140 
Ihave read Le Médecin de Soi-méme once with 
great pleasure, and am reading it again with more : 
there are some most excellent things in it I am 
certain ; and tho’ ’tis a severe satire upon interested 
and dishonest practitioners, I think such upright 
ones as yourself will applaud the good sense and 
honest advice of the author: besides, I am mista- 
ken if the wisest may not gather some more wis- 
dom from it. It seems to me Linneus had read it, 
and thought it worth while to mark some passages 
with his pen. I will return it as soon as Francis 
and I have read it, and I beg you will never part 
with it. 
I am reading Milton with great reverence and 
pleasure: ’tis immensely sensible and often very 
entertaining, tho’ the language is uncouth. “Tis 
curious to observe him when he is upon a subject 
that is not to be explained or supported, how he 
labours and struggles, you may see without satisfy- 
ing even himself; how then can he his readers? 
But when he is supporting truth and liberty, he car- 
ries it with a high hand indeed. I never met so ner- 
vous and triumphant an opposer of temporal and 
spiritual tyranny, as far as I have yet gone in the 
books. They are curious and valuable for the sake 
of the publisher, and his having marked with his 
pen the passages that most forcibly struck him.— 
This work is an invaluable gem in your library *. 
* The annexed observations upon this fine edition of Milton, 
are from Mr.Smith’s common-place book. 
“ The Works of John Milton, Historical, Political, and Mis- 
cellaneous. Nom more correctly printed from the Origimals than 
