"
Having obtained this certificate, for which the physician was
handsomely acknowledged, she returned, exalting, and hoping, with
such authority, to overthrow all opposition. Accordingly, next
morning, when her nephew was about to undergo his diurnal baptism,
she produced the commission, whereby she conceived herself empowered
to overrule such inhuman proceedings, but she was disappointed in
her expectation, confident as it was; not that Mrs. Pickle pretended
to differ in opinion from Dr. Colocynth, "for whose character
and sentiments," said she, "I have such veneration, that I shall
carefully observe the caution implied in this very certificate, by
which, far from condemning my method of practice, he only asserts
that killing is murder; an asseveration, the truth of which, it is
to be hoped, I shall never dispute."
Mrs. Grizzle, who, sooth to say, had rather too superficially
considered the clause by which she thought herself authorized,
perused the paper with more accuracy, and was confounded at her
own want of penetration. Yet, though she was confuted, she was by
no means convinced that her objections to the cold bath were unreasonable;
on the contrary, after having bestowed sundry opprobrious epithets
on the physician, for his want of knowledge and candour, she protested
in the most earnest and solemn manner the pernicious practice of
dipping the child--a piece of cruelty which, with God's assistance,
she should never suffer to be inflicted on her own issue; and washing
her hands of the melancholy consequence that would certainly ensue,
shut herself up in her closet to indulge her sorrow and vexation.
Pages:
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81