Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/355

 GOOCH. 333 zine, and entitled, Two Days with Dr. PaiT. On this occasion, when speaking of the different profes- sions, and relative advantages and disadvantages of each, Parr said, the most desirable was that of physic, which was equally favourable to a man's moral sentiments and intellectual faculties. One of the party reminded him of his first interview with Dr. Johnson. " I remember it well," said Parr ; I gave him no quarter, — the subject of our dispute was the liberty of the press. Dr. Johnson was very great : whilst he was arguing, I observed that he stamped ; upon this I stamped. Dr. John- son said, ' Why do you stamp, Dr. Parr V I re- plied, — ' Sir, because you stamped, and I was resolved not to give you the advantage even of a stamp in the argument.' " Gooch remarks of Dr. Parr, that one of the striking features of his character seems to have been a child-like simplicity and sincerity, one ef- fect of which was, that feelings of personal vanity were let out, which any other man would have felt under the same circumstances, but which he would have prudently kept to himself ; yet Parr's mode of displaying it rather excited a smile than a sneer. In the summer of 1824, Gooch passed a few weeks in Norfolk, and derived all the enjoyment which his state of health permitted from the so- ciety of his early friends in Yarmouth and Norwich. Towards the close of this year the question of altering the quarantine-laws began to be agitated, and he took a lively interest in the subject. He writes thus to Mr. Southey, in a letter dated April, 1825 : — " I remember, about