THE ILLUSTRIOUS BOERHAAVE. 119 



were frequently waiting in his anteroom. The Czar Peter once 

 lay all night in his pleasure barge outside of Boerhaave's house, 

 to have two hours' conversation with him before college time. He 

 was temperate in his habits. He rarely touched wine. Water 

 was his common drink. In the German student song it reads : 



" Hermann Boerhaave schreibet ja : 

 Aqua paullo frigid a 

 Potio est optima." 



Until infirmity came upon him his favorite exercise was riding. 

 When he was weary he distracted himself with music, of which 

 he was very fond. He had a good voice and played a number of 

 musical instruments. It was his custom to have a weekly con- 

 cert at his own house. 



At forty-two he married Mrs. Mary Drolenveaux, the only 

 child of the Burgomaster of Leyden. They had four children ; 

 three died in infancy one, a daughter, survived him. 



In 1722, when fifty-four years of age, his physical constitution 

 gave the first warning of the effects of the strain to which it was 

 subjected. He had an attack of arthritis, whether of a gouty or 

 rheumatic nature is uncertain, though it is stated that it was the 

 result of exposing himself to the morning dews before sunrising, 

 which kept him in bed six months. The pains were atrocious. 

 Once, after fifteen hours of continued suffering, he prayed that his 

 disease might end his life and misery. This afterward gave him 

 great concern, for he wished, he said, to abide by this maxim living 

 or dying : " That only is best, and alone to be desired, which is 

 perfectly agreeable to the Divine Goodness and Majesty." 



When in 1723 Boerhaave had sufficiently recovered to reopen 

 his private college, the citizens of Leyden celebrated the event in 

 the evening by illuminations and by public rejoicings. In 1727, 

 on a return of the attack, he gave up the chairs of chemistry and 

 botany, though he continued to teach actively in other branches 

 until his final illness. In his later life his greatest pleasure was 

 in his country home. This was large and roomy, with eight acres 

 of ground. His garden was filled with the exotic shrubs and trees 

 which would flourish in that climate. A present of American 

 shrub seed he styles " a gift more precious than gold," and two 

 cedar trees " a royal benefaction." 



In 1725, at the expiration of his rectorship, he delivered an 

 oration in which he reprehended the philosophers who have at- 

 tempted to invent rather than to discover principles, and in par- 

 ticular he singled out Descartes. Andala, an orthodox Cartesian 

 professor, set up a cry that the Church was in danger, and that 

 the dreaded evil of Spinozism would be the result. But the times 

 had changed since the journey of the young student from Harder- 



