was that Dr.
Fagon conceived a particular esteem of him, which he always continued
to retain.
After having practised physick some years, he was admitted
_expectant_ at the Hotel-Dieu, where he was regularly to have
been made pensionary physician upon the first vacancy; but mere
unassisted merit advances slowly, if, what is not very common, it
advances at all. Morin had no acquaintance with the arts necessary to
carry on schemes of preferment; the moderation of his desires
preserved him from the necessity of studying them, and the privacy of
his life debarred him from any opportunity. At last, however, justice
was done him, in spite of artifice and partiality; but his advancement
added nothing to his condition, except the power of more extensive
charity; for all the money which he received, as a salary, he put into
the chest of the hospital, always, as he imagined, without being
observed. Not content with serving the poor for nothing, he paid them
for being served.
His reputation rose so high in Paris, that mademoiselle de Guise was
desirous to make him her physician; but it was not without difficulty
that he was prevailed upon by his friend, Dr. Dodart, to accept the
place. He was by this new advancement laid under the necessity of
keeping a chariot, an equipage very unsuitable to his temper; but
while he complied with those exterior appearances, which the publick
had a right to demand from him, he remitted nothing of his former
austerity, in the more private and essential parts of his life, which
he had always the power of regulating according to his own
disposition.
In two years and a half the princess fell sick, and was despaired of
by Morin, who was a great master of prognosticks. At the time when she
thought herself in no danger he pronounced her death inevitable; a
declaration to the highest degree disagreeable, but which was made
more easy to him than to any other, by his piety and artless
simplicity. Nor did his sincerity produce any ill consequences to
himself; for the princess, affected by his zeal, taking a ring from
her finger, gave it him, as the last pledge of her affection, and
rewarded him still more to his satisfaction, by preparing for death
with a true Christian piety. She left him, by will, a yearly pension
of two thousand livres, which was always regularly paid him.
No sooner was the princess dead, but he freed himself from the
encumbrance of his chariot, and retired to St. Victor, without
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