rticularly. Still
I was not, as I now think, sufficiently particular and definite, for
want of time. Moreover, he still clung to the off-hand customs of
empiricism,--that of looking at the tongue, feeling the pulse, and
seeming "wondrous wise,"--and vainly hoped I would treat him in the same
direct way, instead of requiring what he regarded as a more circuitous
course.

He called on me the third time. We had now ample leisure and
opportunity for attempting to ferret out the causes which had operated
to bring him into his present condition, some of which, it appeared, had
been of long standing.

I inquired, in the first place, concerning his exercise. This, he said,
was taken very irregularly, chiefly in walking abroad on business,
seldom or never in company. His mind, in all probability, was not
directed, to any considerable extent, from its accustomed mill-horse
track. His gait, too, when he walked, was staid and measured. It was
never buoyant, lively, or playful. And as for amusement, he had none at
all.

His diet was still worse than his exercise. He had a large family, and
resided in the midst of a dense population; and was so situated as to
render his house, practically, a kind of ministerial thoroughfare. He
probably entertained, at his hospitable table, more ministers, literary
men, and students than any other three clergymen in the neighborhood.

"Now," said he to me, "we have a good deal of table preparation to make,
and Mrs. Y., who dearly loves to have things in pretty good order, sets
a full table, with, a large variety. Well, this food must be eaten. It
will never do for a minister who has a large family and lives on a
moderate salary, to _waste_ any thing. And, besides, as I ought to tell
you, we sometimes, if not always, have a very considerable amount of
rich food on the table."

"Do you mean to intimate that the bountiful provision you make for
others renders it necessary for you to overeat? Or have your remarks a
reference to a supposed necessity of eating rich food?"

"We are not, of course, absolutely compelled to _any_ thing. My meaning
is this: In order to meet the wants of those who are liable to call on
us at almost any hour, _we prepare largely_. Then, to meet these varying
and often very fastidious tastes, we must have _a large variety_ of
food, and it must be _highly seasoned_. And then, if it happens that our
company is not as large as is expected, we have an extra quantity
remaining,