two o'clock he resumed his studies. He took a short walk after supper,
and then wrote his letters, which often occupied him until midnight. He
always worked standing, and never permitted himself to be disturbed
except for some very important cause.

Melancthon was usually in his study at two or three o'clock in the
morning, both in summer and winter. "It was during these early hours,"
says D'Aubigne, "that his best works were written." During the day he
read three or four lectures, attended to the conferences of the
professors, and after that labored till supper-time. He retired about
nine. He would not open any letters in the evening, in order that his
sleep might not be disturbed. He usually drank a glass of wine before
supper. He generally took one simple meal a day, and never more than
two, and always dined regularly at a fixed hour. He enjoyed but few
healthy days in his life, and was frequently troubled with
sleeplessness. His manuscripts usually lay on the table, exposed to the
view of every visitor, so that he was robbed of several. When he had
invited any of his friends to his house, he used to beg one of them to
read, before sitting down to table, some small composition in prose or
verse.

There is an interest of a peculiar nature in thus visiting the haunts
and witnessing the labors of scholars, philosophers, and poets, which
arises from the stimulus it affords us in turning again to our own
humbler but kindred work. Whatever brings us into sympathy with the
great and the noble thinkers enlarges and lifts our thoughts.

FOOTNOTES:

[C] In his youth he studied till midnight; but, warned by the early
decay of sight and his disordered health, he afterwards changed his
hours.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A QUACK.

IN TWO PARTS.

PART II.

I solemnly believe that I should have continued to succeed in the
virtuous practice of my profession, if it had not happened that fate was
once more unkind to me, by throwing in my path one of my old
acquaintances. I had had a consultation one day with the famous
homoeopath, Dr. Zwanzig; and as we walked away we were busily
discussing the case of a poor consumptive fellow who had previously lost
a leg. In consequence of this defect, Dr. Zwanzig considered that the
ten-thousandth of a grain of _Aur._[D] would be an over-dose, and that
it must be fractioned so as to allow for the departed leg, otherwise the
rest of the man would be getting a leg-dose too much. I was