The next morning I visited the university of Leyden, which stands by the Rapenburg canal: it is the most venerable seminary in Holland; and, by the great number of learned and famous men which it has produced, does honour to the luster of its origin. There is scarcely a science which has not been improved and extended in this hallowed seat of learning; which has to boast amongst its members the immortal name of the younger Scaliger, who bequeathed to it his valuable Hebrew library; of the two Hensius, father and son; the former of whom was invited by Pope Urban the eighth to Venice, “to rescue,” as he expressed it, “that city from barbarism;” and both of whom shone like stars of the first magnitude in every branch of graceful literature; of Salmasius, the profound and able competitor of our immortal Milton; of Boerhaave, whose consummate knowledge of physic, attracted pupils from the most distant parts of Europe; and of many other illustrious persons, who have shed honour and distinction upon their country and the times in which they flourished. The students board in town at different lodging-houses, wherever their inclinations or resources may dispose them; they wear no regular habit; when the professors appear in public, they wear a large black silk gown, bordered with velvet, on which the word ‘Leyden’ is worked in silver. My next visit was to the botanic garden, rendered immortal by the illustrious Boerhaave, as that of Upsal, in Sweden, has been by Linnæus. Haller says, in speaking of Boerhaave in the Leyden Botanical Garden, “_sæpe vidimus ante Auroram optimum senen ligneiscalceis per hortum repentem, ut comminus et cultum herbarum perspiceret, et flores fructusque specularetur_.” We have often seen the good old man before the morning dawn, crawling about the garden in the wooden slippers, that he might immediately superintend the culture of plants, and speculate on their flowers and fruits. This great man was born at Woerhout, near Leyden, in 1668; at the age of fifteen he found himself without parents, protection, advice, or fortune: he had then profoundly studied theology, intending to devote himself to a clerical life; but the science of nature presented all her attractions, and for some time wholly absorbed his contemplation. In 1693 he was created doctor of physic, which he then regularly practised. At this time he could scarcely exist by his labours, and was compelled to teach the mathematics to procure the bare necessaries of life, although he left at his demise the vast fortune of two hundred thousand pounds. At length his genius dissolved the darkness in which he was enveloped, many powerful friends gathered round him, and procured for him the valuable appointments of professor of medicine in the university of Leyden, of chemistry, and of botany. The Academy of Sciences at Paris and the Royal Society at London, to each of which he imparted his discoveries in chemistry, invited him to become one of their members.