r courses of the college
lectures, all of which were attended without intermission, and most of
them slept over without compunction. The truth is, that neither medical
authors, nor medical orations had any congeniality with his feelings.
His love for science could not conquer his aversion to the
dissecting-room, and he greatly preferred taking care of the body as he
found it, to the labor of ascertaining how it was made;--he liked well
to have the springs and wheels of his own frame in easy and accurate
motion, but cared not to examine the delicate structure of the
complicated machinery. The consequence was, that when not in the
lecture-room his time was occupied--not with his books, but in
lion-hunting. He visited the theatre when Cooper, and Pritchard, and
Mrs. Darley, were in their glory; lounged frequent hours in the
museums; and was the first to run after every new attraction placarded
at the corners. He was greatly taken with the agility of an Armenian
girl, upon the wire and slack-rope, who was in truth a second Fenella
in the sprightliness of her nimble exhibitions. Day Francis, the
conjuror, was his admiration. He was delighted with Rannie, the old
ventriloquist, and the first in America; and Potter, the late sable and
celebrated professor of legerdemain, in slight-of-hand, he thought
actually excelled Doctor Mott himself.

At the close of the term he returned to the country, and resumed
Cheselden. But he yet preferred the society of the ladies--accompanying
them in their morning walks, and at their evening parties. And with
them all he was a favorite--of a particular description. Full of good
nature--easy and accommodating in his disposition, ever ready to
oblige, when any of the fair were in distress for a beau, he could
always be had, and even felt honored to be called upon such service,
when it was not desirable to take such a liberty with gallants of a
different cast and temperament. Especially were his services of value
at parties, where exigencies of a particular description were likely to
occur--as, when some not very popular damsel lived at the farthermost
end of the town; or in such other undefinable cases as might result in
the danger of some forlorn maidens being left, after the whips and
blanc-manges were disposed of, to perform the homeward pilgrimage on
foot and alone--as the girl went to get married.

But the beau and the student are different animals; and at the close of
the second year, the