Volume 4

A letter from the facetious Dr. Andrew Tripe [i.e. W. Wagstaffe] at Bath, to his loving brother the profound Greshamite, shewing that the scribendi cacoethes is a distemper arising from a redundancy of biliose salts / [William Wagstaffe].

William Wagstaffe

Date:: 1719

Credit: A letter from the facetious Dr. Andrew Tripe [i.e. W. Wagstaffe] at Bath, to his loving brother the profound Greshamite, shewing that the scribendi cacoethes is a distemper arising from a redundancy of biliose salts / [William Wagstaffe]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$* \ [ 4 ] , perplex and confound our Cogitation, than to inftruCt and inform it. For my Part, as the firft Rudiments of our Knowledge were laid in that Great Metro- polls, where you now refide, and, as we commenc’d Philofophers and Phyficians in the Shop, I cannot fufficiently applaud the Advantages of an Education, which has made us fo confiderable in our Profeffion. I wifh indeed, I had made the fame Improvements as your felf, tho’, I thank my Stars, I am tolera¬ bly refpeCted, when I appear in Publick, and deliver my Sdutijerom Arcana to the Multitude. But the Linnen Literati were always the Politejl Gentlemen, and had the Advantage of our Woollen Seely by their Conyerfation with the Ladies, and the Gaiety of their Behaviour. And as to you, pear Dr. you have exceeded the moil Sanguine of our Expectation, and the ttioft accompliflpd Profeffw of the Trade : Your modeft Familiarity, your languifh- ing unaffefted Air, your humil Cringe, as Milton expreffes himfelf, and your harmo¬ nious Elocution are inimitable, and cannot chufe but gain a Multitude of Patients, and a Multiplicity of Applaufe, while the Pro- tervity of the Scholars Countenance af- fi ights the Diftemper and reverts it upon the Habit. lf •' Thus$