Akenside having completed, in 1765, the second book of his new poem on the Imagination, took "It may appear, at the first glance of it, a paradox, but, I believe, it will be found correct, when it is analysed, and compared with experience, to say, that nothing is more difficult than to give the portrait of a singular man;—I mean the features and the countenance of his mind. I shall, therefore, only attempt a faint impression of a deportment and of a manner, the most original, that I ever knew. "Mr. WRAY had a vivacity, and laughing air, half ludicrous, yet exciting no ridicule, and bordering upon levity, but never too near it-more juvenile at least than his age; but in this comic humour he was never coarse, or ill-bred; was never too free, and never ill-natured. He was blessed with a power to make instruction pleasant, which no colours can reach. "I have known men of distinguished parts, and wit, who seem to have got by heart a whole string of epigrams in prose, and bon mots, to be let off in the course of the day. Shakspeare, who was at home in every human character, and walked in every path of it, says of those men, as represented by one of his dramatic figures, This fellow picks up wit, as pigeons pease, "Horace describes the jester of his day: 'facetos Qui captat risus hominum, famamque dicacis.' "Mr. Wray had no such ambition; he was above it: all his whims of thought, fancy, or expression, were not only his own, but were prompted by the casual impulse of the occasion, the following year, to read it to Lord and Lady Dacre, at their seat, called Mount Ararat. This circumstance is related by Mr. Wray in a letter to one of his friends *. "I was at Mount Ararat to attend Lord and Lady Dacre, accompanied by Akenside, who passed the evening there, and communicated the second and part of a third book in his great work. In the former, and in the * Sept. 23, 1766. moment. He had a right even to be as dull, as he was brilliant, from his perfect indifference to the effect of all, that he said, except that he was happy in communicating pleasure to those around him. "In general society he had no imperious air of the pedant, or fopperies of taste. He had no oracles to deliver; no little senate for his laws; but spared his own strength†,' in wisdom or in wit. He had a light and familiar note, that made its party good with boys and girls. He rather said in a lively and comic style what carried the weight of a powerful intellect, than what are foolishly called 'good things.' "I can remember a thousand bons mots of those wits professed, CHESTERFIELD, HORACE WALPOLE, and SELWYN. Of Wray, I recollect none: and it is not because they did not exist; it is because they were melted into something better and superior."-Nichols' Illustrations. + Parcentibus viribus.-Hor. same philosophical way, he is eloquent on the topics of truth and virtue, vice and the passions. In the latter, Solon is introduced giving a fable on the origin of evil. It is introduced by an episode from Herodotus of Argavista's Marriage, the daughter of Clisthenes, which is delightfully poetical.' In 1768 Akenside published three essays in the Medical Transactions. 1. On Cancers; 2. On the Use of Ipecacuanha in Asthmas; 3. On the best Method of treating White Swellings of the Joints. 1. In the first he gives an instance of a cancer in utero, which was cured by the cicuta and the bark; one, in which a cancer in the tongue was cured by the cicuta, corrosive sublimate, and the bark; and a third, in which a cancered lip was cured in the same manner; with this difference, that the cicuta, having removed the pains, which was all that could be expected from it, was laid aside at the end of ten days. 2. In respect to asthmas, Akenside directs, that where the indisposition is chronical and habitual, from three to five grains of ipecacuanha every morning. "The effects," says the author, "do not depend on exercise, or the action of vomiting; but upon the antispasmodic virtues of ipecacoan." 3. In regard to white swellings of the joints, Akenside recommends the application of a blister round the part affected; which he directs to be kept open, and reduced to such a size, as the nature of the complaint may seem to require: but nothing, he adds, is to be expected from this treatment, when there is any sensible collection of fluid within the joint. Having been appointed Krohnian Lecturer, Akenside chose for his subject the History of the Revival of Learning; and he read three lectures on that comprehensive theme before the College of Physicians. But some of the members having justly remarked, that the subject was foreign to the purposes of that institution, he declined proceeding farther. About the same period he read an account of some observations, he had made at St. Thomas's Hospital, on the putrid erysipelas. These observations he intended for the second volume of the Medical Transactions; but death prevented their publication*. * It has been generally believed that there are several MSS. of Akenside at the College of Physicians, or at the College of Surgeons. This, however, is not the fact; as may be seen by the following letters: I shall now say something of my old and respected friend, Mr. Meyrick. He lived in Swallow-street many years, and died at Hammersmith in 1807. When I was first introduced to him, which was in the early part of that year, he shook me so cordially by the hand, at parting, that it ached for many minutes afterwards. He was, nevertheless, far from "SIR, 66 Royal College of Surgeons, Oct. 17, 1831. "In reply to your letter of yesterday I have to acquaint you that I do not find, among the papers, preserved at this College, any MSS. or memoranda whatever, relating to Dr. Akenside. "I am requested by SIR HENRY HALFORD, President of the Royal College of Physicians, to inform you that there are no MSS. or other papers relating to Dr. Akenside, to be found in the College Library; and to assure you, that had there been any such, every facility of access to them would have been readily afforded to you. "I have the honour to be, Sir, "Your obedient servant, "FRANCIS HAWKINS, M. D. "To Charles Bucke, Esq." |