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GARTH.

AMUEL GARTH was of a good family

SA

in Yorkshire, and from fome school in his own country became a ftudent at Peter-houfe in Cambridge, where he refided till he became doctor of phyfick on July the 7th, 1691. He was examined before the College at London on March the 12th, 1691-2, and admitted fellow June 26th, 1693. He was foon fo much diftinguished by his converfation and accomplishments, as to obtain very extensive practice; and, if a pamphlet of those times may be credited, had the favour and confidence of one party, as Radcliffe had of the other.

He is always mentioned as a man of benevolence; and it is juft to fuppofe that his defire of helping the helpless difpofed him to fo much zeal for the Difpenfary; an undertaking, of which fome account, however fhort, is proper to be given.

Whether what Temple fays be true, that phyficians have had more learning than the other faculties, I will not ftay to enquire; but, I believe, every

man

man has found in phyficians great liberality and dignity of fentiment, very prompt effufion of beneficence, and willingness to exert a lucrative art where there is no hope of lucre. Agreeably to this character, the College of Phyficians, in July 1687, published an edict, requiring all the fellows, candidates, and licentiates, to give gratuitous advice to the neighbouring poor.

the

This edict was fent to the court of aldermen; and, a queftion being made to whom the appellation of poor fhould be extended, the College answered, that it fhould be fufficient to bring a teftimonial from the clergyman officiating in the parish where the patient refided.

After a year's experience, the phyficians found their charity fruftrated by fome malignant oppofition, and made to a great degree vain by the high price of phyfick; they therefore voted, in August 1688, that the laboratory of the College fhould be accommodated to the preparation of medicines, and another room prepared for their reception; and that the contributors to the expence fhould manage the charity.

It was now expected, that the apothecaries would have undertaken the care of providing medicines; but they took another courfe. Thinking the whole defign pernicious to their intereft, they endeavoured to raise a faction against it in the College, and found fome phyficians mean enough to folicit their patronage, by betraying to them the counfels of the College. The greater part, however, enforced by a new edict, in 1694, the former order of 1687, and fent it to the mayor and aldermen, who appointed a committee to treat with the College, and fettle the mode of adminiftering the charity.

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It was defired by the aldermen, that the teftimonials of churchwardens and overfeers fhould be admitted; and that all hired fervants, and all apprentices to handicraftsmen, thould be confidered as poor, This likewife was granted by the College.

It was then confidered who fhould diftribute the medicines, and who should settle their prices. The phyficians procured fome apothecaries to undertake the difpenfation, and offered that the warden and company of the Apothecaries fhould adjust the price. This offer was rejected; and the apothecaries who had engaged to affift the charity were confidered as traytors to the company, threatened with the impofition of troublesome offices, and deterred from the performance of their engagements. The apothecaries ventured upon publick oppofition, and presented a kind of remonftrance against the design to the committee of the city, which the phyficians condefcended to confute: and at least the traders seem to have prevailed among the fons of trade; for the propofal of the College having been confidered, a paper of approbation was drawn up, but poftponed and forgotten.

The phyficians ftill perfifted; and in 1696 a sub. fcription was raised by themselves, according to an agreement prefixed to the Difpenfary. The poor were, for a time, fupplied with medicines; for how long a time, I know not. The medicinal charity, like others, began with ardour, but foon remitted, and at last died gradually away.

About the time of the fubfcription begins the action of the Difpenfary. The Poem, as its fubject was prefent and popular, co-operated with paffions

and

and prejudices then prevalent, and, with fuch auxiliaries to its intrinfick merit, was univerfally and liberally applauded. It was on the fide of charity against the intrigues of intereft, and of regular learning against licentious ufurpation of medical authority, and was therefore naturally favoured by thofe who read and can judge of poetry.

In 1697, Garth spoke that which is now called the Harveian Oration; which the authors of the Biographia mention with more praise than the paffage quoted in their notes will fully juftify. Garth, speaking of the mischiefs done by quacks, has thefe expreffions: "Non tamen telis vulnerat ifta agyrta"rum colluvies, fed theriacâ quâdam magis perni"ciofâ, non pyrio, fed pulvere nefcio quo exotico "certat, non globulis plumbeis, fed pilulis æque "lethalibus interficit." This was certainly thought fine by the author, and is still admired by his biographer. In October 1702, he became one of the cenfors of the College.

Garth, being an active and zealous Whig, was a member of the Kit-cat club, and, by confequence, familiarly known to all the great men of that deno. mination. In 1710, when the government fell into other hands, he writ to lord Godolphin, on his dif miffion, a fhort poem, which was criticifed in the Examiner, and fo fuccefsfully either defended or excufed by Mr. Addison, that, for the fake of the vindication, it ought to be preferved.

At the acceffion of the prefent family his merits were acknowledged and rewarded. He was knighted with the fword of his hero, Marlborough; and was

made

made phyfician in ordinary to the king, and phyfician-general to the army.

He then undertook an edition of Ovid's Metamorphofes, tranflated by feveral hands; which he recommended by a Preface, written with more oftentation than ability: his notions are half-formed, and his materials immethodically confused. This was his laft work. He died Jan. 18, 1717-18, and was buried at Harrow-on-the-Hill.

His perfonal character feems to have been focial and liberal. He communicated himself through a very wide extent of acquaintance; and though firm in a party, at a time when firmness included virulence, yet he imparted his kindness to those who were not fuppofed to favour his principles. He was an early encourager of Pope, and was at once the friend of Addison and of Granville. He is accused of voluptuoufnefs and irreligion; and Pope, who fays, that "if ever there was a good Chriftian, without "knowing himself to be fo, it was Dr. Garth,” feems not able to deny what he is angry to hear, and loth to confefs.

Pope afterwards declared himself convinced, that Garth died in the communion of the Church of Rome, having been privately reconciled. It is obferved by Lowth, that there is lefs diftance than is thought between scepticism and popery; and that a mind, wearied with perpetual doubt, willingly feeks repose in the bofom of an infallible Church.

His poetry has been praifed at leaft equally to its merit. In the Difpenfary there is a ftrain of fmooth and free verfification; but few lines are eminently elegant. No paffages fall below mediocrity, and

few

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