who often gave gratuitous advice to his poorer neighbours. If he
prescribed anything beyond their means, himself or his sister was always
ready to supply it. Though their own means were limited, they were the
good angels of a small circumference.

The old physician confirmed the opinion already given by the sisters,
that the young lady for the present only required repose; but he
accepted the invitation to remain till the morning, in the event of his
advice being needed.

So Miss Gryll remained with the elder sisters. Mr. Gryll and the two
doctors, spiritual and temporal, sat down to dinner with Mr. Falconer,
and were waited on, as usual, by the younger handmaids.

CHAPTER XI

ELECTRICAL SCIENCE--THE DEATH OF PHILEMON

Where wine is not, no mirth the banquet knows:
Where wine is not, the dance all joyless goes.
The man, oppressed with cares, who tastes the bowl,
Shall shake the weight of sorrow from his soul.

Bacchus, on the birth of the vine, predicting its benefits:
in the twelfth book of the Dionysiaca of Nonnus.

The conversation at dinner turned on the occurrences of the morning and
the phenomena of electricity. The physician, who had been a traveller,
related many anecdotes from his own observation: especially such as
tended to show by similarity that the injury to Miss Gryll would not be
of long duration. He had known, in similar cases, instances of apparent
total paralysis; but he had always found it temporary. Perhaps in a day
or two, but at most in a very few days, it would certainly pass away. In
the meantime, he recommended absolute repose. Mr. Falconer entreated
Mr. Gryll to consider the house as his own. Matters were arranged
accordingly; and it was determined that the next morning a messenger
should be despatched to Gryll Grange for a supply of apparel. The Rev.
Dr. Opimian, who was as fond as the Squire himself of the young lady,
had been grievously discomposed by the accident of the morning, and felt
that he should not thoroughly recover his serenity till he could again
see her in her proper character, the light and life of her society. He
quoted Homer, AEschylus, Aristotle, Plutarch, Athenaeus, Horace, Persius,
and Pliny, to show that all which is practically worth knowing on the
subject of electricity had been known to the ancients. The electric
telegraph he held to be a nuisance, as disarranging chronology, and
giving only the heads of