But here I broke down, for I could not remember the rest with even approximate accuracy.
"When did this Vaughan live?" asked Turner.
"He was born, I find, in 1621—five years, that is, after Shakspere's death, and when Milton was about thirteen years old. He lived to the age of seventy-three, but seems to have been little known. In politics he was on the Cavalier side. By the way, he was a medical man, like you, Turner—an M.D. We'll have a glance at the little book when we go back. Don't let me forget to show it you. A good many of your profession have distinguished themselves in literature, and as profound believers too."
"I should have thought the profession had been chiefly remarkable for such as believe only in the evidence of the senses."
"As if having searched into the innermost recesses of the body, and not having found a soul, they considered themselves justified in declaring there was none."
"Just so."
"Well, that is true of the commonplace amongst them, I do believe. You will find the exceptions have been men of fine minds and characters—not such as he of whom Chaucer says,
'His study was but little on the Bible;'
for if you look at the rest of the description of the man, you will find that he was in alliance with his apothecary for their mutual advantage, that he was a money-loving man, and that some of Chaucer's keenest irony is spent on him in an off-hand, quiet manner. Compare the tone in which he writes of the doctor of physic, with the profound reverence wherewith he bows himself before the poor country-parson."
Here Wynnie spoke, though with some tremor in her voice.