440 THE MASS OF THE ATHEIST. 



a cordon noir at which thesons of Esculapius would not be considered 

 as entitled to pietend, oF suffering- a prayer book to drop from his 

 pocket at court, be assured that he laughed in his sleeve at all around 

 him, and that after studying men in all the gradations of life, from 

 the highest elevation to the lowest point of degraded existence — after 

 having surprised them in their veritable character, in the midst of 

 the most solemn scenes in which they act a part, — he entertained for 

 them the most profound and unmitigated contempt. The qualities 

 which we admire in a great man are often so combined as to form one 

 liarmoniotis whole, each giving to and receiving support from the 

 rest. If one lias more talent than mental power, still his mind is more 

 extended than his of whom we merely say, He is a person who 

 possesses a good understanding. All genius supposes a moral intel- 

 ligence capable of piercing to the cause of an effect. Tliis power of 

 vision may apply itself to some speciality; but whoever sees the 

 flower ought to see the sun also. He who heard a diplomatist, saved 

 by him, enquire, " How is the emperor?" and who replied, "The 

 courtier returns, the man will follow!'' that man was not merely a 

 surgeon or a physician. Among the various enigmas that the life 

 of Desplein presents to the minds of many of his contemporaries, we 

 liave chosen one of the most interesting, because the solution of it 

 will be found at the conclusion of this recital, without the reader be- 

 ing referred to a future day for the satisfaction of his curiosity. 



Among all the inmates that Desplein had at his hospital, Horace 

 Bianchon was one of those to whom he attached himself the most 

 warmly. Before becoming an in-door assistant surgeon at the Ho- 

 tel Dieu, Horace Bianchon was a student of medicine, lodged in a 

 miserable boarding-house in the quar tier -latin* known by the name 

 of Maison Vanquer. This poor young man had been there a prey 

 to the attacks of that extreme misery from which, as from a 

 red-hot crucible, great talents seem often destined to issue like 

 diamonds, which may be submitted to every kind of shock, even the 

 rudest, without yielding or losing their firmness. In the fire even 

 of all their unchained passions, they acquire the most incorruptible 

 probity, aud contract the habit of struggling with every species of 

 difficulty, by the unceasing labour in which they have circled all 

 their disappointed appetites. Horace was a straight-forward young 

 man, incapable of tergiversation to the nicest shade in a question of 

 honour, going to his point without any parade, as ready for his 

 friends to put his cloak in pledge as to give them his time and his 

 vigils, in a word, he was one of those friends who " take no thought" 

 of what they are likely to receive in exchange for what they give, 

 internally convinced, by judging from themselves, that they, in their 

 turn will receive more than they have given, whenever the evil day 

 arrives. His friends, for the most part, felt for him that inward and 

 sincere respect which a life virtuous without display is sure to inspire, 

 and many amongst them dreaded his censure. But his good quali- 

 ties were put in action without pedantry. He was neither a puritan 



* General resort of students, like the vicinity of tlie hospitals in London, or Lothian 

 street and its nt-iyhbourliood in Edinbnrgli. 



