_Que sea Medico mas grave Quien mas aforismos sabe, Bien puede ser. Mas que no sea mas experto El que mas huviere muerto, No puede ser._ GONGORA. Of all the persons with whom Daniel Dove associated at Doncaster, the one who produced the most effect upon his mind was his master and benefactor, Peter Hopkins. The influence indeed which he exercised, insensibly as it were, upon his character, was little less than that whereby he directed and fixed the course of his fortune in life. A better professional teacher in his station could no where have been found; for there was not a more skilful practitioner in the Three Ridings, consequently not in England; consequently not in Christendom, and by a farther consequence not in the world. Fuller says of Yorkshire that “one may call, and justify it to be the best shire in England; and that not by the help of the general katachresis of _good_ for _great_, (as a _good_ blow, a _good_ piece, &c.) but in the proper acceptation thereof. If in Tully's Orations, all being excellent, that is adjudged _optima quæ longissima_, the best which is the longest; then by the same proportion, this Shire, partaking in goodness alike with others, must be allowed the best.” Yorkshire therefore being the best county in England, as being the largest, of necessity it must have as good practitioners in medicine, as are to be found in any other county; and there being no better practitioner than Peter Hopkins there, it would have been in vain to seek for a better elsewhere. As good a one undoubtedly might have been found; I trust there were within this realm Five hundred as good as he,[1] though there goes more to the making of a Peter Hopkins than of an Earl Percy. But I very much doubt, (and this is one of the cases in which doubt scarcely differs a shade from disbelief)—whether there could any where have been found another person whose peculiarities would have accorded so curiously with young Daniel's natural bent, and previous education. Hopkins had associated much with Guy, in the early part of their lives; (it was indeed through this connection that the lad was placed at Doncaster); and like Guy he had tampered with the mystical sciences. He knew the theories, and views, and hopes— which set the Chymist on To search that secret-natured stone, Which the philosophers have told, When found, turns all things into gold; But being hunted and not caught, Oh! sad reverse! turns gold to nought.[2] [Footnote 1: CHEVY CHACE.] [Footnote 2: ARBUTHNOT.]