DR. DARWIN. 323 



any perceivable chain of thought, the fud- 

 den death of the fair Cifta, ferves to ufher 

 in a fine piture of an hoar-froft landfcape, 

 diflblving inftantaneoufly beneath a change 

 of keen to foft wind, accompanied by the 

 emerging fun. 



Cinchona, Peruvian bark tree, paffes 

 before us as a Peruvian Maid, on her way 

 to the altar, which, in Quito, me had raifed 

 to the goddefs Hygeia, and of which Ihe 

 is the adminiftrant prieftefs. Her progrefs 

 thither, and her ceremonies at the ihrine, 

 and her prayer to the Goddefs, are beauti- 

 ful ; the perfonified Difeafes fublime, par- 

 ticularly Ague. The accidental manner, 

 in which, it is well known, the medicinal 

 virtues of the bark were firft difcovered, is 

 here conveyed to the reader with the hap- 

 pieft ingenuity, as a dictate of Hygeia to 

 her Prieftefs, in anfwer to the prayer. 

 Cinchona is commanded to yield her fa- 

 cred forefts to the axe, and to ftrew their 

 f z bitter 



