498 
permitted to ftick to his ftudies without 
in‘erruprion, at his few intervals of lei- 
fure. He married early ; and his wife, 
adopting the opinions and maxims of his 
parents, was no friend to ftudies which 
appeared to her little likely to lead to any 
thing that might help to feed and clothe 
themielves or their children. Over his 
houle of oneroom there was a kind. of 
loft, or boarded floor, (in Cumberland 
called a bauks,) which, however, had nei- 
ther a door, window, nor fiairs. Hither, 
by means of a fingle rope, which he al- 
ways drew up after him, he mounted, 
with his book and flate: and here he went 
through Euclid. We are confcious our 
anecdote is but fimple; yet it is not infig- 
nificant, 
At about the age of thirty even his wife 
began to be perfuaded that learning, ac-. 
cording to the old faying, may fometimes 
be a fubititute for houle and land, and the 
confented to his relivquifhing his manual 
labours, and to fet up as a fchoolmafter. 
For feveral years he was a teacher of ma- 
thematics of coniiderable reputation, and 
many refpectable young men were his pu- 
pis. Still puriuing knowledge wherever 
knowledge was to be found, Abraham 
Fletcher became a botanift as well as a 
mathematician: but he fludied the pro- 
perties rather than the claffification of 
plants, and made many experiments to 
aicertain their medical virtues. Few men, 
it is believed, have jately made a greater 
proficiency than he did in this (now per- 
haps too much neglected) department of 
fcience ; and he was foon qualified to 
commence duétor, as well as {choolmatter. 
It istrue, indeed, he praétifed chiefly, if 
not folely, with decoétions, ordiet-drinks ; 
yet with thefe he either did perform, or 
got the reputation of performing, many 
extraordinary cures : and he had no {mail 
practice. 
To regularly-bred phyficians many of 
his nofrums, if they knew them, we are 
aware, would appe«r fimple and infignifi- 
' cant. Charlevoix, we remember, in his 
H ftory of, Canada, fpeaking of fome na- 
tion of Indians, naturally mentions their 
difeafes, and their mcdes of cure, which, 
hike Mr. Fletcher’s, were attempted pria- 
cipally, if not wholly, by fimple prepara- 
tions of plants : and he adds on the occa- 
fion, *¢ All this I know will appear per- 
feétly ridiculous to tee ‘aculty m Europe: 
but they may permit me to make one ob-. 
fervati-nonly on the tubject, not undeferv- 
ing of theix atiention ; which is, that thee 
Negleéted Biography,-by Dr. Watkins. 
[July iz 
Pow-wawers of Canada perform as mas - 
ny and as difficult cures as are performed 
by all the medical fcience of Europe.” 
Dr. Fletcher (if we may be permitted fo 
to dignify him,) was particularly famed 
for his fkill and fuccefs in bypochondriacal 
cafes ; and had he been as able to defcribe 
as he was to relieve and to cure fuch cafes, 
many things in this way are known to | 
have occurred in the courfe of his prac- 
tice to which even the moft learned might 
have attended with advantage. 
If our objeét in this humbie biographi- 
cal fketch was only to write an eulogy, 
we should fupprefs a circumftance in the 
character of Abraham Fletcher, which 
Dr. Johnfon, in-his Life of Dryden, has 
taught us is little likely to ‘* do him ho- 
nour in the prefent age.”” Like Dryden, 
like Mr. John Henderfon, of Pembroke 
College, Oxford, and like many other 
eminent men of unaueltionable abilities 
and talents, Fletcher put great confidence 
in the prognoftications of judicial aftrolo- 
gy ; and what is more extraordinary, ma- 
ny of his predi€tions were wonderfully 
fulfilled! In the margin of a book be- 
longing to him, filled with aftronomical 
calculations, an entry was alfo made ef 
the planets’ places in the zodiac at the 
birth of Abraham Fletcher, of Little 
Broughton; to which one George Bell, of 
Cockermouth, added the following obfer- 
vations ; — ** This gives, in fine, 78 
years and 55 days. Near this period isa 
bad diretion; 1t brings Saturnine griefs, 
elpecially fuch as proceed from cold, dry, 
and phlegmatic caufes ; and if Saturn be 
Aureta, it threatenetn death.”” However 
unaccountable it may feem, certain it is 
that Dr. Fletcher died juét when he had. 
reached 78 years and 71 days. 
The principles of the foregoing calcu- 
lation are contained in the following 
{cheme, which therefore may be amufing 
to fuch readers as underftand aftrelogy 5 
though I am not to be clafled in the num- 
ber! eh 
Jb 21% 1. UW. 2132 isa ae 
ae hy’ oe Lo. 22- MAD 2a 
The meridian was 30% (2 and 2° 2 was on 
the horizon of 54° 35/N. L., The direétion 
alluded to by Mr. Beil is the afcendant to the 
fquare of ‘Saturn. ky t 
‘-Thefe calculations, with every thing 
that may be deducible from them, I wil- 
lingly leave to fuch readers as, like Mefirs. 
Fletcher and Bell, may have been initiated 
into the myfteries of aftrology. They 
afford ancther iniiance of the frength and 
weaknels 
