their practice.

How unlike my honest English friend Tomkins, a plain serious, intelligent
man, whose art lies deeper than in words; who always avoids parade and
jargon; and endeavours to make every one as much a judge of what he is
about as himself!

All the time that the surgeons ran on with their anatomical process, the
wretched woman most frightfully roared and bellowed; which the gentlemen
(who showed themselves to be of the class of those who are not affected
with the evils they do not feel,) took no other notice of, than by
raising their voices to be heard, as she raised her's--being evidently
more solicitous to increase their acquaintance, and to propagate the
notion of their skill, than to attend to the clamours of the poor wretch
whom they were called in to relieve; though by this very means, like the
dog and the shadow in the fable, they lost both aims with me; for I never
was deceived in one rule, which I made early; to wit, that the stillest
water is the deepest, while the bubbling stream only betrays shallowness;
and that stones and pebbles lie there so near the surface, to point out
the best place to ford a river dry shod.

As nobody cared to tell the unhappy wretch what every one apprehended
must follow, and what the surgeons convinced me soon would, I undertook
to be the denouncer of her doom. Accordingly, the operators being
withdrawn, I sat down by the bed-side, and said, Come, Mrs. Sinclair, let
me advise you to forbear these ravings at the carelessness of those, who,
I find, at the time, could take no care of themselves; and since the
accident has happened, and cannot be remedied, to resolve to make the
best of the matter: for all this violence but enrages the malady, and you
will probably fall into a delirium, if you give way to it, which will