having thus frankly owned the Charge, I must explain to you, that by a Panacea is not meant a Medicine which cures all Individuals, (this consists not with Mortality) but a Medicine that cures or relieves all the different Species of Distempers. And if God hath given us so great a Blessing, and made a Medicine so cheap and plentiful as Tar, to be withal so universal in its Effects, to ease the Miseries of human Life, shall Men be ridiculed or bantered out of its Use, especially when they run no Risque in the Trial?
IX.
It must be owned I have not had Opportunities of trying it myself in all Cases, neither will I undertake to demonstrate
a
priori,
that Tar Water is a Panacea. But yet, methinks, I am not quitedestitute of probable Reasons, which, joined to what Facts I have observed, induced me to entertain such a Suspicion.
X.
I know Tar was used to preserve Cattle from Contagion; and this may be supposed to have given Rise to that Practice of drinking Tar Water for a Preservative against the Small-Pox. But as the Tar Water used for that Purpose was made by mixing equal Quantities of Tar and Water, it proved a most offensive Portion; besides, as a fresh Glass of Water was put in for each Glass that; was taken our, and this for many Days on the same Tar, it followed that the Water was not equally impregnated with the fine volatile Spirit, though all alike strongly saturated with gross Particles.
XI.
Having found this nauseous Draught very useful against the Small Pox, to as many as could be prevailed on to take it; I began to consider the Nature of Tar. I reflected that Tar is a Balsam flowing from the Trunks of aged Ever-geens; that it resists Putrefaction; that it hath the Virtues of Turpentine, which in Medicine are known to be very great and manifold; but I observed withal, that Turpentines or Balsams are very offensive in the taking: I therefore considered distinctly the several constituent Parts of Balsams; which were those, wherein the medicinal Virtues resided and which were to be regarded, rather as a Viscous Matrix to receive, arrest, and retain the more volatile and active Particles. And if these last could be so separated and disengaged from the grosser Parts, as to impregnate a clear and potable Liquor, I concluded that such Liquor must prove a Medicine of great Force, and general Use. I considered, that Nature was the best Chemist and Preparer of Medicines, and that the Fragrance and Flavour of Tar argued very active Qualities and Virtues.
XII.
I had, of a long Time, entertained an Opinion agreeable to the Sentiments of many antient Philosophers,
That Fire may be regarded as the Animal Spirit of this visible World.
And it seemed to me that the attracting and secreting of this Fire in the various Pores, Tubes, and Ducts of Vetegables, did impart their specifick Virtues to each Kind; that this same Light, or Fire, was the immediate instrumental or physical Cause of Sense and Motion, and consequently of Life and Health to Animals; that on Account of this Solar Light or Fire,
Phoebus
was in the ancient Mythology reputed the God of Medicine Which Light as it is leisurely introduced, and fixed in the viseid Juice of old Firs and Pines, so the setting it free in Part, that is, the changing its viscid for a volatile Vehicle, which may mix with Water, and convey it throughout the Habit copiously and inoffensively, would be of infinite Use in Physic, extending to all Cases whatsoever, inasmuch as all Distempers are in Effect a Struggle, between the
Vis Vitae
and the peculiar Miasma or Fomes Morbi; and nothing strengthens Nature, or lends such Aid and Vigour to Life, as a Cordial which doth not heat.
XIII.
The Solar Light in great Quantity during the Space of many suocessive Years, being attracted and detained in the Juice of ancient. Ever-greens, doth form and lodge itself in an, Oil so fine and volatile, as shall mix well with Water, and lightly pass the
Primae Viae.
and penetrate every Part and Capillary of the original System, when once exempt and freed from the grosser nauseous Refin. It will not, therefore, seem unreasonable to whoever is acquainted with the medicinal Virtues of Turpentine in so many different Distempers, for which it hath been celebrated both by ancient and modern Physicians, and withal reflects on the Nausea or Clog that prevents their full Operation and Effect on the human Body, it will not, I say, seem unreasonable to such a one to suppose, that if this same Clog were removed, numberless Cures might be wrought in great Variety of Cases.
XIV.
The
Desideratum
was, how to separate the active Particles from the heavy viscid Substance wich served to attract and retain them, and so to order Matters, that the Vehicle of the Spirit should not on the one hand be volatile enough to escape, nor on the other, gross enough to offend. For the performing of this, I have found a most easy, simple, and effectual Method, which furnisheth a potable inoffensive Liquor, clear and fine as the best White Wine, Cordial and Stomachic, to be kept bottled, as being endued with a very sensible Spirit, though, not fermented.
XV.
I tried many Experiements as to the Quantity of Water, and the Time of stirring and standing, in order to impregnate and clarify it, and, after all, fixed on the forementioned Receipt, as the most generally useful for making this salutiferous Liquor well impregnated, and not offensive to common Stomachs, and even drank with Pleasure by many: In which the most medicinal and active Particles, that is to say, the native Salts, Spirit, and volatile Oil, being disentangled from the gross Oil and viscous Resin, can freely pass the
Primae Viae,
insinuate themselves into the smallest Ducts, and pervade the whole animal Machine, and that, in such full Proportion and Measure, as suiteth every Case and Constitution.
XVI.
The foregoing general Considerations put me upon making Experiments in many various and unlike Cases, which otherwise I should never have thought of doing, and the Success answered my Hopes. Philosophical Principles led me to make safe. Trials, and on those Trials is founded my Opinion of the salutary Virtues of Tar Water; which Virtues are recommended from, and depend on, Experiments and Matters of Fact, and neither stand nor fall with any Theories or speculative Principles whatever. Howbeit, those Theories, as I said, enlarged my Views of this Medicine, led me to a greater Variety of Trials, and thereby engendered and nourished my Suspicion, that it is a Panacea. I have been the more prolix in these Particulars, hoping that, to as many as shall candidly weigh and consider them, the high Opinion I conceive of this Medicine will not seem altogether an Effect of vain Prepossession or blind empiric Rashness, but rather the Result of free Thought and Inquiry, and grounded on my best Reason, Judgment, and Experience.
XVII.
Those who have only the Good of Mankind at Heart, will give this Medicine fair play; if there be any who act from other Motives, the Public will look sharp and beware. To do Justice to Tar Water, as well as to those who drink it, Regard must be had to the particular Strength and Case of the Patients. Grievous or inveterate Maladies must not be treated as common Cases. I cured a horrible Case, a Gangrene in the Blood, which had broke out in several Sores, and threatened speedy Death, by obliging the Person to drink nothing but this Liquor for several Weeks, as much and as often as his Stomach would bear. Common Sense will direct a proportionable Conduct in other Cases. But this must be left to the Conscience and Disceretion of the Givers and Takers.
XVIII.
After all that can be said, it is most certain, that a Panacea sounds odd, and conveys somewhat shocking to the Ear and Sense of most Men, who are wont to rank the universal Medicine with the Philosophers Stone, and the Squaring of the Circle; whereof this chief, if not sole Reason, I take to be, that it is thought incredible, the same Thing should produce contrary Effects, as it must do, if it cures opposite Distempers. And yet this is no more than every Day's Experience verifies. Milk, for instance, makes some costive, and others laxative: This regards the Possibility of a Panacea in general; as for Tar Water in particular, I do not say it is a Panacea, I only suspect it to be so.—Time and Trial will shew.
XIX.
But I am most sincerely persuaded from what I have already seen and tryed, that Tar Water may be drank with great Safety and Success, for the Cure or Relief of most, if not all Diseases, of Ulcers, Itch, Scald-heads, Leprosy, the foul Disease, and all foul Cases, Scurvies of all Kinds, Disorders of the Lungs, Stomach, and Bowels, gouty and nephritic Ailments, Pleurifies, Peripneumonies, Erysipelas, and all Kinds of Fevers, Hysteric and all nervous Cases, Dropsies, Decays, and other Maladies; nor is it of Use only in the Cure of Sickness, it is also useful to preserve Health, and guard against Infection, and, in some measure, even against old Age, as it gives lasting Spirits, and invigorates the Blood. I am even induced by the Nature and Analogy of Things, and its wonderful Success in Fevers of all Kinds, to think that Tar Water may be useful against the Plague, both as a Preservative and a Cure.
XX.
But I doubt no Medicine can withstand that execrable Plague of distilled Spirits, which all without Exception, (the Fire of the hot Still imparting a caustic and coagulating Quality to all distilled Spirits, whatever the Subject or Ingredients may be) operate as a slow Poison, preying on the Vitals, and wasting the Health and Strength of Body and Soul; which Pest of human Kind is, I am told, gaining Ground in this Country, already too thin of Inhabitants.
I am, &c.
REMARKS ON A LETTER To the Right Reverend The BISHOP of
CLOYNE.
Occasioned by His Treatise of TAR-WATER.
AN ANSWER TO A LETTER To the Right Reverend The BISHOP of CLOYNE. Occasioned by His Treatise of TAR-WATER.
WHEN a Gentleman had proposed a Medicine to the World, which from repeated Experience he had found to be of singular Efficacy, one would think he had a Right to be heard with Candour, if not with Applause. But the Author of a Letter to the Bishop of
Cloyne,
has attack'd him in a Manner as much below the Character of a Gentleman to offer, as a Bishop to receive. It is, to say the least of it, what the Author professes it to be, with the UTMOST FREEDOM. He compares him to a
Quack, a boasting Mountebank
Dr.
Salmon,
Dr.
Rock,
the
Devil
'There is, my Lord, another Being (whom I have have more Reverence than' to name in your Lordship's Company, and whose Actions, nothing but the
perfect Justice
and
Equality
of the
Allusion
can attone for my mentioning with your Lordship's) who can cite Scripture for his Purpose.'
Letter,
p. 27.
. Himself the World will probably guess to be a Physician. A
thorough bread Man,
no doubt; and, I suppose, the great Point be has in view is to lie half discovered, half concealed, ready to be called forth from his present Obscurity into Practice, when he has raised a Character by demolishing a Writer of Eminence.
But
Physician
as he supposes the World will take him to be, I much doubt whether it may mot give to the Bishop, even in
that Respect,
the Preference. To make a Science a
Nostrum,
is as
quackish
as to make a Medicine one. Knowledge is open to every Man of Sense and Application; and has the Bishop shewn his Want of either in his Study of Physic, tho' it is not more immediately his Profession? How frequently have Physicians turn'd Divines? where is the Absurdity for a Divine to become a Physician? Is the Pale of Physic only so narrow that it admits of no Interlopers? What then does this
Gentleman
mean, when he tells us
Page 36.
,
the principal Points of Knowledge necessary to a Physician, are
NATURALLY
wanting
in a Divine
? Alas! it is not the Degree, or the Robe, the tye Wig, or the Gold-headed Cane, that makes the Physician, anymore than. Prunella the Parson. But the Knowledge of either may be concealed under every Habit, and the seven Sciences contained without a College Title.
Need I produce Authority or Example for this? the two great Names of
Bacon
and
Boyle
will be lasting Monuments, that the Knowledge of Physic is not confined to those of the Profession only.
But the Letter-Writer says
Page 36.
, He cannot
guess,
from any Part of the Bishop's Treatise,
that he ever made Physic his Study.
Many others say, he talks as rationally of it as those that have. This Author himself obse
ves
Page 37.
, That he has
searched the Books of Physicians for Histories of Diseases,
and to find out
the peculiar
Properties
of Medicines
; no small Part of a Physician's Learning, as much, I believe, as many an one sets up on. But because the Bishop has applied it to the magnifying his favourite Medicine, this Author will not allow him to have made any Improvement from his Researches.
Will it be said, that Physic has eluded his Labours, because the Theory of it is more extensive than any other? The World has generally judged very differently. And, if we consider how sacredly the Avenues to this Science are guarded, by mysteriously prescribbing Things unknown in an unknown Tongue, how it is conversant with Mankind in its weakest State, when the Mind is drooping, and catches at any Thing that promises Relief, the whole Faculty ought with
Humility and Thankfulness
to acknowledge the Reputation the World has given them. Nay, I would appeal to this very Writer, whether he is not persuaded, that even a regular Physician's Practice does not depend more on his Address to the Whims and Foibles of his Patients, than his real Skill in his profession. I ask this, when he has compar'd his own Merit with his Practice. I know his
natural
Pride will extort from him what his
artificial
Pride would tempt him to conceal.
To
Sense
and
Study
has not the Bishop join'd
Experience
? Experience founded on his own unbounded Generosity to the Poor, itself an Hospital without adventitious Subscriptions. And is he not to be believ'd, when he tells us, without Fee or Reward, he has known, frequently known, after repeated Trials, upon various Constitutions, his Medicine prove successful? The Letter-Writer says the Facts were all
Page 36.
misunderstood,
and endeavours to prove from Theory, that
Page 18.
Tar
Water is no Medicine, something
HARDLY
worth the Name of one, and that it can care no one Disease.
Nay, to make sure Work, and to be as far in one Extreme as the Bishop in the, other, That it can do no Good
Page 20.
, but may do Harm. He assures us
Cold Water oured on Tar can take none, not the least of its Medicinal Virtues
: That,
if we ask the Chemist, he will tell us,
"Oil cannot be mix'd with, or drawn forth by Cold Water." Now in Obedience to this Gentleman I have
ask'd
the Chemist, and he tells me, that some of
the Virtues of the Oil of Tar may be drawn forth by Cold Water.
And I have actually tasted Water, wherein the Oil of Tar was washed (two Ounces to a Pint) strongly imbued with its Virtues, and which had much the same Taste with Water wherein the Oil of
Benzoin
was washed. In Analyzing Tar there are found to come over some fine Flowers, so quick with the Oil that they cannot be separated, which may be communicated to Water. And it is well known, all Acids will imbibe some Part of the Flowers, or finest Part of the Oil of all Resinous Substances. As it may afford some Satisfaction to the Letter-Writer, and enable others to determine more particularly the Virtues of Tar, I shall set down the Product of 22 Pound of the best
Norway
Tar by two Retorts;
viz.
 
lib.
℥
Acid Spirit
1
2½
Oil
7
13
Pitch
12
14
 
21
13½
Lost
 
2½
 
22
 
After
Theory
the Letter-Writer proceeds to prove that Tar Water can do no good, from
Experience.
Here then, let Issue be joined, and from one Assertion, which all the World may judge of, let this Writer's Credit stand or fall:—
Crimine ab uno—Disce omnes.
He saies,
Of this Medicine's Power of doing Harm, we have too many Proofs, if we could overlook the Fatigues of the Physicians and Apothecaries unable to go through the Load of Business and the visible Increase in the Bills of Mortality! The Fatigues of Physicians!
His own, I suppose, included in that Number, in the midst of which it was Excess of Good Nature to find Time to write so long a Pamphlet.
The Increase in the Bills of Mortality!
To them then let us go: The Bishop's Book was published in
England
I think, about the Middle of
April
: The Medicine recommended in it came into greatest Vogue about the beginning of
June,
and the Bills of Mortality stand thus:
1744,
June
5
Christened
237
buried
357
 
 
 
Decreased
78
 
 
 
 
12
Christened
316
 
390
 
 
 
Increased
33
 
390
 
 
19
Christened
231
 
367
 
 
 
Decreased
23
 
 
So that, we see, after all this mighty Parade about the Bills of Mortality, they were lowest, when Tar Water was in its highest Repute; or, take which Period you please, afterwards for its Season, before this Author's Book appeared, the Alteration was inconsiderable; increased the next Week 33, and decreased again 23. Such abundant Reason had he to set out with a Maxim which he learnt from his own Experience more than universal Consent,
That Truth and Partiality are inconsistent.
After these Specimens of his Skill in the
Nature of Medicines
and of his Faithfulness in the
History of Cases,
he may charge the Bishop with Deficiency in both Particulars, and please himself with the Thoughts, that the World will probably
guess' himself to be a Physician.
I leave him and it in the quiet Possion of that Satisfaction.
The rest of his Letter is chiefly taken up in Mirth and Pastime; he
plays the Doctor,
as he calls it, and throws out plenty of Jokes to gather the Crowd together, and help off a Six-penny Packet.—He describes the Witty Reflections of the Company he kept,—or such as he has made for them.
Take a Specimen of the Weak Defender of the Bishop, and of the acute Opponent;
Come says another with a World of important Nothing in his Look, the Bishop is a Man of sound Learning, I avouch it, and I have read—And what then, says another
[the Letter-Writer,]
his Knowledge is borrowed from the Writings of other Men
Page 11.
. I wonder how this Author got his: I fancy, as Serjeant
Kite,
saies, he came into the World of his own Head.
Another witty Observer saies, the Bishop has
serv'd his Medicine just as
Pope
serv'd him, by giving it ev'ry Virtue under Heaven
upon which the Author notes:—
unless it be true, what some People say, That he never praised any Body, but with an
INTENT
that the World should construe it into something more bitter then his severest Raillery
Ibid.
.
Great and Generous, thus with a single
roke to destroy the general Character of an
sent Bishop, and a Poet just cold in his Grave! But as the Discovery it wonderful, it
ght not to be concealed; and there is less Reason to expect it should, bccause it carries
own Reward with it. For this Author and
Friends will go on to construe the rest of
Works of that great Genius backwards,
for the Comfort of their Party invert the
Dunciad
into a serious Panegyric. Thus for
ding out the
Intention
of the Poet, they
all be blessed with their own Delusion, and
their's, the World's Construction. I have
ard a Story of a Hero in
Bedlam,
who told a
secret to his Friend that it was the World
road which was really
mad,
they within
ere only reputed to be so; it was so they
nstrued
among one another, however others
ight
misconstrue
them?
That he may still keep his Hand in at
play
the Doctor,
he examines carefully the very
xcrements of the Bishop's Book, the
Index.
wonder; it was in Search of a Medicine for
Cough,
and why should not Tar and Honey
found where
Album Graecum
is, a Medicine
no very different Purpose? But the Difficul
is, How Tar and Honey came there, since
is not in the
Body
of the Book. I will not
etend to account for the
Phaenomenon,
but shall only observe almost as odd an one in this Writer's Letter. As an Instance how the Sense of Words may be perverted, he tells us a Story of great Effects
Page 28.
produced by a trifling Alteration in the Pointing. "Instead of
Cain
's saying,
I have killed a Man
with a Colon at the End, which makes it a Confession of Guilt, only write it thus,
I have killed a Man.
" Where is the Difference? This Story, it seems made him
wonder,
when he heard it, and it makes the Reader
stare,
when he reads it. It should be, I suppose,
Have I killed a Man.
But when he tells us how the fame Blunder came to stand in his second Edition, as well as in his first, we may find out perhaps how
Tar and Honey
came to be in the
Index
only.
The Bishop having illustrated how Acid are sheathed by Alkalies from a Simile of Spigots and Faucets, this Author's Modesty I much offended at it. Hail!
Woodward
lives I cannot but admire, saies he,
the perfect Decency of your Lordship's Manner, your excellent Cleaness as well as Delicacy in
Smlles. Which reminds me of the Lady that could not bear a Chapter of hard Names for Fear there should be some what immodes in them.
But it is not enough that he cut down the Bishop in Physic, unless he makes Reprisals upon him in Divinity. He charges him with making the Scriptures serve the Turn of his Philosophy
by new Translaitions, and even where there was no need of it.
This, I suppose, alludes to §. 179. where the Bishop observes that the Passage in the Psalms,
who maketh his Ministers a flaming Fire,
might as well be rendered, and more agreeably to the Context,
who maketh flaming Fire his Ministers.
If it is more agreeable to the Context, why will this Author say,
There was no need of the Alteration
? And, as to the Charge of Novelty, there is scarce a Commentator but gives the Passage the same Construction, tho' they have nothing to do with the Bishiop's Hypothesis. Without a Pomp of Quotations, I recommend only to this Author's Polite Taste,
Buchanan's
Version; or, if that is more suitable to it,
Sternhold
and
Hopkins.
Apparent accinctae
AURAE FLAMMAEQUE
ministrae.
In the same Place he saies,
I shall only commemorate to your Lordship's Honour as a Bishop, that you can soften Atheism into Misconstruction.
Ay, and this very Lordship he
honours and respects,
As A Bishop,
whom as a Physician he despises.
It is plain, his
personal Charity
is as great as his
publick Zeal,
which could prompt him to consute an Author, half dead as he was with the Fatigues of Practice which that very Author had helped him to.
But how has his Lordship been guilty of lessening Atheism? Why he has vindicated, it seems,
Aristotle
and some other Philosophers from that Imputation, by shewing how their Principles have been mistaken. Atheism the Bishop leaves just what it was; but shews those Venerable Sages did not come within the Verge of it. Where is the Harm? If we will not take them as Partners of our Natural Creed, another Sett of Men will be proud of them. Here our Author's Zeal gets the better of his Charity, and he betrays a little of that unsociable Temper by which he excluded the Clergy from the College of Physicians, some of whom, I am persuaded, cure more than many a Licentiate. From the same Turn of Mind he seems proud to characterise himself at parting, when he lets the Bishop know what he should have done to have prevented the Attacks of so formidable an Adversary: Then, saies he,
Page 37.
No carping Wit or sour Pbilosopher would have dared to have blamed you.
FINIS.