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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 87
John James, whofe works he did not feem to have read through; he quoted from
every language that ever exifted, and in the courfe of half an hour confuted at leaft fix
antagonilts. He amufed me, in fhort, fo much, that I could not help going often to
hear, and get what I could out of him. At length I borrowed of a ftudent, who was
in the fame houfe with me, the metaphyfical lecture book he read from, which was
written by the Jefuit Storchenaw. At firft fight you would imagine that this Jefu:: had
found out the fecret of making metaphyfies overturn all poffible knowledge.. Not only
all the old feéts, fuch as the Pythagorean, Platonicians, and Epicureans, but likewife
all the fathers of the church were here colleéted together. Next to thefe, you find
all that has been written in the middle or latter centuries, by Machiavel, Hobbes,
Spenfer, Defeartes, Mallebranche, Bayle, Leibnitz, Locke, Voltaire, Rouffeau, Bo-
lingbroke, Hume, Helvetius, the author of the Sy/teme de la Nature, and a thoufand
other writers, who certainly never dreamed of being confuted thus in a lump, by a.
jefuit of the univerfity of Vienna. The ftudent, of whom I borrowed the book,
conceived himfelf to be poffeffed of the kernel of all thefe writers, nor had he the leaft.
doubt himfelf to be able to overturn all the fine fophiftry of Bayle and Spinofa, with
two leaves of his book. You may fuppofe I was eager to be acquainted with a.man>
who knew fo much. But how furprifed was 1, when a friend of his affured me he
had never read a line either of Bayle, Machiavel, Voltaire, or many other writers:
whom he had confuted! He himfelf had once Jent him three quarto volumes only for
one fingle evening, and in a few days after found them anfwered in a diflertation.
The beft leGtures are, without a doubt, thofe given on phyfic. Van Swieten has
done what was to be expected from hinvin this branch. ‘The profeffors affe& to be of
no fect either paft or prefent, but accuftom their fcholars to abufe Hippocrates, Galen,
Boerhaave, &c. and to tru{ft only to themfelves. Except Storck, however, who is
phyfician to the Emperor, there are hardly three good phyficians here. Yet the me-
thod of learning practice is a good one. Every candidate fora degree has a certain fet:
of patients in the hofpital. Thefe he vifits and prefcribes for, and then writes down
the fymptoms of their difeafe, together with his reafons for giving the drugs he orders.
The profeffor then comes; looks over the prefcriptions, compares them with:the {tate
of the patient, and makes his obfervations on them. f
EETTER XXvV.
Vienna.
VIENNA fwarms with. literati When: a man accofts- you, whom you do not:
know by his dirty hands fora painter, fmith, or fhoemaker, or by his livery for a foot-
man, or by. his fine clothes for a man.of confequence,. you may: be affured that you fee
either a man.of letters, orataylor; for between thefe two clafies I have not yet learned
to diftinguifh. It would be vain for you, however, to afk me the names of thefe great
men; for I confefs I know none but the very few who have a real title to that appels
lation, fuch as Hell, Martini, Storck, Stephani, Denis, and Sonnerfels, the only
philofopher who.deferves the name, the only one who unites ufeful knowledge to pa-
triotifm,. tafte; and elegance. As to thofe among the higheit ranks, whoveither cul-
‘tivate their knowledge for themfelves, or employ their talents-in the fervice of their
country, they. would be afhamed of the title of man of letters, degraded ‘as it now is.
I happened by. chance to take up-a book, written by a profefior of Lintz; it is called the
Learned, but for its contents might as well have been called the Un/earned Auftria, as it
does not give an account of a fingle original work that has merit, but only mentions about
one
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