LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 165 



of a little blood and a blister would, at the onset, 

 have removed at once ; but that, now, coagulable 

 lymph has been poured from the inflamed surface, 

 the covering of the lungs is adhering to the lining 

 of the chest, and the patient has contracted a deadly 

 disease, which no art can remedy. The tinker 

 and the tailor, when informed of this, lift up their 

 hands and eyes, and cry, " Dear me ! I am really 

 very sorry, but who could have thought it?" 

 and then march away to their other customers ; to 

 whom, if they happen to have coughs too, they very 

 composedly recommend their "fine things for a 

 cough" over again. 



Is it not perfectly astonishing, that a carpenter, 

 or a bricklayer, who would never think of pretend- 

 ing to mend your shoes, should, nevertheless, have 

 no hesitation whatever in offering his services to 

 mend your health ? If you carry your kettle to be 

 mended to any one but a tinker, he will tell you 

 honestly that he knows not how to do it. But 

 you shall travel from Dan to Beersheba, and, should 

 you meet a thousand passengers by the way, not a 

 soul of them but will undertake, should you com- 

 plain of being unwell, to cure you on the spot. 



Now, all this folly and mischief is attributable to 

 no less a personage than that respectable old lady, 



