was not one in his neighbourhood and whom it was impoffible to in whom he had any confidence; know without esteeming. I fhould have faid to him, Come to me;' but how could I propofe journey of two hundred leagues to a man to whom the least motion of a carriage was a torment? At laft, however, I advised, I preffed him to go to Berlin, to M. Meckel, who would be able to judge of his complaint, would fuperintend it, and would choose a skilful furgeon to perform the operation, if it fhould be judged neceffary; and I conceived it to be fo. My folicita tions prevailed, and he arrived at Berlin on the 11th of June, 1771. M. Meckel received him as the best of brothers, and infifted on his living with him, where for five months he enjoyed every thing that could be agreeable in a most amiable family.

"The operation was performed on the 24th of June, by M. Smucker, and M. Meckel found the cafe fo interefting as to be induced to make it the fubject of a fmall work, which is full of new and useful remarks.

"As foon as he was fufficiently recovered to bear company, he profited of the fociety of the most enlightened perfons of Berlin, not only of men of letters, but of the molt diftinguifred perfonages of every description, and of the high eft rank. This was one of the happiest times of his life. He enjoyed the inexpreffible pleasure of a cure after a long and painful diforder, the charms of a delightful private fociety, the happinefs of being received with the utmoft fatisfaction, and of becoming acquainted and connecting himself with the moft diftinguished men of letters in Germany. His moft intimate connexion was with M. Sulger, whom he had long admired,

"The reception he met with on his return to Hanover was alfo a fenfibe pleasure for him, and he hoped to enjoy at laft a good state of health; but the application that a crowd of confultations required foon deranged his nerves again; pains were felt in the part where the operation had been performed, and the hypochondria returned; befides, the education of his daughter, deprived of the care of her grandmother, who had not long furvived her daughter, gave him fome uneafinefs: he fent her to me in 1773, defiring me to fuperintend her progrefs; and the remained here two years, in the fame house with myself, under the care of two ladies of great merit.

"It was when he came here in 1775 to take her away, on which occafion he paffed five weeks with me, that I had for the first time the pleafure of feeing him, I will not fay of beginning to know him, for I found I knew him already; the friend speaking, recalled to me every inftant the friend writing, and perfectly resembled the portrait in my mind's eye.' I law the man of genius, who inftantly perceives an object under every point of view, and whofe imagination enables him to prefent it under the most agreeable. His conversation was inftructive, brilliant, and interfperfed with a multitude of in terefting facts and pleasant stories: his phyfiognomy was always ani mated and expreffive: he fpoke with great precifion on every fubjects when he converfed upon me. dicine, which was frequently the cafe, I obferved in him the most profound principles and the cleareft understanding. When he accompanied me in my vifits to pa

Goettingen he went to Strasburg, where, incited by a friend, who like himself was full of genius and emulation, but who enjoyed an excellent ftate of health, he gave himself up to a study too laborious for nerves naturally weak, and which were at that time affected with regret at leaving Goettingen: he again fell into the most profound melancholy, and wrote to his father, intreating him more earnestly to difpenfe with his travels to France, Holland, and England, than another would have done for permiffion to make fuch a tour. A fhort time afterwards, about the end of December 1777, he entirely lost his fenfes."

"For near twenty years he has been a perfect imbecile, happily exempt from all pain and grief, in a good air, and with an excellent man, where M. Hotze placed him, and where he wants for nothing.

hents whofe cafes were dangerous, or when I read to him the confultations I received on the most difScult cafes, I always found in him the greatest fagacity in difcovering the causes and explaining the fymptoms, great accuracy in forming the indications, and exquifite judgment in the choice of remedies; he prefcribed very few, but made ufe only of fuch as were efficacious. In fhort, I foon perceived him to be an upright, virtuous, honeft man; and his ftay here was much fhorter than I could have wifhed it. He took away with him his daughter, who was poffeffed of all the qualities necef fary to juftify the extreme tendernefs of a father, whofe happiness The would have been, had not her health received a ftroke from extreme grief a short time after the left Laufanne, from which it never recovered, which threw her into a decline for five years, and was during all that time the occafion of the keeneft fenfations of grief to M. Zimmerman, who had at that epoch another fubject of uneafinefs, perhaps ftill more diftreffing, the ftate into which his fon had fallen.. "This young gentleman had been fubject from early youth to a fpecies of eruption called the tetter or ringworm, which chiefly affected the head, the face, and be hind the ears. While it was out, the child was very well, gay, and fenfible; but no fooner did it ftrike in again, than he became weak, his talents difappeared, and he fell into a melancholic apathy, rare at that age. This alternation of health and illness continued till his father fent him to Goettingen at the clofe of the year 1772, whening that has made this choice for he had the fatisfaction to learn that his whole fyftem was abfolutely changed; he recovered his gaiety, and displayed great talents. From

"M. Zimmerman, already wounded by this misfortune, had the additional mifery of feeing the fatal ftroke approach that was to fnatch his amiable daughter from him. She died in the fummer of 1781, Mrs. de Doering, indeed, remained, but even she was going to leave him; a new employment called her husband elsewhere, and the faw clearly that the only means of faving M. Zimmerman would be to unite him to a companion who fhould be worthy of him. This companion was the daughter of M. de Berger, phyfician to the king at Luneburg, and brother of Baron de Berger, of whom 1 have already fpoken. The marriage did not take place till the beginning of October 1782. It is Mrs. Doer

me, and I blefs God for it every day of my life.' I fhould wound the modefty of Mrs. Zimmerman if I were to infert here the character

he

come and pass a few months in the fummer at St. Petersburg, because fhe wished to be perfonally ac quainted with him. His letter to the empress was full of expreffions of gratitude; but he wrote to M. de Groffe that he feared he could not undertake the journey without endangering his health, though, if her majefty continued to defire it, he would undertake it. The empress dispensed with it in the most gracious manner by writing to him, that he did not wifh

his health fhould fuffer on ac'count of the pleasure the should ' experience from the journey.' This correfpondence lasted fix years, till the commencement of 1791, when the emprefs dropped it all at once. The ordinary fubjects of their letters were politics, literature, and philofophy. All thofe of the emprefs contain the most elevat

"His work upon Solitude was received with great éclat, not only in Germany, but wherever German is read, and procured him a correfpondence which gratified him extremely; I mean that of the emprefs of Ruffia, to whom the book had been fent without his know. ledge: it was not indeed to be expected that he should think of offering to fuch a fovereign a work which fo well paints the happinefsed fentiments, and every mark of to be enjoyed in retirement from the world. That princefs, however, was fo well pleafed with it, that the determined herfelf to fend her thanks to the author. The 26th of January 1786, a courier from M de Groffe, envoy from Ruffia to Hamburgh, brought M. Zim merman a fmall box containing a ring fet with diamonds of extraor dinary fize and beauty, with a gold en medal, bearing on one fide the figure of the emprefs, and on the other the happy reform of the Ruffian monarchy. That princefs had alfo added a note in her own handwriting, containing these remarkable words: Tu M. Zimmerman, Counsellor of State, and Phyfician of his Britannic Majefty, to thank him for the excellent precepts he has given mankind in ⚫his book upon Solitude.' This note was accompanied by a letter from M. de Groffe, who propofed to him, by the defire of the empress, to

an amiable mind.' Phyfic was never once mentioned; but the often faid to him, and feemed to wish him to fay in public, that her health was good, and did not coft her thirty fols a year. She, however, caufed it be propofed to him, with out appearing in it herself, to eftablifh himself at St. Petersburg as her first physician; and he was offered a falary of 10,000 roubles. When he had refufed the offer, the defired him to procure young phyficians and furgeons for her arinies, and for those towns of the empire that were in want of them; several of thofe he fent have become rich and happy; and, in gratitude for the fervice he had rendered the ftate, fhe fent to him the cross of the order of Wladomir; another time the fent him two elegant golden medals, ftruck in honour of M. Orloff, upon account of the plague at Mofcow, and the deftruction of the Turkish fleet.