DR. R. W. DARWIN. 13 



any misery, as a sort of Father-Confessor. He told me that 

 they always began by complaining in a vague manner about 

 their health, and by practice he soon guessed what was really 

 the matter. He then suggested that they had been suffering 

 in their minds, and now they would pour out their troubles, 

 and he heard nothing more about the body. . . . Owing to 

 my father's skill in winning confidence he received many 

 strange confessions of misery and guilt. He often remarked 

 how many miserable wives he had known. In several in- 

 stances husbands and wives had gone on pretty well together 

 for between twenty and thirty years, and then hated each 

 other bitterly ; this he attributed to their having lost a 

 common bond in their young children having grown up. 



" But the most remarkable power which my father possessed 

 was that of reading the characters, and even the thoughts of 

 those whom he saw even for a short time. We had many 

 instances of the power, some of which seemed almost super- 

 natural. It saved my father from ever making (with one 

 exception, and the character of this man was soon discovered) 

 an unworthy friend. A strange clergyman came to Shrews- 

 bury, and seemed to be a rich man ; everybody called on 

 him, and he was invited to many houses. My father called, 

 and on his return home told my sisters on no account to 

 invite him or his family to our house ; for he felt sure that 

 the man was not to be trusted. After a few months he sud- 

 denly bolted, being heavily in debt, and was found out to be 

 little better than an habitual swindler. Here is a case of 

 trustfulness which not many men would have ventured on. 

 An Irish gentleman, a complete stranger, called on my father 

 one day, and said that he had lost his purse, and that it 

 would be a serious inconvenience to him to wait in Shrews- 

 bury until he could receive a remittance from Ireland. He 

 then asked my father to lend him 20, which was immediately 

 done, as my father felt certain that the story was a true one. 

 As soon as a letter could arrive from Ireland, one came with 



