when he was in his peafant's drefs, though the alteration was made in his prefence and with his own apparel. It happened also that before Ludwig went home there was an eclipfe of the fun, and Mr. Hoffman propofed to his gueft that he fhould obferve this phænomenon as an aftronomer, and for that purpose furnifhed him with proper inftruments. The impatience of Ludwig till the time of the eclipfe is not to be expreffed; he had hitherto been acquainted with the planetary world only by books and a view of the heavens with the naked eye; he had never yet looked thro' a telescope, and the anticipation of the pleasure which the new obfervation would yield him, fcarce fuffered him either to eat or fleep; but it unfortunately happened, that juft before the eclipfe came on, the fky became cloudy and continued fo during the whole time of its continuance; this misfortune was more than the philofophy even of Ludwig could bear; as the cloud came on he looked up at it in the agony of a man that expected the diffolution of nature to follow; when it came over the fun, he stood fixed in a confternation not to be described, and when he knew the eclipfe was paft, his disappointment and grief were little fhort of diftraction. Mr. Hoffman foon after went in his turn to visit Mr. Ludwig, and take a view of his dwelling, his library, his study, and his inftruments. He found an old crazy cottage, the infide of which had been long blacked with fmoke; the walls were covered with propofitions and diagrams written with chalk. In one corner was a bed, in another a cradle, and under a little window at the fide, three pieces of board, laid fide by fide over two truffels, made a writing table for the philofopher, upon which were scattered fome pieces of writing paper containing extracts of books, various calculations and geometrical figures; the books which have been mentioned before were placed on a shelf with the compafs and ruler that have been defcribed, which with a wooden fquare and a pair of fix inch globes, conftituted the library and mufæum of the truly celebrated John Ludwig. In this hovel he lived till the year 1754, and while he was purfuing the study of philofophy at his leifure hours, he was indefatigable in his day labour as a poor peafant, fometimes carrying a basket at his back, and fometimes driving a wheel-barrow, and crying fuch garden ftuff as he had to fell about the village. In this ftate he was fubject to frequent infults, “fuch as patient merit takes of the unworthy," and he bore them without reply, or any other mark either of refentment or contempt, when thofe who could not agree with him about the price of his commodities used to turn from him with an air of fuperiority, and call him in derifion a filly clown and a stupid dog. Mr. Hoffman, when he difmiffed him, prefented him with a hundred crowns, which has filled all his wishes and made him the happiett man in the world: with this fum he has built himself a more commodious habitation in the middle of his vineyard, and furnished it with many moveables and utenfils, of which he was in great want, but above all he has procured a very confiderable addition to his library, an article fo cffential to his happi nefs, nefs, that he declared to Mr. Hoffman, he would not accept the whole province in which he lived upon condition that he should renounce his ftudies, and that he had rather live on bread and water than withhold from his mind, that food which his intellectual hunger perpetually required. An account of fome remarkable particulars that happened to a Lady after having had the confluent kind of the Small Pox. N the course of this disease, dur ed by the late Sir Hans Sloane, feveral threatening fymptoms appeared, which, however, were at length overcome; and the patient, being thought out of danger, took feveral dofes of fuch purgative medicines as are ufually administered in the decline of the disease, without any bad confequence. But in the evening of the day on which she had taken the laft dofe that was intended to be given her on that occafion, she was fuddenly feized with pains and convulfions in the bowels; the pain and other fymptoms became gradually lefs violent, as the force of the medicine abated, and by fuch remedies as were thought beft adapted to the cafe, they feemed at length to be intirely fubdued. They were, however, fubdued only in appearance; for at eleven o'clock in the forenoon of the next day they returned with great violence, and continued fome hours; when they went off, they left the mufcles of the lower jaw fo much relaxed, that it fell down, and the chin was fupported on the breaft. The ftrength of the patient was fo much exhausted during this paroxyfm, that the lay near two hours with no other fign of life than a very feeble refpiration, which was often fo difficult to be difcerned, that thofe about her concluded the was dead. From this time the fits returned periodically every day, at about the fame hour. At first they seemed to affect her nearly in the fame degree, but at length all the symptoms were aggravated, the convulfions became more general, and her arms were fometimes convulsed alternately; it alfo frequently happened, that the arm which was last convulfed re fome hours after the struggles were over. Her neck was often twisted with fuch violence, that the face looked directly backwards, and the back part of the head was over the breaft; the mufcles of the countenance were also fo contracted and writhed by the fpafms, that the features were totally changed, and it was impoffible to find any refemblance of her natural afpect by which he could be known. Her feet were not lefs diftorted than her head, for they were twisted almost to dislocation at the inftep, fo that the could not walk but upon her ancles, To remove or mitigate these deplorable fymptoms, many remedies were tried, and, among others, the cold bath; but either by the natural effect of the bath, or by fome mifmanagement in the bathing, the unhappy patient first became blind, and foon afterwards deaf and dumb. It is not eafy to conceive what could increase the mifery of deafnefs, dumbness, blindness, and frequent paroxifms of excruciating pain; yet a very confiderable aggravation was added, for the lofs of her her fight, her hearing, and her fpeech, was followed by fuch a ftricture of the muscles of her throat, that she could not swallow any kind of aliment, either folid or liquid. It might reasonably be fuppofed that this circumftance, though it added to the degree of her misery, would have shortened its duration; yet in this condition fhe continued near three quarters of a year, and during that time was fupported, in a very uncommon manner, by chewing her food only, which having turned often, and kept long in her mouth, fhe was obliged at last to fpit out. Liquors were likewife gargled about in her mouth for fome time, and then returned in the fame manner, no part of them having paffed the throat by an act of diglutition fo that whatever was conveyed into the ftomach, either of the juices of the folid food, or of liquids, was either gradually imbibed by the fponginefs of the parts, which they moistened, or trickled down in a very small quantity along the fides of the veffels. But there were other peculiarities in the cafe of this lady, yet more extraordinary. During the privation of her Sight and Hearing, her Touch and her Smell became fo exquifite, that fhe could diftinguifh the different colours of filk and flowers, and was fenfible when any franger was in the room with her. After fhe became blind, and deaf, and dumb, it was not easy to contrive any method by which a queflion could be afked her, and an anfwer received. This however was at laft effected, by talking with the fingers, at which he was uncommonly ready. But thofe who converfed with her in this manner, were obliged to express themselves by touching her hand and fingers instead of their own. A lady, who was nearly related to her, having an apron on, that was embroidered with filk of different colours, afked her, in the manner which has been juft defcribed, if she could tell what colour it was? and after applying her fingers attentively to the figures of the embroidery, the replied, that it was red, and blue, and green, which was true, but whether there were any other colours in the apron, the writer of this account does not remember. The fame lady having a pink-coloured ribbon on her head, and being willing till farther to fatisfy her curiosity and her doubts, afked what colour that was? her coufin, after feeling fome time, anfwered, that it was pink colour; this anfwer was yet more aftonishing, because it fhewed not only a power of diftinguifhing different colours, but different kinds of the fame colour; the ribbon was not only discovered to be red, but the red was discovered to be of the pale kind, called a pink. This unhappy lady, confcious of her own uncommon infirmities, was extreamly unwilling to be feen by ftrangers, and therefore generally retired to her chamber, where none but thofe of the family were likely to come. The fame relation, who had by the experiment of the apron and ribbon difcovered the exquifite fenfibility of her Touch, was foon after convinced by an accident, that her power of Smelling was acute and refined in the fame aftonishing degree. Being one day vifiting the family, he went up to her cousin's chamber, and after making herfelf known, the intreated her to go down, down, and fit with her among the reft of the family, affuring her, that there was no other perfon prefent; to this fhe at length confented, and went down to the parlour door; but the moment the door was open ed, fhe turned back, and retired to her own chamber much displeased, alledging, that there were ftrangers in the room, and that an attempt had been made to deceive her. It happened, indeed, that there were ftrangers in the room, but they had come in while the lady was above ftairs: fo that he did not know they were there. When he had Latisfied her coufin of this particular, fhe was pacified; and being afterwards asked how the knew there were ftrangers in the room, the answered, by the smell. But though he could by this fense distinguish in general between perfons with whom he was well acquainted, and ftrangers, yet fhe could not fo easily distinguish one of her acquaintance from another without other affiftance. She generally distinguished her friends by feeling their hands, and when they came in they used to prefent their hands to her, as a means of making themselves known; the make and warmth of the hand produced in general the differences that the diftinguished, but fometimes fhe ufed to fpan the wrift and measure the fingers. A lady, with whom fhe was very well acquainted, coming in one very hot day, after having walked a mile, prefented her hand, as ufual; the felt it longer than ordinary, and feemed to doubt whofe it was; but after spanning the wrift, and measuring the finger, fhe faid, "It is Mrs. M. but the is warmer to-day than ever I felt * her before." To amuse herself in the mournful and perpetual folitude and darkness to which her disorder had reduced her, fhe ufed to work much at her needle; and it is remarkable, that her needle-work was uncommonly neat and exact; among many other pieces of her work that are preferved in the family, is a pincufhion, which can scarce be equalled. She used alfo fometimes to write, and her writing was yet more extraordinary than her needle-work; it was executed with the fame regularity and exactness; the character was very pretty, the lines were all even, and the letters placed at equal diftances from each other; but the most astonishing particular of all, with refpect to her writing, is, that fhe could by fome means difcover when a letter had by fome mistake been omitted, and would place it over that part of the word where it fhould have been inferted, with a caret under it. It was her custom to fit up in bed at any hour of the night, either to write or to work, when her pain or any other cause kept her awake. Thefe circumstances were fo very extraordinary, that it was long doubted whether he had not fome faint remains both of hearing and fight, and many experiments were made to afcertain the matter; fome of these experiments the accidentally difcovered, and the dif covery always threw her into violent convulfions. The thought of being fufpected of infincerity, or fuppofed capable of acting fo wicked a part as to feign infirmities that were not inflicted, was an addition to her mifery which the could not bear, and which never failed to produce an agony of mind not lefs vifible vifible than thofe of her body. A clergyman, who found her one evening at work by a table with a candle upon it, put his hat between her eyes and the candle, in fuch a manner that it was impoffible she could receive any benefit from the light of it if he had not been blind. She continued ftill at her work, with great tranquility, till putting up her hand fuddenly to rub her forehead, fhe ftruck it against the hat, and difcovered what was doing; upon which the was thrown into violent convulfions, and was not without great difficulty recovered. The family were, by thefe experiments, and by feveral accidental circumftances, fully convinced that she was totally deaf and .blind, particularly by fitting unconcerned at her work, during a dreadful ftorm of thunder and lighten- ing, though fhe was then facing the window, and always ufed to be much terrified in such circumstances; but Sir Hans Sloane, her phyfician, being ftill doubtful of the truth of facts, which were fcarce lefs than miraculous, he was permitted to fatisfy himfelf by fuch experiments and obfervations as he thought proper; the iffue of which was, that he pronounced her to be abfolutely deaf and blind. She was at length fent to Bath, where fhe was in fome meafure relieved, her convulfions being lefs frequent, and her pains lefs acute; but he never recovered her fpeech, her fight, or her hearing in the leaft degree. Many of the letters, dated at Bath, in fome of which there are inftances of interlineations with a caret, the writer of this narrative hath feen, and they are now in the cuftody of the widow of one of her brothers, who, with many other perfons, can fupport the facts here related, however wonderful, with fuch evidence as it would not only be injuftice, but folly, to dif believe. The following chaareters of Lord Somers, the Duke and Dutchefs of Marlborough, Lord Godolphin, Lord Sunderland, Lord Wharton, Lord Cowper, the Earl of Nottingham, and Sir Robert Walpole, are extracted from the hiftory of the four last years of the Queen, by Dr. Swift, who profeffes to defcribe thofe qualities in each of them, which few of their admirers will deny, and which appeared chiefly to have influenced them in acting their feveral parts • For I upon the public ftage: do not intend (Jays he) to draw 'their characters entire, which would be tedious and httle to the purpose; but shall only fingle out thofe paffions, acquirements, and habits, which the owners were most likely to transfer into their political fchemes, and which were mot fubfervient to the defigns they 'feemed to have in view.' Theft characters and the biftory from whence they have been extracted, are far from giving us a very juft idea of the times, CT the perfons they profefs to deScribe; they may be read very ufefully notwithstanding this defect. For they may serve as a friking example of the melancholy effects of prejudice, and party zeal; a zeal, which whilst it corrupts the heart, vitiates the underßanding itself; and could mislead a swriter of fo penetrating a genius as Door Swift, to imagine that pofterity would accept jative in the place |