plied.

Whether philosophers, and more especially metaphysicians, have any
peculiar tendency to dabble in drugs and dose themselves with physic,
is a question which might suggest itself to the reader of their
biographies.

When Bishop Berkeley visited the illustrious Malebranche at Paris,
he found him in his cell, cooking in a small pipkin a medicine for an
inflammation of the lungs, from which he was suffering; and the disease,
being unfortunately aggravated by the vehemence of their discussion, or
the contents of the pipkin, carried him off in the course of a few days.
Berkeley himself afforded a remarkable illustration of a truth which
has long been known to the members of one of the learned professions,
namely, that no amount of talent, or of acquirements in other
departments, can rescue from lamentable folly those who, without
something of the requisite preparation, undertake to experiment with
nostrums upon themselves and their neighbors. The exalted character of
Berkeley is thus drawn by Sir James Mackintosh: Ancient learning,
exact science, polished society, modern literature, and the fine arts,
contributed to adorn and enrich the mind of this accomplished man. All
his contemporaries agreed with the satirist in ascribing

"'To Berkeley every virtue under heaven.'

"Even the discerning, fastidious, and turbulent Atterbury said, after an
interview with him, 'So much understanding, so much knowledge, so much
innocence, and such humility, I did not think had been the portion of
any but angels, till I saw this gentleman.'"

But among the writings of this great and good man is an Essay of the
most curious character, illustrating his weakness upon the point in
question, and entitled, "Siris, a Chain of Philosophical Reflections
and Inquiries concerning the Virtues of TAR WATER, and divers other
Subjects,"--an essay which begins with a recipe for his favorite fluid,
and slides by gentle gradations into an examination of the sublimest
doctrines of Plato. To show how far a man of honesty and benevolence,
and with a mind of singular acuteness and depth, may be run away with by
a favorite notion on a subject which his habits and education do not fit
him to investigate, I shall give a short account of this Essay, merely
stating that as all the supposed virtues of Tar Water, made public in
successive editions of his treatise by so illustrious an author, have
not saved it from neglect and disgrace, it may be fairly ass