To enlarge upon his literary collections, and other curiosities, would at present be useless, seeing the world will soon be apprized of their value and contents from the catalogues that are already, and are yet about to be published of them; it may therefore suffice to say, that he did not shew more assiduity and judgment in collecting them, than he did candour and generosity in permitting the use of them to all that were competent judges, or that could benefit themselves, or the public by them.
It may, perhaps not unjustly, be said no Subject in Europe had a cabinet so richly and so judiciously filled; to which the correspondence he maintained with the learned in all parts of Europe, not a little contributed; nor can there be an higher instance given of his reputation in this respect, than in the king of Naples having sent him the two first volumes of M. Bajurdi’s account of the antiquities found in Herculaneum, with the additional compliment of asking in return, only, a compleat collection of our author’s works, to which was adjoined, an invitation to visit that newly discovered subterraneous city: an invitation that could not but be greatly pleasing to a genius so inquisitive after knowledge, and which he declared, he should very gladly have embraced, had not his advanced years been an insuperable impediment, to the gratification of his curiosity. In short, his character abroad was so well known and established, that a foreigner of any taste, would have thought it a reproach to him, to have been in England without seeing Dr. Mead.
As his knowledge was not limited only to his profession, the deserving in all sciences had not only free access to him, but always found a welcome reception, and at his table might daily be seen together the naturalist, the antiquarian, the mathematician, and the mechanic, with all whom he was capable of conversing in their respective terms; here might be seen united the magnificence of a prince, with the pleasures of the wise.
His munificence was conspicuous in that there was no remarkable publick charity to which he was not a benefactor, particularly he was one of the earliest promoters of, and subscribers to the Foundling hospital.
Let these specimens of his superior abilities and merit suffice for the present, nor let envy or detraction attempt to sully so exalted a character.—Soon after the publication of his monita & præcepta medica, this ornament of his profession, and delight of his acquaintance, grew more and more sensible of the natural infirmities attending his length of years; and with the utmost tranquillity and resignation, quietly sunk into the arms of death on the 16th of February 1754. To whom may, with the greatest propriety, be applied a part of the epitaph inscribed to the memory of the celebrated Guicciardini, at Florence;
Cujus Otium an Negotium
Gloriosius incertum:
Nisi Otii Lumen Negotii Famam
Clariorem reddidisset.
The END.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mr. Nathaniel Mead, who was at first destined to the service of religion, and preach’d two or three times at the meeting house at Stepney, built by his father, after his ejection from the parish church: but taking a dislike to theological studies, he applied himself to the law, and made as great a figure at the bar, as his brother did in physick.
[2] An abstract of this work was thought deserving a place in the philosophical transactions (Nº 283) for the months of January and February 1703.