“Who that had seen him in his inner chamber, part library and part laboratory,—for he was, as the world knew far and wide, a learned man in chemistry, and a teacher on whose lips and hands a crowd of aspiring ears and eyes hung daily,—who that had seen him there, upon a winter night, alone, surrounded by his drugs and instruments and books; the shadow of his shaded lamp, a monstrous beetle on the wall, motionless among a crowd of spectral shapes raised there by the flickering of the fire upon the quaint objects around him; some of these phantoms (the reflection of glass vessels that held liquids) trembling at heart like things that knew his power to uncombine them, and to give back their component parts to fire and vapour;—who that had seen him then, his work done and he pondering in his chair before the rusted grate and red flame, moving his thin mouth as if in speech, but silent as the dead, would not have said that the man seemed haunted and the chamber too?” In the _Pickwick Papers_ the author describes in one of his happiest veins, the troubles of a chemist who is suddenly called to serve on a common jury—to try indeed the celebrated case of “Bardell _versus_ Pickwick”. “‘Answer to your names, gentlemen, that you may be sworn,’ said the gentleman in black. “‘Richard Upwitch.’ “‘Here,’ said the greengrocer. “‘Thomas Groffin.’ “‘Here,’ said the chemist. “‘Take the book, gentlemen. You shall well and truly try——’ “‘I beg this court’s pardon,’ said the chemist, who was a tall, thin, yellow-visaged man, ‘but I hope this court will excuse my attendance.’ “‘On what grounds, sir?’ said Mr. Justice Stareleigh. “‘I have no assistant, my lord,’ said the chemist. “‘Then you ought to be able to afford it, sir,’ said the judge reddening, for Mr. Justice Stareleigh’s temper bordered on the irritable, and brooked not contradiction. “‘I know I _ought_ to do, if I got on as well as I desired, but I don’t, my lord,’ answered the chemist. “‘Swear the gentlemen,’ said the judge peremptorily. “The officer had got no further than the ‘You shall well and truly try’ when he was again interrupted by the chemist. “‘I am to be sworn, my lord, am I?’ said the chemist. “‘Certainly, sir,’ replied the testy little judge. “‘Very well, my lord,’ replied the chemist in a resigned manner. ‘Then there’ll be murder before this trial’s over: that’s all. Swear me if you please, sir.’ And sworn the chemist was before the judge could find words to utter.