severally offered to tell me in confidential
chat over their tables, who was the rising man
of the locality.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"Why," they said, "Pumpson. Wonderfully
able man."

"Does he attend your family?" I asked of
Mr. Smith.

"Why no," he replied, "when I want a
physician I always call in Dr. Droney. I
am rather afraid, to tell you the truth, of
Pumpson's cleverness. He might be wishing
to try some new remedies upon me. I rather
dread a scientific man, because he is so liable
to make experiments."

Pumpson began life with money and talent:
Bilcher had neither. In some respects
Pumpson and Bilcher at St. Poultice's
contrasted greatly with each other. Pumpson
was always well and neatly dressed: Bilcher
was always shabby and awkward. Pumpson
had a remarkably wide range of ideas: Bilcher
a peculiarly narrow one. Pumpson learned a
great deal with no show of working: Bilcher
picked up very little, although he was always
to be seen grubbing for knowledge. All his
spare time Bilcher spent in the dissecting
room; and, as he was not fond of soap and
water, it was not the pleasantest accident
that could befal one of us in the day to have
to shake hands with Bilcher. He was an
amiable fellow, very much liked; but you
would have said that he was altogether too
slow to get forward in a busy world. Out of
his profession he had no ideas; and in it,
although he worked for them very hard, he
never could get any students' honours.
Bilcher in due time passed; and electrified us
all immediately afterwards by marrying a
fashionable widow with a thousand a year.
She was twenty years his senior, and made
him father to a young lady of his own age.
After that Bilcher cleaned himself and clothed
his neck in a white napkin very thick with
starch. Bilcher then gravely contemplated
the world from the top of his collar, and the
world looked up to him. Bilcher has now an
extensive practice. He keeps two carriages,
and boasts to us of duchesses whom he
attends.

In the considerable town of Shredby, Porson
is established as physician: a man of strict
religious principle whom, as a medical student,
I respected greatly, and whom I still no less
respect. We were not very intimate, because
he was not fond of amusement, and I was.
Porson studied seriously, and learned his
profession in a quiet conscientious way. He
showed no abilities. The reward of all his
industry as a student was one Third
Certificate of merit, which he obtained in a
class when there happened to be only three
men who competed for its honours. Being
in Shredby recently I met Porson, who
invited me to tea, and gave me muffins. I
found him living on his profession very
comfortably; then in mature life and about to
marry. He told me solemnly (I never saw
him laugh, as youth or man) that he was
doing very well. His Third Certificate hung,
framed and glazed, over the chairs in his
consulting-room. I found by inquiries in the
town that he was a very thriving man; for,
being conscientiously diligent in his attendance
on the Independent Chapel —he was an
Independent —the whole Independent body
looked upon him as the fittest man to give
advice to them upon their fleshly ailments.

Partleby is another of our old set at St.
Poultice's. He was, and still is, not less
deeply imbued than Porson with religious
principle and feeling; but he was at least
ten times more clever. Partleby had a taste
for literature; read English, French, and
German authors; wrote verses that were
almost poetical; but he was not less attentive
to his studies. He was a conscientious
working student, distinguished himself
in two or three classes, and liked his
profession. He was a perfect gentleman in mind
and manners when he went into the world, a
well trained surgeon and an accomplished
man. But he stands only five feet in his
shoes; looks small in a room, and has
thoughts of his own; says original things
for which people are not prepared, because
they do not understand them, and are therefore
annoyed with him, He is thence
considered odd; and having bought a practice
worked at it with the most unremitting
application; married on it, and at last found
that it would not keep his children.
Partleby then bought a partnership with a man
whose religious feeling pleased him. The
man proved to be a rogue in saint's clothing.
Partleby was cheated of the profits due to
him; and at the end of the term of years
for which the partnership had been made,
the false saint— an incompetent practitioner
— carried off all the patients. Partleby was
thus left, after twenty years of work, very
much where he was when he began the
world. His practice now consists of five
small families, who cannot be at all times
ailing. The energies of Partleby are broken
down. If he had not belonged to a family
able to keep his bark afloat for him, he
would have sunk years ago, and would by this
time have died. If he had not a religious
mind and a clear conscience, he would have
been throughout his career very wretched.

Burdle, another of our set, prospers and
deserves prosperity; but what price has he
paid for it? Possessed of a fine intellect he
vowed it all to his profession; worked
intensely, and had not been half-a-dozen years
in the world before he had achieved, by
original research, an European reputation.
Some years ago I congratulated him
on his prosperity. "You have got on well,
Burdle," I said; "and if ever a man earned
his prosperity you have."

"No," he replied, "I have not got on. It
is a question between science and pudding.