SYDENHAM. 87 life he designed to follow. The yoimg man an- swering that he was undetermmed, the doctor re- commended physic to him, and his persuasion was so effectual, that he returned to Oxford, for the purpose of enjoying leisure and opportunity to pursue his medical studies. Here he empioyeJ himself with diligence ; and was created bachelor of physic, April 14, 1648, at the visitation of the university by the Earl of Pembroke. It is not true, therefore, as has been asserted by Sir Eichard Blackmore, that " he was made a physician by accident and necessity, without any preparatory disciphne, or previous knowledge, and that he never deigned to take it up as a profes- sion, till the civil wars were composed, when, I being a disbanded officer, he entered upon it for a {! maintenance." Sir Richard, after hazarding these jj assertions, tells us in proof of them the following I story : — " When one day I asked Sydenham to I advise me what books I should read, to qualify me I for practice, ' Read Don Quixote,' replied lie, ' it is a very good book, I read it still' So low an opi- nion," continues the knight, " had this celebrated man of the learning collected out of the authors, his predecessors." Upon this story it has been shrewdly remarked, "That Sydenham recommended Don Quixote to Blackmore, we are ^ot allowed to doubt ; but the relater is hindered by that self- love which dazzles all mankind from discovering that he might intend a satire, very different from a general censure, of all the ancient and modern writers on medicine, since he might, perhaps, mean, either seriously or in jest, to insinuate tiiat Blackmore was not adapted by nature to the study
