CHARACTERS. 



7S9 



that respcA, and disdained, from 

 deference to what he termed the 

 prejudices of niankind, to display 

 the outward semblance of iniarailing 

 sorrow, since he thought it wisdom 

 to combat its reality. Early in the 

 year 1800, Dr. Darwin published 

 another large quarto volume, inti- 

 tuled, Phytologia, or the Philoso- 

 phy of Agriculture and Gardening. 



Sunday, the 18th of April, 1802, 

 deprived Derby and its virinity, and 

 the encircling counties, of Dr. Dar- 

 win, — the lettered world of his ge- 

 nius. During a few preceding years 

 he had been subject to sudden and 

 alarming disorders of the chest, in 

 which he ahva} s applied the lancet 

 instantly and freely; he had repeat- 

 edly risen in the night and bled 

 himself. It was said that he suspect- 

 ed aw'ina pectoris to be the cause 

 of those his sudden paroxysms, and 

 that it would produce sudden death. 

 The conversation which he hc-ld 

 with Mrs. Darwin and her friend 

 the night before he died, gave co- 

 lour to the report. In the preceding 

 year he had a dangerous illness : it 

 originated from a severe cold caught 

 by obeying the summons of a pati- 

 ent in Derby, after he had himself 

 taken strong medicine. Ilis skill, 

 his courage, his exertion, struggled 

 vehemently with ins disease. Ile- 

 peated and daring use of the lancet 

 at length subdued it, but in ail like- 

 lihood irreparably weakened the 

 system. JJe never looked so well 

 after as before his seizure ; increas- 

 ed debility of step, and a certain 

 wanness of countenance awakened 

 those fears for him which great 

 numbers felt who calculated upon 

 his assistance, when hours of pain 

 and danger might come. It was 

 said, that during his illness he re- 

 proved the sensibility and tears of 



Mrs. Darwin, and bid her remem- 

 ber that she Mas the wife of a phi- 

 losopher. 



It was the general opinion that a 

 glass of brandy might have saved him 

 for that time. I ts efl'e6t would have 

 bt-eii more powerful from his utter 

 disuse of spirits : but such was the 

 abhorrence in which he held them, 

 that it is probable no entreaties could 

 have induced him to have swallowed 

 a dram, though surely, on any sud- 

 den ciiill of the blood, its eftecls, so 

 injurious on habitual application, 

 might have proved restoring. The 

 body was opened, but it was said, 

 the surgeons found no traces of pe- 

 culiar disease ; that the state of the 

 viscera indicated a much more pro- 

 trac-ted existence. 



He was somewhat above the mid. 

 die size, his form athlotic, and in- 

 clined to corpulence ; his limbs too 

 heavy for exaft proportion. The 

 traces of a severe small pox ; fea- 

 tures and countenance, w hich, when 

 they were not animated by social 

 pleasure, were rather saturnine than 

 sprightly ; a stoop in the shoujders 

 and the then professional append- 

 age, a large full-bottomed wig, gave 

 at that early period of life an ap- 

 pearance of nearly twice the years 

 he bore. Florid health, and the 

 earnest of good humour, an engag- 

 ing smile on entering a room and on 

 first accosting his friends, rendered 

 in his youth that exterior agreeable, 

 to which beauty and symmetry had 

 not been propitious. 



lie stammered extremely, but 

 whatever he said, whether gravely 

 or in jest, was always well worth 

 waiting for, though the inevitable 

 impression it made might not aUvays 

 be pleasant to individual self-love. 

 Conscious of great native elevation 

 above the general standard of intcl- 



7i E 3 left 



