1752. Life and Character of t A Altho' the principal object of his Atudies was divinity, he allowed himself very confiderable excurfions towards another fcience extremely different, which was geometry. He applied himself to it, without any other reafon but that of its invincible charms which drew him; but, happily, after his father's death, it was a refource for him, which he had not foreseen, He found the means to fubfift at Leyden, and to continue his theological ftudies there, by teaching the mathematicks to B young men of distinction. On the other hand, the illness of which he had cured himself, caufed him to make fome reflections upon the advantage of phyfick; he undertook to study the principal authors in that kind, and began with Hip- C pocrates, whom he paffionately admired. He did not follow the publick profeffors, he only took fome of the leffons of the famous Drelincourt, but applied himself to publick diffections, and often diffected animals in private. He wanted to learn real facts, which are known but imperfectly by the report of others; all the reft he learned himself by reading. Dr. BOORHAAVE. D His theology, in the mean time, did not fail to advance, and this theology was the Greek, the He- E brew, the Chaldee, the critick of the Old and New Teftament, the ancient ecclefiaftical authors, the moAs he was dern commentators. known to be capable of a great many things at once, he was advised to join phyfick with theology; and indeed, he gave them the fame application, and prepared himself to discharge, at the fame time, the two functions the most indifpenfably neceffary to the fociety. But it must be owned, that, tho equally capable of both, he was not equally proper for both. The refult of a vaft and profound reading in theological matters, had been, to perfuade him that religion, very fimple on coming out, as may be A meré accident, wherein he had F 72 Life and Character of Dr. BOORHAAVE. Feb. which, indeed, may appear fmail, but which a hypocrite would not have the face to affect. After this adventure, he refolved thenceforward to be a theologian, only fo far as was necessary to be a good christian, and entirely gave himself up to phyfick. He did not repent of this refolution, con- A fidering the life he fhould otherwife have led, that violent zeal he must have shewn for very doubtful opinions, which merited only toleration, and that fpirit of party, of which he must have put on fome forced appearances, which would have cost him a great deal, and fucceeded little. He was admitted doctor of phyfick in the future merit of Dr. Boorhaave, and it was for them a glory, with which they had reafon afterwards to be pleafed ; and for him a fubject of gratitude, of which he was always very fenfible. Mr. Vandenberg propofed to him to think of a profeffor of phyfick's place in the univerfity of Leyden, and frightned him with the propofition, which he immediately judged too rash and too ambitious for him; but this learned and zealous friend, who believed that he was ftrong enough by his credit, and still more by the fubject for whom he fhould act, undertook the affair, and it was done in 1702. Tho' he was now become publick pro the year 1693, at 25 years of age, and B feffor, he ftill held private courfes at did not difcontinue his mathematical lectures, of which he ftood in need, whilst he was waiting for patients, which do not come on a fudden. When they began to come, he laid out all he could fpare in books, and he believed himself more at his eafe, only because he was better able to make himself skilful in his profeffion. For the fame reason, as he made himself a library by little and little, he made himself a chemical elaboratory, and tho' he could not afford to give himfelf a garden, he ftudied botany very much. If we reflect on all that has been hitherto faid, we fhall be furprized, with-. home, which are both more inftructive and more frequented, and, to fay all, more beneficial to the mafter. The fuccefs of his lectures was fuch, that upon a flying report that he was to go fomewhere elfe, the curators of the univerfity of Leyden confiderably increafed his appointments, Con condition that he would not leave them. Their wife œconomy knew how to calculate what he was worth to their city, by the great number of his scholars. The first step to his fortune once made, the others followed apace. They gave him two more profeffors places, the one in botany, the other in chemistry; and the honours, which are but honours, of out doubt, at the abundance of different D rectorships, were not spared him. learning collected in one fingle head. His reputation increafed very quick, and his fortune very flowly. A lord, who was most intimately in favour with William III. king of England, folicited him, by magnificent promifes, to come and fettle with him at the Hague; but the F young doctor was afraid for his liberty, tho', perhaps, without reason, and he courageously refufed. Literature and the fciences very naturally form independent fouls, because they greatly moderate the defires. Dr. Boorhaave at that time had three friends of great confideration, Mr. James Trigland, a famous profeffor in divinity; and Mr. Daniel Alphen, and John Vandenberg, both raised to the chief magiftracy, which they exercifed with great honour. They had in a manner presaged His functions thus multiplied as much as they could be, drew to Leyden a concourfe of ftrangers, almoft fufficient to have enriched the city; and certainly, the magiftrates did not repent purchasing dear the affurance of always poffeffing a like profeffor. All the dominions of Europe furnished him with difciples, Germany principally, and even England, proud as they are, and with justice, of the flourifhing ftate the fciences are in among them. Altho' the place where he held his private courfes of phyfick or chemistry was very large, for the greater certainty, perfons often fent to have places kept, as they do at the celebrated opera's. It is not furprizing, that in ages wherein publick establishments, defigned for the weak sciences of that time, were very rare, they should have come from all the countries in Europe to a doctor become famous, that fometimes they should even have followed him into folitudes, when he was drove out of the cities by the jeaGloufy and the rage of his rivals. But now that all is full of colleges, univerfities, academies, private masters, and of books which are ftill more fure mafters, what need is there to go out of their own country te study in any kind whatever? 1752. The Life and Character of Dr. BOOR HAAVE. 73 Will they find elsewhere a master so superior to thofe they had at home? Will they be fufficiently recompensed for the journey? It is hardly poffible to imagine, upon this point, any other caufe but the rare and fingular talents of a professor. He will not be obliged to invent new fyftems, but he will be obliged to poffefs A perfectly all that has been wrote upon his fcience, to carry light wherever the original authors, according to custom, fhall lave left a great obfcurity, to rectify their errors, always the more dangerous as they are more in esteem; finally, to newmould all the fcience, if one can hope, as one almost always may, that it will be more easy to fucceed under a new form. B ever. He had three profeffors chairs, and filled them all three in the fame manner. In 1707, he published his Inftitutiones Medica, and in 1708, his Aphorifmi de ceprofeendis et curandis Morbis. These two works, and principally the Inftitutions, are very much Cefteemed by those who have a right to judge of them; he proposes to himself in them to imitate Hippocrates. After his example, he never grounds himself but upon well averred experience, and lays' afide all the fyftems which may be only ingenious productions of the human mind, difavowed by nature. This wit dom is still more to be esteemed at prefent than in the time of Hippocrates, wherein fyftems were neither in fuch great number, nor fo feducing. This is what Dr. Boorhaave has done as His imitation of Hippocrates appears alfo in the clofe and nervous ftile of his works. They are in fome measure only the buds of truths reduced extremely fmall, and which must be enlarged and opened, as he did it by his explications. Could it have been believed, that Dr. Boorhaave's Inftitutions of phyfick and his Aphorifms would have had a fuccefs great enough to pafs the bounds of Chriftendom, to spread themselves as far as Turkey, there to be tranflated into Arabick? and by whom? by the Mufti himfelf. Do the moft learned Turks under It must be owned, however, that in this fo pure and fo luminous a science, or chemistry, he admits attraction; and, to act with more franknefs than men very often do upon this matter, he very exprefsly owns, that this attraction is not at all a mechanical principle. Perhaps they will think this more fupportable in chemistry than in aftronomy, because of thofe fudden, violent, impetuous motions, fo common in chemical operations; but on any occafion whatever, will they have faid any thing when they have pro-, nounced the word attraction? They ac- Fftand Latin? Will they understand a cufed him of having put into that work fome operations, which he had not performed himfelf, and for which he had trufted too much to his artifts. Besides the qualities effential to great profeffors, Dr. Boorhaave had also thofe which make them amiable to their difci ples. Generally they throw a certain G multitude of things which relate to our phyficks, to our anatomy, to our chemitry? How will they be fenfible of the merit of works, which are fuited to the capacity of our learned only? Notwithstanding all this, Mr. Albert Schultens, very learned in the Eastern languages, and who, by order of the university of Leyden, made Dr. Boorhaave's funeral oration there, has faid in it, that he had feen that Arabick tranflation that time 5 years, that having compared it with the original he had found it very faithful, and that K |