ed frame gives the securest promise of longevity. With all
his eccentricities, and he had many, he had the reputation of being an
amiable man.

Heberden was at the head of English Medicine in his day. He was a man of
vigorous understanding and accomplished knowledge. He began life as a
scholar, entering Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship. Adopting
physic as his profession, he continued in Cambridge for ten years; until
the usual ambition of country practitioners to be known in the
metropolis, urged him to try his fortunes in London.

The example of this able, and ultimately successful man, is not without
its value, as an encouragement to perseverance under the most
discouraging obstacles, when they happen to come in the way of
individuals of sound scholarship and substantial strength of mind.
Heberden lingered in London without success for some years; and at
length, conceiving that his ill-fortune was beyond remedy, had formed
his resolution to return to the country.

At this period some lucky chance changed his purpose. He became known;
rapidly rose into practice, and assumed the rank due to his ability.
Similar circumstances had occurred in the career of the celebrated
Edmund Burke, who was at two different periods on the point of leaving
England for America, in despair of distinction at home. The late Lord
Eldon had even given up his chambers in London, and announced his
intention of commencing as a country practitioner of the law; when, at
the suggestion of a legal friend, he made the experiment of "trying
another term." Business suddenly flowed in upon him, and the
disheartened barrister was soon floated on to the highest dignities of
his profession. Even the illustrious Wellington himself is said, at one
time, to have entertained serious thoughts of directing himself to a
civil career, and to have been prevented only by the difficulty of
finding an immediate employment. The delay gave room for the fortunate
change in his prospects, which soon made him the first officer in
Europe.

Heberden wrote a great variety of Tracts on his own science; suffered no
improvement in medicine, or public topic connected with general health,
to escape him; cultivated his original scholarship to the last; enjoyed
the friendship of the scientific world throughout his career; and
enjoyed life itself to an unusual duration, dying in his ninety-first
year.

The anxieties of Europe are, for a while, at least, at an end. T