About the Book
That very singular man, old Dr. Heidegger, once invited four venerable friends to meet him in hisstudy. There were three white-bearded gentlemen, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr.Gascoigne, and a withered gentlewoman, whose name was the Widow Wycherly. They were allmelancholy old creatures, who had been unfortunate in life, and whose greatest misfortune it wasthat they were not long ago in their graves. Mr. Medbourne, in the vigor of his age, had been aprosperous merchant, but had lost his all by a frantic speculation, and was now little better than amendicant. Colonel Killigrew had wasted his best years, and his health and substance, in the pursuitof sinful pleasures, which had given birth to a brood of pains, such as the gout, and divers othertorments of soul and body. Mr. Gascoigne was a ruined politician, a man of evil fame, or at least hadbeen so, till time had buried him from the knowledge of the present generation, and made himobscure instead of infamous. As for the Widow Wycherly, tradition tells us that she was a greatbeauty in her day; but, for a long while past, she had lived in deep seclusion, on account of certainscandalous stories, which had prejudiced the gentry of the town against her. It is a circumstanceworth mentioning, that each of these three old gentlemen, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, andMr. Gascoigne, were early lovers of the Widow Wycherly, and had once been on the point of cuttingeach other's throats for her sake. And, before proceeding further, I will merely hint, that Dr.Heidegger and all his four guests were sometimes thought to be a little beside themselves; as is notunfrequently the case with old people, when worried either by present troubles or wofulrecollections."My dear old friends," said Dr. Heidegger, motioning them to be seated, "I am desirous of yourassistance in one of those little experiments with which I amuse myself here in my study."If all stories were true, Dr. Heidegger's study must have been a very curious place. It was a dim, oldfashioned chamber, festooned with cobwebs and besprinkled with antique dust. Around the wallsstood several oaken bookcases, the lower shelves of which were filled with rows of gigantic foliosand black-letter quartos, and the upper with little parchment-covered duodecimos. Over the centralbookcase was a bronze bust of Hippocrates, with which, according to some authorities, Dr.Heidegger was accustomed to hold consultations, in all difficult cases of his practice. In theobscurest corner of the room stood a tall and narrow oaken closet, with its door ajar, within whichdoubtfully appeared a skeleton. Between two of the bookcases hung a looking-glass, presenting itshigh and dusty plate within a tarnished gilt frame. Among many wonderful stories related of thismirror, it was fabled that the spirits of all the doctor's deceased patients dwelt within its verge, andwould stare him in the face whenever he looked thitherward. The opposite side of the chamber wasornamented with the full-length portrait of a young lady, arrayed in the faded magnificence of silk, satin, and brocade, and with a visage as faded as her dress. Above half a century ago, Dr. Heideggerhad been on the point of marriage with this young lady; but, being affected with some slightdisorder, she had swallowed one of her lover's prescriptions, and died on the bridal evening. Thegreatest curiosity of the study remains to be mentioned; it was a ponderous folio volume, bound inblack leather, with massive silver clasps
