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306 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. an apprentice to a country surgeon, and when I had nothing else to do, no pills to roll, nor mix- tures to compose, I used, by the advice of my master, to go up into my bed-room, and there, with Cheselden before me, learn the anatomy of the bones by the aid of some loose ones, together with a whole articulated skeleton, which hung up in a box at the foot of my bed. It was some time be- fore I overcame the awe with which I used to approach this formidable personage. At first, even by daylight, I liked to have some one in the room during my interviews with him ; and at night, when I laid down in my bed and beheld the painted door which inclosed him, I was often obliged to make an eflFort to think of something else. One summer night, at my usual hour of retiring to rest, I went up to my bed-room, it was in the attic story, and overlooked the sea, not a quarter of a mile off. It was a bright moonlight night, the air was sultry ; and after undressing I stood for some time at my window, looking out on the moonlight sea, and watching a white sail which now and then passed. I shall never have such another bed-room, so high up, so airy, and com- manding such a prospect ; or, probably, even if I had, it would never again look so beautiful, for then was the spring-time of my life, when the gloss of novelty was fresh on all the objects which sur- rounded me, and I looked with unmingled hope upon the distant world. Now — but I am rambling from my story. I went to bed, the moonlight which fell bright into my room showed me dis- tinctly the panelled door behind which hung my silent acquaintance ; I could not help thinking of