with a romance.' [USONG had
just come out;--no mortal now reads a word of it; and the great Haller
is dreadfully forgotten already!]

KING. "'Ah, that is pretty!--On what system do you treat your patients?'

EGO. "'Not on any system.'

KING. "'But there are some Physicians whose methods you prefer to those
of others?'

EGO. "'I especially like Tissot's methods, who is a familiar friend of
mine.'

KING. "'I know M. Tissot. I have read his writings, and value them very
much. On the whole, I love the Art of Medicine. My Father wished me to
get some knowledge in it. He often sent me into the Hospitals; and even
into those for venereal patients, with a view of warning by example.'

EGO. "'And by terrible example!--Sire, Medicine is a very difficult Art.
But your Majesty is used to bring all Arts under subjection to the force
of your genius, and to conquer all that is difficult.'

KING. "'Alas, no: I cannot conquer all that is difficult!' [Hard-mouthed
Kaunitz, for example; stock-still, with his right ear turned on Turkey:
how get Kaunitz into step!]--Here the King became reflective; was silent
for a little moment, and then asked me, with a most bright smile: 'How
many churchyards have you filled?' [A common question of his to Members
of the Faculty.]

EGO. "'Perhaps, in my youth, I have done a little that way! But now it
goes better; for I am timid rather than bold.'

KING. "'Very good, very good.'

"Our Dialogue now became extremely brisk. The King quickened into
extraordinary vivacity; and examined me now in the character of Doctor,
with such a stringency as, in the year 1751, at Gottingen, when I
stood for my Degree, the learned Professors Haller, Richter, Segner
and Brendel (for which Heaven recompense them!) never dreamed of! All
inflammatory fevers, and the most important of the slow diseases, the
King mustered with me, in their order. He asked me, How and whereby I
recognized each of these diseases; how and whereby distinguished them
from the approximate maladies; what my procedure was in simple and
in complicated cases; and how I cured all those disorders? On
the varieties, the accidents, the mode of treatment, of small-pox
especially, the King inquired with peculiar strictness;--and spoke, with
much emotion, of that young Prince of his House who was carried off,
some years ago, by that disorder--[suddenly arrested by it, while on
march with his regiment, "near Ruppin, 26th May, 1767." This is the
Prince