But Mead excelled all the nobility of his age and country in the encouragement which he afforded to the fine arts, and to the study of antiquities. Considered merely in the light of a patron, he would remain, perhaps, the most conspicuous example of that character which biography has celebrated; but when to his exertions in that difficult and often thankless career are added the most eminent medical practice of his time, consummate acquirements and literary labours important to the healing art, we shall find it difficult to select his equal among the annals of any period. These excellent traits do not, however, complete his portrait: a noble frankness, suavity of manners, moderation in the estimate of his own merit, and a cordial acknowledgment of the deserts of his contemporaries; liberality, not merely of purse, but also of sentiment, must be drawn in order to finish the likeness. Mead possessed in an extreme degree the taste for collecting; but his books, his statues, his medals, were not at all confined to ornament a secluded apartment, or to amuse only his own leisure the humble student, the unrecommended foreigner, the poor enquirer, derived almost as much enjoyment from these unburied treasures as their ingenious owner. In his spacious mansion in Great Ormond Street he had built a gallery, which only his opulence and taste could have filled. The printed catalogue of his library contains 6592 separate numbers; the most rare and ancient works were to be found there; oriental, Greek, and Latin MSS. formed no inconsiderable part. His collection of statues, coins, gems, prints and drawings will probably remain for ever unrivalled amongst private amateurs. His pictures alone were sold at his death for 34001. Ingenious men sought in his house the best aid for their undertakings, and in the owner their most enlightened as well as most liberal patron. He constantly kept in his pay several scholars and artists, who laboured at his expense for the benefit of the public. His correspondence extended to all the principal literati of Europe. They consulted him and sent him curious presents, but in such acts he was more frequently the creditor than the debtor. The King of Naples sent to request of him a complete collection of his treatises, and in return gave him the work which he was then encouraging on the antiquities of Herculaneum; a compliment not the less flattering from an accompanying invitation to Mead to visit him at his palace. At his table might be seen the most eminent men of the age, both natives and foreigners, and he was often the only individual present who was acquainted with all their different languages. The good of mankind, and the honour of his country, were two of his ruling principles. He persuaded the wealthy citizen Guy to bequeath his fortune towards the foundation of the noble hospital which has honourably consecrated his name."

The College possesses no less than three portraits of Mead, and a magnificent marble bust by Roubilliac.

Among those who have successfully cultivated music, poetry, and the belles-lettres, many of the disciples of Esculapius may

2 c2

be

be found; but as poets the two who are best known, and whose names appear in the Roll, are Akenside and Garth. Akenside, though attaining a good position in the College, and as a hospital physician, was not very successful as a practitioner, and for some years is said to have written more poetry than prescriptions. Garth, on the other hand, met with considerable professional success, was knighted as Physician to the Court, and became Physician-General to the Army; but he is chiefly known by his mock-heroic and other poems, which, however, are but little read at the present day. In 1692, when Sir Samuel Garth became a Fellow, the College was engaged in the charitable design of prescribing for the sick poor gratis, and providing them with medicines at prime cost. This project gave rise to great difference of opinion and wrangling among the Fellows, and excited the direst wrath of the apothecaries. Garth, who warmly approved the new charity and detested alike the action of the apothecaries and the conduct of some of his colleagues in the affair, resolved to expose them. This he did in his clever satirical poem, entitled,The Dispensary,' a work of great vivacity and vigour, on which his reputation, in the present day, mainly rests. The sketches of his contemporaries are severe and cutting, but they are now only interesting as giving us an insight into their history and manners. The poem was amazingly popular, and ran speedily through several editions. Little was heard of any further opposition to the charity after the appearance of this satire.

'The year 1700 presents an incident in Garth's life which did him everlasting honour. He it was who stepped forward to provide a suitable interment for the neglected corpse of Dryden, which he caused to be brought to the College in Warwick Lane, where it lay in state for ten days. He proposed and encouraged by his own example a subscription for defraying the expense of a funeral; he pronounced an eulogium in Latin over the great poet's remains, and then attended the body from the College to Westminster Abbey, where it was interred between the graves of Chaucer and of Cowley. Permission to bring the poet's body to the College was sought from the Censors' board 3rd of May, 1700, and stands thus recorded in the "Annals:" "At the request of several persons of quality that Mr. Dryden might be carried from the College of Physicians to be interred at Westminster, it was unanimously granted by the President and Censors." Garth was a member of the Kitkat Club, which included all "the talents" of the Whig party. He contributed the verses inscribed on the drinking-glasses of the club; and these were printed in Dryden's "Miscellanies.""

From its foundation by Linacre to the present day the College

has

has always reckoned among its Fellows men whose classical attainments have amply sustained its character as a learned body; in proof whereof it would be sufficient to refer to the published Harveian orations, which, till the year 1864, were delivered in Latin. Till the year 1868 the oral examinations for the membership were also conducted in Latin, and a certain amount of knowledge of Greek was compulsory. The Annals, which for many years were written in Latin, towards the end of the seventeenth century began to be kept in English. The change was made on the recommendation of counsel, the variety of styles in Latin and the uncertain acceptation of many Latin phrases rendering the Annals of less legal value than if they were written in English and in the plainest words.' The greatly extended character of the strictly scientific part of a physician's education, the regulations of the 'General Medical Council,' and the general tendency of public sentiment in reference to classical studies, have latterly made it undesirable that the College should attach so much importance as formerly to classical attainments. It is, however, to be hoped that, for the sake of their own reputation, as well as with a view of upholding the social position of British physicians, the College will never cease to maintain the influence they have hitherto exercised on the liberal education of candidates for admission to their body. It would,' as is observed in the memoir of the late Dr. P. M. Latham, be as idle as it would be impossible to recal the bygone classic age of our physicians, when men read Greek for their amusement, and wrote Latin to perfect their style;' but the genial manners, the graceful conversation, the polished literary style of our physicians, it is most devoutly to be wished may not be lost.

As one example out of the many afforded by the Roll of those who have combined high classical attainments with distinguished success as physicians, may be mentioned Sir George Baker, Bart., who filled the presidential chair in 1785 and for several subsequent years, and who was alike one of the most accomplished physicians and most profound scholars that this country has known. Of studious habits and unassuming manners, he combined the sound judgment of an experienced physician with great playfulness of imagination, as appears from his Latin epigram on Mrs. Van Butchell, who was, at the request of her husband, preserved as a mummy, her body having been injected by Cruikshank, the anatomist, under the supervision of the celebrated Dr. W. Hunter. She died at the age of forty, and her body, thus preserved, was kept by her husband in his own house during his lifetime, and after his death was presented

to

to the College of Surgeons, where it is still to be seen in a mahogany case.

We cannot afford space to extend our notice of these interesting volumes to more recent times, although they comprise biographies of many whose names would recal to the memory of our readers some who have made valuable contributions to the pages of this Review, and of others who will ever hold distinguished places in the annals of literature and science. That the compilation of the 'Roll' has been a labour of love to the learned editor is manifest, and we congratulate the College and the profession on having found so painstaking and able an historian. The accurate and detailed information respecting many of the names and events of bygone times, the scholarly character of the work, and the literary skill manifested throughout, do the greatest credit to him who so worthily fills the post of Harveian Librarian.*

ART. III.-1. Dürer, Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Kunst. Von Moritz Thausing. Leipzig, 1876.

2. Dürer's Briefe, Tagebücher und Reime. Von Moritz Thausing. Wien, 1872.

3. Alberto Durero; e sue relazioni coll' arte Italiana e coll umanismo dell' Epoca. Gustavo Frizzoni, 1878.

4. Meister W. Von Anton Springer. (Place and date not given.)

IN three points of view his time, his life, and his

N analysing the career of a great artist we have to consider

works. Thus only can that true convergence of focus be obtained by which the man, as in a stereoscope, is made to stand solidly before us. There is nothing so unchanging in her general conditions as nature. Generation after generation see the same features in hill and dale, wood and stream-in man, woman, and child. Yet what more diverse than the impressions of those same objects on different minds! respect do nations and men show stronger individuality than in their poetic and pictorial conceptions of the things around

In the appendices to the volumes will be found a list of the valuable portraits and other artistic treasures of the College, and a notice of some of the rarer and more valuable contents of the library. Among these may be mentioned "The Ricuyell of the Historyes of Troye, translated into Englisshe by Willyam Caxton; printed by William Caxton, 1471,' being the first book printed in the English language; the Cronycle of Englonde; printed by Wynkyn de Werde,' folio, London, 1502; and Chaucer's works, folio, London, 1540.

them.

them.

Each race has its separate character, each individual his separate handwriting, and all further varying with successive epochs. To search into the causes for such phenomena would be a fruitless task, for they are inseparable from the First Cause of all things. The principle of distinctness-that difference between one being and another, which we call individuality-runs through all creation, and is as divine as creation itself. And even when man, in his puny way, creates, the same divine attribute of distinctness follows, for only machines, or men degraded to machines, can strictly repeat.

And granting we do obtain that stereoscopic view of an artist to which we have alluded, we are as far as ever from understanding the connection between himself and his particular art, for that again proceeds from those depths of our being before which we are arrested. As Napoleon said when asked the origin of his novel tactics, 'Je n'en sais rien, je suis fait comme ça :' so the reasons that made the art of a Leonardo different from that of a Rubens elude all scrutiny. Each was so made.

Still there remain abundant causes, moral and historical, which affect the career of a painter, and therefore his art. The peculiar tendency of his thought, the steadfast excellence of his hand, they cannot touch, for these are his own: but they dictate the class of subject, they restrict the range of expression, and confine him within limits which it is his business to turn to account as best he may.

The state of Europe, abstractedly viewed, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, would not have been considered conducive to the arts of peace. Those who are inclined to attribute the marvellous efflorescence of art at that time to the patronage and discrimination of popes and emperors, princes and potentates, are met by facts in history not encouraging to such a theory. On the contrary, could the arts have been frightened, intimidated, or disheartened, they would certainly not have taken up their abode in the Italy of that day, and would have avoided Germany altogether. The treacheries, basenesses, and ignorance of those who are supposed to have been their patrons are graven on the history of almost every great work that has survived, and are responsible for the fate of almost all those which have perished. That the arts did flourish in Italy, even under the most untoward circumstances, as never before, was simply owing to the fact that God sent great artists, who, favoured by climate, beauty in landscape and man, and classic tradition, ran their appointed course in spite of the times. But in Germany nature was less benignant and society still more barbarous. On

the