Rolling Stones.' 89 



medical man with a crowd of pauper patients .could 

 not hope to support a wife merely by the wealth of 

 his affection, and even the influx of fees might, as he 

 prudently foresaw, at any moment be prematurely 

 ended by one of the many accidents to which his 

 profession would expose him. 



It must not be supposed that he was in any way 

 influenced by want of ability or knowledge. So far 

 from that being the case, he was so highly thought of 

 by his medical teachers that they pressed him at any 

 rate to pass the examination for his diploma, for 

 which they knew him to be perfectly well prepared ; 

 but he declined to seek an honour which seemed to 

 his mind to demand a return of services which he 

 would not be in a position to render. 



Proverbial philosophy pronounces rather strongly 

 against those restless persons who try first one thing 

 and then another, and never seem to settle or succeed 

 in anything. The poor results which such men often 

 have to show at the close of their muddling lives are 

 considered a proof that change is mischievous. But 

 the same argument might be used with tenfold force 

 against remaining stationary, in proportion as the 

 numbers are far greater of the men who spend all 

 their lives in the narrowest grooves with results 

 equally poor. Lads are sometimes forced, by the 

 mistakes of themselves or of their friends, or under 

 some fancied necessity of circumstances, into pro- 

 fessions or positions for which they are unfitted or in 

 which they are unhappy. Once there, there they 

 remain as if spell-bound, not knowing that the new 

 cord and the green wyths and the weaver's beam that 



