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field to Derby, " his renown, as a physician, still increased as 

 time rolled on, and his mortal life declined from its noon. 

 Patients resorted to him more and more, from every part of 

 the kingdom, and often from the continent. All ranks, all 

 orders of society, all religions, leaned upon his power to 

 ameliorate disease, and to prolong existence. The rigid and 

 sternly pious, who had attempted to renounce his aid, from 

 a superstition that no blessing would attend the prescriptions 

 of a sceptic, sacrificed, after a time, their superstitious scru- 

 ples to their involuntary consciousness of his mighty skill." 

 Mr. Mathias, though he severely criticizes some of Dr. 

 Darwin's works, yet he justly calls him " this very ingenious 

 man, and most excellent physician, for such he undoubtedly 

 was." 



From scattered passages in Miss Se ward's Life of him, 

 one can easily trace the delight he took (notwithstanding his 

 immense professional engagements,) in the scenery of nature 

 and g^dens ; -witness his frequent admiration of the tan- 

 gled glen and luxuriant landscape at Belmont, its sombre 

 and pathless woods, impressing us with a sense of solemn 

 seclusion, like the solitudes of Tinian, or Juan Fernandes, 

 with its " silent and unsullied stream, 3 ' which the admirable 

 lines he addresses to the youthful owner of that spot so 

 purely and temperately allude to : 



O, friend to peace and virtue, ever flows 

 For thee my silent and unsullied stream, 

 Pure and untainted as thy blameless life ! 

 Let no gay converse lead thy steps astray, 

 To mix my chaste wave with immodest wine, 

 Nor with the poisonous cup, which Chemia's hand 

 Deals (fell enchantress !) to the sons of folly ! 

 So shall young Health thy daily walks attend, 

 Weave for thy hoary brow the vernal flower 

 Of cheerfulness, and with his nervous arm 

 Arrest th' inexorable scythe of Time. 



Z 



