86 eases; it is the duty of every physician to follow the road pointed out by nature, or act in subserviency to her dictates." p. 58.-" Dr. Radcliffe, who always ranked among the most eminent physicians, arrived at that emi 66 strength of the patient (4); and even where it is attempted, he adds (Aph. 31), if it be red and pellucid, it must be immediately stopped (5).-Aph. 9. The best medicine is to give meat at fit times (6).—Aph. 10. One thing to be always observed is, that the phy-nence only by taking nature for his guide in sician consider the strength of the patient: if every thing." p. 74. Bleeding, which any weakness is to be feared, he must allow some physicians are now so fond of, was selmeat.-Aph. 23. According to Asclepiades, dom used by Hippocrates." p. 88." The we ought to set before the patient several plan of nature, which Hippocrates founded sorts of meat, when he does leathe his meat his method on, gained him the reputation of and has but little strength (7).-That these being the inventor of rational medicine.". P. men were observers of nature, no one will 147.-Galen says, "Nature is never forgetful deny their practice and our source of advan- of her office." p. 157. It was the doctrine tage is alone derived thence; that their opi- of Sydenham, as well as Hippocrates, that nions are perfectly consonant with what has nature cures diseases," p. 180; "He took been advanced, it is presumed is evident. his indications not from the name, but from Other authorities shall be adduced. Dr. the nature, degree, and kind of the diss Friend, speaking of Alexander, a medical ease;" p. 181: and speaking of the inflam, writer of great celebrity, mentions his great matory fever, on which he wrote, he character of Jacobus Psychrestus, as a man says, "If we obstinately persist in these very eminent" in philosophy and physic; evacuations, till all the symptoms are entirely that he had great experience," and did got the better of, death oftentimes will be the many wonderful cures;" but adds, " in patient's only cure." p. 187. How often surgery he seldom made use of fire or knife, this is the case in Consumption daily expe and was no friend to bleeding (8)." Dr.rience proves! Etmuller says, Purgation, Clifton, speaking of Galen, says, in his bleeding, and issues are of no use in curing practice he was much influenced by two Consumption; the first is pernicious, the maxims: the one was, "that a disease ought second never allowable; and the third only to be got the better of by that which is con- used in compliance with an exploded fantrary to it" the other, that nature ought cy (11),-" The food of consumptive perto be preserved by something a-kin to her- sons ought to be such as yields a substantial self (9)" Both these were taken from Hippo- glutinous juice; he also recommends sweet crates, the physician of all the ancients that wines." p. 257.-Doctor Sydenham says, he stuck the closest to. (See these Aphorisms "When I am called to patients whose blood of Hippocrates, quoted above.) But Dr. C. is weak, I forbear bleeding. Truly I know. adds, he had the ill-will of the faculty, well, that those who are injured by bleeding who plagued him." Baglivi is also mentioned, are sometimes restored by cordials; but preas being as great a physician as ever, the vention is better than a cure (12).”—“ That is world saw, in the art of knowing how to cure practice, and that alone helps the sick, which diseases, in the plainest, quickest, and most draws its curative indication from the very natural way." p. 127. Dr. Barker, speaking phenomena of the disease, and confirms thein of Hippocrates, says, "did we imitate him, by experience: thus Hippocrates obtained his we should have much clearer notions of the height. Was this done inore, the art would method which ought be pursued, for a have acquired more skilful men than now physician ought to imitate nature, and it is nor would it be degraded, though the com of more consequence for him to know her non people might have known one or two operation in fevers than their cause (10). Na- common diseases; for there is more subtlety ture is the primary agent in the cure of dis- in nature than in any medical hypothesis; the art which nature teaches more surpassing an ordinary capacity.” P. 237. - -"We should have a greater regard to the earnest desires of the sick, than to the fallacious rules of medical art. Impertinent art opposes longings, pronouncing death the consequence. In all these, any one, if he seriously considers, (4) Sec. 10. p. 271. (5) P. 277. (6) P. 288. (7) Sec. 11. p. 296. (8) Dr. Friend's History of Physic, vol. i.will grant that many patients have been better on the Greek Writers, p. 126. (9) Dr. Clifton's State of Physic, p. 84. of the Romans. 10) Dr. Barker's Essay on the Agreement between ancient and modern Phycians, p. 46. after leaving their physicians' precepts, and following their own inclinations; nor wonder, considering the wise Creator has accomplished the whole with such exactness, p. 281; for Hippocrates says, it is to no purpose to do any thing contrary to nature's inclination." P. 322 (13). Dr. Morton says, "Bleeding is condemned in a confirmed consumption (14).' Mr. John Pearson observes, "If a man attempts to learn the science of healing in any other way than by going from his study to the bedside of his patient, and returning from thence to his study, he will find himself mistaken (15)." And he emphatically adds: Even studious and thinking men seem to bestow more pains to collect particular facts, than to generalise them on scientific principles:" P. xvi. Speaking of exercise, Dr. Sydenham says, p. 327, that he regards riding, as a specific in consumption, "on horseback chiefly beneficial, yet journeys in a coach very beneficial."-Fuller says, "The easy exercise of riding introduces a new habit into the lungs of a consumptive patient (16);" and at p. 106, but he that would have his life for a prey, must hunt after it, and follow his blow till he subdues his enemy;" and will then experience the happy effects of the good old direction, Recipe Caballum; finding the English had the most noble medium of recovery from a distemper, which we have too much reason to call English. Dr. Cullen, speaking of the exceeding difficulty" of curing consumption, adds," It may be doubtful whether this failure is in our art, or the nature of the disease. I am extremely averse to admit the latter, and can readily allow the former (17) :" and at p. 453, But I do not despair of a remedy being found hereafter."-The Edinburgh Practice of Physic, and many more authorities might be adduced. 66 That these rules are founded on nature is sufficiently obvious; that their authors are eminent is certain. I may therefore (it is presumed) be permitted to participate in the gratification they afford, from the recollection that what I proposed was ascertained before having read their works, while influenced, I hope, by their motives. Such additional testimony, therefore, need not be lost either by myself or others. This, added to the success of the means, and the adoption of them by others, whom I had not the honour to know, but from their communications on this account, leaves me much gratefully to acknowledge. Much yet remains to be known. The office of the lungs, as Paley (18) says, may not be fully understood. The late experiments of Mr. Davey (19) seem to evince this. I will only add, that Fuller (p. 82, 86, 94) pronounces a very high eulogium on the use of Coltsfoot, Liquorice, and Comfrey, drank as tea. The latter, he says, is "never enough to be valued."—I have tried them with advantage, and mention them, not only as use ful, but because I think we overlook some of the best herbal remedies, and probably a specific for consumption, believing, as I do, that Providence has graciously provided every country with remedies for its own diseases. Practical Botany should be added to scientific: that we might know the qualities and uses of plants, as well as their names and situations; that they may be sought and found for health as well as pleasure, and thus increase our ardour and avidity, by uniting the advantages of body and mind-health and philosophy. It is supposed that an apology is hardly neces sary for amplifying thus on a disease which has been said to destroy two-thirds of our population (20)," and which, as Mr. Abernethey (21) has observed, "has not met with sufficient attention, or its principles been sufficiently explained." -"Observation (as Le Dran says) is the mother of arts and sciences, from whence most discoveries are derived; to this we are indebted for their progress, and by this alone they are brought to perfection (22)." By this, therefore, we may hope to succeed, and to this natural foundation we must apply, if we hope to lessen the number of those consumptive sacrifices so well described by the Latin poet, where Hectic and void of strength, Consumption pale Prey'd on their vitals. Good's LUCRETIUS, B. 6. * STATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ST. PA- The Savage may content himself without Religion, considered as a public profession, or as a social act; he may offer his adorations individually to the Great Sit, at the sight of some tremendons convulsion of nature, or slightest justification of the unwarrantable on occasion of some extraordinary event, bygning, by those who profess them. Waving, therefore, all reference to the religious differences between the Catholic Church and the Protestant, with a hearty wish, nevertheless, that the power of truth may soon dissipate them, we shall attempt to convey some idea of the present state of the Catholic persuasion in our sister island. The remoteness of that period when Christianity was first introduced into Ireland, has drawn a veil of obscurity over the time, the means, and the persons to which that happy event may be referred. It does not, so far as we know, appear to have been effected, as in. Britain, previous to the era when the Church of Rome had conceived ideas of her own prio rity in dignity and importance: and, therefore, Ireland receiving her creed from the. Papal See, was naturally led to look to that See for direction of every kind, whether in principle or practice. The present Catholic of Ireland, in retaining the religion of his forefathers, does no more than comply with a powerful bias of the human mind. What ever of venerable may be attributed to anti Christianity surposes and supports social worship; in return it is supported by serrices and ordinances, which imply the participation of several persons,--a community esta blished and arranged Alexander Selkirk, alone, on the island of Juan Fernandes, might be a good christian in his heart, but he had no opportunity of manifesting the sin-quity, to long establishment, and to example cerity of his profession, or of fulfilling the services demanded by the christian dispensation. To deprive any persuasion of christians of the means which they wish to adopt for the furtherance of christianity among them, is to reduce them to the condition of Alexander Selkirk to a condition, in truth, still more desolate, since the mind feels with augmented severity the contrast between its own privations and the enjoyments of others. But Christianity is, in its very nature, a powerful promoter of civilization. It softens the manners of individuals, and fosters the kindly feelings of humanity. Whatever of savage or barbarous it finds, it corrects, and where it prevails in its genuine influence, it becomes the felicity of the individual, as it would become the feicity of the world at large, were it prevalent, and practised as it deserves. That the abuse of christian principles has been attended with serious evils, is but too true, and we certainly shall not offer the From Papers presented to the Hon. the House of Commons, and ordered to be printed 30th March and 6th April, 1808. Vol. IV. [Lit. Pan. July, 1808.] transmitted from generation to generation, may be pleaded by the Irish Catholic; and if he desires to avoid a closer inquiry after truth, he may congratulate himself on professing no novelty sprung up on a sudden, and threatening to overwhelm by its vehemence, what it cannot pretend to rival by its authority, He may quote the sanction of the pious in ages long departed, as well as those with whom he has been acquainted; and may plead the impressions made on his own mind in his earliest years, no less by the intermingled endearments of effection, than by the power of that reverence which he would think it a sin to omit, and would find it a contradiction to his feelings to forego. Opposition is a powerful cause of obstinacy in the human mind; that for which we have debated, and have fought, we hold with increased determination and zeal. That which in spite of our efforts has prevailed, and espe Such is the condition of the Irish Catholic: persuaded that his own religion, as it is the most antient, so it is the most certain; that the Protestant establishment is an interloper and usurper; that the means of its support are violations of honour and honesty; and, in fact, that its very existence is sacrilege. We have already seen (Panorama, Vol. III. pp 225, 449) under what difficulties the Protestant Church is maintained in Ireland. The little progress that it makes in enlightening the people, or rather the ground which it loses, among them, and the diminution of its numbers, which in proportion contributes to augment the mass of its adversaries. We are now to contemplate the measures taken for giving a beneficial direction to Catholic zeal, and for communicating those advantages through the medium of Catholic institutions, which are denied to Protestant exertions. an extremely beneficial influence on many eminent Catholics. An influence allied in kind, if not equal in degree, attends the profession and practice of Popery, where it is under the eye of Protestants. The grosser and more offensive branches of it are abandoned, lest they should expose those who assist in them to ridicule; and some of the practices of Protestantism are adopted, as evidently beneficial. This mutuality may be expected in proportion to the correctness with which the principles of Protestantism are understood, and to their effect in forming the manners, and directing the lives of those who profess them. To speak out our opinion, then, on what is desireable for Ireland, the first thing is, to advance the Protestant religion to its due dignity; not meaning external splendour, but its influence on the heart: when the Protestants are themselves pious and exemplary, equal to their professions and their advantages, then will a bright day arise upon Ireland. The second thing is, to procure for the Irish Catholics a judiciously educated clergy; and the third is, to disseminate knowledge among the lower classes of the people themselves. Happily, we observe a gleam, which we hail as the precursor of advancing light. There is an attempt by the superiors of the Catholics in Ireland to obtain youths of a class above that which formerly furnished the labouring Very fallacious were those principles which considered the extinction of Popery as certain, by depriving the people of competent pastois and priests: an ignorant priesthood is more likely to maintain pernicious principles than that which is well instructed. General knowledge opens the mind to the perception of many truths, which act by comparison and analogy, though they cannot be referred immediately to that particular subject on which they act. If prejudice admits of cure, it is by means of general knowledge; and the experience of every age has proved, that more mis-priesthood; and we trust we are not misinchief arises from half-informed zeal, than from fully-informed understanding. What, then, shall we think of that policy which drove the priesthood of Ireland abroad to obtain that instruction which might fit them, however imperfectly, for their sacred functions? which banished them for a time from their own country, and induced them to seek in states governed by arbitrary power, and in colleges where Popery was cultivated without restraint, for that portion of learning which their office demanded. Was it not to be feared, that priests who had been thus educated would be less favourable to public liberty, in proportion as they had been accustomed to the injunctions of despotism; and that having imbibed their religious maxims, on the establishment of which they were to depend for their future support, from sources the most deeply impregnated with corrupt peculiarities, they would retain these, and disperse them among their flocks, when returned to their own country? Whoever has seen Popery abroad, well knows that where it reigns absolute, it indulges in many superstitions which the wiser part of its community abhor. Esthius went so far as to say, that the Reformation under Luther was the salvation of the Romish Church; and it is certain that the principle of inquiry, first publicly established by that reformer, has had formed when we say, that these receive a better education than before; better by the absence of what is injurious, if not by the introduction of what would be beneficial. Formerly, a lad, the son of a cotter, dignified indeed with the appellation of farmer, but in nothing resembling that class of men among ourselves, was taken from the wilds of his paternal residence to become a priest. He was introduced into the mass-house, where he performed the menial offices of the place, and waited on the priests who were in their course of service. Having attained a due age, and by observation become acquainted with the attitudes and actions of the ceremonies, he was called to the priesthood, and celebrated his first mass. At this mass a collection was made for his benefit, and he received, perhaps, forty or fifty pounds, which enabled him to go abroad, where he entered himself of some foreign college, and maintained himself, during his residence there, by his priestly functions. Being thus ordained priest, first, he took to his studies afterwards the very reverse of what an ordinary understanding would prefer. Was he competent to discharge the very arduous and delicate offices of the priesthood in the Catholic communion ?—to give spiritual advice and consolation, to hear confessions, appoint penances, and bestow absolutions, with the thousand difficulties at The Catholics, then, have done well to think of adverting to some power to which they may look for the establishment and pro tending such cases and concerns? If he was competent, of what avail were his further studies? If he was not competent, why impose on him duties that he could not fulfil?-tection of their hierarchy. If they delay much The fact was, that as his priestly character longer, they may be reduced to the dilemma could not be taken away from him, he was of the Nonjurors; if their bishops consecrate little urged by emulation to the attainment of no other bishops, how will their church be learning. If he had a natural turn for study, perpetuated? If they consecrate other bihe would, no doubt, improve his opportunity; shops, and these receive no confirmation from if, on the contrary, he was indifferent to let- superiors, how far will their people be bound ters, he would sloven over his lectures and to yield them submission? Inasmuch, then,' his classes, for he was already priest. Latin as they have broke the ice, in making, by enough to distinguish the offices in his bre- their friends in Parliament, the proposition viary he usually acquired, and with this he that the Crown shall have its voice in the nocould pass through the life to which he was mination of their bishops, we advise them to destined. advance a step further, and to look to the possible case of there being no Pope from whom they may derive ecclesiastical authority, on which they have hitherto laid, as Catholics, so great a stress. The late Mr. Pitt, when intent on effecting what has been very improperly termed Catholic Emancipation, was equally intent on giving the Crown a voice in the nomination to bishopricks, and also that the clergy should accept a part of their stipends from the national purse. Ireland already affords an instance of this, in the salaries paid to the Presbyterian clergy in the North; these receive from 751. to 100 or 1501. per annum, and their people add what they think proper. On these two principles, it is understood, hinged the conduct of that eminent statesman. At that time, the Catholics refused both these offers; urging, on reference to their bishops, their sole dependence on the Pope; and, in reference to their clergy, their fear that the people would in that case withhold their accustomed means of support. The Catholics, it should seem, begin to see the propriety of the first proposition: they will gradually discern their true interest in yet stronger and clearer degrees. But, if the Catholics will attentively select for their priesthood youths who have been already instructed in the rudiments of learning, who already understand the grammar of their native language, and have arrived at years when some estimate may be formed of their abilities and probable usefulness, and if on these they bestow the additional instruction requisite to fit them for the due discharge of all the duties of their profession, before they enter it, then may we hope for a gradual improvement in the character of the clergy, more knowledge among the priests, and, in consequence, more knowledge among the people. If there be, in the priestly character in the Romish church, any principle acting in opposition to this, if the station of priest offers no inducement to youth of more liberal minds and expectations to embrace it, then it well becomes the dignitaries of this communion to consider the aspect of the times on their church, and to break through those monkish and unnatural maxims which have long, perhaps ever, been the reproach and the damage of their establishment. In fact, ToWARD THIS EMANCIPATION THEY ARE HASTENING! Already have the calamities of Europe suspended their intercourse with the But there is another incident to which IreContinent. A supply of priests from abroad land will be indebted for extensive benefits: they cannot procure; and shortly, or our an incident that could not possibly have been judgment deceives us, they will be embarrassed foreseen by the keenest politician. The deto satisfy their own minds as to that Head of basement of her currency has introduced pa the Church to whom they owe obedience. per circulation, and paper circulation is useThey have seen the Pope gradually deprived less, and even hazardous, to those who canof his power, subjected to the capricious will not read there is, therefore, at this moment, of his enemies, and dragged from his throne. a necessity, pervading all ranks of life, for They know that he now exists by sufferance, some acquaintance with letters; and this will and that he issues no mandate er mero motu. lead to further instruction. It passes too, for They will shortly, in all probability, see him certain, that a desire of scriptural knowledge still further degraded, perhaps reduced to the is lively; and that the poorest cottagers who mere shadow of a shade, even if suffered to must learn to read notes, for such small sums exist. Should his office be wholly annihi- are they current, will direct their acquired lated, to whom will they look, and with powers of intelligence towards that source of whom will they hold communion as the vi-instruction. Moreover, these notes requiring sible Head of the Church? What influence will they allow to a mere private bishop? what authority? what right of decision? what power of dernier resort? a knowledge of the English language, they will tend very strongly to break that charm which has hitherto confined the Irish peasant to his native language. It would have occa |