PARR, Samuel, a critic, metaphysician, theologian, and one of the most learned classical scholars of the age in which lie lived, was born at Harrow-on-the-Hill, on the 15th of January 1747, O. S. His father, an apothecary and surgeon at Harrow, was equally distinguished by vigorous intellect, a spirit of manly independence, and great professional skill.

At Easter 1752, young Parr was admitted on the foundation of Harrow School, at that time conducted by the Rev. Dr Thackeray, and, for a long series of years, one of the most celebrated and successful of those great classical seminaries the pupils of which have contributed so largely to shed unparalleled lustre on the English name. That schools and universities can but initiate their pupils in the principles of literature and science, and ought not, perhaps, to aim at more, it would be unwise to dispute.
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That those pre-eminent geniuses who have, in all ages of the world, enlarged the field of science by their discoveries, or embellished literature by their taste, have owed their success and reputation to their native talents and persevering industry, may without scruple be admitted as established facts in the history of the human mind. Still, it is a truth no less capable of demonstration, that in most instances the primary causes of great eminence and high attainment in the pursuits of life may be traced to the impulse given by the teacher’s well-directed precepts, and the mutual collision of kindred minds in the strife of early competition. It may fairly be assumed, that, to the rare combination of these circumstances operating on a mind essentially powerful and capacious, Parr was in no ordinary degree indebted for his extensive scholarship and well-earned fame. When we find that Thackeray and Sumner were his instructors, and that such men as Sir William Jones, and Dr Bennet, bishop of Cloyne, were his schoolfellows and inseparable companions, we are naturally and easily prepared to anticipate, even in this early period of his intellectual career, an energetic development of those powers of thought which, in the progress of life, unfolded themselves with almost unexampled force and vigour. At the early age of fourteen, he had by his diligence and talents gained the approbation of his successive teachers; and, in January 1761, he became the head boy of the school. The elevated rank which he thus held amongst his school-fellows clearly indicates how thoroughly and effectively he devoted himself to those classical studies in which, to the latest years of his life, he felt such intense delight. But to these, even at this period of his life, his time and attention were not exclusively confined. Before he had completed his course of scholastic training at Harrow, though metaphysics and dialectics offer but few attractions to the mind of boyhood, he had made no inconsiderable proficiency in these branches of mental science, and had maintained upon subjects connected with them many a friendly conflict with the generous rivals of his honours and partners of his studies. These prolusions of juvenile genius and talent were not a useless display of intellectual gladiatorship, or unaccompanied with improvement to the youthful combatants. The faculties of the mind, like the powers of the body, are invigorated by frequent exercise, and only attain their full development in point of energy and capacity by the excitement of generous and salutary competition.

In 1761, Parr, having completed the course of study pursued at Harrow, left school, and was, for two or three subsequent years, employed by his father in his own profession. But though the duties in which he was thus necessarily engaged occupied much of his time, and were calculated in some degree to withdraw his attention from the studies of earlier years, his classical pursuits were never entirely suspended, nor did his ardent devotion to Greek and Roman literature experience any abatement or change. It was not to be expected that one whose taste was so exquisitely alive to the beauties of the classic page, would apply with equal warmth of interest to the compounding of medicines, and the other duties of the laboratory, or regard as any thing else than an irksome task the manipulations of a profession which was so little congenial to his aspirations and desires.

Determined by such unequivocal proofs of his decided predilection for literary pursuits and academical studies, his father, after considerable hesitation, resolved at last to accommodate his views to the wishes of his son, and in 1765 entered him at Emanuel College, Cambridge. In this noble arena of mental activity, where all was in harmony with his most eager wishes, his application to study was enthusiastic, incessant, and severe. Classical reading, mathematics, and those subsidiary but indispensable investigations by which a thorough knowledge of these subjects is acquired and established, were pursued, not merely for their own sake, but as opening up to their successful cultivator the sure path to academical honours and distinction. These exciting and pleasing prospects, however, were not destined to be realized. The inadequacy of the means necessary for his longer continuance at Cambridge, in consequence of his father’s death, induced him gratefully to accept the proposal made to him by Dr Sumner, to take the vacant place of first assistant in Harrow School.

At Christmas 1769 he was ordained to the curacies of Willsden and Kingsbury,' in Middlesex, the duties of which, in conjunction with those proper to the situation which he held in the school, he continued to discharge till the death of Dr Sumner in 1771. In Dr Sumner he found a faithful friend and counsellor, and gave such satisfaction to the pupils and their parents, that, on the occurrence of this vacancy of the head-mastership of Harrow School, he felt himself called upon to become a candidate, and was on every ground justified in making such an application. He was unsuccessful; the election fell on Dr Heath, an assistant at Eton, whose merit and success amply justified the choice of the governors. He so far resented this decision in favour of the successful candidate, as to resign his assistantship, and open a school at Stanmore, to which he was, from affectionate attachment, followed by forty of the pupils whom he had taught at Harrow.

The success of this undertaking, however, corresponded but ill with the auspicious beginning that ushered it in; and a variety of circumstances concurred, of such a nature as to recommend the propriety of a change of situation, and to render it desirable. Influenced, accordingly, by these considerations, he became a candidate for the school of Colchester, and having succeeded in attaining the appointment, he went to reside there in 1777. During his residence at Colchester he took priest’s orders, and his curacies were Hythe and Trinity Church.

In 1778, he obtained the appointment of head-master of Norwich School, and early in 1779 entered upon the‘duties of his office. In the following year he published his two sermons, “On the Truth and Usefulness of Christianity,” and “On the Education of the Poor.” He afterwards, in 1785, resumed the subject of the latter at greater length, in his “Discourse on Education, and on the Plans pursued in Charity Schools.” This was the most popular of all his writings, and is a conspicuous and noble monument of its gifted author’s enlarged views, pure benevolence, and deep insight into human character. The general education of the people in any nation, and still more the extension of its advantages and blessings to the whole human race, are subjects on which the genuine philanthropist and truly enlightened Christian dwell with delight and rapture. And in what, indeed, can the friend of his fellow-men more worthily employ his time and talents, than in promoting those comprehensive schemes which aim, not at the elevation of one class of men above another in worldly dignity and grandeur, nor at the temporary glory and exaltation of any single nation or race of men, but at raising higher in the scale of intelligence and happiness all of every tribe on whom the Common Parent has bestowed the capacity of mental, moral, and religious culture? This has since become in.Great Britain a national and engrossing topic; theory and practice have mutually and equally contributed their aid to the advancement of national and universal education; and he who, half a century before his death, advocated with such ability and power the cause of the poor and ignorant, had the felicity to witness the dawn of that brighter era in the history of mankind, the meridian effulgence of which must precede or accompany the universal [7:17:95]diffusion of pure religion and divine truth. These elaborate and masterly discourses, elucidating, as they do, a subject of permanent and incalculable interest, will always be perused with admiration and benefit. They will extend the reader’s information, and improve his heart. They are pervaded and beautified by a deep tone of fervent piety, and breathe the warmest wishes for the intellectual, moral, and spiritual interests of the great family of man.

In 1781, Parr took his degree of doctor of laws in the University of Cambridge, after supporting two theses, which were regarded as compositions of superior excellence and merit. In 1783, he was by Dr Robert Lowth, bishop of London, appointed one of the prebends of St Paul’s cathedral. The duties of this office were nearly nominal, but its revenues afforded him the means of comfort and independence during the remainder of his life. In 1783, he was presented by Lady Jane Trafford to the perpetual curacy of Hatton, Warwickshire, to which, after resigning the school at Norwich, he went to reside in 1786. Here he continued to devote his leisure to the tuition of a limited number of pupils; and, by making it his permanent residence to the end of his life, he bequeathed to it that celebrity and interest which any locality, however obscure, necessarily and justly derives from the fame of an illustrious inhabitant.

In 1787 appeared the justly celebrated preface to Bellendenus, of which Henry Homer, fellow of Emanuel College, Cambridge, was editor. Bellenden, the author, was a learned Scotchman, master of requests to James I., and professor of humanity at Paris in the beginning of the seventeenth century. The three books of Bellendenus are in this edition dedicated to Mr Burke, Lord North, and Mr Fox. The preface by Dr Parr, which is prefixed to the original work of Bellenden, delineates, in elegant and vigorous language, the characters of the three distinguished statesmen to whom the respective books are dedicated. This singularly felicitous composition, though too slavishly and undisguisedly a cento, is undeniably one of the most successful modern imitations of Ciceronian Latin. But the highly embellished eloquence and precise discrimination of character, which give such value to this masterly declamation, can never be accepted as a compensation or atonement for the rude sarcasm, the contemptuous and unmeasured virulence, with which he assails, unprovoked, the devoted objects of his political vengeance. This extraordinary production was read with avidity, and created a very uncommon sensation amongst the men of letters and politicians of the day. It was productive, however, of no effects beneficial to the author; and alienated from him, in all probability, the minds of many who would otherwise have proved friendly or indifferent. Even the statesmen whom he had so lavishly and eloquently panegyrised, when they reached the summit of power, and became dispensers of ecclesiastical honours and emoluments, granted him no promotion; and his warmest friends have seriously deplored the employment of his talents in a manner so inconsistent with his sacred character. It is a matter of deep regret that he should have so far extinguished in his breast the meek and gentle spirit of that religion, the peaceful and holy duties of which he was bound, equally by precept and example, to impress on the hearts and consciences of men.

The generosity of his nature, and his readiness to oblige, by giving a real or supposed friend the benefit of his great talents, brought him offener than once into unhappy collision with inferior men, who scrupled not to arrogate importance to themselves, by laying claim to compositions in the merits and excellence of which they were in reality entitled to but a secondary and subordinate share. In 1790, we find him involved in an obscure and intricate controversy of this kind respecting the authorship of the Bampton Lectures, published by Dr White. It would be an uninstructive and fruitless deviation from the conciseness necessary to be observed in this biographical outline, to enter fully into the merits of this dark transaction; but the letters published by Dr Johnson, in his memoirs of Parr’s life and writings, have clearly established the fact, that much of the talent displayed in these admirable compositions, if not the conception of the whole work, must in justice be ascribed to the transcendent energy of Parr’s capacious mind. On the contrary, White, Badcock, and the other individuals who make a figure in this discreditable controversy, stand convicted, upon satisfactory evidence, of mean and ungrateful plagiarism.

The “Tracts by Warburton and a Warburtonian, not admitted into the collection of their respective works,” appeared in 1789, with a dedication addressed by the editor to a learned critic, containing some excellent critical remarks, and abounding at the same time in forcible expression and happy illustration. Of this composition Warton, no mean authority, is reported to have said, that if he were called upon to point out some of the finest sentences in English prose, he would quote Parr’s Preface and Dedication of the Warburtonian Tracts.

The tremendous explosion in France, of that revolutionary volcano which seemed to threaten the world with a total dislocation of civilized society, made the shock be felt in every region of the earth. The immediate vicinity of Britain to the scene of this great convulsion, exposed her population in a peculiar degree to the danger of being involved in all the terrific consequences of a similar catastrophe. The inhabitants of this island had long claimed and enjoyed, as their inalienable birthright, the most unlimited freedom of thought, speculation, expression, and action. In a country so situated and so circumstanced, therefore, it was not to be conceived or expected that the movements of so vast a revolution would not receive from some the most sympathising admiration, whilst by others they would be contemplated with horror and repugnance. And whilst every member of the great British commonwealth discussed, with all the confidence of the most profound and enlightened statesman, such subjects as policy, government, the rights, natural or acquired, of individuals and communities, and all else that concerns the great destinies of man as a member of social life, it was not to be expected that Dr Parr alone would remain apathetic and unmoved amidst the heats and conflicts of political controversy by which he was surrounded. But although every action of his long ι life proves him to have been the steady and consistent advocate of freedom, he was too well acquainted with the history of democracy in all its modifications, and in every age, to favour its pretensions, or lend the aid of his great talents to the support of its excesses and extravagance. Parr was no Jacobin. He was a decided, sincere, unflinching Whig, and in principle a firm supporter of the constitutional liberties of Britain. He was not, however, of a temper to disguise his opinions on any subject in which he felt and took an interest; and accordingly he sometimes expressed himself with such boldness and freedom on questions of civil policy, that he incurred the imputation of regarding with favour and partiality the doctrines promulgated and acted upon by the republican revolutionists of France. As the alleged abettor of such principles, he was about this period of his life exposed to assaults, on the assumed ground that he was guilty of political delinquencies, which his life disproves and his writings disavow.

Parr shunned neither churchman nor dissenter who was unblemished in character and eminent in talents. With Dr Priestley, amongst others, he had exchanged civilities; and when the library and philosophical apparatus of the latter were in 1791 consigned to destruction by the Birmingham rioters, the knowledge that such intercourse had subsisted [7:17:96]between them prompted the infuriated mob to regard both as holding and professing the same common principles and sentiments. Under the influence of this dangerous delusion, they threatened to commit Dr Parr’s house and library also to the flames, and manifested so decided a determination to carry their threats into execution, that it was judged a necessary precaution to remove the books to a place of safety. Before, however, the incendiaries were able to put their design in execution, their proceedings were checked by the seasonable interposition of the military. Of these riots a durable record is preserved in the “Sequel to the printed Paper lately circulated in Warwickshire, by the Rev. Charles Curtis, brother of Aiderman Curtis, a Birmingham Rector, London, 1792 ;” of which the preface is justly admired as one of the most perfect specimens of the author’s composition in his best and most laboured style. A prevalent rumour that the dissenters in the following year meditated a meeting in commemoration of the FrenchRevolution, similar to that which had led to and provoked the riots of the preceding year, occasioned the hasty composition and publication of “A Letter from Irenopolis to the Inhabitants of Eleutheropolis; or, a Serious Address to the Dissenters of Birmingham a tract which, in elegance, perspicuity, and vigour, may safely stand a comparison with the most finished and elaborate of his former writings. The dissenters immediately published a declaration, in which they disclaimed all intention of holding such a meeting as the reports currently circulated had given reason to expect.

In 1793, Parr, who it seems had with disinterested kindness afforded gratuitously considerable assistance to his friend Homer in preparing for the press the variorum edition of Horace in which he was engaged, was, upon the death of the original editor, hurried into a painful controversy with Dr Combe, who prosecuted the work to its completion. After Homer’s death, Dr Parr, for some reason which has not been very clearly ascertained, not only withheld his countenance and assistance, but published a series of severe animadversions upon the work, in several numbers of the British Critic. Dr Combe published in reply a pamphlet, entitled “A Statement of the Facts relative to the Behaviour of the Rev. Dr Parr to the late Mr Homer and Dr Combe, in order to point out the source, falsehood, and malignity of Dr Parr’s attack, in the British Critic, on the character of Dr Combe, 1794.” The opprobrious and highly offensive terms emblazoned on the titlepage of this tract were calculated to rouse the indignation of the meekest spirit, and could not with propriety and a sense of self-respect be allowed, unanswered, to infuse their venom into and corrupt the public mind. Dr Parr was neither insensible to the language of petulance and scorn, nor was his temper such as to submit tamely and in silence to outrage and abuse. He might indeed say with truth,—

Qui me commôrit (melius non tangere, clamo) Flebit, et insignis tota cantabitur urbe.

Accordingly, he replied in a pamphlet, bearing the title, “Remarks on the statement of Dr Charles Combe, by an occasional writer in the British Critic, 1795.” It is written in a temperate, calm, and guarded tone; the sarcastic asperity of its author might have inflicted, and the provocation would have justified, a much severer castigation than the rash delinquent was doomed to endure.

In the year 1800, by the appointment of Mr Aiderman Combe, lord mayor of London, Dr Parr preached the celebrated Spital sermon in Christ-Church. Capacious as the building is, it was crowded to excess by an intelligent audience, who, for nearly two hours,listened with the most profound attention to the speaker’s convincing arguments and resistless eloquence. This elaborate discourse may be regarded as a continuation and extension of those in which he had previously with great ability advocated the cause of general education; and in the course of it the author combats, with irresistible effect, the delusive metaphysics of those philosophers who resolve benevolence and justice into the principle of selfishness. Soon after its delivery, this very original and almost unrivalled composition was printed and published, exhibiting the extraordinary proportion of fifty-one pages occupied with text, and 212 with notes. It called forth some observations from Mr Godwin, the author of “Political Justice,” in an octavo pamphlet, entitled “Thoughts occasioned by the perusal of Dr Parr’s Spital Sermon, being a reply to Dr Parr, Mr Mackintosh, and others.” The author of this tract, who knew as well as any man could do Dr Parr’s political leanings and opinions, states in one sentence, written whilst his mind was soured by displeasure and chagrin, what is quite sufficient to refute the charge too often made, and too readily believed, that he was the abetter of revolutionary and democratic principles. “I have always found him,” says Mr Godwin, “the advocate of old establishments, and, what appeared to me, old abuses.” Parr was ardently desirous to see the condition of mankind meliorated by gradual improvements in their civil and social condition; but he was at the same time, in all its interests, a warm admirer of the British constitution in church and state.

In 1802, Sir Francis Burdett presented him to the rectory of Graffham in Huntingdonshire. The generosity which the baronet exhibited on this occasion is highly creditable to his character, and the value of the gift to the receiver of it must have been immeasurably enhanced by the fine tact and delicacy with which it was conferred. In the letter in which he makes the unsolicited offer, he observes, that a great motive to make it was, that he believed he could do nothing more pleasing to his friends, Mr Fox, Mr Sheridan, and Mr Knight; thus making the appointment in a great measure a favour conferred by those personal friends whom Parr most highly esteemed. Nor is the allusion in his reply to the part of Burdett’s letter just referred to less honourable to the author’s heart. “Most assuredly I shall myself set a higher value upon your kindness, when I consider it as intended to gratify the friendly feelings of those excellent men, as well as to promote my own personal happiness.” He continued, however, to reside at Hatton, where he was greatly esteemed by his parishioners, and had made such additions to his house as to render it peculiarly suited to his convenience and wishes.

On the renewal of the war with France in the year 1803, he published his sermon, “preached on the late fast, October 19, at the parish church of Hatton.” It is a noble discourse, well calculated to rouse his hearers, and the nation generally, to heroic and determined resistance against the threatened invasion by the French.

His next publication, and the last that is entitled to particular notice, “Characters of the late Charles James Fox, selected, and in part written, by Philopatris Varvi-censis,” appeared in 1809. It consists partly of extracts from the various public journals, and is partly of an original character, addressed in the form of an epistle to Mr Coke, with an additional volume of notes. This work, in which the great statesman, his principles and powers of mind, are delineated with much beauty and effect, remains a noble monument of bis worth, and of the talents and warm affection of his devoted and enthusiastic panegyrist.

Dr Parr was twice married; in 1771 to Miss Jane Mar-singale, who died on the 9th of April 1810; and again, in 1817, to Miss Eyre, sister of the Reverend James Eyre of Coventry. Of his children, one died at Norwich, and another, Catherine, fell a victim to consumption at Teignmouth in 1805. A third, Sarah, was married to Mr Wynne of Plasnewydd, Denbighshire, but she also died early.
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In 1823, his strength began visibly to decline; and his spirits ceased to display their wonted elasticity and animation. On Sunday the 16th of Januarj' 1825 he performed all the duties of the church at Hatton; but was, in the course of the following night, seized with severe fever and delirium. From that period his vital powers gradually declined; but he bore his sufferings with patient fortitude and pious resignation; and on the evening of Sunday the 6th of March 1825 gently expired, having on the 26th of January completed the seventy-eighth year of his age. His remains were deposited in a vault of Hatton Church; and Dr Butler, archdeacon of Derby, and head master of Shrewsbury School, preached the funeral sermon, from the text which Dr Parr had directed to be inscribed on his monument: What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Dr Parr was endowed by nature with a powerful intellect and retentive memory; in argument he was keen and irresistible; but he was opinionative, strong in his likings and aversions, and impatient of opposition. In politics he displayed the most ardent love of freedom, the most .incorruptible integrity, and resolute independence. In learning he was perhaps unrivalled by any other individual of the age in which he lived; as a classical scholar he was not surpassed; he excelled in metaphysics and moral philosophy; and in theology he had read extensively and thought deeply. Benevolence and charity, especially to young men of promising talents, whose means were inadequate to their support, were pre-eminent qualities of his frank and generous heart. He was full of truth and integrity, and his piety, though unostentatious, was fervent and sincere. (a. r. c.)

Parr, Thomas, a remarkable Englishman, who lived in the reigns of ten kings and queens, and having married a second wife when he was 120, had a child by her. He was the son of John Parr, a husbandman of Winnington, in the parish of Alderbury, in the county of Salop, where he was born in the year 1483. Though he lived to the great age of upwards of 152 years, yet the tenor of his life admitted of but little variety; nor can the detail of it be considered as of importance, further than what may arise from the gratification of that curiosity which naturally inquires after the mode of living which could lengthen life to such extreme old age. Following the profession of his father, he laboured hard, and lived on coarse fare. Taylor, the water poet, says of him:

Good wholesome labour was his exercise, Down with the lamb, and with the lark would rise; In mire and toiling sweat he spent the day, And to his team he whistled time away: The cock his night-clock, and, till day was done, His watch and chief sun-dial was the sun.

And the same writer observes of him, that

From head to heel, his body had all over A quick set, thick set, natural hairy cover.

The manner of his being conducted to London is also noticed in the following terms: “The Right Honourable Thomas earl of Arundel and Surrey, earl marshal of England, on being lately in Shropshire to visit some lands and manors which his lordship holds in that county, or for some other occasions of importance which caused his lordship to be there, the report of this aged man was signified to his honour; who hearing of so remarkable a piece of antiquity, his lordship was pleased to see him; and in his innate, noble, and Christian piety, he took him into his charitable tuition and protection, commanding that a litter and two horses (for the more easy carriage of a man so feeble and worn with age) to be provided for him; also, that a daughter of his, named Lucy, should likewise attend him, and have a horse for her own riding with him; and to cheer up the old man, and make him merry, there was an antique-faced fellow, with a high and mighty nobeard, that had also a horse for his carriage. These were all to be brought out of the country to London by easy journeys, the charge being allowed by his lordship; likewise one of his lordship’s own servants, named Bryan Kelly, to ride on horseback with them, and to attend and defray all manner of reckonings and expenses.” All this was accordingly done.

“Winnington is a parish of Alderbury, near a place called the Welch Pool, eight miles from Shrewsbury; from whence he was carried to Wem, a town of the earl’s aforesaid; and the next day to Shiffnall, a manor-house of his lordship’s, where they likewise stayed one night: from Shiffnall they came to Wolverhampton, and the next day to Birmingham, and from thence to Coventry. Although Master Kelly had much to do to keep the people off that pressed upon him in all places where he came, yet at Coventry he was most oppressed, for they came in such multitudes to see the old man, that those who defended him were almost quite tired and spent, and the aged man in danger of being stifled; and, in a word, the rabble were so unruly, that Bryan was in doubt he should bring his charge no farther; so greedy are the vulgar to hearken to or gaze after novelties. The trouble being over, the next day they passed to Daintree, to Stony Stratford, to Rad-burne, and so to London; where he was well entertained and accommodated with all things, having all the foresaid attendance at the sole charge and cost of his lordship.” When brought before the king, his majesty, with more acuteness than good manners, said to him, “You have lived longer than other men, what have you done more than other men ?” He answered, “I did penance when I was a hundred.years old.” This journey, however, proved fatal to him. Owing to the alteration in his diet, the change of the air, and his general mode of life, he lived but a very short time; and having died on the 5th of November 1635, he was buried in Westminster Abbey. After his death, his body was opened; and an account of the post mortem examination was drawn up by the celebrated Dr Harvey.

“Thomas Parr,” says that great physician, “was a poor country man of Shropshire, whence he was brought up to London by the Right Honourable Thomas earl of Arundel and Surrey; and died after he had outlived nine princes, in the tenth year of the tenth of them, at the age of 152 years and nine months.

“He had a large breast, lungs not fungous, but sticking to his ribs, and distended with blood; a lividness in his face, as he had a difficulty of breathing a little before his death, and a long lasting warmth in his armpits and breast after it; which sign, together with others, were so evident in his body, as they use to be on those that die by suffocation. His heart was great, thick, fibrous, and fat. The blood in the heart blackish and diluted. The cartilages of the sternum not more lτ⅛ny than in others, but flexile and soft. His viscera were sound and strong, especially the stomach; and it was observed of him, that he used to eat often by night and day, though contented with old cheese, milk, coarse bread, small beer, and whey; and, which is more remarkable, that he ate at midnight a little before he died. His kidneys were covered with fat, and pretty sound; only on the interior surface of them were found some aqueous or serous abscesses, whereof one was near the bigness of a hen egg, with a yellowish water in it, having made a roundish cavity, impressed on that kidney; whence some thought it came that a little before his death a suppression of urine had befallen him, though others were of opinion that his urine was suppressed upon the regurgitation of all the serosity into his lungs. Not the least appearance there was of any stony matter either in the kidneys or bladder. His bowels were also sound, a little whitish without. His [7:17:98]spleen very little, hardly equalling the bigness of one kidney. In short, all his inward parts appeared so healthy, that if he had not changed his diet and air, he might perhaps have lived a good while longer. The cause of his death was imputed chiefly to the change of food and air; forasmuch as coming out of a clear, thin, and free air, he came into the thick air of London; and after a constant plain and homely country diet, he was taken into a splendid family, where he fed high and drank plentifully of the best wines, whereupon the natural functions of the parts of his body were overcharged, his lungs obstructed, and the habit of the whole body quite disordered; upon which there could not but ensue a dissolution. His brain was sound, entire, and firm; and though he had not the use of his eyes, nor much of his memory, several years before he died, yet he had his hearing and apprehension very well; and was able, even to the 130th year of his age, to do any husbandman’s work, even thrashing of corn.”