He then asked Topertoe where his gout affected him, and having been informed that it was principally in his great toe and right foot, he deliberately stripped the foot, and having pressed his hands upon it for about the space of ten minutes, he desired his patient to rise up and walk.

This he did, and to his utter astonishment, without the slightest symptom or sensation of pain.
"Why, bless my soul!" exclaimed the parson, "I am cured; the pain is altogether gone.

Let me have a bumper of claret." "That will do," observed the stranger.

"You are incurable.

You will plunge once more into a life of intemperance and luxury, and once more your complaint, from which you are now free, will return to you.
You will not deny yourself the gratification of your irrational and senseless indulgences, and yet you expect to be cured.