This, however, is not to be wondered at; whenever we desire to win others, we always employ those means which we observe to have an influence on ourselves; the art of persuasiveness always begins with self-observation, and the consequence of this is, that the nearer our own feelings resemble those of the world in general, the greater is the chance that our inferences will be correct, and our measures effectual. It is easy therefore to see why a man of genius, whose mental habits have led him away from popular sympathy, should insensibly neglect the employment of a multitude of trifles, which have no power over him, but which greatly interest and affect the generality of mankind. Beside this, the talents of Beddoes, like those of every extraordinary mind, were too large to be measured by the multitude; they never perceive the difference between those minds which are a little above them, and those which are much above them; just as travellers in the valley suppose all the mountains above them of nearly an equal height, nor can they perceive, until they have ascended the tops of some, the greater height and vaster magnitude of others.

Dr Beddoes disliked general visit ing; when in the company of intelligent strangers, in whose society he delighted, he was habitually silent, and was always more anxious to gain knowledge from others than to make a parade of his own; with all his powers and his knowledge, he never aimed at becoming a conversationist, a character for which he was unfit

ted by his shyness and reserve. A large mixed party was not the theatre in which he shone; it was only in a small circle of literary friends that he enjoyed sufficient unreservedness of feeling, to make a full display of his powers. He was fond of the society of accomplished women, among whom he would often unbend and indulge in sallies of great wit and liveliness. In the relations of domestic life, his conduct was irreproachable; he never suffered his literary pursuits to exclude his family from his apartments. Many of his most celebrated publications were composed whilst his wife was conversing with a friend on one side, and his infant daughter was playing tricks and making noises on the other. There is a singular story told of him, which strikingly shows how little he thought about many things which are the most interesting to the generality of mankind. He had been absent in Wales for two or three weeks without having mentioned to his family the object of his journey; on his return, a gentleman called on him, and finding that he was not at home, requested to see Mrs Beddoes. After a little common conversation, he congratulated her on the late accession to her fortune, at which she expressed surprise and ignorance: the fact was, that the doctor had been down into Wales to attend on his dying fa ther, who had bequeathed to him a fortune of very considerable amount, without mentioning to Mrs Beddoes either the cause or the result of his journey.

OF

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On the 9th May last, a discovery of an extraordinary nature was made in an enclosure called the Laav-park, on the farm of Mill of Williamston, in the parish of Culsamond, Aberdeenshire. In preparing the field for potatoes, the plough (at a spot from which a large cairn of stones had been removed about 30 years ago,) struck against something which impeded its progress. On examination, this proved to be a wooden coffin, of uncommon size and shape, and of the rudest conceivable workmanship. It had been made from the trunk of a tree of black oak, divided into three parts of unequal lengths, each of which had been split through the middle with wedges; the whole consisting of six parts, and resembling the body and shafts of a cart. The sides had been sunk into the ground about 13 or 14 inches, and about the middle of them, grooves were made, on which the bottom rested. The bottom was laid on a bed of fine blue elay, about 3 inches thick. The gabel-pieces were sunk into large holes, filled with fine blue sand brought from a distance; the whole surrounded with a double row of stones, and

carefully covered over with an inmense quantity of moss, also brought from a distance. The coffin was laid due east and west, the head of it east ; and what appears very curious, the projecting parts of the sides rested on an oval hard substance, composed of earth and clay, in which too was a considerable mixture of ashes, and which evidently had undergone the action of a very strong fire. This can be accounted for in no other way, but by supposing that on this part of the grave the funeral pile had been erected. In a corner of the inside of the coffin, towards the head of it, had been placed an urn, which was broken in the digging out. Its contents, which, owing to this, were mixed with the surrounding earth, had undoubtedly been the bones and ashes of some person whose dead body had been burnt and deposited there. The urn had been formed of a mixture of clay and sand, narrow at the bottom, very wide at the top, and about 10 or 11 inches deep. There was a large round hole at one of the extremities of each of the sides, but not the least appearance of any iron tool on any part of the coffin.

found him much worse; the hot-water blister was now applied, but with little relief. Dr Craufuird left him again late in the morning, promising to see him again soon; Beddoes endeavoured to thank him for his kind attention, but his heart was too full; he could not speak, and the tears ran down his cheeks. At half past three in the afternoon Dr Craufuírd returned to him; he was sitting up, but he had scarcely any pulse, and death was in his face. I suppose," said he to Dr Craufuird, "you are fully aware this cannot last long?" Dr Craufuird evaded the question as well as he could, and advised him to lie down; he then conversed on a medical topic with his usual precision ; his symptoms, however, became rapidly worse, and at six o'clock in the evening he died.

The body was examined by Mr John Estlin, of Bristol. The perieardium was so much enlarged, as to occupy much of the right side of the thorax; it was thickened, and had formed extensive adhesions to the lining membrane of the chest. The right lung was uncommonly large; soft, but of the natural structure; the left lung was almost obliterated; all that remained of it was a small, hard, and irregular substance, without any vestige of the natural structure of lungs; the heart was natural; the pericardium was nearly filled with a bloody fluid the left pulmonary veins and arteries belonging to the obliterated lung, were wholly obliterated; the liver was healthy; the gall bladder was converted into a small bunch of a thick and corrugated membrane, and its duct was impervious; the sto mach was large, and inflamed through its upper half. The dissection, how ever, was performed in hasty and imperfect way, partly out of tender

ness to the feelings of Mrs Beddoes, who was in the house during the operation, and partly from an incident somewhat singular. There existed no likeness of him, and Bird the painter had been sent for to preserve one after his death; the gentlemen knew nothing of this, and when they entered the room, expecting to find the body ready for them, they found it. sitting up in the bed, in the clothes which the doctor usually wore, the hair newly dressed, and the hand placed on a table with a book by it. The operator had been intimately acquainted with Dr Beddoes; it is not surprising, therefore, that such an incident should deprive him of his collected

ness.

Whatever his professional brethren may think of the actual accessions which the healing art has derived from the labours of Dr Beddoes, he was unquestionably the first physician of his time, Darwin only excepted, in knowledge and powers of understanding. He was complete master of Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, and German; he was familiar with general literature; he was intimately acquainted with mineralogy and chemistry, and every department of professional science; he had performed the practical duties of his profession with a zeal and activity rarely equalled; and the degree in which he was gifted with the highest faculties of the understanding, is best shown by the argumentativeness and eloquence of his numerous writings. That his powers were great, no impartial person who is acquainted with all that he has done can deny; and if, in perusing his life, there appears a disproportion between the quantity of effort and that of success, it is probable that the fault lies rather in the subject than in the man; medical