volted to Spinosa.

It was in vain that his advocates and friends pleaded his learned and
unanswerable confutation of all atheistical opinions, and particularly
of the system of Spinosa, in his discourse of the distinction between
soul and body. Such calumnies are not easily suppressed, when they are
once become general. They are kept alive and supported by the malice
of bad, and, sometimes, by the zeal of good men, who, though they do
not absolutely believe them, think it yet the securest method to keep
not only guilty, but suspected men out of publick employments, upon
this principle, that the safety of many is to be preferred before the
advantage of few.

Boerhaave, finding this formidable opposition raised against his
pretensions to ecclesiastical honours or preferments, and even against
his design of assuming the character of a divine, thought it neither
necessary nor prudent to struggle with the torrent of popular
prejudice, as he was equally qualified for a profession, not, indeed,
of equal dignity or importance, but which must, undoubtedly, claim the
second place among those which are of the greatest benefit to mankind.

He, therefore, applied himself to his medical studies with new ardour
and alacrity, reviewed all his former observations and inquiries, and
was continually employed in making new acquisitions.

Having now qualified himself for the practice of physick, he began to
visit patients, but without that encouragement which others, not
equally deserving, have sometimes met with. His business was, at
first, not great, and his circumstances by no means easy; but still,
superiour to any discouragement, he continued his search after
knowledge, and determined that prosperity, if ever he was to enjoy it,
should be the consequence not of mean art, or disingenuous
solicitations, but of real merit, and solid learning.

His steady adherence to his resolutions appears yet more plainly from
this circumstance: he was, while he yet remained in this unpleasing
situation, invited by one of the first favourites of king William the
third, to settle at the Hague, upon very advantageous conditions; but
declined the offer; for having no ambition but after knowledge, he was
desirous of living at liberty, without any restraint upon his looks,
his thoughts, or his tongue, and at the utmost distance from all
contentions and state-parties. His time was wholly taken up in
visiting the sick, studying, ntaking chymical experime