Reminhcentia. . .No. Ill, — Dr. Qom. — Weimar. 



1821.] 



did not like more than one of the col- 

 lege, whom the writer has iu his eye, 

 who prescribed .a farrago of injiredionts, 

 (discordant in their nature) in hope tliat 

 some one might f.ccidenfaliy hit the 

 distemper; as the sportsman often 

 drops an additional shot or two info his 

 fowling-piece, which he calls the kiUing 

 shot.AwA flatters himsel f that it may bring 

 down the game. If tlie disorder was 

 what Dr. Brown would have defined 

 asthenic, he raised the tones of the or- 

 gans ; if the oppnsit?, heprescribel sic- 

 cordingly. If nature appeared too 

 oppressed to manifest the course most 

 desirable to take for successfully 

 throwing oft' the morbil affection of the 

 body, he did not scruple to declare, 

 that there was little to be done by me- 

 dicine at that moment, but merely 

 watch and regnlate the functions ; for 

 that to be too officious was to commit 

 more to hazard than by attending to 

 the demonstrations of nature alone. 

 By this course of proceeding he was 

 only approved of by the more sensible 

 of mankind; the ignorant declared 

 him above, or too independent on, 

 his profession, .and peisons of this class 

 more valued the man whose recipes 

 were followed by the usual train of 

 bolu.tses, apozems, blisters^ enemas, 

 &c. &c. 



He was intimately acquainted with 

 some of the most energetic: reformers 

 at that period ; and thougii he took no 

 open part iu any public act, yet his ad- 

 vice was frequently asked by tiie dif- 

 ferent chairmen of committees employ- 

 ed to construct a new government iu 

 the room of the one renounced. He 

 was a staunch republican in liis nature, 

 and therefore was glad that monarchy 

 hail been abol ished, as he was after- 

 wards sorry that Bonaparte had sub- 

 stituted what he denominated govern- 

 ment purely despotic. Dr. Ciom was 

 the maternal uncle to our highly fa- 

 voured JNIr. W — . H , member 



for • • • • ,^,jj ti,;,^ circumstance 

 it is which enables us to exhil)it the 

 firmness of the Doctor's political prin- 

 ciples, and the honesty of his nature. 

 The nephew had been the object of his 

 uncle's care, and the young man's mind 

 appeared to be warmed with the love of 

 freedom. He was even a mend)er of 

 the Jacobin Club in Paris, and often 

 entered tiiat society in seeming (iXuUa- 

 tion, with the card at his button. In 

 a very short time, however, pretending 

 to have an occasion to visit London, as 

 was imagined to open a matrimonial 



139 



connection, all of a sudden the Doc- 

 tor Iieard in Paris that his hopeful 

 nephew had been seen sliding out of 

 one of the treasury passages ! 



The Doctor was no somier apprised 

 of the cciuluct of his renegade relative, 

 than he denounced him (o all his ac- 

 fjuaiutance, whom he put on their 

 guard and advised not toconnde in him 

 longer — he did more, for he disinherited 

 him : nor was it fill Lord IVIalmsbury, 

 when treating for peace in Lisle, em- 

 ])loyed, at Mr. H.'s instance, all the 

 eloquence he was niasterof, to persuade 

 the Doctor, enfeebled iu body and 

 mind (having approached to nearly 

 ninety years of age.) to alter his will 

 and restore his nephew to his favour. 



',' The Editor will feel himself in' 

 finltehj obliged to all his readers who 

 are sexagenarians, septuagenarians, 

 and octogenarians, if they ivill contri- 

 bute to keep up the interest of this ar- 

 ticle by favouring him ivith their remi- 

 niscences of eminent persons. 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



SIR, 



IftlUST protest against the account 

 of Weimar, which, in your Magazine 

 for Feb. preceded (hat of three clistin- 

 guis'.ied females of that capital. Wei- 

 mar, independent of literature, possesses 

 too many advantages to have sunk into 

 an ordinary place, a brilliant and hos- 

 pitable court, a polished nobility, an 

 enlightened public, a voluminous li- 

 brai-y of general use, the Garden of 

 Belvidere, the Stovi' of (Germany, the 

 beauties of which would alone repay 

 the visit of the traveller ; a theatre, 

 M'hich imder a sagacious director is 

 often, notwithstanding its inferior size, 

 classed with the grand theatres of Berlin 

 or Vienna; these advantages would 

 ensure its pre-eminence, and if Weimar 

 be no more the Athens of Germany, its 

 decline is not to be attributed to any 

 want of patronage from the reigning 

 powers. The ciiaracter of tlie Grand 

 Duke to whose liberality in the same 

 Magazine (page 33) justice has been 

 done, has not changed ; but tlie muses 

 during the reign of Bonaparte left their 

 seat, when the sovereign, to;) elevated 

 to crouch at the feet of the Protector of 

 the Ilhine, could afford them no ])ro- 

 tection. The great literary characters 

 are dead ; they were immortal only in 

 their writings ; l)ut Goeihe is still at 

 Weimar, still the patron of (ierman 

 literature, and if the number of men 

 of letters there be less liian might be 

 expected 



