John Mason Good (25 May 1764 – 2 January 1827),

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

writer on medical, religious and classical subjects, was born at

Epping, Essex Epping is a market town and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of the County of Essex, England. The town is northeast from the centre of London, is surrounded by the northern end of Epping Forest, and on a ridge of land between the Riv ...

. John Good's parents were the Nonconformist minister Revd Peter Good and Sarah Good, the daughter of another Nonconformist minister, Revd Henry Peyto of Great Coggeshall. John Mason Good was named after the

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

clergyman and hymn writer John Mason (1645-1694), of whom his mother Sarah was a descendant. Good attended a school at

Romsey Romsey ( ) is a historic market town in the county of Hampshire, England. Romsey was home to the 17th-century philosopher and economist William Petty and the 19th-century British prime minister, Lord Palmerston, whose statue has stood in the ...

kept by his father. At about the age of 15 John Good was apprenticed to a surgeon-apothecary at

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite ...

. In 1783 he went to

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to practice his medical studies. In the autumn of 1784, he began to practice as a surgeon at

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. There he was an acquaintance of Nathan Drake, a fellow writer and student of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

. In 1793 Good removed to London, where he entered into partnership with a surgeon and apothecary. But the partnership was soon dissolved, and to increase his income, he began to devote attention to literary pursuits. Besides contributing both in prose and verse to the ''Analytical'' and ''Critical Review''s and the ''British'' and ''Monthly Magazine''s, and other periodicals, he wrote a large number of works relating chiefly to medical and religious subjects. In 1794 John Good became a member of the British Pharmaceutical Society, and in that connection, and especially by the publication of his work, ''A History of Medicine'' (1795), he did much to effect a greatly needed reform in the profession of the apothecary. In 1795 the

London Medical Society The Medical Society of London is one of the oldest surviving medical societies (being organisations of voluntary association, rather than regulation or training) in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1773 by the Quaker physician and philanth ...

awarded him their Fothergillian gold medal. In 1820, he took the diploma of M.D. at

Marischal College Marischal College ( ) is a large granite building on Broad Street in the centre of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland, and since 2011 has acted as the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. However, the building was constructed for and is on lon ...

University of Aberdeen , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

. He died at

Shepperton Shepperton is an urban village in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, approximately south west of central London. Shepperton is equidistant between the towns of Chertsey and Sunbury-on-Thames. The village is mentioned in a document of 959 AD ...

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, on 2 January 1827. Good was not only well versed in classical literature, but was acquainted with the principal European languages, and also with Persian,

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and

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. His prose works display wide erudition, but their style is dull and tedious. His poetry never rises above pleasant and well-versified commonplace. His translation of

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem '' De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into E ...

, ''The Nature of Things'' (1805-1807), contains elaborate

philological Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as t ...

and explanatory notes, together with parallel passages and quotations from European and Asiatic authors.

References

* * Olinthus Gregory, Charles Jerram, ''Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Character, Literary, Professional, and Religious of the late John Mason Good MD'', Crocker and Brewster, Boston, Mass. (1829). {{DEFAULTSORT:Good, John Mason 1764 births 1827 deaths English writers People from Epping Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Fellows of the Royal Society English male writers

See also

References