"Well, friend, and what," said Tressilian, "was your next shift?"

"I became," said the smith, "half partner, half domestic to a man
of much skill and little substance, who practised the trade of a
physicianer."

"In other words," said Tressilian, "you were Jack Pudding to a
quacksalver."

"Something beyond that, let me hope, my good Master Tressilian," replied
the artist; "and yet to say truth, our practice was of an adventurous
description, and the pharmacy which I had acquired in my first studies
for the benefit of horses was frequently applied to our human patients.
But the seeds of all maladies are the same; and if turpentine, tar,
pitch, and beef-suet, mingled with turmerick, gum-mastick, and one bead
of garlick, can cure the horse that hath been grieved with a nail, I see
not but what it may benefit the man that hath been pricked with a sword.
But my master's practice, as well as his skill, went far beyond
mine, and dealt in more dangerous concerns. He was not only a bold,
adventurous practitioner in physic, but also, if your pleasure so
chanced to be, an adept who read the stars, and expounded the fortunes
of mankind, genethliacally, as he called it, or otherwise. He was a
learned distiller of simples, and a profound chemist--made several
efforts to fix mercury, and judged himself to have made a fair hit at
the philosopher's stone. I have yet a programme of his on that subject,
which, if your honour understandeth, I believe you have the better, not
only of all who read, but also of him who wrote it."