he was made Physician Extraordinary to Queen Anne; and it was not
long before he had as high a repute among men of letters as with men of
science. He suffered frequently from illness; but no pain, it has been
said, could extinguish his gaiety of mind. In the last century Hampstead
was a favourite resort of invalids. Arbuthnot had sent Gay there on one
occasion, and thither in 1734 he went himself, so ill that he 'could
neither sleep, breathe, eat, nor move.' Contrary to his expectation he
regained a little strength, and lived until the following spring. 'Pope
and I were with him,' Lord Chesterfield wrote, 'the evening before he
died, when he suffered racking pains.... He took leave of us with
tenderness, without weakness, and told us that he died not only with the
comfort, but even the devout assurance of a Christian.'

There is not one of Pope's circle who holds a more enviable position
than Arbuthnot. In strength of intellect and readiness of wit Swift only
was his equal, and in classical learning he was Swift's superior. Like
Othello, Arbuthnot was of a free and open nature, and his friends clung
to him with an affection that was almost womanly. He had the fine
impulses of Goldsmith combined with the manliness and practical sagacity
of Dr. Johnson, and Johnson recognized in this celebrated physician a
kindred spirit. 'I think Dr. Arbuthnot,' he said, 'the first man among
the wits of the age. He was the most universal genius, being an
excellent physician, a man of deep learning, and a man of much humour.'
His genius and generous qualities were amply acknowledged by his
contemporaries, Pope calls Arbuthnot 'as good a doctor as any man for
one that is ill, and a better doctor for one that is well;' Swift said
he had every virtue which could make a man amiable; Berkeley wrote of
him as a great philosopher who was reckoned the first mathematician of
the age and had the character 'of uncommon virtue and probity,' and
Chesterfield, who declared that his knowledge and 'almost inexhaustible
imagination' were at every one's service, added that 'charity,
benevolence, and a love of mankind appeared unaffectedly in all he said
and did.'

Strange to say we know little of Arbuthnot but what is to be gleaned
from the correspondence of his friends, and it is only of late years
that an attempt has been made to write the doctor's biography, and to
collect his works.[48] To edit these works satisfactorily is a difficult
and a doubtful