instructed in the mystery of devouring pap; next, they are taught to walk—­and as soon as they can walk—­to sit still; to talk—­and as soon as they can talk—­to hold their tongues; thus are they instructed and passed on from one part of the establishment to another, until they finally are passed out of its gates, to get on in the world, with the advantages of some education, and the still further advantage of having no father or mother to provide for, or relatives to pester them with their necessities.  It was so with me:  I arrived at the age of fourteen, and notwithstanding the promise contained in the letter, it appeared that circumstances did not permit of my being reclaimed.  But I had a great advantage over the other inmates of the hospital; the fifty pounds sent with me were not added to the funds of the establishment, but generously employed for my benefit by the governors, who were pleased with my conduct, and thought highly of my abilities.  Instead of being bound ’prentice to a cordwainer or some other mechanic, by the influence of the governors, added to the fifty pounds and interest, as a premium, I was taken by an apothecary, who engaged to bring me up to the profession.  And now, that I am out of the Foundling, we must not travel quite so fast.

The practitioner who thus took me by the hand was a Mr Phineas Cophagus, whose house was most conveniently situated for business, one side of the shop looking upon Smithfield Market, the other presenting a surface of glass to the principal street leading out of the same market.  It was a corner house, but not in a corner.  On each side of the shop were two gin establishments, and next to them were two public-houses and then two eating-houses, frequented by graziers, butchers, and drovers.  Did the men drink so much as to quarrel in their cups, who was so handy to plaister up the broken heads as Mr Cophagus?  Did a fat grazier eat himself into an apoplexy, how very convenient was the ready lancet of Mr Cophagus.  Did a bull gore a man, Mr Cophagus appeared with his diachylon and lint.  Did an ox frighten a lady, it was in the back parlour of Mr Cophagus that she was recovered from her syncope.  Market days were a sure market to my master; and if an overdriven beast knocked down others, it only helped to set him on his legs.  Our windows suffered occasionally; but whether it were broken heads, or broken limbs, or broken windows, they were well paid for.  Every one suffered but Mr Phineas Cophagus, who never suffered a patient to escape him.  The shop had the usual allowance of green, yellow, and blue bottles; and in hot weather, from our vicinity, we were visited by no small proportion of bluebottle flies.  We had a white horse in one window, and a brown horse in the other, to announce to the drovers that we supplied horse-medicines.  And we had all the patent medicines in the known world, even to the “all-sufficient medicine for mankind” of Mr Enouy; having which,