strength of mind, was beset by the weakness of her sex in what
concerned her age and her personal appearance. "The majesty and gravity
of a sceptre," says one of her contemporaries, "could not alter the
nature of a woman in her. When Bishop Rudd was appointed to preach
before her, he, wishing in a godly zeal, as well became him, that she
should think sometimes of mortality, being then sixty-three years of
age--he took his text fit for that purpose out of the Psalms, xc. 12:
'Teach us to _number_ our days, that we may incline our hearts unto
wisdom;' which text he handled most learnedly. But when he spoke of
some sacred and mystical numbers, as three for the Trinity, three times
three for the heavenly hierarchy, seven for the Sabbath, and seven
times seven for a jubilee; and lastly, nine times seven for the grand
climacterical year (her age), she, perceiving whereto it tended, began
to be troubled by it. The Bishop, discovering that all was not well,
for the pulpit stood opposite her Majesty, he fell to treat of some
more plausible (pleasing) numbers, as of the number 666, making
_Latinus_, with which, he said, he could prove Pope to be Antichrist,
etc. He still, however, interlarded his sermon with Scripture passages,
touching the infirmities of age, as that in Ecclesiastes: 'When the
grinders shall be few in number, and they wax dark that look out of the
windows,' etc.; 'and the daughters of singing shall be abased;' and
more to that purpose. The Queen, as the manner was, opened the window;
but she was so far from giving him thanks or good countenance, that she
said plainly: 'He might have kept his arithmetic for himself; but I see
the greatest clerks are not the wisest men;' and so she went away
discontented."
AN ARCHBISHOP'S INSTALLATION FEAST.
Fuller, in his _Church History_, relates that "George Nevill, brother
to the great Earl of Warwick, at his instalment into the Archbishoprick
of York, gave a prodigious feast to all the nobility, most of the prime
clergy, and many of the great gentry, wherein, by his bill of fare,
three hundred quarters of wheat, three hundred and thirty tuns of ale,
one hundred and four tuns of wine, one pipe of spiced wine, eighty fat
oxen, six wild bulls, one thousand and four wethers, three hundred
hogs, three hundred calves, three thousand geese, three thousand
capons, three hundred pigs, one hundred peacocks, two hundred cranes,
two hundred kids, two thousand chickens, four thousand pigeons, four
thousand rabbits, two hundred and four bitterns, four thousand ducks,
two hundred pheasants, five hundred partridges, four thousand
woodcocks, four hundred plovers, one hundred curlews, one hundred
quails, one thousand egrets, two hundred roes, above four hundred
bucks, does, and roebucks, one thousand five hundred and six hot
venison pasties, four thousand cold venison pasties, one thousand
dishes of jelly parted, four thousand dishes of plain jelly, four
thousand cold custards, two thousand hot custards, three hundred pike,
three hundred bream, eight seals, four porpoises, and four hundred
tarts. At this feast the Earl of Warwick was steward, the Earl of
Bedford, treasurer, the Lord of Hastings, comptroller, with many more
noble officers; servitors, one thousand; cooks, sixty-two; kitcheners,
five hundred and fifteen.... But," continues honest Fuller, "seven
years after, the King seized on all the estate of this archbishop, and
sent him over prisoner to Calais in France, where _vinctus jacuit in
summa inopia_, he was kept bound in extreme poverty. Justice thus
punished his former prodigality."
DA VINCI A GREAT ANATOMIST.
Leonardo Da Vinci, to his talents as a painter, added that of being the
best anatomist and physiologist of his time, and was the first person
who introduced the practice of making anatomical drawings. Vassari, in
his _Lives of the Painters_, says that Leonardo made a book of studies,
drawn with red chalk, and touched with a pen with great diligence, of
such subjects as Marc Antonio de la Torre, an excellent philosopher of
that day, had dissected. "And concerning those from part to part, he
wrote remarks in letters of an ugly form, which are written by the left
hand backwards, and not to be understood but by those who knew the
method of reading them; for they are not to be read without a
looking-glass." Those very drawings and writings alluded to by Vassari,
were happily found to be preserved in the royal collection of original
drawings, where Dr. Hunter was permitted to examine them. The Doctor,
in noticing them, says: "I expected to see little more than such
designs in anatomy as might be useful to the painter in his own
profession; but I saw, and, indeed, with astonishment, that Leonardo
had been a general and a deep student. When I consider what pains he
has taken upon every part of the body, the superiority of his universal
genius, his particular excellence in mechanics and hydraulics, and the
attention with which such a man would examine and see objects which he
was to draw, I am fully persuaded that Leonardo was the best anatomist
at that time in the world."
EXTRAVAGANCES OF THE HERRNHUTERS.
In a letter to Count Zinzendorf--the founder of the community of
Moravian Brethren at Herrnhut, in Upper Lusatia--who visited England
about 1745, Whitfield thus describes and rebukes some of the
extravagant flummeries then practised by the Moravians: "Pray, my Lord,
what instances have we of the first Christians walking round the graves
of their deceased friends on Easter day, attended with hautboys,
trumpets, French horns, violins, and other kinds of musical
instruments? Or where have we the least mention made of pictures of
particular persons being brought into the Christian assemblies, and of
candles being placed behind them in order to give a transparent view of
the figures? Where was it ever known that the picture of the Apostle
Paul, representing him handing a gentleman and lady up to the side of
Jesus Christ, was ever introduced into the primitive love-feasts?...
Again, my Lord, I beg leave to inquire whether we hear anything in
Scripture of eldresses or deaconesses of the apostolical churches
seating themselves before a table covered with artificial flowers, and
against that a little altar surrounded with wax tapers, on which stood
a cross, composed either of mock or real diamonds, or other glittering
stones? And yet your Lordship must be sensible this was done in Fetter
Lane Chapel, for Mrs. Hannah Nitschman, the present general eldress of
your congregation; with this addition, that all the sisters were
seated, clothed in white, and with German caps; the organ also
illuminated with three pyramids of wax tapers, each of which was tied
with a red ribbon; and over the head of the general eldress was placed
her own picture, and over that (_horresco referens_) the picture of the
Son of God. A goodly sight this, my Lord, for a company of English
Protestants to behold!... A like scene to this was exhibited by the
single brethren in a room of their house at Hatton Garden. The floor
was covered with sand and moss, and in the middle of it was paved a
star of different-coloured pebbles; upon that was placed a gilded dove,
which spouted water out of its mouth into a vessel prepared for its
reception, which was curiously decked with artificial leaves and flags;
the room was hung with moss and shell; the Count, his son, and
son-in-law, in honour of whom all this was done, with Mrs. Hannah
Nitschman, and Mr. Peter Boehlen, and some other labourers, were also
present. These were seated under an alcove, supported by columns made
of pasteboard, and over their heads was painted an oval in imitation of
marble, containing cyphers of Count Zinzendorf's family. Upon a
side-table was a little altar covered with shells, and on each side of
the altar was a bloody heart, out of, or near which, proceeded flames.
The room was illuminated with wax tapers, and musicians played in an
adjoining apartment, while the company performed their devotions, and
regaled themselves with sweetmeats, coffee, tea, and wine." Mr.
Whitfield also mentions a "singular expedient" made use of to raise the
drooping spirits of one Mr. Bell, who had been induced to join the
Brethren. On his birthday, he was sent for by Mr. Peter Boehlen, one of
the bishops, and "was introduced into a hall, where was placed an
artificial mountain, which, upon singing a particular verse, was made
to fall down, and then behind it was discovered an illumination,
representing Jesus Christ and Mr. Bell sitting very near, or embracing
each other; and out of the clouds was also represented plenty of money
falling round Mr. Bell and the Saviour." Towards the close of his
career, Count Zinzendorf applied himself, and not without success, to
undo a good deal of the extravagant and unseemly work of former years,
both in his devotional hymns and forms.
AN AWKWARD ASSOCIATION.
In his _Jest-book_, Mr. Lemon tells the following capital story of
awkward association:--"In a cause tried in the Court of Queen's Bench,
the plaintiff being a widow, and the defendants two medical men who had
treated her for delirium tremens, and put her under restraint as a
lunatic, witnesses were called on the part of the plaintiff to prove
that she was not addicted to drinking. The last witness called by Mr.
Montagu Chambers, the leading counsel, on the part of the plaintiff,
was Dr. Tunstal, who closed his evidence by describing a case of
delirium tremens treated by him, in which the patient recovered in a
single night. 'It was,' said the witness, 'a case of gradual drinking,
sipping all day, from morning till night.' These words were scarcely
uttered, than Mr. Chambers, turning to the Bench, said, 'My Lord, that
is my case.'"
TURNING-POINT IN PALEY'S CAREER.
When Paley first went to Cambridge, he fell into a society of young men
far richer than himself, to whom his talents and conviviality made him
an acceptable companion, and he was in a fair way for ruin. One morning
one of these comrades came into his bedroom before he was up, and he,
as usual, thought it was to propose some plan of pleasure for the day.
His friend, however, said, "Paley, I have not slept a wink this night
for thinking of you. I am, as you know, heir to such and such a
fortune, and whether I ever look in a book at Cambridge does not
signify a farthing. But this is not the case with you. You have only
your abilities to look to; and no man has better, if you do but make
the proper use of them. But if you go on in this way, you are ruined;
and from this time forward I am determined not to associate with you,
for your own sake. You know I like your company, and it is a great
sacrifice to give it up; but give it up I will, as a matter of
conscience." Paley lay in bed the whole day, ruminating upon this. In
the evening he rose and took his tea, ordered his bed-maker to make his
fire overnight, and call him at five in the morning; and from that day
forward he rose always at that hour. He went out first wrangler, and
became the fortunate man he was. This story was told to Southey in
1808, by Mr. Brome, who had it from an intimate friend of Paley.
THE DANGERS OF TOO GOOD COMPANY.
George I. liked to temper the cares of royalty with the pleasures of
private life, and commonly invited six or eight friends to pass the
evening with him. His Majesty seeing Dr. Lockier one day at court,
desired the Duchess of Ancaster, who was almost always of the party, to
ask the Doctor to come that evening. When the company met in the
evening, Dr. Lockier was not there; and the King inquired of the
Duchess if she had invited him. "Yes," she said; "but the Doctor
presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and hopes your Majesty will
have the goodness to excuse him at present; he is soliciting some
preferment from your Majesty's Ministers, and fears it may be some
obstacle to him, if it should be known that he had the honour of
keeping such good company." The King laughed very heartily, and said he
believed he was in the right. Not many weeks after, Dr. Lockier kissed
the King's hand as Dean of Peterborough; and as he was rising from
kneeling, the King inclined forwards, and with great good-humour
whispered in his ear, "Well, now, Doctor, you will not be afraid to
come in an evening; I would have you come this evening;" an invitation
which was very readily accepted.
ANECDOTES OF ABERNETHY.
John Abernethy, the pupil and friend of John Hunter, was remarkable for
eccentricity and _brusquerie_ in his dealings with patients. But there
are many instances to show that his roughness was only external, and
that a very soft and gentle heart beat in his bosom. He was sometimes
successfully combated with his own weapons. A lady on one occasion
entered his consulting-room, and showed him an injured finger, without
saying a word. In silence Abernethy dressed the wound; silently the
lady put the usual fee on the table, and retired. In a few days she
came again, and offered the finger for inspection. "Better?" asked the
surgeon. "Better," answered the lady, speaking for the first time. Not
another word followed during the interview. Three or four visits were
made, in the last of which the patient held out her finger perfectly
healed. "Well?" was Abernethy's inquiry. "Well," was the lady's answer.
"Upon my soul, madam," exclaimed the delighted surgeon, "_you are the
most rational woman I ever met with_!" "I had heard of your rudeness
before I came, Sir," another and less fortunate lady said, taking his
prescription; "but I was not prepared for such treatment. What am I to
do with this?" "Anything you like," the surgeon roughly answered. "Put
it on the fire if you please." Taking him at his word, the lady put her
fee on the table, and the prescription on the fire, and, making a bow,
left the room. Abernethy followed her, apologizing, and begging her to
take back the fee or let him write another prescription; but the lady
would not relent. When the bubble schemes were flourishing in 1825, Mr.
Abernethy met some friends who had risked large sums of money in one of
those speculations; they informed him that they were going to partake
of a most sumptuous dinner, the expenses of which would be defrayed by
the company. "If I am not very much deceived," replied he, "you will
have nothing but bubble and squeak in a short time."
BLOMFIELD'S REBUKE TO NON-RESIDENT RECTORS.
Dr. Blomfield, Bishop of London, had occasion to call the attention of
the Essex incumbents to the necessity of residing in their parishes;
and he reminded them that curates were, after all, of the same flesh
and blood as rectors, and that the residence which was possible for the
one, could not be quite impossible for the other. "Besides," added he,
"there are two well-known preservatives against ague: the one is, a
good deal of care and a little port wine; the other, a little care and
a good deal of port wine. I prefer the former; but if any of the clergy
prefer the latter, it is at all events a remedy which incumbents can
afford better than curates."
DEVOTION OF A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
In a parish close to Dublin, it is on record that a Catholic priest was
called on to administer the solemn rites of his religion to a family in
the last stage of typhus fever. The family, six or seven in number,
were found lying in a wretched hovel, on a little straw scattered on
the damp earthen floor. The agonies of death were fast coming upon
them. The confession of each one of them had to be heard. Lest any
should overhear the confession of another, the priest stretched himself
on the straw, while the miserable sufferer breathed his or her
confession into his ear. Thus, inhaling the poison of their
respiration, and separating them from each other successively, at the
risk of his own life, he completed his sacred functions.
PULPIT JOKES OF DANIEL BURGESS.
Daniel Burgess, the noted Nonconformist minister, was by no means of
Puritan strictness, for he was the most facetious person of his day,
and carried his wit so far as to retail it from the pulpit with more
levity than decency. Speaking of Job's "robe of righteousness," he once
said, "If any of you would have a suit for a twelvemonth, let him
repair to Monmouth Street; if for his lifetime, let him apply to the
Court of Chancery; but if for all eternity, let him put on the robe of
righteousness." The sermons of Burgess were adapted to the prejudices
as well as the opinions of his hearers--wit and Whiggism went hand in
hand with Scripture. He was strongly attached to the House of
Brunswick, and would not uphold the Pretender's cause from the pulpit.
He once preached a sermon, about that time, on the reason why the Jews
were called Jacobites, in which he said, "God ever hated Jacobites, and
therefore Jacob's sons were not so called, but Israelites!"
PHYSICIANS AND THEIR FEES.
Perhaps regarding nothing connected with the science and practice of
medicine, or the lives of its professors, are there more stories told,
more curious facts on record, more interesting exhibitions of character
and touching displays of generosity to relate, than about the giving
and taking--or not taking--of fees. In stringing together some
memoranda and anecdotes on this head, it needs only to be said that
they are but a few out of a crowd. At the outset, it may be explained
that from very early times the fee of the physician (like that of the
advocate or the university professor) was regarded in the light of a
voluntary recognition or reward for services rendered out of pure love
of science or humanity. Dr. Doran alleges, indeed, that "there is a
religious reason why fees are supposed not to be taken by physicians.
Amongst the Christian martyrs are reckoned the two eastern brothers,
Damian and Cosmas. They practised as physicians in Cilicia, and they
were the first mortal practitioners who refused to take recompense for
their work. Hence they were called Anargyri, or 'without money.' All
physicians are pleasantly supposed to follow this example. They never
take fees, like Damian and Cosmas; but they meekly receive what they
know will be given out of Christian humility, and with a certain or
uncertain reluctance, which is the nearest approach that can be made in
these times to the two brothers who were in partnership at Egea in
Cilicia." It has very naturally, however, been objected that physicians
act from no such lofty motives, but merely because they prefer that the
gratitude or the fears of the patient should be the measure of their
reward. And yet, as Mr. Wadd forcibly remarks, "it is a fact, not less
singular than true, that the advancement of surgical science is a
benefit conferred on society at the expense of the scientific
practitioner, since in proportion as the mode of cure is _tuto et
celeriter_, safe and speedy, remuneration is diminished. Perhaps in no
instance is this better exemplified than in the operation of the
hydrocele, introduced by my late friend and master, Sir James Earle.
Compare the simplicity, safety, and celerity of this, with the bustle
and bloody brutality of the old system; the business of six weeks
reduced to so many days! But mark the consequence, _quâ honorarium_:
does the patient increase the fee for the pain and misery he is spared?
Not a bit of it. Here is little or no work done; no trouble to the
doctor; no pain to the patient; therefore, nothing to pay for....
Selden, who understood these failings in mankind vastly well, gives
them a sly hit in his _Table Talk_:--'If a man had a sore leg, and he
should go to an honest, judicious chirurgeon, and he should only bid
him keep it warm, and anoint it with such an oil (an oil well known)
that would do the cure, haply he would not much regard him, because he
knows the medicine beforehand, an ordinary medicine. But if he should
go to a surgeon that should tell him, your leg will gangrene within
three days and it must be cut off, and you will die unless you do
something that I could tell you, what listening there would be to this
man! Oh, for the Lord's sake, tell me what this is, I will give you any
content for your pains!'" Not only has this loss of reward through the
devising of new appliances for preventing human suffering, not made
medical men, as a rule, one whit less anxious to devise them, or adopt
them when devised; but it is in the experience of all, that in many
cases physicians can render services gratuitously, which they would
never have had the opportunity of rendering if it was not understood,
both by themselves and the suffering, that they gave their skill
cheerfully for God's sake as for gold's sake, to those who were unable
to appeal to the latter power.
_Ancient Fees of Magnitude._--Seleucus--the one of Alexander's generals
to whom the kingdom of Syria fell at the break-up of the empire of
Macedonian conquest--gave to Erasistratus 60,000 crowns "for
discovering the disorder of his son Antiochus." Alcon, whose dexterity
is celebrated in Martial's _Epigrams_, was repaid by the public, in the
course of a few years' practice, the sum of 10,000,000 sesterces
(£80,000) which he had lost by a law-suit. Four Roman physicians,
Aruntius, Calpetanus, Rubrius, and Albutius, for their attendance on
Augustus and his two immediate successors, enjoyed each an annual
salary of 250,000 sesterces, equal to £2000 sterling.
_Early English Fees._--In 1345, Edward III. granted to his apothecary,
Coursus de Gungeland, a pension of sixpence a-day; and "Ricardus Wye,
chirurgicus," had twelve pence per day, and eight marks per year, for
his services. Under the same king, "Willielmus Holme, chirurgicus
Regis," is rewarded with the permission, during his lifetime, "to hunt,
take, and carry off wild animals of all kinds, in any of the royal
forests, chases, parks, and warrens." In the Courts of the kings of
Wales, the physician or surgeon was the twelfth person in rank, and his
fees seem to have been fixed by law. For a flesh wound, not of a
dangerous character, he got nothing but such of the wounded man's
garments as the blood had stained; but for any of the three classes of
dangerous wounds, he had in addition 180 pence, and his maintenance so
long as his services might be in requisition.
_Fees in the reign of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth._--In the record of
expenses of the Earl of Cumberland, it is stated that he paid to a
physician of Cambridge £1; but this fee was evidently, as shown by
other entries, an exceptionally liberal one, even perhaps for a noble
to pay. In the 18th year of Henry VIII., as is mentioned in Burn's
_History of Westmoreland_, Sir Walter Strickland made a bargain with a
physician to cure him of an asthma for £20. Stow, in the same reign,
complimenting British physicians on their skill and learning, mentions
"as the great grievance that the inferior people are undone by the
exorbitance of their fees." Half-a-crown, he avers, is in Holland
looked on as a large fee; whereas in England "a physician scorns to
touch any metal but gold; and our surgeons are still more
unreasonable." Queen Elizabeth's physician in ordinary received £100
per annum, besides his sustenance, wine, wax, and other necessaries or
perquisites. Her apothecary, Hugo Morgan, for one quarter's bill had
£83, 7s. 8d.; but this was not all for medicines, as such entries as
this will show:--eleven shillings for a confection shaped like a _manus
Christi_, with bezoar stone and unicorn's horn; sixteenpence for a
royal sweetmeat with incised rhubarb; six shillings for "a conserve of
barberries, with preserved damascene plums, and other things for Mr.
Ralegh;" two shillings and sixpence for sweet scent to be used at the
christening of Sir Richard Knightley's son; and so on.