pal productions are in the form of commentaries on the metaphysical and ethical works of Aristotle. The list of these treatises affords a remarkable evidence of the laborious attention with which the scholars of this age pursued their painful and abstruse labours; but it shows at the same time how far removed the literature of the schools was from the path of practical utility, and how impossible it would have been for its greatest admirer to have said of its most accomplished professor, that he brought philosophy from its higher sphere to converse with mortals. Only one of Burleigh's works has escaped almost utter oblivion: this is a tract entitled, De Vita et Moribus Philosophorum,' and it is not unworthy of preservation, as giving a curious specimen of the manner in which the masters of ancient wisdom were viewed by the learned of the 14th century.

John of Gaddesden.

FLOR. CIRC. A. D. 1320.

THE earliest English physician whose works have been printed, was Gilbert English, who flourished in the 13th century, and whose skill in medicine is highly extolled by Leland and Bale. Like his predecessor, Albricius, he appears to have mastered the science of the Arabians, and Dr Freind is of opinion, that "he took the bulk of what he compiled from the writings of the Arabians," which were, in fact, at this time, the only depositaries of science known to Europeans. John de Gaddesden is the next medical writer of this country whose works are before the public. He flourished in the early part of the 14th century, and studied at Merton college, Oxford. "Having acquired," says Leland, "a thorough knowledge of philosophy, he applied with great ardour to the study of medicine, in which he made so great proficiency, that he was justly esteemed the great luminary of his age. He wrote a large and erudite work on medicine, to which, on account of its excellence, the illustrious title of 'The Medical Rose,' was given." The title of the book is somewhat different from Leland's account of it. It runs thus in the original: Rosa Anglica quatuor libris distincta, de morbis particularibus, de febribus, de chirurgia, de pharmocopeia.' It is a singular work, and may be referred to as exhibiting the whole system of surgery and physic practised in England in the 14th century. In treating of each disease, Gaddesden gives, first, the etymology of its name, and a general description of it; 2dly, the symptoms; 3dly, the treatment. On the latter head, Gaddesden is always extremely full; in fact, as Dr Freind observes, he seems to have sedulously collected all the receipts and nostrums which he had ever met with or heard of, and, with little attention to the rationale of medicine, to have incorporated the whole in one vast system of therapeutics. He was a great dealer in secrets, and possessed some with which, if we are to trust his own account, he performed absolute miracles; he affirms that he possessed great skill in physiognomy, and informs us, that it was his intention to write a treatise of chiromancy. In fact, Gaddesden was the universal philosopher of his day: physic, meta

physics, surgery, poetry, philology,—nothing came amiss to him; and when one art failed, he was always sure to have another at hand with which he could at least impose on the credulity of mankind. Dr Freind has exposed, with much humour and effect, the extreme empiricism of Gaddesden's practice. What can be more whimsical, for example, than the following treatment of a patient in the small-pox? “After this" that is, immediately after the eruption appears-" cause the whole body of your patient be wrapped in red scarlet cloth, or in any other red cloth, and cause every thing about his bed be made red. This is an admirable mode of cure. It was in this manner I treated the son of the noble king of England when he had the small-pox; and I cured him without leaving any marks." Nothing less ridiculous is his treatment of epilepsy, though in this instance, at least, he was not singular in his practice: "Because," says he, "there are many children and others affected with the epilepsy, who cannot take medicines, let the following method be observed, which is recommended by Constantine, Walter, Bernard, Gilbert, and others, which I too have found to be effectual, whether the patient was a demoniac, a lunatic, or an epileptic. When the patient and his parents have fasted three days, let him be conducted to a church. There, if he be of proper age, and in his right senses, let him confess. Then let him hear mass on Friday, during the fast of Quatuor temporum, and also on Saturday. On Sunday, let a good and pious priest read over his head, in the church, the gospel which is appointed to be read in September in the time of vintage, and let the patient wear the same about his neck, and he will be cured. The gospel is: This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.' Such were the methods of cure practised by a man who stood at the head of the medical school of England in the 14th century, whom princes consulted and honoured, whom poets celebrated, and whom Leland and Ovaringius extol as the profoundest philosopher, the most skilful physician, and the most illustrious man of his age! In forming an estimate, however, of Gaddesden, or any of his contemporaries, we must take into account the general ignorance and universal superstition of the age in which they lived. Besides the practice of his profession, Gaddesden held a prebendary in St Paul's,—a sinecure place doubtless, for so convenient a mode of rewarding personal services was not unknown to the dispensers of patronage even in these incorrupt times. Of his Rosa Anglica,' there are two editions: one printed in folio at Venice, in 1502,-the other in quarto, Aug. Vind. 1595.

Sir John Mandeville.

BORN CIRC. A. D. 1300.-DIED A. D. 1372.

'THE fervour of religious enthusiasm which had carried crowds of humble pilgrims and steel-clad warriors to the Holy Land, was not yet exhausted when this remarkable man began his career. But the motives which influenced him seem to have been altogether distinct from those which had hitherto operated on the minds of travellers to the

remote East. A desire of information, and that restlessness of mind with which it is so frequently blended, prompted him to pursue a course which it had till now required the irresistible inducements of devotion to undertake with courage. He may, therefore, perhaps be fairly regarded as the first of our countrymen to whom the name of traveller ought strictly to be applied; and when either the extent of his wanderings are remembered, or the few facilities which the age afforded for pursuing them in safety, he may be considered, with equal justice, as one of the most enterprising of his class.

It has not been ascertained in what year he was born, but there are documents to prove that it was at or very near the commencement of the fourteenth century, and that Saint Albans was his birth place The family from which he descended is represented as having been of the highest respectability; the same scanty traditions relating to him acquaint us that he was brought up as a physician, and that he exercised his profession for some years, but was at length so strongly excited by the desire of seeing distant countries, that in 1332 he bade farewell to his native land, and commenced a tour which, with his stay in the different regions that attracted his curiosity, occupied no less a period than thirty-four years. During this time, he traversed the chief parts of Asia, Egypt, and Libya, spent three years at Pekin in China, attended the grand khan of Cathay in his wars, and even served as a soldier himself under the soldan of Egypt. The variety of adventures with which he must have met in such a journey would have been amply sufficient to satisfy his readers, and it is only to be regretted that the interesting and valuable information he might have conveyed should have been sacrificed to the extravagancies which disfigure his journal. From the length of time he expended in his wanderings, from the close intercourse which he seems to have kept up with the natives of the countries he explored, and the skill he acquired in their languages, he was qualified to enlarge the knowledge of his countrymen on subjects of the most important practical utility. But either his mind was deficient in acuteness, or he was unwilling to diminish the amazement with which the common stories respecting the east were received by the people. Thus the most extravagant assertions are made with an appearance of faith which is almost as startling as the wonders themselves. Nature is represented under aspects which set at defiance all the laws by which it may reasonably be supposed she is every where governed. Circumstances occur which the sober earnestness of the narrative sets forth as worthy of all credit, but which are scarcely more credible than those of the wildest romance. The journal, therefore, of Sir John would be worthy of little attention were it not for the light which it throws upon the taste of the English a the time when it was written. In the preface to the work, he speaks with some eloquence on the claims which the land of Palestine has to the devout attention of Christian men and states as his motive for describing it, that a long time had passed since the route thither was familiar or general, and that a number of persons desired to hear it described. He then formally declares, “I, John Mandeville, knight, who was born in England in the town of St Albans, passed the sea in the year 1332, on Saint Michael's day; and there remained a long time, and went through many lands and many provinces, kingdoms,

and isles, and have passed through Turkie, and through Armony the Little and Great, through Tartary, Jury, Araby, Egypt the High and Low, through Liby, Chalde, and a great part of Æthiope, through Amazony, through Jude the Less and the More, and through many other isles which are about Jude, where many people dwell of divers shape Of the men of which lands I shall speak plainly, and shall declare part of the things I have seen." He then proceeds to describe the way to Jerusalem, "on horse, on foot, or by sea," prefacing his account with the remark, that he had "ridden it and passed it with good observation." Many of the principal towns on the road are mentioned in order, and the care is every where evident which the author took not to omit any legend which might please the lovers of the marvellous. The description given of Bethlehem may serve to make the reader acquainted with his style ::-"From Hebron," says he, "men go to Bethlehem in half a day, for it is but five miles, and it is a very fair way and through pleasant woods. Bethlehem is but a little city, long and narrow, and was walled and enclosed with a great ditch; it hath been formerly called Ephrata, as holy writ saith, Ecce audivimus cum in Ephrata,' &c., that is, 'Lo we heard of the same at Ephrata.' And near the end of the city towards the east, is a very fair and goodly church, which has many towers and pinnacles, being strongly built. Within that church are four and forty great marble pillars; and not far from this church is a field which flourished very strangely, as you shall hear. The cause is, forasmuch as a fair maiden that was accused wrongfully for that she had done dishonestly, for which cause she was doomed to die, and to be burnt in that place, to which she was led. And as the wood began to burn about her, she made her prayer to our Lord, as she was not guilty of that thing, that he would help her, that it might be known to all men. And having thus prayed, she entered the fire, and those branches that were burning became red roses, and those that were not kindled became white roses, and these were the first roses that any man ever saw: And so was the maiden saved through the grace of God, wherefore that field is called the field that God flourished, for that it was full of roses." The wonders which he relates of the isles in the eastern seas are less pleasing to the imagination. Thus, the people of the isle of Raso are said to hang their friends who are supposed to be near dying on the boughs of trees, in order that the birds might eat them, saying, it was better that the birds which are angels of God-should eat them than the worms. In another island hounds are said to be kept to strangle the sick, which, after they have been thus destroyed, are eaten for venison.' The isle of Macumeran is celebrated for being inhabited by men and women who have heads like dogs' heads. In Dodyn the people, it is said, beat even their sick parents to death, and then assemble all their friends and relatives to feast on their remains. Other islands are distinguished like that of Macumeran for the monstrosities of human shape which they produce, and one is especially mentioned, the inhabitants of which have no heads, and to supply the defect have their eyes in their shoulders and their mouths in their breasts. Numerous instances might be produced of fables of another class, but the above specimen of Sir John's veracious gravity will enable the reader to form a tolerably correct idea of the privilege which travellers assumed to themselves

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in the fourteenth century, or rather, perhaps, of the taste which prevailed at that period, and which a man desirous of reputation as a traveller dared not venture to oppose. Steele and Addison unite in celebrating the fertility of the venerable tourist's imagination, and observe, that among all the authors of his kind he deserves the foremost place for "the copiousness of his invention and the greatness of his genius." It has, however, been discovered, that Sir John merits less praise for originality than the applause of these wits implies. From the comparison which has been instituted between his journal and that of Oderic de Portenau, it is found that he borrowed whole pages from that writer, while most of his marvellous tales are traced with equal clearness to the old romances, which were then generally well-known on the continent.

Notwithstanding the medley of extravagance which occupied so large a portion of this journal, Sir John enjoyed an extensive reputation both in England and abroad. Some of his relations, indeed, are ascribed to the monks, who are supposed to have added them of their own accord ; and it is not improbable, but that while he condescended to amuse the ignorant with fables, he obtained the respect of the more enlightened by a juster account of what he had seen and heard. It was chiefly to alleviate the unpleasant sensation of languor which he suffered after his return to England that he wrote the account of his journey, but the amusement which it afforded him was not sufficient to cure his ennui, and after a vain endeavour to remain contented at home, he again set out for the continent, and repaired to Liege, where he took up his residence, and where he died in the year 1372. A handsome monument in the principal church of that city, records his honourable descent, and the faith in which he died. His name richly deserves to be remembered; however little he did to promote the interests of science, he was a man of singular resolution, and contributed, if he did nothing farther, to awaken a spirit of curiosity and enterprise. It is evident, from the character of his journal, that knowledge of every species was subjected at the time he wrote to the sway of superstition; and when it is remembered that in little more than a hundred years from that period, Vasco de Gama rendered the remote shores of India familiar to every merchant in Europe, and Columbus had successfully traversed the Atlantic in search of shores before unheard of, the visionary tales of Sir John Mandeville, taken as a starting point, will serve to show in the strongest manner the extent to which in one century improvement may be carried. A similar inference will be drawn from his narrative when it is recollected, that at the time when his stories of Indians without heads, and other such marvels, were received with delight in England, the Venetians and Genoese viewed those countries as the proper seat of their commerce, and would have been as little inclined to credit his stories as they were ready to follow the suggestions of the boldest trafficker. As England was enabled to extend its commerce, the narratives of travellers were filled with contents of a very different nature, and those of Sir John Mandeville were speedily forgotten by all but the most curious inquirers into the state of our early litera

ture.