cursed gout!"

"I suppose you brought it on by hard drinking, sir," said the stranger.
"If that be so, I shall not undertake to cure you unless you give up
hard drinking."

"I will do anything," replied Topertoe, "provided you can allay my pain.
I also was tempted to dance as well as the philosopher; and now the
Christian parson and the pagan Pythagorean are both suffering for it."

"What is all this about?" exclaimed Manifold. "O Lord! is he going to
put them on a vegetable diet, relieved by toast and water--toast and
water?"

The stranger paid but little attention to Manifold, because he saw by
his face and the number of his chins that he was past hope; but turning
towards Topertoe and the Pythagorean, he requested them both to sit
beside each other before him. He then asked Topertoe where his gout
affected him, and having been informed that it was principally in his
great toe and right foot, he deliberately stripped the foot, and having
pressed his hands upon it for about the space of ten minutes, he
desired his patient to rise up and walk. This he did, and to his utter
astonishment, without the slightest symptom or sensation of pain.

"Why, bless my soul!" exclaimed the parson, "I am cured; the pain is
altogether gone. Let me have a bumper of claret."

"That will do," observed the stranger. "You are incurable. You will
plunge once more into a life of intemperance and luxury, and once more
your complaint, from which you are now free, will return to you.
You will not deny yourself the gratification of your irrational and
senseless indulgences, and yet you expect to be cured. As for me, I can
only remove the malady of such persons as you for the present, or
time being; but, so long as you return to the exciting cause of it, no
earthly skill or power in man can effect a permanent cure. Now, Cooke, I
will relieve you of your rheumatism; but unless you exchange this flimsy
stuff for apparel suited to your climate and condition, I feel that I am
incapable of rendering you anything but a temporary relief."

He passed his hands over those parts of his limbs most affected by
his complaint, and in a short time he (the philosopher) found himself
completely free from his pains.

During those two most extraordinary processes Woodward looked on with
a degree of wonder and of interest that might be truly termed intense.
What the operations which took place before him could mean he knew not,
but when the stranger turned rou