good effects of Latimer's zealous preaching. On the 10th of March he
brought in £104 recovered of one who had concealed it from the King,
and a little after, £363 of the King's money." The amount of this
conscience-money must of course be multiplied manifold, to estimate
aright the penetrating and persuading power of the preacher. Latimer's
style of preaching is said to have been extremely captivating; simple
and familiar, often enlivened with anecdote, irony, and humour; and
still oftener swelling into strains of most impassioned and awakening
eloquence. Of the earnestness of his manner, which could lead to the
disgorgement of great plunder by unscrupulous men, the following, from
a sermon against the corruptions of the age, may be taken as a
sample:--"Take heed and beware of covetousness; take heed and beware of
covetousness; take heed and beware of covetousness. And what if I
should say nothing else these three or four hours but these words?
Great complaints there are of it, and much crying out, and much
preaching, but little amendment that I can see; Covetousness is the
root of all evil. Then have at the root; out with your swords, ye
preachers, and strike at the root. Stand not ticking and toying at the
branches, for new branches will spring out again, but strike at the
root; and fear not these great men, these men of power, these
oppressors of the needy--fear them not, but strike at the root." In
another sermon, Latimer himself gives some account of the restitutions
he brought about:--"At my first preaching of restitution, one man took
remorse of conscience, and acknowledged himself to me that he had
deceived the King, and willing he was to make restitution; and so the
first Lent came to my hands £20 to be restored to the King's use. I was
promised £20 more the same Lent; but it could not be made, so that it
came not. Well, the next Lent came £320 more. I received it myself and
paid it to the King's council. So I was asked what he was that made
this restitution. But should I have named him? Nay, they should as soon
have this weasand of mine. Well, now, this Lent came £180, 10s. which I
was paid, and delivered this present day to the King's council; and so
this man hath made a godly restitution. And so, quoth I to a certain
nobleman that is one of the King's council, if every man that hath
beguiled the King should make restitution after this sort, it would
cough the King £20,000 I think, said I. Yea, that it would, quoth the
other, a whole £100,000. Alack! alack! make restitution for God's sake;
ye will cough in hell else, that all the devils there will laugh at
your coughing. There is no remedy but restitution, open or secret, or
else hell."
SERVANT AND MASTER.
A preacher who differed in opinion with Adolphus Gunn, called upon him,
and being known, was denied admittance, "Mr. Gunn being busy in his
study." "Tell him," said the importunate visitor, "that a servant of
the Lord wishes to speak to him." Gunn sent back this answer: "Tell the
servant of the Lord that I am engaged with his Master."
DR. BARROWBY,
Who lived about the middle of last century, when canvassing for a post
in St. Bartholomew's Hospital, called upon a grocer in Snow Hill, one
of the governors. The grocer was sitting in his counting-house, and
thence saw the Doctor enter the shop. Knowing his person, and having
little doubt that the object of his visit was to solicit his vote at
the approaching election, the grocer immediately donned his hat and
spectacles, and greatest parochial consequence, and, strutting into the
shop with an insolent air of patronage, addressed the Doctor
with--"Well, friend, and what is your business?" Barrowby promptly and
quietly said, "I want a pound of plums;" and after the abashed and
mortified grocer had weighed them out and put them up, Barrowby paid
for them and walked off without saying a word. (This story has been
erroneously told of Abernethy.) Of the same Dr. Barrowby, it is related
that an Irish gentleman, whom the College of Physicians had declined to
pass, called next day on him, and insisted upon fighting him, as being
one of the Censors who had been the authors of the rejection. Barrowby,
who was small of stature, declined to fight. "I am only the third
Censor," he said, "in point of age; you must first call out your
countryman, Sir Hans Sloane, our President, and when you have fought
him and the two senior Censors, then I shall be ready to meet you."
A DESIRABLE CURE OF SOULS.
Southey copied the following from Jackson's _Oxford Journal_:--
"NEXT PRESENTATION.
"To be sold by auction, by Hoggart and Philips, at the Auction Mart,
opposite the Bank of England, on Thursday next, the 11th day of April
1811, the next presentation to a most valuable living, in one of the
first sporting counties. The vicinity affords the best coursing in
England, also excellent fishing, an extensive cover for game, and
numerous packs of fox-hounds, harriers, etc.; it is half-an-hour's ride
from one of the first cities, and not far distant from several most
fashionable watering-places; the surrounding country is beautiful and
healthful, and the society elegant and fashionable. The incumbent is
about fifty years of age. Particulars may be had," etc. etc.
BEAU NASH'S TREATMENT OF A PRESCRIPTION.
When Beau Nash was ill, Dr. Cheyne wrote a prescription for him. Next
day the Doctor, coming to see his patient, asked him if he had followed
the prescription. "No, truly, Doctor," was the answer of Nash; "if I
had I should have broken my neck, for I threw it out of a two pair of
stairs' window."
PULTENEY'S CURE BY SMALL BEER.
Mr. Pulteney, afterwards the Earl of Bath, lay (about 1730) for a long
time at Lord Chetwynd's house of Ingestre, in Staffordshire, sick, very
dangerously, of a pleuritic fever. This illness cost him an expense of
750 guineas for physicians; and, after all, his cure was accomplished
merely by a draught of small beer. Dr. Hope, Dr. Swynsen, and other
physicians from Stafford, Lichfield, and Derby, were called in, and
carried off about 250 guineas of the patient's money, leaving the
malady just where they found it. Dr. Freind went down post from London,
with Mrs. Pulteney, and received 300 guineas for the journey. Dr.
Broxholm went from Oxford, and received 200 guineas. When these two
physicians, who were Pulteney's particular friends, arrived, they found
his case to be quite desperate, and gave him over, saying that
everything had been done that could be done. They prescribed some few
medicines, but without the least effect. He was still alive, and was
heard to mutter, in a low voice, "Small beer, small beer." They said,
"Give him small beer, or anything." Accordingly, a great silver cup was
brought, which held two quarts of small beer; they ordered an orange to
be squeezed into it, and gave it to him. Pulteney drank off the whole
at a draught, and demanded another. Another cupful was administered to
him; and soon after that he fell into a profuse perspiration and a
profound slumber for nearly twenty-four hours. In his case the saying
was eminently verified, "If he sleep he shall do well." From that time
forth, he recovered wonderfully, insomuch that in a few days the
physicians took their leave. The joy over his recovery was diffused
over the whole country; for he was then in the height of that
popularity which, after his elevation to the peerage, he completely
forfeited.
A WITTY FRENCH PREACHER.
A French preacher, called Father André, was nicknamed by his Bishop _le
petit fallot_ (the little lantern). Having to preach before the
prelate, André determined to notice this, and took for his text, "Ye
are the light of the world." Addressing himself to the Bishop, he said,
"Vous etês, monseigneur, le grand fallot de l'église, nous ne sommes
que de petits fallots." Father André, preaching before an Archbishop,
perceived him to be asleep during the sermon, and thought of the
following method to awake him. Turning to the beadle of the church, he
said in a loud voice, "Shut the doors, the shepherd is asleep, and the
sheep are going out, to whom I am announcing the word of God." This
sally caused a stir in the audience, which awoke the Archbishop. Being
once to announce a collection for a young lady, to enable her to take
the veil, he said, before the commencement of his sermon, "Friends, I
recommend to your charity a young lady, who has not enough to enable
her to make a vow of poverty." Preaching during the whole of Lent in a
town where he was never invited to dine, he said, in his farewell
sermon, "I have preached against every vice except that of good
living--which, I believe, is not to be found among you, and therefore
needed not my reproach."
CROMWELL AND RICHARD BAXTER.
After Cromwell had seized on the government, Richard Baxter, the
celebrated Nonconformist divine, once preached before the Protector,
when he made use of the following text: "Now, I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus the Christ, that ye all speak the same
thing, and that there be no division amongst you; but that ye be
perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment."
The discourse on these words was levelled against the divisions and
distractions which then prevailed, especially in the Church. After the
sermon, Cromwell sent for Mr. Baxter, and made a long and serious
speech to him, about God's providence in the change of the government,
and the great things which had been done at home and abroad. Mr. Baxter
answered, that it was too condescending in his Highness to acquaint him
so fully with all these matters, which were above his understanding;
but that the honest people of the land took their ancient monarchy to
be a blessing, and not an evil, and humbly craved his patience, that he
might ask how they had forfeited that blessing? At this question
Cromwell became angry; he said, "There was no forfeiture; but God had
changed things as it pleased Him;" and after reviling the Parliament
which thwarted him, and especially by name four or five members who
were particular friends of Mr. Baxter, he dismissed the worthy divine
with signs of great displeasure.
MESSENGER MONSEY'S DYING JESTS.
Dr. Messenger Monsey, the great grandfather of Lord Cranworth (so at
least Mr. Jeafferson affirms), was appointed physician to Chelsea
Hospital through the influence of Godolphin, and, after holding that
office for about half a century, died in his rooms at Chelsea in 1788,
in his ninety-fifth year. The eccentricities that had characterized his
prime continued to distinguish him to the last. In consequence of his
great age, many intending candidates for the office went down to
Chelsea, in order to contemplate the various advantages and _agrémens_
of the situation, and observe the progress of the tenacious incumbent
towards final recumbency. Monsey, who was at once a humorist, and
possessed of a sharp eye for a visitor of this order, one day espied in
the College walks a reconnoitring doctor, whom he thus accosted: "So,
Sir, I find you are one of the candidates to succeed me." The physician
bowed. Monsey proceeded: "But you will be confoundedly disappointed."
"Disappointed!" exclaimed the physician, with quivering lips. "Yes,"
returned Monsey; "you expect to outlive me; but I can discern from your
countenance, and other concomitant circumstances, that you are
deceiving yourself--you will certainly die first; though, as I have
nothing to expect from that event, I shall not rejoice at your death,
as I am persuaded you would at mine." It actually fell out as Monsey
(possibly only by way of a ghastly jest) had foretold; the candidate
lived but a short time. The Doctor was so diverted with checking the
aspiring hopes of his brethren of the faculty, that whenever he saw a
physician on the look-out, he was not content till he had gone down to
comfort him in the same manner. He did so to several; and it is very
remarkable--if it be true, as it is alleged--that his predictions were
in every case verified. At last the medical speculators shrank in
superstitious alarm from Chelsea, and left Monsey to die in peace;
indeed, when his death happened, the Minister of the day was not
engaged by a single promise, nor had he had for some time a single
application for the place of physician to the College. Monsey got out
of his own death as much grim fun as he had out of the poor prying
place-hunters. A few days before he died, he wrote to Mr. Cruickshanks,
the anatomist, begging to know whether it would suit his convenience to
undertake the dissection of his body, as he felt that he could not live
many hours, and Mr. Forster, his surgeon, was then out of town. The
dissection was one of the instructions of his eccentric and rather
brutal will; his body was not to be subjected to the insult of any
funeral ceremony, but, after the surgeon had finished with it, "the
remainder of my carcase may be put into a hole, or crammed into a box
with holes, and thrown into the Thames." His will was, so far as
regards the dissection, faithfully carried out; Mr. Forster dissected
the body, and delivered a lecture upon it to the medical students in
the theatre of Guy's Hospital. Before he had disposed of his body by
will in the manner described, and when he meant to be buried in his
garden, he had written an epitaph eminently characteristic of his
violent cynicism and contempt of things sacred:--
MONSEY'S EPITAPH, WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
"Here lie my old bones; my vexation now ends; I have lived much too
long for myself and my friends. As to churches and churchyards, which
men may call holy, 'Tis a rank piece of priestcraft, and founded on
folly. What the next world may be, never troubled my pate; And be what
it may, I beseech you, O fate! When the bodies of millions rise up in a
riot, To let the old carcase of Monsey be quiet."
UNMISTAKEABLE IDENTITY.
A Reverend Doctor in London was what is usually termed a popular
preacher. His reputation, however, had been gained not by his drawing
largely on his own stores of knowledge or eloquence, but by the skill
with which he appropriated the thoughts and language of the great
divines who had gone before him. With fashionable audiences, lightly
versed in pulpit lore, he passed for a miracle of erudition and pathos.
It did, for all that, once happen to him to be detected in his
larcenies. One Sunday, as he was beginning to amaze and delight his
admirers, a grave old gentleman seated himself close to the pulpit, and
listened with close attention. The preacher had hardly finished his
third sentence, before the old gentleman muttered, loud enough to be
heard by those near, "That's Sherlock!" The Doctor frowned, but went
on. He had not proceeded much further, when his tormentor broke out
with, "That's Tillotson!" The Doctor bit his lips and paused, but,
considering discretion the better part of valour, again proceeded. A
third exclamation of "That's Blair!" however, was too much, and fairly
deprived him of patience. Leaning over the pulpit, he cried, "Fellow,
if you do not hold your tongue, you shall be turned out!" Without
moving a muscle of his face, the grave old gentleman raised his head,
and, looking the Doctor full in the face, retorted, "_That's his own!_"
WHITFIELD AND THE NEW YORK SAILORS.
When Whitfield preached before the seamen at New York, he had the
following bold apostrophe in his sermon:--"Well, my boys, we have a
clear sky, and are making fine headway over a smooth sea, before a
light breeze, and we shall soon lose sight of land. But what means this
sudden lowering of the heavens, and that dark cloud arising from
beneath the western horizon? Hark! Don't you hear distant thunder?
Don't you see those flashes of lightning? There is a storm gathering!
Every man to his duty! How the waves rise, and dash against the ship!
The air is dark! The tempest rages! Our masts are gone! The ship is on
her beam ends! What next?" It is said that the unsuspecting tars,
reminded of former perils on the deep, as if struck by the power of
magic, arose with united voices and minds, and shouted, "_Take to the
long boat._."
CLEVER PERVERSION OF SCRIPTURE.
Dr. Williamson, Vicar of Moulton, in Lincolnshire, had a violent
quarrel with one of his parishioners of the name of Hardy, who showed
considerable resentment. On the succeeding Sunday the Doctor preached
from the following text, which he pronounced with much emphasis, and
with a significant look at Mr. Hardy, who was present: "There is no
fool like the fool _Hardy_."
DR. WASDALE'S LONG RIDE.
Dr. Wasdale, who originally was an apothecary, resided at Carlisle when
George III. came to the throne; and as he had some business to transact
in London, he was desirous to see the pageant of the coronation at the
same time. As he was very busy in his professional engagements at
Carlisle, he set out on a Saturday after the market was over, about one
in the afternoon, and got to London the next day, Sunday, in the
evening, having ridden 301 miles in twenty-eight hours. He left London
again on the following Thursday about noon, and got home on Friday in
the evening. This is perhaps the greatest equestrian feat in medical
annals; and, for the information of possible rivals, the Doctor left
the memorandum "that he made use of his own saddle the whole journey."
Dr. Wasdale, in the later part of his life, resided in Spring Gardens,
but did not engage in practice, acting as private secretary to the Duke
of Norfolk.
ICONOCLASTIC ZEAL IN THE NORTH.
"The high altar at Aberdeen"--so we read in Douglas's _East Coast of
Scotland_, published at the end of last century--"a piece of the finest
workmanship of anything of the kind in Europe, was hewn to pieces in
1649, by order of the parish minister. The carpenter employed for this
infamous purpose, struck with the noble workmanship, refused to lay a
tool on it; till the more than Gothic priest took the hatchet from his
hand, and struck the first blow." Elsewhere Douglas, who displays a
heart hatred of the image-breakers, remarks that, "so violent was the
zeal of that reforming period against all monuments of idolatry, that
perhaps the sun and moon, very ancient objects of false worship, _owed
their safety to their distance_."
UNCONCERN IN PRESENCE OF DEATH.
Dr. Woodville, the author of a work on medical botany, lived in
lodgings at a carpenter's house in Ely Place, London; and a few days
before he died, Dr. Adams brought about his removal, for better
attendance, to the Small-pox Hospital. The carpenter with whom he
lodged had not been always on the best terms with him. Woodville said
he should like to let the man see that he died at peace with him, and,
as he never had had much occasion to employ him, desired that he might
be sent for to come and measure him for his coffin. This was done; the
carpenter came, and took measure of the Doctor, who begged him not to
be more than two days about it, "for," said he, "I shall not live
beyond that time;" and he actually did die just before the end of the
next day. A contemporary and friend of his, Dr. George Fordyce, also
expired under similar circumstances. He desired his youngest daughter,
who was sitting by his bedside, to take up a book and read to him; she
read for about twenty minutes, when the Doctor said, "Stop, go out of
the room; I am going to die." She put down the book, and went out of
the room to call the attendant, who immediately went into the bedroom
and found that Fordyce had breathed his last.
AN AGRICULTURAL DEFENCE OF BIGOTRY.
In Ryder's _History of England_, a singular reason is stated to have
been alleged by the Interlocutor, in support of a motion he had made in
Convocation against permitting the printing of Cranmer's translation of
the Bible. "If," said the mover, "we give them the Scriptures in their
vernacular tongue, what ploughman who has read that 'no man having set
his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of
heaven,' will thenceforth make a straight furrow?"
PURITAN RECHRISTENING OF PLAYING CARDS.
The Puritans objected to the use of "heathen" names, not only for
children, but for the "court" cards of the pack. They complained,
according to Collier, of the appellations of Hercules, Alexander,
Julius Cæsar, Hector, and such like; and they wanted to have the Kings
called David, Solomon, Isaiah, and Hezekiah; the Queens, Sarah, Rachel,
Esther, and Susannah; the Knaves, Balak, Achitophel, Tobit, and Bel.
There was, however, it must be confessed, considerable toleration in
their permitting the use of cards at all.
JOHN HUNTER THE ANATOMIST.
Wadd, in his interesting collection of medical _Mems., Maxims, and
Memoirs_, says of John Hunter:--"When Hunter began practice, the town
was in possession of Hawkins, Bromfield, Sharpe, and Pott; whilst Adair
and Tomkins had the chief practice derived from the army. He remained
in unenvied obscurity for many years; and so little was he considered,
that some time after he began lecturing his class consisted of less
than twenty. Dr. Denman used to say that William Hunter was a man of
order, and John Hunter a man of genius; and, in truth, with all his
cleverness, which was more than ordinary, the Doctor always felt John's
superiority. 'In this I am only my brother's interpreter.' 'I am simply
the demonstrator of this discovery; it was my brother's'--were his
constant expressions. Hunter was a philosopher in more senses than one:
he had philosophy enough to bear prosperity as well as adversity, and
with a rough exterior was a very kind man. The poor could command his
services more than the rich. He would see an industrious tradesman
before a duke, when his house was full of grandees. 'You have no time
to spare,' he would say; 'you live by it: most of these can wait; they
have nothing to do when they go home.' No man cared less for the
profits of the profession, or more for the honour of it. He cared not
for money himself, and wished the Doctor to estimate it by the same
scale, when he sent a poor man with this laconic note:--
'DEAR BROTHER,--The bearer wants your advice. I do not know the nature
of the case. He has no money, and you have plenty, so you are well
met.--Yours,
'J. HUNTER.'
He was once applied to, to perform a serious operation on a tradesman's
wife; the fee agreed upon was twenty guineas. He heard no more of the
case for two months, at the end of which time he was called upon to
perform it. In the course of his attendance he found out that the cause
of the delay had been the difficulty under which the patient's husband
had laboured to raise the money; and that they were worthy people, who
had been unfortunate, and were by no means able to support the expense
of such an affliction. 'I sent back to the husband nineteen guineas,
and kept the twentieth,' said he, 'that they might not be hurt with an
idea of too great an obligation. It somewhat more than paid me for the
expense I had been at in the business.' He held the operative part of
surgery in the lowest estimation. 'To perform an operation,' said he,
'is to mutilate the patient whom we are unable to cure; it should
therefore be considered as an acknowledgment of the imperfection of our
art.' Among other characteristics of genius, was his simplicity of
character and singleness of mind. His works were announced as the works
of _John Hunter_; and _John Hunter_ on a plain brass plate announced
his residence. His honour and his pride made him look with contempt on
the unworthy arts by which ignorant and greedy men advance their
fortunes. He contemplated the hallowed duties of his art with the
feelings of a philanthropist and a philosopher; and although surgery
had been cultivated more than 2000 years, this single individual did
more towards establishing it as a _science_, than all who preceded him."
LORD BACON ON THE REVIVAL OF "PROPHESYING."
Lord Bacon, in his _Inquiry on the Pacification of the Church_, asks
whether it might not be advantageous to renew the good service that was
practised in the Church of England for some years, and afterwards put
down, against the advice and opinion of one of the greatest and gravest
prelates of the land. The service in question was commonly called
"prophesying;" and from this description of it by Bacon it may be seen
that it might have benefits of its own, not in the Church of England
alone or especially, if it were resumed at the present day:--"The
ministers within a precinct did meet upon a week-day in some principal
town, where there was some ancient grave minister that was president,
and an auditory admitted of gentlemen, or other persons of leisure.
Then every minister successively, beginning with the youngest, did
handle one and the same part of Scripture, spending severally some
quarter of an hour or better, and in the whole, some two hours; and so
the exercise being begun and concluded with prayer, and the president
giving a text for the next meeting, the assembly was dissolved; and
this was, as I take it, a fortnight's exercise, which in my opinion was
the best way to frame and train up preachers to handle the word of God
as it ought to be handled, that hath been practised. For we see orators
have their declamations; lawyers have their merits; logicians their
sophisms; and every practice of science hath an exercise of erudition
and imitation before men come to the life; only preaching, which is the
worthiest, and wherein it is most dangerous to do amiss, wanteth an
introduction, and is ventured and rushed upon at first."
DR. DONNE'S PRAYERFUL PUN.