CHARACTERS. 



265 



prehension, how like a God ! the 

 beauty of the woild — the paragon 

 of animals !" 



" Having thus given the general 

 Otpinion of three great nien o;i this 

 subject, I shall commence with de- 

 scribing the head ot this paragon of 

 animals." — Here thedoctor entered 

 into a common-place description of 

 the skull, the brains, &c. which 

 lasted about half an hour, when 

 taking up the print and restoring 

 the head of the skeltHon (which he 

 had previousl)' doubled down"* to its 

 former position, he ne- 1 undertook 

 a description of the bri-ast. 



" Here, gentlemen, says he, is 

 the next part of this very extraor- 

 dinary animal, which may be very 

 propeily called from its very curi- 

 ous bend and texture — Me Lread- 

 bask^ry of the human iVanie." — At 

 this the audience could hold out no 

 longer, but unanimously burst out 

 into a horse laugh, which made the 

 doctor pause for some minutes, and 

 produced in the company likewise 

 au aukward and embarrassed si- 

 lence. At last one of the gentle- 

 men broke ground by saying, 

 '" Why, doctor, as we are ail 

 friends, and as the subscription has 

 been paid in, what signifies giving 

 yourself any further troul^le ? — We. 

 are satisfied of your capacity, and 

 we can dispense with any fartiitr 

 lectures." — Aye — aye, joined the 

 rest of (he company. — " Why tiien 

 continued the lirst speaker, suppose 

 you all come and take a bit of din- 

 ner with me to-day, when we shall 

 see what we are able to do in ana- 

 tomizing the bottle." 



1'iie hound ol" a gratuitous good 

 dinner always Icll very musically on 

 Hiffernan'sear, and in ttie present 

 instance peculiarly so, as it not only 

 plentifully provided for the wants 



of one day^ but released him from 

 the trouble of two days more at- 

 tendance, without losing any part 

 of his subscripiiou-inoney. Hence 

 the brow of the grave and philoso- 

 phic lecturer instantly relaxed into 

 that of the convi\ial familiar ac- 

 quaintance ; he stept from behind 

 the corner of his little table with 

 the utmost chearfulness, paid his 

 congees separately to his friends, 

 oraered up some colree (which he 

 left them to pay ff-. ) , and soon after 

 met them at the dii.iier rendezvous 

 in alithc hilarity of an eleemosynary 

 guest. 



This transient exhibition, we be- 

 lieve, was the last public eflort of 

 his, eilht-r as a physician or an au- 

 thor; not but he sometimes used to 

 aduerllse works, perhaps without 

 any design of puuli^hing them, but 

 for the purposes of giving pain, or 

 extorting money, in this iist we find 

 many paujpluets, some, perhaps, 

 written, others intended to be writ- 

 ten ; but all calculated to form his 

 miserable ways and means for rai- 

 sing the supplies. 



in this shifting manner our au- 

 thor went on, living as he most 

 conveniently could make it out, 

 without feeling much of the dis- 

 grace or cinbairassment of ins situ- 

 ation, till the spruigof 1777j when 

 he contracted tlie jaundice, which 

 very soon made an evident impres- 

 sion on his frame and spirits. His 

 iriends, knowing his pecuniary si- 

 tuation, saw it was necessary for 

 iiim to confine himself to his apart- 

 ments, and liberally assisted hiai for 

 this purpose. Amongst these were 

 Mr. (..arrick, Mr. Murphy, Dr. 

 Kennedy, Mrs. Abington, and 

 others. The o ;c;tor, howt ver, used 

 to creep out during tlie mornuig .sun 

 forau hour or two, wliich lie trusted 



would 



