CLASS IX. MEN OF GENIUS AND LEARNING. JACOBUS I. &c. rex; 4to. in the Continuation of Boissard, part II. James I. gained great reputation by his book of instructions to his son Henry, entitled, "Basilicon Doron," which shews that he was acquainted with the theory of government. But he seems to have lost as much by his "Dæmonologia," and his "Counterblast to Tobacco."* His works, in general, were formerly more esteemed than they are at present. Meres, in the second part of "Wit's Common Wealth,"† tells us, that James was not only a favourer of poets, but a poet himself; as, says he, "My friend Master Richard Barnefielde hath, in this distich, passing well recorded: The king of Scots now living is a poet, As his Lepanto and his Furies shew it.'" They indeed shew us so much of his poetical character, as to leave us without regret that his translation of the Psalms was never • Taking tobacco was much ridiculed by the men of fashion in the reign of James; and the courtiers affected to reject it with horror. The king said, that "tobacco was the lively image and pattern of hell; for that it had, by allusion, in it all the parts and vices of the world, whereby hell may be gained; to wit, First, it was a smoke; so are all the vanities of this world. Secondly, it delighteth them who take it; so do all the pleasures of the world delight the men of the world. Thirdly, it maketh men drunken and light in the head; so do all the vanities of the world, men are drunken therewith. Fourthly, he that taketh tobacco, saith he, cannot leave it, it doth bewitch him; even so the pleasures of the world make men loath to leave them, they are for the most part so enchanted with them. And further, besides all this, it is like hell in the very substance of it; for it is a stinking, loathsome thing; and so is hell. And further, his majesty professed, that were he to invite the devil to a dinner, he should have three dishes: first, a pig ; second, a poll of ling and mustard; and third, a pipe of tobacco, for digesture."- Witty Apophthegms delivered by James I." &c. 12mo. 1671. There is an order of James to the university of Cambridge, enjoining them not to take tobacco at St. Mary's church. finished.* James was not only a bad writer himself, but was so unfortunate as to make many more; and he was the subject of more bad poetry than he ever wrote. The numerous satires and pasquils against him, together with most of their authors, are now forgotten.+ PHYSICIANS. DR. WILLIAM HARVEY, physician to King James, first found out the circulation of the blood at this period; a discovery which serves to explain * This translation, though it seems not to have received his majesty's last hand, was certainly published, in 1631, with the permission of King Charles. It is remarkable for its flat simplicity, and the abundance of unmeaning expletives. The king has thus translated the eleventh verse of the seventy-fourth Psalm, which is the twelfth verse in our Liturgy: Why withdrawest thou thy hand? why pluckest thou not thy right hand out of thy bosom, to consume the enemy?" Why dost thou thus withdraw thy hand, Even thy right hand restrain? Out of thy bosom, for our good, Draw back the same againe. Here follows the same verse by Hopkins, who has sunk below himself, and seems to have burlesqued the original. Why dost thou draw thy hand aback, And hide it in thy lap, O pluck it out, and be not slack, To give thy foes a rap. The next stanza is the first verse of the same Psalm by King James. O why, our God, for evermore, Hast thou neglected us? Why smoaks thy wrath against the sheep Of thine own pasture thus? The last word, like a closing brick‡ to a builder, was of great use to the translator, when he stood in need of a monosyllable. There is no question but James laboured hard to out-do Sternhold and Hopkins; but he has frequently fallen short of them: he is indeed a single instance, that there is no more a royal way to poetry, than there is to geometry. + The following work is said, by Dr. King, in the preface to his "Toast," to have been published by James I. "Ane short Treatise, conteining some Reulis and Cautelis to be observit and eschewit in Scottis Poesie:" imprinted at Edinburgh, in 1584. A brick of the smallest kind, used to fill a chink. the whole animal economy. Sir Thomas Browne, who well knew the importance of it, prefers it to the discovery of the New World. See the following reign. GULIELMUS BUTLER, Cantabrig. hujus ætatis princeps medicorum. S. P. (Pass) sc. 4to. A copy, in Boissard. William Butler, of Clare Hall, in Cambridge, was one of the greatest physicians, and most capricious humorists of his time. His sagacity in judging of distempers was very great, and his method of cure was sometimes as extraordinary. Mr. Aubrey informs us, that it was usual with him to sit among the boys at St. Mary's church, in Cambridge; and that when he was sent for to King James, at Newmarket, he suddenly turned back to go home, and that the messenger was forced to drive him before him. The reputation of physic was very low in England before Butler's time; hypothetical nonsense was reduced into system, not only in medicine, but also in other arts and sciences. Ob. 29 Jan. 1617-8.* His will is among the Harleian manuscripts, No. 7049, Artic. 6. His benefactions to Clare Hall are mentioned at p. 197, of Richardi Parkeri" Sceletos Cantabrigiensis ;" and there are some notices of him, in vol. iii. p. 429, of Winwood's "Memorials." ROBERTUS FLUDD, alias DE FLUCTIBUS, Oxoniensis, medicinæ doctor, &c. frontispiece to his "Philosophia sacra," Frankf. 1626; fol. Mr. Aubrey relates the following story of him, which he says was the occasion of his being first taken notice of. A clergyman, in Cambridgeshire, by excessive application in composing a learned sermon, which he was to preach before the king, at Newmarket, had brought himself into such a way, that he could not sleep. His friends were advised to give him opium, which he took in so large a quantity, that it threw him into a profound lethargy. Dr. Butler, who was sent for from Cambridge, upon seeing and hearing his case, flew into a passion, and told his wife, that she was in danger of being hanged for killing her husband, and very abruptly left the room. As he was going through the yard, in his return home, he saw several cows, and asked her to whom they belonged: she said, to her husband. "Will you," says the doctor, "give me one of these cows, if I can restore him to life?" She replied "with all my heart." He presently ordered a cow to be killed, and the patient to be put into the warm carcass, which in a short time recovered him.-Aubrey's MS. in Ashmole's Museum. ROBERTUS FLUDD. Visscher. ROBERT FLUDD, without his name, &c. Matthæus Merian, Basilien, fecit; large quarto. ROBERTUS FLUDD, &c. in Boissard; 4to. ROBERT FLUDD. Jollain exc. small 4to. unlike the other prints. This is Robert Fludd, second son of Sir Thomas Fludd, treasurer of war to Queen Elizabeth, was a celebrated physician and Rosicrucian philosopher. He was an author of a peculiar cast, and appears to have been much the same in philosophy, that the mystics are in divinity a vein of unintelligible enthusiasm runs through his works. He frequently used this sublime cant when he addressed himself to his patients; which had sometimes a good effect in raising their spirits, and contributed greatly to their cure. "As charins are nonsense, nonsense has a charm."-ROCHESTER. The prints in his large work, entitled, "Nexus utriusque Cosmi," &c. are extremely singular, and only to be understood by a secondsighted adept. Ob. 1637, Et. 70. See more of him in the "Athenæ Oxonienses." JOHANNES ANTHONIUS, Londinensis, medicinæ doctor, 1623, Et. 70. T. Cross sc. 4to.* The Christian name, and the date, on this print, are evidently mistakes of the engraver of the writing; as the following monumental inscription, in the church of St. Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield, proves : "Sacred to the memory of that worthy and learned Francis Anthony, doctor in physick. There needs no verse to beautifye thy praise, Religion, virtue, and thy skill did raise Though poysonous envy ever sought to blame, Of purest gold to make a medicine, That feele thy helpe by that rare invention. He died the 26th of May, 1623, his age 74: his loving sonne, John Anthony, doctor in physick, left this remembrance of his sorrow." He was the son of Dr. Francis Anthony, to whose practice he succeeded, and is said to have lived very handsomely by the sale of his father's nostrum called Aurum Potabile. He died 28th April, 1655, aged 70, leaving behind him one son and three daughters, as appears by the monument erected for himself and his father in the church of St. Bartholomew the Great, in London. He was author of "Lucas Redivivus; or, the Gospell Physitian; prescribing (by way of Meditation) Divine Physick to prevent Diseases not yet entered upon the Soul, and to cure those Maladies which have already seized upon the Spirit, 1656, 4to." His head is prefixed to this book. Dr. Francis Anthony had another son named Charles, who settled at Bedford. GILBERTUS JACCHEUS (Jack), Med. Doct. & Phys. Prof. 4to. in "Athen. Bat." This eminent physician, who was equally remarkable for the quickness of his parts and the solidity of his judgment, was a native of Aberdeen, and studied at Leyden; where, in 1611, he took the degree of doctor of physic. He was author of "Institutiones Physica," "Institutiones Metaphysicæ," and "Institutiones Medica." Lugd. Bat. 1624; small duodecimo. POETS. JOHN MILTON, (Etat. 10.) "When I was yet a child, no childish play C. Johnson p. 1618; Cipriani f. h. sh. The original, which was sold at Mr. Charles Stanhope's sale for thirty-one guineas, was in the possession of the late Thomas Hollis, esq. The head of young Milton is mentioned here by a prolepsis; not in the rank in which he now stood, but in that for which nature designed him. |