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than the perfons publicly appointed to conduct them, who are fometimes utterly at a lofs to conceive what it is that impedes the effects of their measures..

"After that time M. Zimmerman had many offers, which, without being objects of great importance, proved how much confidence was repofed in him. One of thefe was made him by Count Stadion, who, after having been prime minifter to the elector of Mentz, had retired to Varrhaufen, a fine feat in Suabia, where he defired to have his advice and his fociety, and for which he promised him an agreeable house and a confiderable falary. Zimmerman did not like the idea of leaving a place which he found too fmall, for one ftill fmaller, and refufed the count's offer. He was the fame year invited by the city of Orbe; and the wifdom of the members at the head of the municipality made the invitation as honourable as if it had come from fome great court; for courts not unfrequently call upon a celebrated, in preference to a capable man; but the heads of a town, if they are men of enlightened understandings, will never make choice of a phyfician, unless he be one to whom the health of the citizens may be entrusted with fafety.

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refufe this offer; but in his answer he informed them of the great regret he fhould feel in embracing a profeffion that would oblige him to give up his own; the negociation continued for fome months, and at laft, on the firft of April 1765, he abfolutely declined the engagement.

"In 1761 he became a member of the Patriotic Society of Schintznach, originally projected and arranged by M. Hirzel, at that time a phyfician, and now counfellor of ftate at Zurich, and by the late M. J. Ifelin, fecretary of ftate at Bafle, two of thofe men in whofe names Switzerland will for ever glory, and which had for its object to connect together the diftinguished men of each Canton; to produce a general spirit of patriotifm; to form an exact reprefentation of Switzerland, according to fuch defigns as the best informed men in each province could give; to perfuade the whole country that it formed but one family, and that in whatever part of the Canton a Switzer fhould find himself, it fhould be to him as a home; in a word, to maintain a perpetual, an indiffoluble friendship, love,

union, and concord.' Zimmerman was the common friend of the two founders, and the first perfon to whom they communicated the plan. It met with his warmest approbation; and he became one of the nine members who met at Schintznach in May 1761, and never failed to attend the meetings during the time he remained in Switzerland.

"The meeting of 1764, when M. Hirzel was prefident, was the firft that was very numerous; he was extremely well received, and very happy there. The first letter that he wrote to me after his return to Brug, wherein he speaks princi

pally

pally of his converfations with M. Hirzel and Gefner the poet, as well as that which I received from him in 1775, foon after he had been with the famous Schonpach, breathe an air of the utmoft gaiety, and are full of that kind of writing which the English call humour; of which other nations have fo little knowledge, that they have not even a term of language by which to express it.

"In 1765 he was fent for to Soleure, to attend one of the principal women in that city; and no fooner was he known than he was earnestly requested to fettle there. The late Advoyer Glutz, a man of great merit, with whom he became acquainted at Schintznach, and who was afterwards one of the chiefs of the state, made the propofition to the council, which was first to take cognizance of it; and it was agreed to. But this council was not abfolute; and thofe whom the measure displeased artfully interpofed religion as an obftacle in the way. They afked, Would a proteftant phyfician inform the fick of their danger foon enough to enable them to attend to their fpiritual affairs; and would they not run the risk of dying without confeffion, without the holy 'facrament, and without the extreme unction? This objection fucceeded, as indeed it could not fail, and the propofal was rejected in the grand council.

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"However agreeable to M Zimmerman an establishment might have been, in a city where he had found many very diftinguished men of genius and character, and an amiable and polite fociety, he laughed extremely on hearing, fome time afterwards, that they had chofen a brother Jefuit apothecary."

Though daily increafing his

celebrity, M. Zimmerman was not the lets unhappy; and perhaps his celebrity made him feel the more fenfibly, that the theatre on which he was placed was not capacious enough for the energies of his mind: to which may also be added another caufe of melancholy. He began to feel the first attacks of that disorder which afterwards, in the year 1771, obliged him to go to Berlin. The confident of all his complaints, I was continually occupied with the means of procuring for him a fituation that might be more agree. able to him, a talk by no means easy. The fame difpofition of the nerves that makes us feel fo quickly the leaft trouble, and produces a defire of change, caufes also that irrefolution and timidity which makes all change alarming. M. Zimmerman's health has been before mentioned, but I muft speak of it again. It has fo great an influence over the manner of feeing, of judging, and of determining, that in many cafes man becomes inexplicable if he be not known. He would not permit me in 1766, when I wrote my letter of thanks to the king of Poland (who had done me the honour of naming me his chief phyfician), to mention him with M. Tralles as one of the two phyficians in whom I had the greatest confidence, and whom I confidered as moft worthy of that monarch's regard. M. Tralles refufed. M. Zimmerman was afterwards forry; but it was too late ; the poft had been given away. The year following I was more fortunate, and was able at laft to procure for him that place which he has fo well filled during the lait twenty-feven years of his life. I am forry to mention myself so often; but I know not how entirely to feparate myfelf from the hif

tory

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tory of a friend, in the greater part of the incidents of whofe life I have participated.

"Uncertain for fome time whether I fhould accept the appointment of chief phyfician to the king of England at Hanover, which had become vacant by the death of M. Werlhoff, I had inquired of M. Zimmerman what he would do in cafe it should be offered him, and I understood by his anfwer that he would accept it with pleasure. When I had refufed it notwith ftanding the intreaties of Haller, who, charged with the commiflion of offering it to me, had ufed his utmoft endeavours to induce my acceptance of it, I propofed to him to recommend M. Zimmerman, who was influenced by none of thof reasons that had induced me to decline it; Haller refufed, I believe. I have before mentioned, that thefe two gentleman were not fuch good friends as they ought always to have been; and all I could obtain of Haller was, to fay that I had thought of M. Zimmerman; and that was not fufficient. By directly thanking M. de Munchaufen, I thought I could mention him myfelf; it was eafy to fupport my recommendation by firong reafons; and befide this, I did not recommend a perfon wholly unknown. I alfo addreffed myself to the Baron de Walmoden, now field marfhal of the king's armies, who, though out of adminiftration, and non-refident at the time, had over public affairs all that influence which ability, perfonal confideration, and connexions with capable minifters, will always produce; laftly, I interested in his favour the Baron de Hochftetten, with whom I had the honour of being acquainted, and who was himself very intimately connected with M. de Munchaufen, from whom I re

ceived the most polite and favonr-
able answer poffible. My friend
was appointed to the poft in the
beginning of April 1768, and fet
out for Hanover on the 11th of
July following.

I fondly hoped that his depar-
ture would be the era of his en-
trance upon a more happy career,
and felicitated my felf as having
contributed to bis establishment:
but I was foon fadly undeceived.
The carriage in which himself and
his family travelled was overturned
at the gates of Hanover; his mo-
ther-in-law broke her leg; and this
accident rendered unhappy the firft
moments of their abode. A few
days after his arrival he lost the lord
The diforder of which I
of the regency moft attached to
him.
have already mentioned that he
had experienced the first attacks at
Brug, continued to increafe, and
was accompanied with fuch acute
pains as rendered the exercife of
his duty fometimes painful to him.
The jealoufy of a collegue, now no
more, brought upon him a multi-
tude of thofe trifling irritations
which if he had enjoyed good health
he would not have felt, but which
the ftate of his nerves rendered al-
moft infupportable. Several per-
fons vainly confidered that he ought
to do any thing to gain their good
will, and wished to have him con-
tinually with them. Women
who have drank coffee with king
George the Second perfuade them
felves that I ought to be as much
at their command as I should
have been at his.-They wished
to make him their flave, and that
was a part for which he was not
at all calculated. He knew it was
for the diforder, and not for the
patient, to regulate the number
and the hours of the phyfician's vie
fits, and he always conducted himielf
whole
upon this principle, but perfons

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whofe caprices he thus thwarted did not (as may be fuppofed) take much pains to render his abode agrecable. The health of his wife, which always depended upon his own, broke rapidly; that of his children, which had never been ftrong, did not improve. He often wrote to me from Hanover, as he had done from Brug, Save my wife, or rather fave myself; fave thefe children that are dearer to me than life, and each of his Jetters caused me very fincerely to regret having contributed to his removal. Happily, the confidence of the public drove him into continual occupation, which is the fureft protection against troubles of the mind. The patients of Hanover, the confultations of all the north, and the patients who came in perfon to confult him, drew him from his melancholy; all his hours were taken up; he paffed whole months in full occupation. The greatest relaxations he knew were in fome vifits to princes who defired his advice in cafes of great importance, and whom he never quitted without having infpired them with as much attachment as efteem; and in feveral journeys to Pyrmont, where he paif ed part of the water feafon, which was of fervice to him for the first and fecond year; but which afterwards acted as tonics fo often do upon irritable perfons: they caused fpafms.

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conditions, to come to pass the fummer at the baths of Willembad near Hanau; which he refufed, because he knew that he should not enjoy there, any more than at Pyrmont, the repofe which his own state of health so strongly demand, ed.

"But if at Hanover M. Zimmerman found fome perfons ill inclined towards him, he found alfo friends of great merit and amiable conduct in both fexes. I think that at the head of these he always placed M. de Walmoden (who was conftantly giving him proofs of his attachment), M. Stube, fecretary of ftate, and Mad. de Doering his fifter, whofe mind and virtues he has fo well defcribed, and whole friendship performed for him in the end, every thing that could be expected of it. His correfpondence. with his abfent friends, who were numerous, continued to be one of the pleafures of his life."

"The pleasure which I received from his letters was perpetually damped, as I have already faid, by expreflions of his uneafinefs, and especially from the end of 1769 by the melancholy occafioned by the declining health of his wife, whom he had the misfortune to lofe on the 23d of June, 1770. The portrait he has drawn of her is extremely interefting: Leave me

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to myself! I exclaimed a thoufand times to my furrounding 'friends,' &c. This lofs overcame him, and his diforders increased every day; he defcribed inoft minutely the feat and the progress of his pains, and requefted of me, as of his other friends in whom he placed any confidence, means of cure, which I was far from being able to give him. I faw clearly a local diforder, but I could not imagine what it was: I referred him to fome skilful furgeon; but there

was

was not one in his neighbourhood in whom he had any confidence; I should have faid to him, 'Come to me;' but how could I propofe a journey of two hundred leagues to a man to whom the leaft 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 choofe a fkilful furgeon to perform the operation, if it thould be judged neceffary; and I conceived it to be fo. My folicitations 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 moft 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 finall 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 moft enlightened perfons of Berlin, not only of men of letters, but of the moft diftinguished perfonages of every defcription, and of the high 'eft rank. This was one of the happiest times of his life. He enjoyed the inexpreffible pleafure of a cure after a long and painful diforder, the charms of a delightful private fociety, the happinets of being received with the utmost fatisfaction, and of becoming ac quainted and connecting himfelf with the most diftinguished men of letters in Germany. His molt intimate connexion was with M. Sulger, whom he had long admired,

and whom it was impoffible to know without efteeming.

"The reception he met with on his return to Hanover was alfo a fenfible pleafure for him, and he hoped to enjoy at laft a good ftate 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 pleasure of feeing him, I will not fay of beginning to know him, for I found I knew him already; the friend fpeaking, recalled to me every inftant the friend writing, and perfectly refembled the portrait in my mind's eye.' I faw 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 converfation was inftructive, brilliant, and interfperfed with a multitude of interefting facts and pleasant ftories: his phyfiognomy was always animated and expreffive: he spoke with great precision on every fubjest; 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 accom panicd me in my vifits to pa

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