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of his life; fometimes the lame nefs was accompanied by pain, fometimes not. But his feet by degrees withered, and he was obliged to fit, or lie, or lean upon a fopha; though fometimes he was fo well as to be able to fit upon a ftool, but not to move from one room to the other without affiftance.

their meetings, differtations on fome fubject of hiftory, ethics, or moral philofophy, were read by the members; and commonly fome. thing on the history of ancient and modern mysteries, and fecret fo. cieties.

These were afterwards published in the Diary for Freemasons, for the ufe of the initiat ed, and not for public fale.-In the winter they met occafionally, and held more public difcourfes, to which the members of the other lodges were allowed accefs. As most of the learned of Vienna belonged to this lodge, it was very natural to fuppofe, that many of the differtations read here were not quite within the limits of the original plan of the fociety. It was thefe differtations, I believe, which gave rife to another periodical work entitled, Phifica

"His free and active genius led him to intereft himself in all the occurrences of the times, and to take an active part in all the inftitutions and plans for enlightening and reforming mankind. With thefe benevolent intentions he form ed connections with the Free Mafons, whofe views in this part of the world were fomething more . than eating and drinking, as may be conjectured by the laws and regulations made against masonry by the emperor Jofeph. Under The-lifche Arbeiten der einträchtigen refa, this order was obliged to keep itself very secret in Auftria; but Jofeph, on his coming to the throne, tolerated it, and the baron founded in the Auftrian metropolis a lodge called the True Con⚫cord.' This was no card club, or affociation for eating and drinking, where the leading members were chofen by their capacity for taking in folids and liquids, and where a good fong was confidered as a firft rate qualification; but a fociety of learned men, whofe lodge was a place of rendezvous for the literati of the capital.

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"No doubt the obftacles these gentlemen would find, to the progrefs of science and useful know. ledge, in the church hierarchy, and in the cabals of courtiers, would draw their attention to political fubjects; and fubjects were really difcuffed here which the church had forbid to be spoken of, and which the government must have wifhed not to be thought of At

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Freunde in Wien,' which was continued for fome time by the, ba ron and his brother Mafons. He was likewife active in extirpating fuperftitions of various kinds which had crept into the other lodges, and equally zealous in giving to thefe focieties fuch an organization as might render them useful to the public.

"The baron, and many others of his lodge, belonged to the fociety of the Illuminated.' This was no difhonour to him: the views of this order, at leaft at first, seem to have been commendable; they were the improvement of mankind, not the destruction of fociety. Such inftitutions are only useful or dangerous, and to be approved of or condemned, according to the ftate of fociety; and this was before the French revolution, and in a coun. try lefs enlightened than almost any other part of Germany. So zealous a friend was he to them, that when the elector of Bavaria or

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dered all thofe in his fervice to quit this order, he was fo difpleafed that he returned the academy of Munich the diploma they had fent him on their receiving him amongst them, publicly avowed his attachment to the order, and thought it proper to break off all further connection with Bavaria as a member of its literary fociety. The Free Mafons did not long retain the patronage of their fovereign; the emperor Jofeph foon became jealous of their influence, and put them under fuch restrictions, and clogged them with fuch incumbrances, as to amount almost to a prohibition; and as fuch they acted, for the fociety found it neceffary to diffolve.

"What raised the baron fo high in the public opinion, was his knowledge of mineralogy, and his fuccefsful experiments in metallur gy, and principally in the process of amalgamation. The ufe of quickfilver in extracting the noble metals from their ores, was not a discovery of the baron's, nor of the century in which he lived; yet he extended fo far its application in metallurgy as to form a brilliant epoch in this most important art. After he had at great expence made many private experiments, and was convinced of the utility of his method, he laid before the emperor an account of his discovery, who gave orders that a decifive experiment ou a large quantity of ore fhould be made at Schemnitz in Hungary. To fee this he invited many of the most celebrated chymifts and metallurgifts of Europe; and Ferber, Elhujer, Charpentier, Trebra, Poda, and many more were prefent, and approved of his invention. On this general approbation he published, by order of the emperor, his Treatife on the Process of Amalgamation, with a great many

engravings of the requifite inftruments and machinery. To fuppofe that his fuccefs, whilft it brought him fanie and emolument, did not draw upon him the envy and ill will of many of his brother metallurgifts and affociates in office, would fhow a great ignorance of what is daily paffing in common life. Envy has its fhare even in maintaining order in fociety: it is this which tends to keep the great from rifing higher, whilft a contrary paffion lifts up the little, or prevents them from falling lower.

"Though great cabals were raised against him, and against the introduction of his method, yet the advantages of it in many cafes were fo evident, that the emperor ordered it to be used in his Hungarian mines; and as a recoinpenfe for his difcovery, gave him for ten years the third part of the favings arifing from its application, and four per cent. of this third part for the next twenty years. Even this did not defend him from being ftill haraffed by his enemies; obstacles were still thrown in the way to prevent the introduction and fuccefs of his difcovery, and to defraud him of his well-earned recompenfe.

"Though he fuffered very much in the latter part of his life, yet this did not prevent him from continuing his literary pursuits. Ia 1790 he published his Catalogue methodique raifonné' of the collection of foffils of Mifs Raab, which had been chiefly formed by his donations. This work, elegantly printed in two volumes, was well received by the public, and he was writing the Fafti Leopol

dini,' and a mineralogical work, when death put an end to his useful life and to his fufferings.

Notwithstanding the varied ad vice of his phyficians, his disease

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emperor Jofeph was making his reforms in the church: indeed, at any other time such a severe fatire on the monks would not have been permitted. They are characterized thus:

continued in fuch a ftate quacks find easy access to the fick; who is not then ready to feize the noftrum of the bold pretender? One of thefe gave him a decoction which foon calmed his fufferings, and which he was affured would cure him in a few weeks. He continued the ufe of this for the laft five months of his life: it really diminished his pains; but his friends obferved that his cheerful-tu; mundum fui tantum caufa cre

nefs, which hitherto had not left him, diminished likewife, and that fpafms often attacked his upper. limbs. On the 21ft of July, 1791, he was feized with fpafms and cold; the former foon fubfided on friction, but he lost his fpeech. On the fubfequent days he had different attacks till the 28th, when he found himself better, but he was foon attacked again with fpafms, and in these he expired.

"Born was of a middle fize and delicate conftitution, dark complexion, black hair, and large black eyebrows. Wit and fatire, and a quick comprehenfion, were mark. ed in his eyes, and his lively and penetrating genius appeared in his countenance. Befides being a good Latin claffic, he was mafter of moft European languages of note, and poffeffed a deal of general information no ways connected with thofe branches of science required in his profeffion. He was a great wit and fatirift, and a good companion even under the fufferings of bodily pain. His too liberal and unguarded use of fatire made him many enemies. In his youthful days he wrote the Staats Perücke' for the amusement of his friends: this was afterwards publified with out his knowledge. But nothing fhows more his talent for fatire than his Monachologia,' which he published in 1783, juft when the

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'Monachus. Defcriptio.

Animal avarum, foetidum, immundum, fiticulofum, iners, inediam potius tolerans quam laborem;-vivunte rapina et quæf

'atum effe predicant; coeunt clandeftine, nuptias non celebrant, fœtus exponunt; in propriam fpeciem fæviunt, et hoftem ex infidiis ag. grediuntur. Ufus. Terræ pondus inutile. Fruges confumere nati.' And upon the order of Dominicans he fays-Eximio olfactu pollet, vinum et hærefin e longinquo odorat. Efurit femper polyphagus. Juniores fame probantur. Vete 'rani, relegata omni cura et occupatione, gulæ indulgent, cibis suc culentis nutriuntur, molliter cu. bant, tepide quiefcunt, fomnum protrahunt, et ex fuis diæta curant, ut esca omnis in adipem trans eat, lardumque adipifcantur: bine abdomen prolixum paffim præ fe ferunt; fenes ventricofi maxime æftimantur. Virginitatis facræ ofo. res in venerem volgivagam proni ruunt. Generi humano et fanæ rationi infeftiffima fpecies, in cujus creatione non se jactavit auctor naturæ.'

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book written against the Free-ma fons, in the name of this learned Jefuit.

"It must not be forgotten, that his house was always open to the travelling literati who vifited Vienna; and that unprotected genius was always fure to find in him a friend and patron. He carried this perhaps too far, fo far as to ruin his eftate; probably the expectations of receiving a large income from the amalgamation, made him lefs

attentive to economy in his domeftic concerns; though I believe his infolvency was chiefly owing to ufurers and money lenders, to whom he was obliged to have re courfe to carry on his expenfive projects. Through thefe, though his patrimony was very confiderable, he died greatly in debt: this is the more to be lamented, as he left a wife and two daugh ters."

MEMOIRS of Dr. ZIMMERMAN.

[Extracted from the Lire of M. ZIMMERMAN, Counsellor of State, Chief Phyfician to the KING of ENGLAND at HANOVER, &c. Tranf lated from the French of S. A. D. Tissor, M. D. F. R. S. &c.]

"JOHN George Zimmerman was born at Brugg, a town in the German part of the canton of Berne, on the 8th of Dec. 1728. He was the fon of the fenator J. Zimmerman, of one of thofe families, as there are many even in the fmallest towns of Switzerland, and without doubt in other parts of Europe, which, without any of thofe titles of rank that are obtained in monarchies, fometimes by money, but often through favour or influence, have diftinguified them felves for ages by the integrity with which they have filled the higheft employments in their country for the advantage. of their fellow citi zens. The mother of M Zimmerman was a mifs Pache of Morges, a town in the French part of the fame canton, and daughter to a celebrated counfeilor, who had formerly belonged to the parliament of Paris. This circumftance is mentioned because it ferves to explain why, though born in a province where German only is fpo

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ken, and though he followed his ftudies in German cities, and paffed a very short time in France, he yet fpoke and wrote the two lan guages with equal facility.

"He was brought up in his fa ther's houfe under able masters till the age of fourteen, when he was fent to Berne, where he studied the belles lettres under M. Kirchberguer, profeffor of eloquence and hiftory, and M. Altman, profeffor of Greek; to both of whom he always acknowledged great obligations. At the end of three years he paffed into the school of philofophy, the profeffor of which, a zealous difciple of Mr. Wolf, knew of philofophy only the metaphyfics of his mafter, and employed the whole year in explaining a very small part even of them. It may eaff ly be imagined how much fuch a method would tend to difguft an active mind with a fcience, which well taught, is of infinite ufe to every perfon who wishes to study well; and which has even its al

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lurements,

lurements, inafmuch as we feel our minds enlarged in proportion as we learn to generalize the ideas we have already acquired, and add to them others upon fubjects, the very aspect of which had at first fight terrified us.

"Zimmerman, therefore, never thought himself indebted to M. Brunner for what he learned of true philofophy at Berne (and be certainly did learn a great deal there), but to Meffrs. James Tribolet and J. Stapfer, both of them minifters, and diftinguished by their genius and their learning.

"It was during his refidence at Berne, that in 1746, a fhort time after my departure for Montpellier, he came to Morges to pafs feveral months with his mother's relations; at my return, four years after. wards, his genius, his good fenfe, his amiable and cheerful difpofition, were still spoken of with pleasure; and when in 1751 I read his fine Differtation on Irrita bility, I already knew and loved the author; a partiality which contributes more than may be generally imagined to make one approve a man's doctrine, even when it is not invincibly demonftrated, as it certainly is in the work of M. Zimmerman.

"His father died a fhort time after he had been placed at Berne; and juft before the year 1747, in which he was to have finished his ftudies in philofophy, he had the misfortune to iofe his excellent mother. Thus was he left with out a friend to confult upon the choice of a profeffion; a circumftance at all times to be lamented; but which has, in fome cafes, the advantage of allowing the inclination to follow its own bent, and thereby perhaps of infuring fuccefs. Without hesitation he determined in favour of phyfic; and

the name of Haller, in which Berne gloried, did not permit bim to think of studying any where but at Goettingen. He arrived there on the 12th of September 1747, and took his degree on the 14th of August 1751. By Haller he was received as if he had been his own fon; he took him into his house, he affifted him with his advice, di rected his studies, and was to him a father, preceptor, and friend. Under MM. Haller, Richter, Segner, and Brendel, he cultivated with the fame attention every branch of the medical art. He followed the practical leffons of Richter, a pupil of Boerhaave's and bred up in his system, the principles of which will always be fafe guides at the bedfide of the fick, notwithstanding the contempt which many phyficians, defirous of becoming chiefs of fects, have affected to throw on them, in hopes to raise the reputation of their own by difcrediting thofe of that great man.

"M. Zimmerman also attended the lectures of M. Brendel on the fame fubject. This gentleman joined to an excellent understanding a profound knowledge of phyfic, and vifited a great many patients: he frequently conceived new and happy ideas; and his lef fons became on that account useful and interefting, although a fondnefs for fyftem has now and then led him aftray.

"Zimmerman, did not, however, confine himself to the study of phyfic: under M. Segner he ftudied mathematics and natural philofophy; he alfo learned the English language and ftudied Englif

literature, which he loved and cultivated all his life. Pope and Thomson were as familiar to him as Homer and Virgil, and the best French poets. He acquired under M. Achenyal

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