more he
felt that his destiny was clear; the art of healing was the art of all others
for him. Mistrusting that he only came to this conclusion, because, having never
had much chance of finding out for himself what he was fitted for, and having
never been guided to the discovery, he was taken by the newest idea, and was
glad to get rid of the trouble of consideration, I wondered whether the Latin
Verses often ended in this, or whether Richard's was a solitary case.
    Mr. Jarndyce took great pains to talk with him, seriously, and to put it to
his good sense not to deceive himself in so important a matter. Richard was a
little grave after these interviews; but invariably told Ada and me that it was
all right, and then began to talk about something else.
    »By Heaven!« cried Mr. Boythorn, who interested himself strongly in the
subject - though I need not say that, for he could do nothing weakly; »I rejoice
to find a young gentleman of spirit and gallantry devoting himself to that noble
profession! The more spirit there is in it, the better for mankind, and the
worse for those mercenary task-masters and low tricksters who delight in putting
that illustrious art at a disadvantage in the world. By all that is base and
despicable,« cried Mr. Boythorn, »the treatment of Surgeons aboard ship is such,
that I would submit the legs - both legs - of every member of the Admiralty
Board to a compound fracture, and render it a transportable offence in any
qualified practitioner to set them, if the system were not wholly changed in
eight-and-forty hours!«
    »Wouldn't you give them a week?« asked Mr. Jarndyce.
    »No!« cried Mr. Boythorn, firmly. »Not on any consideration! Eight-and-forty
hours! As to Corporations, Parishes, Vestry-Boards, and similar gatherings of
jolter-headed clods, who assemble to exchange such speeches that, by Heaven!
they ought to be worked in quicksilver mines for the short remainder of their
miserable existence, if it were only to prevent their detestable English from
contaminating a language spoken in the presence of the Sun - as to those
fellows, who meanly take advantage of the ardour of gentlemen in the pursuit of
knowledge, to recompense the inestimable services of the best years of their
lives, their long study, and their expensive education, with pittances too small
for the acceptance of clerks, I would have the necks of every one of them wrung,
and their