, the medical profession was an inevitable system of
humbug. I said, the fault was in the men - men who truckle to lies and folly.
Instead of preaching against humbug outside the walls, it might be better to set
up a disinfecting apparatus within. In short - I am reporting my own
conversation - you may be sure I had all the good sense on my side.«
    »Your scheme is a good deal more difficult to carry out than the Pythagorean
community, though. You have not only got the old Adam in yourself against you,
but you have got all those descendants of the original Adam who form the society
around you. You see, I have paid twelve or thirteen years more than you for my
knowledge of difficulties. But« - Mr. Farebrother broke off a moment, and then
added, »you are eyeing that glass vase again. Do you want to make an exchange?
You shall not have it without a fair barter.«
    »I have some sea-mice - fine specimens - in spirits. And I will throw in
Robert Brown's new thing - Microscopic Observations on the Pollen of Plants - if
you don't happen to have it already.«
    »Why, seeing how you long for the monster, I might ask a higher price.
Suppose I ask you to look through my drawers and agree with me about all my new
species?« The Vicar, while he talked in this way, alternately moved about with
his pipe in his mouth, and returned to hang rather fondly over his drawers.
»That would be good discipline, you know, for a young doctor who has to please
his patients in Middlemarch. You must learn to be bored, remember. However, you
shall have the monster on your own terms.«
    »Don't you think men overrate the necessity for humouring everybody's
nonsense, till they get despised by the very fools they humour?« said Lydgate,
moving to Mr. Farebrother's side, and looking rather absently at the insects
ranged in fine gradation, with names subscribed in exquisite writing. »The
shortest way is to make your value felt, so that people must put up with you
whether you flatter them or not.«
    »With all my heart. But then you must be sure of having the value, and you
must keep yourself independent. Very few men can do that. Either you slip out of
service altogether, and become good for nothing, or you wear the harness and
draw a good deal where your yoke-fellows pull you. But do look at
