duce barrennefs of foil, or a product, crude, half-formed, and untimely. The forte of Peter Pindar lies in telling droll stories, and reciting ridiculous anecdotes, but he degenerates, occafionally, into party virulence, and is fometimes culpably indelicate; befides, The ftale ftory, and antiquated jeft, When oft' repeated, lose at last their zeft. In addreffing panegyric strains to der; yet they had the knack of ftriking the right ftring, that "chord which, when properly touched, the human heart is fo formed, as to vibrate in unifon with it." With all his humorous propenfities, his pen has produced feveral fonnets, breathing the genuine language of poetry and good tafte; tender, pathetic, and delicately fentimental, infpiring the raptures of love, and the soft emotions of defire. Carleton-houfe, Mr. not Dr. Wal- WARD, JOSHUA, a dry cot appears totally out of his ele, ment, nor bas he, in any inftance, handled his pen with a worse grace; he is not formed by nature, nor, as I am told, by inclination, for a bestower of the meed of praise: in this inftance, it is neither felect, happy, or appropriate. He has been juftly ftiled the Hogarth of Parnaffus; whatever struck him in the scenes of life as fhabby, affected, bafe, mean, or enormous, he has placed in a point of view, at once odious, ridiculous, and irresistibly laughable. I once read his lines on the midnight freaks of cats, which he describes as he faw them from a window, by moonlight, ftanding in his fhirt; and his directions to a carpenter, on the fubject of preparing a coffin, fuppofed to be written by a hufband who had just loft his wife, in which he particularly defires the fcrews may be long, and the oak fubftantial; and they produced in the company greater bursts of merriment, than I ever faw produced by any literary compofition. The merit of these pieces, either in verfification or invention, is flen falter, of Thames-ftreet, and afterwards inventor of certain medicines, which, though we now hear fo little concerning them, rouzed in their day univerfal attention, and became a fplendid foundation of fame and fortune to the lucky projector. His houfe in the city, and the whole of his property, having been destroyed by fire, at a period when infurance was little known and rarely practifed, his commercial profpects were blafted, and he was fpurred by the ufeful, but unpleasant ftimulus of a ruined fortune, to intellectual exertion. After pursuing chemical studies a few years on the Continent, in an infpired or a propitious moment, he hit on his famous DROP AND PILL. With these and other powerful agents at his difpofal, he returned to his native country, and excited no fmall oppofition, by a bold, but, generally fpeaking, a fuccefsful practice, in a numerous but obftinate clafs of difeafes, which, before and fince his time, have fo often proved a stumbling block to the practitioners of phyfic. His opponents, in the more re gular gular platoons of their profeffion, attempted to crush our refolute interloper, by argument, by ridicule, and by legal authority. He anfwered and confuted them by a long catalogue of hopeless cafes, abandoned by the faculty, but fortunately treated by himself. He retorted on his enemies the accufation of fomething worfe than ig. norance and audacity, and boldly charged them with locking up or neglecting potent preparations, which they were too indolent or too timid to make ufe of themfelves, and too envious to allow the privilege to others. He added, that their elaborate preparations and naufeous compounds, their alexiterials, alexipharmicks, and cordials, were only calculated to harrass the miserable patient, and lengthen his apothecary's bill. An application he recommended for the King's hand established his reputation beyond the reach of malignancy or competition; and he was protected, by a folemn vote of the Houfe of Commons, from the anathemas and interdictions of the College. We may judge of the refpectable state of his finances, when, on being defired to name the remuneration he expected from his royal patient, he replied, that permiffion to drive his equipage (which was remarkable for bulky magnificence) through St. James's Park, would be the most gratifying fee. In addition to this diftinguishing mark of royal favor, promotion was afterwards beftowed on his nephew, General Ganfell, whofe military rescue from an arrest afforded fuel, many years afterwards, to the in flammatory but well-written invective of Junius. The circumftance, of medicines once fo celebrated being now almoft forgotten, has induced certain adepts in the art of doubting, to queftion their having ever been really entitled to the reputation they once enjoyed. When' we recollect the bafis of thefe preparations, it would be foolish and abfurd to doubt their active powers, particularly when we confider the miracles of chemistry, and its wonder-working operations on a mineral, felected from the materia medica by one who, whatever his defects might be in the regular college routine, was confeffedly poffeffed of gifts which, though no sciences, are fairly worth them all, acuteness and common fenfe. To this may be added an obfervation, which I have had occafion to mention more than once in this collection. It is, that the bulk of mankind require more than common inducements to entice them to pursue the path which leads to their own welfare and real interest. Common motives have been found generally infufficient. Something more than mere light and fhade are required, to enliven the ftill picture of private life, and the dull uniformity of bare utility. To render it attractive, it must be occafionally varied, embellifhed, and contrafted, by the romantic wildnefs of Salvator, the painful difplays of Spagnoletti, the delicate ftrokes of a Titian, and the morbidezza of Guido. In a word, fancy, imagination, and fplendor, must be called in; fenfibility muft be awakened, pride foothed, and enthusiasm enthufiafm rouzed, to forward the wholefome impreffions of truth and plain fact. To take advantage of this theory, which I have enforced and exemplified in the article Paracelfus, and to apply it, with dexterity, to the various wants and withes of mankind, feems the whole mystery of quackery, in law, phyfic, and divinity. A cool, fober-headed Englishman, with all his prejudices against the eccentricities, whims, and caprices of his French neighbours, if indifpofed, and advifed to take phyfic by his family apothecary, would, perhaps, liften to him with furly impatience, and, after many ftruggles, fubmit to his difcipline with the naufea of hopeless indifference. Perhaps the fame odd compound of flesh and blood, virtue and infirmity, would attend with admiration to the flourishing harangue of an empirick, defcending from his fplendid vehicle; furvey his liveries and his equipage with complacency, and after hearing of fpecifics, anodynes, and cordials, fwallow all he heard and all he faw with implicit confidence, on being told, that my Lord Dafhall had found vaft benefit, or that Lady Mary Jehu had taken them with wonderful effect. Before we fmile at or condemn such conduct, let us be well affured, that on the most important occafions of life, we have acted with more confiftency, or been guided by greater wifdom. The following jeu d'efprit ap. peared in a public print in the year 1736; it was occafioned by Dr. Ward, the Chevalier Taylor, and Mrs. Mapp, a famous bone fetter, appearing together in the boxes at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn-Fields. Part of the entertainment of the evening confifted of a piece in which mock reprefentatives of these three celebrated perfonages were introduced on the stage. While Mapp to th' actors fhew'd a kind regard, On one fide Taylor fat, on th❜ other Ward; When their mock perfons of the Both Ward and Taylor thought Zounds, cry'd the manly dame, Quacks without art may either blind or kill, But demonftration fhews that mine is fkill. It may be no improper appendix to Ward's article, to observe, that his cotemporary, Mrs. Mapp, the fubject of the preceding panegyric, was the daughter of a bone fetter, in North Wiltshire, and remarkable for masculine form and coarse manners; from natural acutenefs, and the opportunities afforded by her father's practice, having turned her attention to the management of fractures and diflocations, and acquired confiderable dexterity, particularly in the application of bandages, the settled at Epfom, and in the infolence of fuccefs, or the prefumption of real merit, advertifed, that he would not fuffer any medical man to fee her apply a roller, without a previous fee of five guineas, Having Having rouzed the avaricious hopes of a lover, by the little fortune which her father had left, in a thoughtless moment fhe married, but her perfon not being attractive, this faithlefs partner retreated with the whole of her property. Bereft of father, hufband, and money, our undaunted female bore her misfortune with refolution, and, by induftry or bold practice, acquired confiderable profit and fame in her paternal profeffion; was patronized by Sir Hans Sloane, and being frequently fent for to town; on fuch occafions it was her pride or her folly to appear in a coach and four. A medical friend, by traditional information of his father, from Sir Hans, informs me, that the cafes in which our female furgeon fucceeded, were for the moft part, fractures, which had never united, and that the whole fecret of her procefs was, to endeavour, by various, and often violent means, to excite a new inflammation, which generally caufed the bone to unite, and effectually answered the defired purpose. In one of her vifits to the metropolis, from the grandeur of her equipage, or the peculiarity of her drefs, a long loofe robe, our adventurer being mistaken for a mistress of the old King, or fome unpopular German perfonage, was ftopped, furrounded, and bitterly reviled by the mob. On being informed of the jeopardy of her fituation, fhe extricated herself from it with admirable prefence of mind, by the following laconic addrefs to the multitude, for whofe meridian it was admirably calculated. "Damn your bloods, don't VOL. II. you know me? I am Mrs. Mapp, the bone-fetter." The crowd huzza'd, the coachman fmacked his whip, and conveyed his miftrefs in triumph and safety to her house. With the ufual profufion of thofe who get money eafily, and in the infatuation particularly incident to perfons of her defcription, she lived without prudence, and died in abfolute want. W not abfolutely the founder ESTLEY, JOHN, though of his fect, an early, a confiderable, and zealous methodist preacher, who appears to have felected, with fagacity, his religious fyftem from the Catholic, Geneva, Lutheran, and Moravian churches. By courting perfecution and inviting contempt (with him, a favorite tenet) he fuccefsfully worked on a powerful paffion of the human breaft, which conciliates us more readily to thofe, who practifing or affecting the fins and infirmities common to our nature, place themfelves on a flattering level with the herd and bulk of mankind, whofe pride is wounded, and resentment excited, by a prefumptuous pretenfion to manners more correct, and conduct more perfect, than their own. On this foundation stone of felf degradation, he reared a structure of popularity, fanatic defpotifm, influence, and charitable contribution, which, falling little fhort of the fplendid pinnacles of Dominick and Ignatius, promifes to far exceed them in ftability and duration. During his infancy, a house in which he was fleeping being on fire, the child was fnatched from the bed with much difficulty, and LI narrowly narrowly escaped burning. "Ex igne ereptus," he happily applied to himfelf; and this brand caught from the fire, afterwards proved a zealous, useful, and, I believe, a very confcientious man. It may probably be expected, that I fhould join the cry against the enthusiasm and rant of methodifm. But, while we have an indolent clergy, I fee no medium for the lower ranks of mankind to observe, between a total direliction of religious duties, or their following, what I readily agree they too often prove-blind guides. 1 Yet, with all its evils, and with fome abfurdities, methodifm has been found effectual in purifying the vulgar and amending the mob, who require (and why are they not to be indulged?) other motives, and inftruments more powerful than reason and common sense, to alarm, to rouze and stimulate their hopes and fears. A fcore or two of weak-headed people hanging or drowning themselves, and a dozen or two lufty bastards, got by their vigorous paftors in an unguarded moment, is furely purchafing, at a cheap rate, regularity of manners, peace, and order, among our hewers of wood and drawers of water. Mr. Weftley diffused among a defperate, a dangerous, and degenerate race of men, in the neighbourhood of Bristol, a love of decency and religious knowledge; a praife-worthy and meritorious work! To fpread o'er American wilds, order and civilization; to pour on the astonished mind of the favage cannibal, gospel truths; to bend untutored ignorance to faith or acquiefcence, have fignalized the martyr, and canonized the faint. Yet I am of opinion, that greater difficulties and dangers prefent themselves to the reclaimer of a wallowing European, from filthy iniquity and furly ignorance; the man who attempts to coerce and restrain inveterate habits, furious paffions, and to perfuade animals, fcarcely fufceptible of any pleafure, but grofs and sensual gratification, has obftacles to furmount, unknown to an inftructor of the fimple but unpolluted fons of na ture. His A few months fince, paffing a confiderable thoroughfare, furrounded by the inns of court, I was a spectator of the different treatment preachers of the gofpel experience, in different fituations. Being topped by a crowd, the voice and zeal of an itinerant holder-forth excited my attention. I liftened to his extempore harangue, which was animated, fenfible, and well delivered. efforts were fervent, his language clear, and his arguments, drawn from heaven and hell, death and judgment, were affecting. The multitude was motionless and filent, when two beadles made their appearance, fuddenly laid hands on the preacher, and led him off (I think illegally) in difgrace.A boy from the fame fpot might have thrown a ftone against a church, which affords a finecure of eight hundred pounds a year to a young Oxonian, who is an excellent fhot, and rides the best gelding in a neighbouring county. It was the fate of Mr. Weftley to come under the lafh of Warburton, who, in his Doctrine of Grace, |