disciples; and race after race of those who cultivate truth through pure
reason shall accept my bases if they enlarge my building." And again I
heard the sigh, but this time it caused no surprise. "Certainly," I
murmured, "a very strange thing is the nervous system!" So I turned on
my pillow, and, wearied out, fell asleep.

[1] Muller's "Elements of Physiology," vol. ii. p. 134. Translated by Dr.
Baley.

[2] Cowley, who wrote so elaborate a series of amatory poems, is said
"never to have been in love but once, and then he never had resolution to
tell his passion."--Johnson's "Lives of the Poets:" COWLEY.




CHAPTER XXI.

The next day, the last of the visiting patients to whom my forenoons were
devoted had just quitted me, when I was summoned in haste to attend the
steward of a Sir Philip Derval not residing at his family seat, which was
about five miles from L----. It was rarely indeed that persons so far
from the town, when of no higher rank than this applicant, asked my
services.

But it was my principle to go wherever I was summoned; my profession was
not gain, it was healing, to which gain was the incident, not the
essential. This case the messenger reported as urgent. I went on
horseback, and rode fast; but swiftly as I cantered through the village
that skirted the approach to Sir Philip Derval's park, the evident care