Genre:

Short Fiction, Serial

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Piety, Endeavour

    Alfred's grandfather contends that the clerical profession is often harder work and less glorious in temporal terms than even the medical profession. He observes that Alfred might as easily rise in the medical as in any other profession: 'Many a man who now rides in a chariot to visit his patients, has once compounded medicine as an apprentice; but his mind is probably more full of care, under present circumstances, than when he sang over his work as a young man in a surgery' (351). He urges the vanity of earthly glory, and the importance of heavenly glory. A few days afterwards the grandfather dies. Alfred sees the error of his ways and resolves to follow his grandfather's advice.