133S-39. PARACELSUS AND HIS PUPILS. 193 



long intervals that he knows not what the teacher would be 

 after ; the shrewd air of a wily monk, who has eyes and ears 

 only for the exaggeration and positive deceit which he sees the 

 adept is mingling up with some real and more fancied truth ; 

 lastly, there is introduced, with excellent effect, a fool, the jester 

 of some court, who has wandered witlessly in, and sits on the 

 bench in his motley coat, with glaring, wondering, meaningless 

 stare, baffled in all his attempts to understand what is going on 

 in his presence. I have forgotten all about some dames of high 

 blood and great learning who crowd the porch, except that they 

 are as ugly as bluestockings are privileged to be. The colouring 

 of this picture is, like Scott's former ones, unpleasant, but that 

 is forgotten in the boldness and effectiveness of the execution. 

 Allan's 'Slave Market' I utterly disliked. It is a cold, stiff 

 thing, painted so smoothly and softly that it makes it quite im- 

 possible to forget that it is a picture. You cannot be startled 

 into forgetfulness of its being a fiction for a moment ; there is 

 no starting of the figures out of the canvas ; no depth of shadow 

 to give a bold effect. It seemed to me a merely pictorial inven- 

 tory of the wardrobe of Mr. Allan, P.E.S.A., daintily displayed 

 on good-looking men and women, but as for exciting the emotions 

 there is nothing to sympathize with. The Exhibition is, as a 

 whole, very, very poor. The committee of the old Association 

 are accused of senseless conduct about the pictures ; of this I 

 don't know, but these are all the ideas I got from the Exhibition. 

 I would pay a shilling any day to get as many new ideas, and I 

 am contented. But on former occasions I have got a better 

 shilling's worth out of them." 



A supplement to his Thesis was the first work that occupied 

 George on his return home, followed afterwards by study for his 

 last examination for the degree of M.D. Early in May, he tells 

 his brother, " I am zealously prosecuting my professional hopes ; 

 and, weighing domestic and professional hopes together, I shall 

 have no reason to regret that I came back here. This is the 

 place for me, Daniel. The advantages for studying are very 

 great, and I am getting acquainted among the enthusiasts in 

 science here, whom I too much neglected. I shall look among 



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