DURING A PORTION
           of the first half
         of the present century,
           and more
              particularly during the latter part
                   of it,
         there flourished and
              practiced in the city
                   of New York a physician
             who enjoyed
                  perhaps an exceptional share
                       of the
                     consideration
                        which,
           in the United States,
         has always
            been bestowed
                   upon distinguished members
                       of the medical profession.

    This profession in America
        has constantly
            been held in honor,
           and more successfully than elsewhere
            has put
             forward a claim
                   to the epithet of
         "liberal."

    In a country in which,
           to play a social part,
         you must either
              earn your income
                  or make believe
             that you earn it,
           the healing art
            has appeared
                   in a high degree
                  to combine two
                      recognized sources of credit.

    It belongs
           to the realm
               of the practical,
           which in the United States
            is a great recommendation;
        and it
            is touched
                   by the light
                       of science- a merit
                   appreciated in a community
             in which the love
                   of knowledge
                has not always
                    been accompanied
                           by leisure and opportunity.

    It was an element
           in Doctor Sloper's reputation
         that his learning
               and his skill
            were very evenly balanced;
        he was
             what you
                might call a scholarly doctor,
           and yet
            there was nothing abstract
                   in his remedies-
             he always
                  ordered you to take something.

    Though he
        was felt
              to be extremely thorough,
           he was not uncomfortably theoretic;
        and if
             he sometimes explained
                   matters rather more minutely than
                might seem of use
                       to the patient,
           he never went so far
         (like some practitioners one
            had heard of)
          as to trust
               to the explanation alone,
             but always
                  left behind
                       him an inscrutable prescription.

    There were some doctors
         that left the prescription
           without offering any explanation
               at all;
        and he
            did not belong to
             that class either,
           which was
              after all the most vulgar.

    It will be seen
         that I
            am describing a clever man;
        and this
            is really the reason
             why Doctor Sloper had
                 become a local celebrity.

    At the time
         at which
             we are chiefly
                  concerned with him
             he was
                   some fifty years of age,
           and his popularity
            was at its height.

    He was very witty,
           and he passed
               in the best society
                   of New York
                 for a man
                       of the world- which,
         indeed,
           he was,
         in a very sufficient degree.

    I hasten to add,
           to anticipate possible misconception,
         that he
            was not the least
                   of a charlatan.

    He was a
          thoroughly honest man- honest
               in a degree
         of which
             he had perhaps
                 lacked the opportunity
                  to give the complete measure;
        and,
           putting aside
               the great good nature
             of the circle
             in which he practiced,
         which was
               rather fond of boasting
             that it possessed the
         "brightest"
            doctor in the country,
         he daily
              justified his claim
                   to the talents
                  attributed to him
                       by the popular voice.

    He was an observer,
           even a philosopher,
         and to be bright
            was so natural to him,
           and
         (as the popular voice said)
            came so easily,
               that he
                  never aimed at mere effect,
             and had
                   none of the little tricks
                 and pretensions
                       of second-rate reputations.

    It must be confessed
         that fortune had favored him,
           and that
             he had
                  found the path
                       to prosperity very soft
                     to his tread.

    He had married,
           at the age of twenty-seven,
         for love,
           a very charming girl,
         Miss Catherine Harrington,
           of New York,
         who,
           in addition to her charms,
         had brought
               him a solid dowry.

    Mrs. Sloper was amiable,
           graceful,
         accomplished,
           elegant,
         and in 1820
             she had been