ians procured some apothecaries to
undertake the dispensation, and offered that the warden and company of
the apothecaries should adjust the price. This offer was rejected; and
the apothecaries who had engaged to assist the charity were considered
as traitors to the company, threatened with the imposition of
troublesome offices, and deterred from the performance of their
engagements. The apothecaries ventured upon public opposition, and
presented a kind of remonstrance against the design to the committee of
the City, which the physicians condescended to confute: and at last the
traders seem to have prevailed among the sons of trade; for the proposal
of the College having been considered, a paper of approbation was drawn
up, but postponed and forgotten.

The physicians still persisted; and in 1696 a subscription was raised by
themselves according to an agreement prefixed to "The Dispensary." The
poor were, for a time, supplied with medicines; for how long a time I
know not. The medicinal charity, like others, began with ardour, but
soon remitted, and at last died gradually away.

About the time of the subscription begins the action of "The
Dispensary." The poem, as its subject was present and popular,
co-operated with passions and prejudices then prevalent, and, with
such auxiliaries to its intrinsic merit, was universally and liberally
applauded. It was on the side of charity against the intrigues of
interest; and of regular learning against licentious usurpation of
medical authority, and was therefore naturally favoured by those who
read and can judge of poetry.

In 1697 Garth spoke that which is now called "The Harveian Oration;"
which the authors of "The Biographia" mention with more praise than the
passage quoted in their notes will fully justify. Garth, speaking of
the mischiefs done by quacks, has these expressions: "Non tamen telis
vulnerat ista agyrtarum colluvies, sed theriaca quadam magis perniciosa,
non pyrio, sed pulvere nescio quo exotico certat, non globulis plumbeis,
sed pilulis aeque lethalibus interficit." This was certainly thought
fine by the author, and is still admired by his biographer. In October,
1702, he became one of the censors of the College.

Garth, being an active and zealous Whig, was a member of the Kit-Cat
Club, and, by consequence, familiarly known to all the great men of that
denomination. In 1710, when the government fell into other hands, he
writ to Lord Godolphin, on his dismiss