Doctor MEAD’s
Short DISCOURSE
EXPLAIN’D.
Dr. MEAD’s
Short Discourse
EXPLAIN’D.
Many and various are the Opinionsabout the Design, aswell as about the Meaning andreal and true Sense of the shortDiscourse lately writ by theCelebrated Dr. Mead, for preventingthe Plague. The various Turns ofthe Heads of different Men, their differentCapacities, and the Sublimity of the Doctor’sStyle may, no doubt, occasion all this Varietyin understanding Him and his Book. Some,and if we may judge by the great Run andDemand for his Book, the greatest Numberof the People of all Ranks expected some Esculapian,but easy Rules, whereby they mightgovern and conduct their Life against so silentan Enemy as the Pestilence, which walkethin Darkness. This seems to be more than a2Conjecture, because this great Demand ceas’dof a sudden, as the Plague it self commonlydoes, after they found the Physician had nohand in it, or that his Rules were locked upfor the Favourites of his Faculty. And as thePeople commonly make the best Judgment ofThings after a little Experience, so we findthis Judgment of the Town confirmed, bywhat his Friends, Adepts, and other Officers,who only understand or declare what Dr.Mead would have believed; and accordinglythey labour to declare, that the genuineMeaning and Design of the Celebrated Doctorwas, to give a Politick Account, howthe Plague may be staved off by Force ofArms.
I grant this Authority is very cogent; yet,on the other hand, if we either consider theTitle Page of the Book, the great Accuratenessand Veracity of Dr. Mead, as well as hissignal Humility, I must crave leave to dissent,at this time, from the Reports of these Men,tho’ they carry his daily and hourly Orders:for how do such Reports sute all those hisknown good Qualities, the last more especially.Can any Man think it consistent with hissingular Humility, to teach the Secretary ofState, what has been practised in our ownand other Countries for some hundred ofYears: Quarantines and Pest-Houses, or if theDoctor pleases, Lazarettoes, are not unknownto English Lawyers, nor English Ministers.3And therefore I think it much the fairestCourse, to consider the Discourse well, becauseit is short, and from thence to draw theSense of its Author.
To do all imaginable Right to Dr. Mead,we will