-
Articles/Ads
Article THE COLLECTOR. ← Page 2 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Collector.
which appeared to her little likely to lead to any thing that might j , elp to feed and clothe themselves , or their children . Over his house , 0 f one room , there was a kind of loft or boarded floor , which , however , had neither door , window , nor stairs . Hither , by means of a sing le rope , which he always drew up after him , he mounted with his book and his slate , and ' here he went through Euclid . At about his wife to be that learning
the age of thirty , even began persuaded may sometimes " be a substitute for house and land , and consented to his relinquishing his mental labours , and setting upas a schoolmaster . For several years he was a teacher qf mathematics of considerable reputation ; and many respectable young men Were his pupils . Still pursuing knowled wherever it was to be foundhe became
ge , a botanist , as well as a mathematician ; but he studied the properties rather than the classification of p lants ; and made many experiments to ascertain their medical virtues . Few men , it is believed , have lately made a greater proficiency than lie did , in this department of science , and he was soon qualified to commence doctor , as well as schoolmaster . It is true , indeed , he practised chiefly with
decoctions , yet with these he performed , or got the reputation of performing , many extraordinary cures , and had no small practice . Dr . Fletcher was particularly famed for his skill and success in hypochondriacal cases ; and had he been as able to describe as he was to relieve and cure such cases , many things in this way are known to have occurred in the course of his practice , to which even the most learned miht have attended with advantage .
g Like many other eminent men , Fletcher put great confidence in judicial astrology ; and , what is more extraordinary , many of his predirctions were wonderfully fulfilled . In the margin of a book belonging to him , filled with astronomical calculations , an entry was also made of the planets' p laces in the zodiac at the birth of Abraham Fletcherof Little btonto which one George Bellof
Cock-, Broug ; , ermouth , about ten years ago , added the following observations : ? This gives in time 78 years and 55 days . Near this period is a bad diection ; it brings Saturnine griefs , especially such as proceed from cold , dry , and p hlegmatic causes ; and if Saturn be anretla , it threatened ! death . ' However unaccountable it may seem , the fact is , that Dr . Fletcher
died , just when he had reached 7 8 years and 71 days . Whoever has read the life of M . Pascal , will recollect many particulars in it not unlike something here related of Abraham Fletcher . They were both distinguished for uncommon knowledge , and the great secret by which they acquired it was , they were never idle . Whatever Fletcher was anxious to know , like Pascal , he applied himself to the careful study ofand never quitted it till he found out some
, satisfactory reason for it . It was much to Mr . Fletcher ' s credit , that with all his attention to intellectual pursuits , he was never inattentive to those duties which prudence annexed to his station in life . He was not only a pattern of industry ,. but of ceconomy . And hence he was enabled to leave to
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Collector.
which appeared to her little likely to lead to any thing that might j , elp to feed and clothe themselves , or their children . Over his house , 0 f one room , there was a kind of loft or boarded floor , which , however , had neither door , window , nor stairs . Hither , by means of a sing le rope , which he always drew up after him , he mounted with his book and his slate , and ' here he went through Euclid . At about his wife to be that learning
the age of thirty , even began persuaded may sometimes " be a substitute for house and land , and consented to his relinquishing his mental labours , and setting upas a schoolmaster . For several years he was a teacher qf mathematics of considerable reputation ; and many respectable young men Were his pupils . Still pursuing knowled wherever it was to be foundhe became
ge , a botanist , as well as a mathematician ; but he studied the properties rather than the classification of p lants ; and made many experiments to ascertain their medical virtues . Few men , it is believed , have lately made a greater proficiency than lie did , in this department of science , and he was soon qualified to commence doctor , as well as schoolmaster . It is true , indeed , he practised chiefly with
decoctions , yet with these he performed , or got the reputation of performing , many extraordinary cures , and had no small practice . Dr . Fletcher was particularly famed for his skill and success in hypochondriacal cases ; and had he been as able to describe as he was to relieve and cure such cases , many things in this way are known to have occurred in the course of his practice , to which even the most learned miht have attended with advantage .
g Like many other eminent men , Fletcher put great confidence in judicial astrology ; and , what is more extraordinary , many of his predirctions were wonderfully fulfilled . In the margin of a book belonging to him , filled with astronomical calculations , an entry was also made of the planets' p laces in the zodiac at the birth of Abraham Fletcherof Little btonto which one George Bellof
Cock-, Broug ; , ermouth , about ten years ago , added the following observations : ? This gives in time 78 years and 55 days . Near this period is a bad diection ; it brings Saturnine griefs , especially such as proceed from cold , dry , and p hlegmatic causes ; and if Saturn be anretla , it threatened ! death . ' However unaccountable it may seem , the fact is , that Dr . Fletcher
died , just when he had reached 7 8 years and 71 days . Whoever has read the life of M . Pascal , will recollect many particulars in it not unlike something here related of Abraham Fletcher . They were both distinguished for uncommon knowledge , and the great secret by which they acquired it was , they were never idle . Whatever Fletcher was anxious to know , like Pascal , he applied himself to the careful study ofand never quitted it till he found out some
, satisfactory reason for it . It was much to Mr . Fletcher ' s credit , that with all his attention to intellectual pursuits , he was never inattentive to those duties which prudence annexed to his station in life . He was not only a pattern of industry ,. but of ceconomy . And hence he was enabled to leave to