CHAPTER CLXXIV.
THE DOCTOR INDULGES IN THE WAY OF FANTASTIC AND TYPICAL SPECULATION ON HIS OWN NAME, AND ON THE POWERS OF THE LETTER D., WHETHER AS REGARDS DEGREES AND DISTINCTIONS, GODS AND DEMIGODS, PRINCES AND KINGS, PHILOSOPHERS, GENERALS OR TRAVELLERS.
My mouth's no dictionary; it only serves as the needful interpreter of my heart.
QUARLES.
There were few things in the way of fantastic and typical speculation which delighted the Doctor so much as the contemplation of his own name:
DANIEL DOVE.
D. D. it was upon his linen and his seal. D. D. he used to say, designated the highest degree in the highest of the sciences, and he was D. D. not by the forms of a University, but by Nature or Destiny.
Besides, he maintained, that the letter D was the richest, the most powerful, the most fortunate letter in the alphabet, and contained in its form and origin more mysteries than any other.