have no money, your father undoubtedly will bury me, and perhaps may propose putting my remains in his family burial-place; but if you fuffer that, you have my heavy curfe; nay, if it is poffible, I will come from the grave to resent it. Lay me by my dear father, and let our kindred ashes mingle together; for were I put in the ground with your father, The miracle of Thebes would be renew'd,

And the dividing flames burn diff'rent ways.

• These were her very words: now, faid fhe, if ever you grow rich, erect a little fquare ftone over me, and let this infcription be on it:

Here lieth, near the body of her honoured father,
JOHN VANLEWEN, M. D.
The mortal part of

Mrs. LETITIA PILKINGTON;

Whofe fpirit hopes for that peace, through the infinite merit of CHRIST, which a cruel and merciless world never afforded her.

Mrs.

The patience of fome of our readers, by this time may be tired. Be it fo: others may be defirous to follow poor Pilkington to the dying period. • Between five and fix,' fays her fon, her breath grew fhort, and her eye-fight failed her; I wept and, embracing her hand, which was now almoft lifeless, afked her if the knew me ?-She defired me to kneel down and pray by her, which I did; ftill keeping her hand in mine, I found it grow cold and heavy, and looking up, just saw her expire with a figh,'

Reader! again obferve, that none can judge of real characters, but Gop. Cenfure not in others thofe frailties, which, tho' beyond thy prefent perception, thou mayeft have in thyself : concealed, however, till a critical combination of circumftances fhall give thee the melancholy conviction of their real exiftence! confider tempers, genius, education, company, and the wide fpace of employments: confider alfo the space much more wide, horrid, defolate, and abandoned, of people well educated, but reduced; of people of great fenfe, literary, military, and other accomplishments, who, frantic by neglect, run into reveries, of which they never could have fufpected themselves capable! confider thefe, and Lætitia Pilkington may be forgot, and Dean Swift forgiven!

By her anfwer to this question, it appears that her mind was fomewhat difcompofed at that time.

P.

ART. XLVIII. The Ufeful Family Herbal; or, an account of all thofe English plants which are remarkable for their virtues : and of the drugs which are produced by vegetables of other countries. With their defcriptions, and their uses, as proved by experience. Illuftrated with figures of the most useful English plants. With an introduction, containing, 1. Directions for the gathering and preferving roots, herbs, flowers, and feeds. 2. The various methods of preparing thofe fimples for present ufe. 3. Receipts for making from them diftilled waters, conferves, fyrups, and other forms, proper to be in readiness, and for keeping all the year. 4. The ways of making up electuaries, juleps, draughts, and the other forms of remedies; together with the cautions in the giving them. And an Appendix, containing, a propofal for the farther feeking into the virtues of English herbs, and the manner of doing it with eafe and Jafety. The whole intended for the ufe of families, and for the inftruction of those who are defirous of relieving the diftreffed fick. 8vo. 5s. Johnson, &c.

HE knowledge of plants has, in all ages and nations, been justly esteemed an useful and important branch of learning. People are generally convinced, that fimples make up almost the whole of medicine; and as nature has implanted in animals an instinct, by which they discover particular plants to be proper remedies for their diforders, fo fhe feems, in a great measure, to have left us to the ufe of reason, deduction, and experiment, in order to difcover the virtues and ufes of each particular vegetable: a tafk, in the execution of which the reason of man can with difficulty come up to the inftinct of fome animals.

The antients were particularly careful to discover the ufes of plants, and thought it a greater honour to have found a new medicinal virtue, than to have difcovered an hundred fimples before unknown. The moderns, on the contrary, who have carried the curious part of the botanical fcience to a great degree of perfection, employ themselves principally in diftinguishing the characters of bodies, and almost entirely neglect their uses. And perhaps this is one reafon why fome have been led to aver, that the art of healing has not made an equal progrefs with the reft of the fciences, fince the revival of learning.

us,

This new herbal is intended, as the author himself tells to inform those who live in the country, and are defirous of " being ufeful to their families and friends; or charitable to the poor, in the relief of their disorders; of the virtues of

• those

*those plants which grow wild about them: that they may be able to fupply this neceflary affiftance in places where apothecaries are not at hand; and that they may be able to do "it without putting themfelves to the expence of medicines of price, when the common herbs that may be had for gathering, will answer the fame purpose.

However, as there are cafes in which more help may be had from drugs brought from abroad, than from any thing we can procure at home, an account of those roots, barks, feeds, gums, and other vegetable productions, kept by the druggifts and apothecaries, is alfo added; and of the trees and plants from whence they are obtained; together with their virtues.

This work therefore will tend to inftruct those charitable ladies, who may be defirous of giving this great relief to the afflicted poor in their neighbourhood, and to remind the apothecaries of what they had before ftudied: but the firft• mentioned purpose is by much the most useful, and the most confiderable, and therefore has the greateft regard paid to it.'

The author, in the courfe of his introduction, lays down methods for collecting and preferving plants, &c. and for preparing them for ufe. These he has delivered in a very concife manner: perhaps too concife for those whose use they are principally intended for; for tho' a perfon previously acquainted with pharmaceutical operations, will find no difficulty in understanding them, yet this will not be the cafe with ladies, and others, entirely ignorant of those proceffes.

In defcribing the method of making oxymel of garlic, the author directs the vinegar to be boiled in an earthen pipkin; but does not mention whether the pipkin is to be glazed or not. This however, fhould not have been omitted; for as lead is the principal ingredient in the glazing, and as vinegar readily dif folves lead, the compofition, if made in a glazed vessel, as those generally in ufe are, will receive a poisonous quality, too dangerous to be flighted.

The defcriptions of the various plants are clear and well adapted, and the virtues afcribed to them, such as are founded on experience. Several new plants, not known in the prefent practice, are also added, with their virtues and uses.

In the appendix to this work, the author has given us fome ufeful obfervations on the virtues of plants, which have not yet been tried. To find out the virtues of plants not yet in ufe, is certainly a very laudable attempt; and the difcovery of but a fingle remedy for an obftinate difeafe, would reflect more honour on the author, than all the useless learning in the world.

With regard to the danger attending trials of this kind on the English plants, it is very inconfiderable, if the perfon be previously acquainted with the nature of plants.

If a man,' fays our author, were to be turned loofe upon an island, where no perfon had fet foot before, he might dread to tafte of any plant he faw, because he might not • know but every one he saw was fatal: and fuppofing him to ⚫ have got over this fear, the ignorance of the virtues of all ⚫ would keep him backward: but this is not the cafe with him who fhall, at this time, fet about enquiring into the • virtues of plants in England. The poisonous plants, natives of our foil, are hardly a dozen, and these are charactered even to the eye, by fomething fingular or difmal in the afpect. They are well known, and he has nothing to do but ⚫ to avoid them. For the reft, he has fo many whose uses • and qualities are already perfectly known, that he has a great ⚫ foundation to go upon in the fearch, because he can compare thofe he does not know with them. Their taftes will go a great way towards informing him; but this is not all, ⚫ their very outward figures will direct him: for in general those plants which agree in the external aspect, agree likewife in their virtues.

A

To give an inftance in the marshmallow. It is known to work by urine, and to be good against the gravel. We ⚫ will suppose no more known concerning this kind. perfon defirous of extending this ufeful knowledge, finds that by the taste of the root, which is infipid, and its mucilaginous quality, he might have gueffed this to be its virtue, from what he before knew of medicine. The next plant he

< meets, we will fuppofe is the common mallow, and after⚫wards the little white flowered mallow, which lies upon the ground: he taftes the roots of these, and he finds they are ⚫ like the other; he will therefore guefs, that they have the fame virtues, and upon trial he will find it fo.

• But this is not all: if he had examined the flower of the marshmallow, in what manner it was conftructed, and how ⚫ the little threads grew within it, he would have found that the ⚫ flowers of these other two mallows were, in all refpects, like thofe of the other; and farther, he would have found, that the feeds of these two kinds were in the fame manner dif⚫ pofed in circular bodies: from this he might, without tafting • their roots, have been led to guess, that their virtues were the fame; or having gueffed fo much from this, he might have • been then led to taste them, and by that have been confirmed in it: but he might be carried farther; he would find the • fame

fame fort of round clufters of feeds in the holly-oak in his garden; and upon examining the fingle flowers, he wouldfee they were alfo like: and hence he would difcover, that it was of this kind; and he would rightly judge, that the holly-oak alfo poffeffed the fame virtues.

There is this great ufe in examining other plants, which have the fame fort of flowers and fruits with those which we know to have virtues, that we may in this way discover plants at home, to fupply the place of those we have from other countries. It is certain the fun, in warmer climates, does ripen the juices of vegetables farther than in ours, but yet we find the plants of the fame kind, from whatever part of the world they come, to poffefs nearly the fame kind of virtues; generally indeed they are the fame, only differing in • degree.

The observation already made, that the external form of plants may very well give the hint for a conjecture about their virtues, is much more general than might be imagined. • Almost all the plants of the fame kinds are of the fame virtues. But that is not all: for in general, those of the fame class C poffefs the fame qualities, tho' different in degree; and this is a prodigious help to him, who shall set out upon the generous and useful plan of adding to the number of useful plants. It is alfo fingular, that what might appear objections in this cafe, being brought to the trial, will often be found confirmations of the truth there is in the observation.

Thus, fuppofe a man obferving that lettuce is eatable, fhould enquire into all the plants like lettuce, which are thofe that have flowers compofed of many parts, and have the feeds winged with a white downy matter, to find whether they were eatable; let us examine how he would fuc'ceed. The plants of this class, native of England, are the fow-thiftle, the hawkweeds, the dandelions, goats-beards, fuccory, and endive, all eatables. The hawk-weeds are lefs agreeable in tafte, but wholefome; and as to the wild lettuces, those who would bring the opiate quality of the principal of them as an objection, ftrengthen the obfervation; for the garden lettuce also has an opiate quality. This wild one poffeffes it in a greater degree, but ftill in fuch degree that it is an excellent medicine, not at all dangerous. Its bitter taste would prevent people's eating it, for it is dif agreeable; but its virtues are the fame with thofe of lettuce, only greater.

This general obfervation may be carried a great deal farther; but it were the bufinefs of a volume to explain it at

large.