father Courayer. 'Tis fhe who condefcended to attempt a reconciliation between Dr. Clark and Mr. Leibnitz. The moment this princefs heard of inoculation, the caus'd an experiment of it to be made on four criminals fentenc'd to die, and by that means preferv'd their lives doubly; for she not only fav'd them from the gallows, but, by means of this artificial Small-pox, prevented their ever having that distemper in a natural way, with which they would very probably have been attack'd one time or other, and might have died of in a more advanced age.

THE princefs being affured of the usefulness of this operation, caus'd her own children to be inoculated. A great part of the kingdom follow'd her example, and fince that time ten thousand children, at leaft, of perfons of condition, owe in this manner their lives to her majesty, and to the lady Wortley Mountague; and as many of the fair fex are oblig'd to them for their beauty.

UPON a general calculation, threescore perfons in every hundred have the Smallpox. Of these threefcore, twenty die of it in the most favourable feafon of life, and as many more wear the difagreeable remains of it in their faces fo long as they live. Thus, a fifth part of mankind either die, or are disfigur'd by this distemper.

But

But it does not prove fatal to fo much as one, among thofe who are inoculated in Turkey or in England, unless the patient be infirm, or would have died, had not the experiment been made upon him. Besides, no one is disfigur'd, no one has the Smallpox a fecond time, if the Inoculation was perfect. 'Tis therefore certain, that had the lady of fome French ambaffador brought this fecret from Conftantinople to Paris, the nation would have been for ever oblig❜d to her. Then the duke de Villequier, father to the duke d'Aumont, who enjoys the most vigorous constitution, and is the healthieft man in France, would not have been cut off in the flower of his age.

THE prince of Soubife, happy in the fineft flush of health, would not have been fnatch'd away at five and twenty; nor the dauphin, grandfather to Lewis the fifteenth have been laid in his grave in his fiftieth year. Twenty thousand perfons, whom the Small-pox fwept away at Paris in 1723, would have been alive at this time. But are not the French fond of life, and is beauty fo inconfiderable an advantage as to be difregarded by the ladies? It must be confefs'd that we are an odd kind of people. Perhaps our nation will imitate, ten years hence, this practice of the English, if the clergy and the phyficians will but give them leave to do it: Or poffibly our countrymen

may

may introduce Inoculation three months hence in France, out of mere whim, in case the English fhould discontinue it thro' ficklenefs.

I AM inform'd that the Chinese have practis'd Inoculation these hundred years, a circumstance that argues very much in its favour, fince they are thought to be the wifeft and best govern'd people in the world. The Chinese indeed don't communicate this distemper by inoculation, but at the nose, in the fame manner as we take fnuff. This is a more agreeable way, but then it produces the like effects, and proves, at the fame time, that had Inoculation been practis'd in France, 'twould have fav'd the lives of thoufands.

LET

LETTER XII.

ΟΝ ΤΗ Ε

LORD BACON.

NOT long fince, the trite and frivo

lous queftion following was debated in a very polite and learned company, viz. who was the greatest man, Cafar, Alexander, Tamerlane, Cromwell, &c.

SOME body anfwer'd, that Sir Isaac Newton excell'd them all. The gentleman's affertion was very juft; for if true greatness confifts in having receiv'd from heaven a mighty genius, and having employ'd it to enlighten our own minds and that of others; a man like Sir Ifaac Newton, whofe equal is hardly found in a thousand years, is the truly great man. And those politicians and conquerors (and all ages produce fome) were generally fo many illuftrious wicked men. That man claims our refpect, who commands over the minds of the rest of the world by the force of truth, not thofe who enflave their fellow-creatures; he who is acquainted with the universe, not they who deface it. SINCE

SINCE therefore you defire me to give you an account of the famous perfonages which England has given birth to, I fhall begin with Lord Bacon, Mr. Locke, Sir Ifaac Newton, &c. afterwards the warriors and minifters of ftate fhall come in their order.

I. MUST begin with the celebrated vifcount Verulam, known in Europe by the name of Bacon, which was that of his family. His father had been lord keeper, and himself was a great many years lord chancellor under king James the first. Nevertheless, amidst the intrigues of a court, and the affairs of his exalted employment, which alone were enough to engrofs his whole time, he yet found fo much leisure for study, as to make himself a great philofopher, a good historian, and an elegant writer; and a still more furprifing circumftance is, that he liv'd in an age in which the art of writing justly and elegantly was little known, much lefs true philofophy. Lord Bacon, as is the fate of man, was more efteem'd after his death than in his life-time. His enemies were in the British court, and his admirers were foreigners.

WHEN the marquis d'Effat attended in England upon the princefs Henrietta Maria, daughter to Henry the fourth, whom king Charles the firft had married, that minifter went and vifited the lord Bacon, who

being