charming eyes turned favourably upon me, my breaft was filled with fuch tumults of delight, as wholly deprived me of the power of utterance, and wrapt me in a delirium of joy! Encouraged by your sweetness of temper and affability, I ventured to describe the feelings of my heart-even then you did not check my prefumptionyou pitied my fufferings, and gave me leave to hope ;you put a favourable, perhaps too favourable a conftruction, on my appearance-Certain it is, I am no player in love-I speak the language of my own heart, and have no prompter but nature. Yet there is fomething in this heart, which I have not yet disclosed-I flattered myself -But, I will not, I must not proceed-Dear Mifs Liddy! for Heaven's fake contrive, if poffible, fome means of letfing me fpeak to you before you leave Gloucefter; otherwife I know not what will-But I begin to rave again— I will endeavour to bear this trial with fortitude-while I am capable of reflecting upon your tenderness and truth, furely have no cause to defpair-yet I am strangely affected. The fun feems to deny me light-a cloud hangs over me, and there is a dreadful weight upon my spirits! While you stay in this place, I fhall continually hover about your lodgings, as the parted foul is faid to linger about the grave where its mortal confort lies-I know, if it is in your power, you will task your humanity-your compaffion-fhall I add, your affection? in order to affuage the almoft intolerable difquiet that torments the heart of your afflicted WILSON.

Gloucester, March 31.

To SIR WATKIN PHILLIPS, of Jefus College, Oxon.

DEAR PHILLIPS,

Hot Well, April 18.

I GIVE Manfel credit for his invention, in propagating the report, that I had a quarrel with a mountebank's Merry Andrew at Gloucefter: But I have too much refpect for every appendage of wit, to quarrel even with the lowest buffoonery; and therefore I hope Manfel and I fhall always be good friends. I cannot, however, ap

prove of his drowning my poor dog Ponto, on purpose to convert Ovid's pleonafm into a punning epitaph-deerant quoque littora Ponto: For, that he threw him into the Ifis, when it was fo high and impetuous, with no other view than to kill the fleas, is an excuse that will not hold water: But I leave poor Ponto to his fate, and hope Providence will take care to accommodate Manfel with a drier death.

As there is nothing that can be called company at the well, I am here in a state of abfolute ruftication: This, however, gives me leifure to obferve the fingularities in my uncle's character, which feems to have interested your curiofity. The truth is, his disposition and mine, which, like oil and vinegar, repelled one another at first, have now begun to mix, by dint of being beat up together. I was once apt to believe him a complete Cynic, and that nothing but the neceflity of his occafions could compel him to get within the pale of fociety-I am now of another opinion; I think his pcevifhnefs arifes partly from bodily pain, and partly from a natural excefs of mental fenfibility; for, I fuppofe, the mind, as well as the body, is, in fome cafes, endowed with a morbid excefs of fenfation.

I was t'other day much diverted with a conversation that paffed in the pump-room, betwixt him and the famous Dr. L―n, who is come to ply at the well for patients. My uncle was complaining of the ftink, occafioned by the vast quantity of mud and flime, which the river leaves at low ebb under the windows of the pumproom. He obferved, that the exhalations arising from fuch a nuisance, could not but be prejudicial to the weak lungs of many confumptive patients, who came to drink the water. The doctor, overhearing this remark, made up to him, and affured him he was mistaken. He faid, people in general were fo mifled by vulgar prejudices, that philofophy was hardly fufficient to undeceive them. Then, hemming thrice, he affumed a moft ridiculous folemnity of aspect, and entered into a learned investigation of the nature of ftink. He obferved, that ftink, or stench, meant no more than a strong impression on the olfactory nerves, and might be applied to fubftances of the most oppofite qualities; that, in the Dutch language,

finken fignified the most agreeable perfume, as well as the moft fetid odour, as appears in Van Vloudel's translation of Horace, in that beautiful ode, Quis multa gracilis, &c. The words liquidis perfufus odoribus, he tranflates, van civet et mofchata geftinken; that individuals differed toto cœlo in their opinion of fmells, which indeed was altogether as arbitrary as the opinion of beauty; that the French were pleafed with the putrid effluvia of animal food, and fo were the Hottentots in Africa, and the favages in Greenland; and that the negroes on the coaft of Senegal would not touch fish till it was rotten; ftrong prefumptions in favour of what is generally called flink, as those nations are in a state of nature, undebauched by luxury, unfeduced by whim and caprice; that he had reason to believe the ftercoraceous flavour, condemned by prejudice as a stink, was, in fact, moft agreeable to the organs of fmelling; for that every perfon who pretended to naufeate the smell of another's excretions, fnuffed up his own with particular complacency; for the truth of which, he appealed to all the ladies and gentlemen then present: He faid the inhabitants of Madrid and Edinburgh found particular fatisfaction in breathing their own atmosphere, which was always impregnated with ftercoraceous effluvia: That the learned Dr. B- in his treatise on the

Four Digestions, explains in what manner the volatile effluvia from the inteftines ftimulate and promote the operations of the animal economy: He affirmed, the last Grand Duke of Tuscany, of the Medicis family, who refined upon fenfuality with the spirit of a philofopher, was fo delighted with that odour, that he caused the effence of ordure to be extracted, and ufed it as the most delicious perfume: That he himself (the doctor), when he happened to be low-fpirited, or fatigued with business, found immediate relief, and uncommon fatisfaction, from hanging over the ftale contents of a close ftool, while his fervant stirred it about under his nofe; nor was this ef fect to be wondered at, when we confider that this fubftance abounds with the felf-fame volatile falts that are fo greedily smelled to by the most delicate invalids, after they have been extracted and fublimed by the chemists. By this time the company began to hold their noses; but the doctor, without taking the least notice of this fignal,

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proceeded to fhow, that many fetid fubftances were not
only agreeable, but falutary; such as affafoetida, and other
medicinal gums, refins, roots, and vegetables, over and
above burnt feathers, tan-pits, candle-fnuffs, &c. In
fhort, he used many learned arguments to perfuade his
audience out of their fenfes; and from french made a
transition to filth, which he affirmed was also a mistaken
idea, in as much as objects fo called were no other than
certain modifications of matter, confifting of the fame
principles that enter into the compofition of all created
effences, whatever they may be: That, in the filthiest
production of nature, a philofopher confidered nothing
but the earth, water, falt, and air, of which it was com-
pounded: That, for his own part, he had no more objec-
tion to drinking the dirtieft ditch-water, than he had to a
glass of water from the Hot Well, provided he was affur-
ed there was nothing poisonous in the concrete. Then
addreffing himself to my uncle, "Sir (faid he), you seem
to be of a dropfical habit, and probably will foon have a
confirmed afcites; if I fhould be prefent when you are
tapped, I will give you a convincing proof of what I af-
fert, by drinking, without hefitation, the water that comes
out of your abdomen." The ladies made wry faces at
this declaration; and my uncle, changing colour, told
him, he did not defire any fuch proof of his philosophy :
"But I fhould be glad to know (faid he) what makes you
think I am of a dropfical habit ?" "Sir, I beg pardon (re-
plied the doctor), I perceive your ancles are fwelled, and
you feem to have the facies leucophlegmatica. Perhaps, in-
deed, your diforder may be edematous, or gouty, or it
be the lues venerea. If you
have any
reafon to flat-
ter yourself it is this laft, Sir, I will undertake to cure
you with three small pills, even if the disease should have
attained its utmost inveteracy. Sir, it is an arcanum,
which I have difcovered, and prepared with infinite la-
bour. Sir, I have lately cured a woman in Bristol-a
common prostitute, Sir, who had got all the worst fymp-
toms of the diforder; fuch as nodi, tophi, and gummata,
verruca, crifta galli, and a ferpiginous eruption, or rather a
pocky itch all over her body. By that time she had taken
the fecond pill, Sir, by Heaven! fhe was as fmooth as my
hand; and the third made her as found and as fresh as

may

a new born infant.” "Sir (cried my uncle peevishly), I have no reason to flatter myself that my diforder comes within the efficacy of your noftrum: But this patient you talk of may not be fo found at bottom as you imagine." "I can't poffibly be mistaken (rejoined the philofopher); for I have had communication with her three times I always afcertain my cures in that manner.” At this re

mark, all the ladies retired to another corner of the room, and fome of them began to fpit-As to my uncle, though he was ruffled at firft by the doctor's faying he was dropfical, he could not help fmiling at this ridiculous confeffion; and, I suppose, with a view to punish this original, told him there was a wart upon his nose, that looked a little fufpicious. "I don't pretend to be a judge of these matters (faid he); but I understand that warts are often produced by the diftemper; and that one upon your nofe feems to have taken poffeffion of the very key-ftone of the bridge, which I hope is in no danger of falling." L-n feemed a little confounded at this remark, and affured him it was nothing but a common excrescence of the cuticula, but that the bones were all found below; for the truth of this affertion, he appealed to the touch, defiring he would feel the part. My uncle faid it was a matter of fuch delicacy to meddle with a gentleman's nofe, that he declined the office; upon which the doctor, turning to me, entreated me to do him that favour. I complied with his requeft, and handled it fo roughly, that he fneezed, and the tears ran down his cheeks, to the no small entertainment of the company, and particularly of my uncle, who burst out a laughing, for the first time fince I have been with him; and took notice that the part feemed to very tender. "Sir (cried the doctor), it is naturally a tender part; but, to remove all poflibility of doubt, I will take off the wart this very night."

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So faying, he bowed with great folemnity all round, and retired to his own lodgings, where he applied caustic to the wart; but it spread in fuch a manner, as to produce a confiderable inflammation, attended with an enormous fwelling; fo that, when he next appeared, his whole face was overshadowed by this tremendous nozzle; and the rueful eagernefs with which he explained this unlucky accident, was ludicrous beyond all defcription. I was Vol. VI.

B