he might be able to pursue his scientific enquiries without molestation. He now intimated to this gentleman that it would be convenient for him to accept of this offer; and his mortification was not slight at receiving a direct refusal. Whether Ort had been insincere in his original offer; whether circumstances had so changed as to render Swammerdam's presence inconvenient, or that the latter's peculiar habits, and extravagant religious notions, might be thought likely to make him not a very desirable inmate, it is useless to enquire: instances of similar treatment, from mere caprice and want of feeling, are too common to render any other explanation requisite.
In the midst of these perplexities our author's father died, an event which relieved him from any immediate inconvenience arising from the insensibility of his reputed friends; it even held out to him the agreeable prospect of a competency to live according to his inclinations, without the annoyance of any professional drudgery, to which he always entertained a strong dislike. But, when the museum came to be disposed of and his father's property divided, these prospects were by no means realised. His sister claimed more than was rightly her due, and took the chief management of the sale, an exercise of authority to which Swammerdam submitted for the sake of peace, and that he might sooner enjoy the retirement and repose on which his heart was set. But even this surrender of his just rights was far from exempting him from annoyance; and the vexations attending
