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LONDON Published for the European Magazine by Asperne.32 Cornhill r Dec

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CHARLES ALDIS, Esq. born at Dickleborough, in Norfolk, in the year 1776, is the seventh son, and one of two and twenty children, of the late Daniel Aldis, Esq. who was of that denomination of Christians termed Friends or Quakers. His family is ancient and respectable; and his father, who was of the same profession as himself, as are two elder brothers, Robert and George, practised surgery in the county, with great repute, for nearly fifty years. After having received the usual school education, Mr. Aldis, at the age of thirteen, was apprenticed to his father; and having remained under his paternal roof five years, was placed with a Mr. Sims of Yarmouth, a prac tical chemist, to be instructed in che mistry and pharmacy. This gentleman was a person of general information, of a studious and philosophic turn of mind, and whose society was sought after by the literati of the town and neighbourbood. The Rev. Dr. Cooper, Dr. Aikin, Dr. Girdlestone, and others, were frequent visitors at his house. Thus situated, Mr. Aldis could not fail to improve; and after continuing with him two years, was sent to London to complete his education. Here he diligently attended the anatomical and surgical lectures of Mr. Abernethy, the physiological and midwifery lectures of Dr. Haighton, and the lectures of other eminent men of the profession for a twelvemonth. Being then only one and twenty, and thinking him self too young to engage in business, Europ. Mag. Vol. LXXII. Nov. 1817.

he procured, in the spring of 1797, an appointment under government, as one of the surgeons to the sick and wounded, at the depôt for prisoners of war at Norman Cross, in Huntingdonshire. The establishment for the sick was upon an extended scale. It consisted of two physicians, six surgeons, and five dispensers or preparers of medicine. The hospital was capa

ble of containing seven hundred, and

was seldom with less than four hun

A

dred patients. As Mr. Aldis's appointment to this situation constitutes an era in his life, we must be permitted to dwell on some occurrences, which succeeded that appointment. Among those on this establishment whom Mr. Aldis joined, was a gentleman about ten years older than himself. Though far from averse to the pleasures of society, he was a recluse, and a severe student, devoting his leisure hours to philosophy and literature. He early attracted the attention of Mr. Aldis. Mr. Aldis courted his society, he solicited his friendship. The other, flattered by his attention, and perceiving in him a strong desire for information, readily accepted it. A new scene was now to open on Mr. Aldis. different mode of life was now to be entered on. The pleasures of sense were to be subordinate to those of intelect. Post sapientiam voluptas was his friend's motto, and to which he required a rigid adherence. Closely associated with him, Mr. Aldis soon made improvement; and from the total change produced in his ideas and conduct, he evinced the truth of Hel vetius's and Mr. Godwin's doctrine, that the characters of men are in great measure formed from their external circumstances. The mornings, till two o'clock, were employed in the duties of their profession; they then took a slight dinner, and from dinner till five read the best authors on medicine, surgery, and the auxiliary sciences; and the evenings were usually dedicated to literature and acquiring a knowledge of the French language: this last, Mr. Aldis had the best means of doing, from their acquaintance with the French officers in the depôt. With their col leagues, except professionally, they had little intercourse; but they were in habits of intimacy with the physicians, the naval superintendant of the depôt and his family, and with the families of the clergyman and surgeon of the

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adjoining village of Stilton. To a life so rational, so praiseworthy, few would imagine any objection could have been made. It happened, however, other wise. We mentioned in the beginning of this Memoir, that Mr. Aldis's father was of that denomination of Christians termed Friends or Quakers. His children, of consequence, were educated in the same persuasion. About six months after Mr. Aldis was thus eligibly and improvingly situated, two members deputed from the Friends' meeting at Yarmouth (where, it will be recollected, Mr. Aldis had resided two years,) arrived at Norman Cross. They waited on Mr. Aldis, and informed him, that they were instructed to enquire in what manner he passed his time; whether he regularly attended meeting; and hiuted a wish that he would relinquish his situation, as it tended to encourage war, which was forbidden by the Christian religion. Mr. Aldis replied, that he would transmit his answer to Mr. Sims. Mr. Aldis did not lose any time in communicating the above to his friend, who unhesitatingly advised him not to relinquish his situation,till a favourable opportunity should offer of getting into private practice. Mr. Aldis then addressed a letter to Mr. Sims, in which he informed him, that he passed his time principally in the exercise of his profession and acquiring knowledge; that there was not any meeting which he could attend; that he cousidered the best homage he could pay to the Deity was to do good to his fellow-creatures; and that he could not think of leaving his situa tion. This letter was laid before the next meeting of the Friends, the sequel of which was a formal expulsion from their society. That every society has a right to make what laws and regulations it may think proper, and that its members are bound to conform to them, or abide the penalties of their infringement, there cannot be any doubt; but it is one thing to make laws and regulations, and another to found them on reason and justice. Was it reasonable, we would ask, to wish Mr. Aldis to throw himself out of a situation so desirable for a young man of his profession ?-But the Friends thought, that attending sick and wounded Frenchmen was giving encourage ment to warfare. Was the Centurion, spoken of in the Acts, required, on his embracing Christianity, to give up his

captaincy?-No. Yet, as a soldier, it was his business to inflict wounds, not to heal them. Their wish, therefore, neither accorded with the letter, nor spirit of Christianity. Again: Attending meeting would appear to have been a primary consideration with the Friends, and that too under all circumstances; but did not Christ, our great exemplar, regard the worship of the Temple as inferior to moral duties? -The observance of one day in seven is highly necessary; but the distance at which he was placed from any meeting rendered his attendance impracticable. The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath; and to the real Christian, every day is a sabbath, and every place a place of worship. Mr. Aldis continued at Norman Cross till the autumn of 1799; during which time, almost every variety of medical and chirurgical practice came under his care, or observation. Fevers, dysenteries, consumptions, &c. in the former; contusions, wounds, inflammations, and fractures, in the latter. Thinking himself now qualified for private practice, and an opportunity presenting in the delightful village of Chatteris, near Ely, he parted from his friend, and took the business of a gentleman of that place. Whether it arose from the dull monotony of a village compared with the din and bustle of a depôt, containing five thousand Frenchmen with their theatres and dances, two hundred English attending on them, and garrisoned by two regiments of infantry, and cavalry, with their parades, their drums, and their cannon, Mr. Aldis, in an early letter to his friend, regretted that he had quitted him and a place, where he had passed so many happy and improving hours, and which he should ever regard as the "sunny spot" of his life. His friend, in answer, pointed out to him the propriety of continuing at Chatteris; and endeavoured to convince him, that custom would soon reconcile him to his new situation; but he so much disliked it, that he removed to Hertford, near town, in 1800. As soon as he had made the necessary professional and domestic arrangements, he married the beautiful and accom plished Mary Frances Berridge, the youngest daughter of Richard Berridge, Esq. of Linton, in Cambridgeshire; a gentleman of acknowledged worth, and universally respected in the county,

But notwithstanding a fair prospect of well-doing, a flattering reception from the late Baron Dimsdale, to whom he brought letters of introduction, and his mixing, in consequence, in the first society, he was anxious to be in London, where his friend then resided. After remaining, therefore, not quite two years, he quitted Hertford, and purchased an established business in the metropolis. [It may be proper to remark here, that during his short stay at Hertford, though strongly opposed by his medical brethren, he succeeded in introducing vaccination, and was the means of diffusing its blessings through the town and neighbourhood.] Considering himself at length permanently settled, Mr. Aldis became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons; and now feeling himself, to use a trite but expressive phrase, "quite at home," be entered into, and pursued with an alacrity which the country had failed to produce, the multifarious duties of his profession. For the first six years, he

most to his taste, the works of Bacon and of Locke, of Berkeley, of Reid, and of Dugald Stewart, the dramas of our immortal bard, of Beaumont and Fletcher, of Congreve, of Wycherley, and of Farquhar, adorn his shelves. With these, occasional composition," attending the Surrey Institution, and its scientific and literary lectures, and sometimes visiting the theatres, he passes his leisure hours. Mr. Aldis is a man of very temperate habits, of a cheerful and active disposition, and indefatigable in professional pursuits. Though Mrs. Aldis has borne him many children, one only survives, a fine and promising boy, Charles James Berridge Aldis, now in his ninth year, and at St. Paul's school; and whose future abilities, we will venture to predict, will not detract from the reputation of that distinguished seminary.

London, Oct. 31st, 1817.

REASONING from ANALOGY.

J. W.

was, what is technically termed, a gene- To the Editor of the European Magazine. ral practitioner; but for these last nine, and since his residence in Nelson-square,

his attention has been principally directed to those diseases called schirrous and cancerous tumours, and in the treatment of which he has been eminently successful. Persons of the first respectability, both here and in various parts of the kingdom, can bear tes timony to his skill. Though less, as we before observed, a general prac titioner, than formerly, he has not relinquished any branch of the profession. To the poor, he has long been a steady friend, and three times in a week he administers gratuitously to their various ailments. Conceiving, that to be a mere surgeon is, if we may so speak, not to be any thing better than a professional artisan, and that "it is perfectly consistent with the most intense application to our ordinary pursuits, to cultivate that general acquaintance with letters and with the world, which may be sufficient to enlarge the mind, and to preserve it from any danger of contracting the pedantry of a particular profession," Mr. Aldis, like his friend, has endeavoured to avoid this danger, by as much varied reading and intercourse with the world as his avocations would allow. He has a small, but well-chosen library; and philosophy and dramatic poetry being

SIR,

AMONG our scientific and philosoquently amused by their endeavouring phical men, we are not unfre to account for things, which, from their very nature, are of themselves unaccountable. frequently amused, though we can but I say we are not unregret, however, that time should be vague research. so employed on such hypothetical or that all improvements are It may be replied, at first founded on speculation, and that it is speculation alone strengthened by experience until it arrives to its mature state of demonstration, This may be in certain instances true; yet those conjectures can only be said to be useful which can be verified by demonstration. The hypothesis of Sir Humphry Davy respecting the metallic nature of the alkalis was of the highest importance in chemical science, as it was capable of being proved and confirmed

* The following are among Mr. Aldis's productions:

Essay on the too frequent Use of the Trephine.

On an Enlargement of the Heart.
Defence of Vaccination, in a Letter to
Sir Robert Millman, Bart.

Burlesque Essay on the late Comet.
On the British System of Education.

by experiment; but of what utility have been the speculations of Berkeley or of Priestley relative to the human mind? Not of any, as the thing itself is incapable of being brought to the test; and so it may be said with reasoning by analogy from the mind to tangible ob jects, which is not less fallacious than to suppose an effect from planetary influence on the life of man is inconsistent. We may be permitted to amuse ourselves innocently, and compare one object with another, as we might a comet with that of a beautiful female, and to say how far they are analogous to each other; which, I believe, 1 hinted at some years since, when that body illumined the northern hemisphere.

Comets, doubtless, answer some wise and good purpose in the creation, so do women. Comets are incomprehensible, beautiful, and eccentric, so are Women. Comets shine with peculiar splendor, but at night are most brilliant, so do women. Comets are enveloped with a lucid nebula, through which their forms are visible, so are those of women through their light and elegant attire. Comets confound the most learned when they attempt to ascertain their nature, so do women. Comets equally excite the admiration of the philosopher and of the clod of the valley, so do women. Comets and women, therefore, are closely analogous; but the nature of each being inscrutable, all that remains for us to do is to view with admiration the one, and to adoration leve the other.

I shall conclude, Mr. Editor, by stating, that true philosophy never attempts to explain that which from its nature is inexplicable; and I am unacquainted with any modern philosopher who has set so beautiful an example of the Baconian method of reasoning as Dugald Stewart. In his elegant work of the " Philosophy of

the Human Mind," he restricts him-
seif solely to a relation of the laws of
those faculties or powers of which we
are all conscious; but whether the mind
be material or immaterial, whether
it be extended or unextended, whe
ther it be situated in the brain or spread
over the body by diffusion, he does not
pretend to determine.

I am, Mr. Editor,
Your obedient and very humble servant,
CHARLES ALDIS.

Nelson square, Nov. 5, 1817.

THE LITERARY GARDEN.
No. XXIX.

Velle suum cuique est, nec voto vivitur uno.
PERS.

Each individual has a different wish and
pursuit.

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Nils of others, when they happen to [N speaking of the habits and purbe different from their own, nothing is more common than to hear persons exclaim, For my part, I cannot conceive how people can take pleasure in such things!" Thus, he who is fond of rural retirement, is at a loss to understand how any enjoyment can be derived from the noise and bustle and perpetual dissipation of a town-life; whilst the man of the world-he who, if he be without society for a few hours, is a prey to ennui-looks upon the lover of literature, who devotes the chief part of his time to reading and reflection, as a being who is a total stranger to real enjoyment.

But what can be more absurd than such notions? Instead of being surprised that different persons have dif ferent inclinations, and engage in dif ferent pursuits-that one man is delighted with horse-racing and bunting, while another prefers rowing and sail, ing; that a third is fond of boxing and cricket-matches, and a fourth of music and dramatic performancesinstead of being surprised that this happens, how much more ought we to be surprised, if there were but one and the same desire-one and the same pursuit common to all. How dull would the world then be, contrasted with what it now is! It is this contrariety of inclinations, tastes, and pursuits, that produces diversity of character, and imparts to society a life and colouring it would otherwise want.

It is the same with habits and modes of living, in which respects some people choose to make themselves striking exceptions to the rest of mankind. But they who have seen much of the world will never marvel at this; and so long as such singularities are not productive of injurious consequences to others, and have nothing decidedly vicious in them, they cannot in justice become an object of censure. They may, however, sowe times excite our mirth, especially when they bring the parties themselves, who disregard local usage, into unpleasant

situations.

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