GOOCH. 321 a hospital pliysician is a common occurrence. The advantages of such a situation to Gooch were in- calculable. In a letter to a friend written at this time he speaks thus cheerfully of his own pro- spects : — " You will be glad to hear that practice is coming in upon me, in a way and with a rapidity which surprises me ; if its after progress is at all proportionate to its commencement, (of which I feel no doubt,) it will soon carry me out of the reach of pecuniary cares. I have been attending the daughter of one of the most zealous methodists I ever met with ; he never gives me a fee but I find written in red ink on the bank-note some reli- gious sentence. I have now two of these curio- sities lying by me ; on one is written, ' Who shall exist in everlasting burnings?' on the other, ' The wages of sin is death.' There were several others which I cannot remember. I have sent them out into the world to do all possible good, and these will soon follow them." In the course of this year Gooch was elected joint lecturer on midwifery at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, with Dr. Thynne, who was then very infirm, and who died early in the following year. An extract from a letter addressed to Mr. Southey, dated January, 1S13, illustrates his state of mind at this period with reference to a second marriage to which that friend had strongly ad- vised him. " One part of your letter produced a deep impression on me. There is no fear, how- ever, but I shall again become a husband, nor will a second attachment become less hkely from being deferred another year or two. T am too friendly to m-arriage in general, too sick of a soli- Y
