Part 17

He was once applied to, to perform a serious operation on a tradesman's wife; the fee agreed upon was twenty guineas. He heard no more of the case for two months, at the end of which time he was called upon to perform it. In the course of his attendance he found out that the cause of the delay had been the difficulty under which the patient's husband had laboured to raise the money; and that they were worthy people, who had been unfortunate, and were by no means able to support the expense of such an affliction. 'I sent back to the husband nineteen guineas, and kept the twentieth,' said he, 'that they might not be hurt with an idea of too great an obligation. It somewhat more than paid me for the expense I had been at in the business.' He held the operative part of surgery in the lowest estimation. 'To perform an operation,' said he, 'is to mutilate the patient whom we are unable to cure; it should therefore be considered as an acknowledgment of the imperfection of our art.' Among other characteristics of genius, was his simplicity of character and singleness of mind. His works were announced as the works of John Hunter; and John Hunter on a plain brass plate announced his residence. His honour and his pride made him look with contempt on the unworthy arts by which ignorant and greedy men advance their fortunes. He contemplated the hallowed duties of his art with the feelings of a philanthropist and a philosopher; and although surgery had been cultivated more than 2000 years, this single individual did more towards establishing it as a science, than all who preceded him."

LORD BACON ON THE REVIVAL OF "PROPHESYING."

Lord Bacon, in his Inquiry on the Pacification of the Church, asks whether it might not be advantageous to renew the good service that was practised in the Church of England for some years, and afterwards put down, against the advice and opinion of one of the greatest and gravest prelates of the land. The service in question was commonly called "prophesying;" and from this description of it by Bacon it may be seen that it might have benefits of its own, not in the Church of England alone or especially, if it were resumed at the present day:--"The ministers within a precinct did meet upon a week-day in some principal town, where there was some ancient grave minister that was president, and an auditory admitted of gentlemen, or other persons of leisure. Then every minister successively, beginning with the youngest, did handle one and the same part of Scripture, spending severally some quarter of an hour or better, and in the whole, some two hours; and so the exercise being begun and concluded with prayer, and the president giving a text for the next meeting, the assembly was dissolved; and this was, as I take it, a fortnight's exercise, which in my opinion was the best way to frame and train up preachers to handle the word of God as it ought to be handled, that hath been practised. For we see orators have their declamations; lawyers have their merits; logicians their sophisms; and every practice of science hath an exercise of erudition and imitation before men come to the life; only preaching, which is the worthiest, and wherein it is most dangerous to do amiss, wanteth an introduction, and is ventured and rushed upon at first."

DR. DONNE'S PRAYERFUL PUN.

Dr. Donne, the Dean of St. Paul's, having married a lady of a rich and noble family without the consent of the parents, was treated with great asperity. Having been told by the father that he was to expect no money from him, the Doctor went home and wrote the following note to him: "John Donne, Anne Donne, undone." This quibble had the desired effect, and the distressed couple were restored to favour.

PREPARING FOR THE WORST AND BEST.

The historians of dissent record with pride the sedulous preparation of Dr. Marryat, a tutor who belonged to the Independent body, to make the best of either of the worlds to come. He was accustomed, we are told, to sit up at his studies two or three nights in the week, the whole year over. He learned by heart, at these times, the poets and prophets of the Old Testament, the Epistles and Apocalypse of the New; and what he had thus acquired, he sought to retain by careful recitation of them annually. He had begun to do this while he was yet a young man; when, "deeply convinced of his sinfulness and misery, he was afraid of falling into hell, and formed the resolution that if that should be the case, he would treasure up in his mind as much of the word of God as he possibly could, and carry it with him to the place of torment. When faith in his Redeemer afterwards communicated to his soul the peace and consolations of the gospel, he still continued the practice, that he might have a larger measure to carry to a better place."

GEORGE CRABBE, THE APOTHECARY POET.

Not the least distinguished among the names of doctors who have distinguished themselves in the world of literature, is that of George Crabbe. He was the son of the collector of salt dues at Aldborough, in Suffolk, where he was born on Christmas Eve, 1754. His father strove to give his children an education somewhat above their station in life; and George was kept at school at Bungay and Stowmarket till his fourteenth year--his comparative delicacy of constitution inducing his father to destine him to a gentler pursuit than those followed by his brothers. Leaving school, he was apprenticed to a country doctor, half farmer half physician, at Wickham Brook, near Bury St. Edmunds, where he shared the bed of his master's stable-boy. This and other désagrémens of the situation, however, did not suit Crabbe's likings or his father's honest pride; and in a couple of years he was removed, and placed with Mr. Page, a surgeon at Woodbridge, and a gentleman of family and taste. Here he found time and circumstances favouring to make his first essays in poetry; and in 1775 published his first work of consequence, Inebriety, a Poem: in three parts. At the expiry of his apprenticeship, Crabbe vainly tried to raise funds for a regular course of study in London, and had to content himself with settling down in his native village in a small practice as surgeon and apothecary; but this proving an insufficient source of income, he resolved to venture his fortunes in London, in dependence on his poetic talent. "With this view he proceeded to London; and after a year spent in that most trying of all situations, that of a literary adventurer without money and without friends--a situation from the miseries of which the unfortunate Chatterton, 'the wondrous boy,' escaped by suicide--when on the point of being thrown into jail for the little debts which he had unavoidably contracted, as a last resource, in an auspicious moment, he had applied to Edmund Burke for assistance, transmitting to him at the same time some verses as a specimen of his abilities. In these sketches Burke at once recognised the hand of a master. He invited the poet to Beaconsfield; installed him in a convenient apartment; opened up to him the stores of his library; watched over his progress, and afforded him the benefit of his taste and literary skill." "The Library" soon appeared, and Crabbe was famous. By Burke's advice he went into holy orders; he was appointed chaplain to the household of the Duke of Rutland, obtained ample Church preferment, and pursued his path to fame.

THE WAY TO PROMOTION.

Speed relates that Guymond, chaplain to Henry I., observing that for the most part ignorant men were advanced to the best dignities of the Church, one day, as he was celebrating divine service before the King, and was about to read these words out of St. James, "It rained not upon the earth iii years and vi months," read it thus: "It rained not upon the earth one-one-one years and five-one months." The king noticed the singularity, and afterwards took occasion to blame the chaplain for it. "Sire," answered Guymond, "I did it on purpose, for such readers, I find, are sooner advanced by your Majesty." The King smiled; and in a short time thereafter presented Guymond to the benefice of St. Frideswid's, in Oxford.

BOLD APPLICATION OF BOURDALOUE.

Louis Bourdaloue--who claims the proud distinction of being "the reformer of the pulpit and the founder of genuine pulpit eloquence in France"--was sent for by Louis XIV. to preach the Advent Sermon in 1670. Bourdaloue, at that time at the age of thirty-eight, acquitted himself before the Court with so much success, that he was for many years afterwards retained as a preacher at Court. He was called the King of Preachers, and the Preacher to Kings; and Louis himself said, that he would rather hear the repetitions of Bourdaloue, than the novelties of another. With a collected air, he had little action; he kept his eyes generally half closed, and penetrated the hearts of his hearers by the tones of a voice uniform and solemn. On one occasion he turned the peculiarity of his external aspect to account in a very memorable fashion. After depicting in soul-awakening terms a sinner of the first magnitude, he suddenly opened his eyes, and, casting them full on the King, who sat opposite to him, he cried in a voice of thunder, "Thou art the man!" The effect was magical, confounding. When Bourdaloue had made an end of his discourse, he immediately went, and, throwing himself at the feet of his Sovereign, said, "Sire, behold at your feet one who is the most devoted of your servants; but punish him not, that in the pulpit he can own no other master than the King of kings!" This incident was characteristic of Bourdaloue's style of preaching, for he gave his powers to attacking the vices, passions, and errors of mankind. In his later days he renounced the pulpit, and devoted himself to the care of hospitals, prisons, and religious institutions. He died in 1704; and his sermons have been translated into several tongues.

GARRICK'S PRECEPTS FOR PREACHERS.

The celebrated actor Garrick having been requested by Dr. Stonehouse to favour him with his opinion as to the manner in which a sermon ought to be delivered, sent him the following judicious answer:--

"MY DEAR PUPIL,--You know how you would feel and speak in a parlour concerning a friend who was in imminent danger of his life, and with what energetic pathos of diction and countenance you would enforce the observance of that which you really thought would be for his preservation. You could not think of playing the orator, of studying your emphases, cadences, and gestures; you would be yourself; and the interesting nature of your subject impressing your heart would furnish you with the most natural tone of voice, the most proper language, the most engaging features, and the most suitable and graceful gestures. What you would thus be in the parlour, be in the pulpit, and you will not fail to please, to affect, and to profit. Adieu, my dear friend."

GEORGE II. AS AN AMATEUR SURGEON.

It is related in the Percy Anecdotes, that a gentleman, after taking tea with a friend who lived in St. James's Palace, took his leave, and stepping back, immediately fell down a whole flight of stairs, and with his head broke open a closet door. The unlucky visitor was completely stunned by the fall; and on his recovery, found himself sitting on the floor of a small room, and most kindly attended by a neat little old gentleman, who was carefully washing his head with a towel, and fitting with great exactness pieces of sticking plaster to the variegated cuts which the accident had occasioned. For some time his surprise kept him silent; but finding that the kind physician had completed his task, and had even picked up his wig, and replaced it on his head, he rose from the floor, and limping towards his benefactor, was going to utter a profusion of thanks for the attention he had received. These were, however, instantly checked by an intelligent frown, and significant motion of the hand towards the door. The patient understood the hint, but did not then know that for the kind assistance he had received he was indebted to George II., King of England.

BLUNDERS OF BLOOD-LETTERS.

A noble fee, in the interests of humanity, was given by a French lady to a surgeon, who used his lancet so clumsily that he cut an artery instead of a vein, in consequence of which the lady died. On her deathbed she made a will, bequeathing the operator a life annuity of eight hundred livres, on condition "that he never again bled anybody so long as he lived."

In the Journal Encyclopédique of May 1773, a somewhat similar story is told of a Polish princess, who lost her life in the same way. In her will, made in extremis, there was the following clause:--"Convinced of the injury that my unfortunate accident will occasion to the unhappy surgeon who is the cause of my death, I bequeath to him a life annuity of two hundred ducats, secured by my estate, and forgive his mistake from my heart. I wish this may indemnify him for the discredit which my sorrowful catastrophe will bring upon him."

A famous French Maréchal reproved the awkwardness of a phlebotomist less agreeably. Drawing himself away from the operator, just as the incision was about to be made, he displayed an unwillingness to put himself further in the power of a practitioner who, in affixing the fillet, had given him a blow with the elbow in the face. "My Lord," said the surgeon, "it seems that you are afraid of the bleeding." "No," returned the Maréchal, "not of the bleeding--but the bleeder."

BISHOPS AND THE POOR.

A nobleman once advising a French bishop to add to his house a new wing in modern style, received this answer:--"The difference, my Lord, between your advice and that which the devil gave to our Saviour is, that Satan advised Jesus to change the stones into bread, that the poor might be fed--and you desire me to turn the bread of the poor into stones!"

Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester in the time of King Edgar, sold the sacred gold and silver vessels belonging to the Church, to relieve the poor during a famine,--saying that there was no reason that the senseless temples of God should abound in riches, while his living temples were perishing of hunger.

Butler, Bishop of Durham, being asked for a charitable subscription, asked his steward what money he had in the house. The steward informed him that there were five hundred pounds. "Five hundred pounds!" cried the bishop; "it is a shame for a bishop to have so much in his possession!" and he ordered the whole sum to be immediately given to the poor.

BISHOP BURNET AGAINST PLURALITIES.

Bishop Burnet, in his charges to the clergy of his diocese, used to be extremely vehement in his exclamations against pluralities. In his first visitation to Salisbury, he urged the authority of St. Bernard; who, being consulted by one of his followers whether he might accept of two benefices, replied, "And how will you be able to serve them both?" "I intend," answered the priest, "to officiate in one of them by a deputy." "Will your deputy suffer eternal punishment for you too?" asked the saint. "Believe me, you may serve your cure by proxy, but you must suffer the penalty in person." This anecdote made such an impression on Mr. Kelsey, a pious and worthy clergyman then present, that he immediately resigned the rectory of Bemerton, in Berkshire, worth £200 a year, which he then held with one of greater value.