The historians of dissent record with pride the sedulous preparation of Dr. Marryat, a tutor who belonged to the Independent body, to make the best of either of the worlds to come. He was accustomed, we are told, to sit up at his studies two or three nights in the week, the whole year over. He learned by heart, at these times, the poets and prophets of the Old Testament, the Epistles and Apocalypse of the New; and what he had thus acquired, he sought to retain by careful recitation of them annually. He had begun to do this while he was yet a young man; when, "deeply convinced of his sinfulness and misery, he was afraid of falling into hell, and formed the resolution that if that should be the case, he would treasure up in his mind as much of the word of God as he possibly could, and carry it with him to the place of torment. When faith in his Redeemer afterwards communicated to his soul the peace and consolations of the gospel, he still continued the practice, that he might have a larger measure to carry to a better place." GEORGE CRABBE, THE APOTHECARY POET. Not the least distinguished among the names of doctors who have distinguished themselves in the world of literature, is that of George Crabbe. He was the son of the collector of salt dues at Aldborough, in Suffolk, where he was born on Christmas Eve, 1754. His father strove to give his children an education somewhat above their station in life; and George was kept at school at Bungay and Stowmarket till his fourteenth year--his comparative delicacy of constitution inducing his father to destine him to a gentler pursuit than those followed by his brothers. Leaving school, he was apprenticed to a country doctor, half farmer half physician, at Wickham Brook, near Bury St. Edmunds, where he shared the bed of his master's stable-boy. This and other _désagrémens_ of the situation, however, did not suit Crabbe's likings or his father's honest pride; and in a couple of years he was removed, and placed with Mr. Page, a surgeon at Woodbridge, and a gentleman of family and taste. Here he found time and circumstances favouring to make his first essays in poetry; and in 1775 published his first work of consequence, _Inebriety, a Poem: in three parts_. At the expiry of his apprenticeship, Crabbe vainly tried to raise funds for a regular course of study in London, and had to content himself with settling down in his native village in a small practice as surgeon and apothecary; but this proving an insufficient source of income, he resolved to venture his fortunes in London, in dependence on his poetic talent. "With this view he proceeded to London; and after a year spent in that most trying of all situations, that of a literary adventurer without money and without friends--a situation from the miseries of which the unfortunate Chatterton, 'the wondrous boy,' escaped by suicide--when on the point of being thrown into jail for the little