In pursuance of this resolve, he took up his residence in the Puritan town, as Roger Chillingworth, without other introduction than the learning and intelligence of which he possessed more than a common measure. As his studies, at a previous period of his life, had made him extensively acquainted with the medical science of the day, it was as a physician that he presented himself, and as such was cordially received. Skilful men, of the medical and chirurgical profession, were of rare occurrence in the colony. They seldom, it would appear, partook of the religious zeal that brought other emigrants across the Atlantic. In their researches into the human frame, it may be that the higher and more subtile faculties of such men were materialised, and that they lost the spiritual view of existence amid the intricacies of that wondrous mechanism, which seemed to involve art enough to comprise all of life within itself. At all events, the health of the good town of Boston, so far as medicine had aught to do with it, had hitherto lain in the guardianship of an aged deacon and apothecary, whose piety and godly deportment were stronger testimonials in his favour than any that he could have produced in the shape of a diploma. The only surgeon was one who combined the occasional exercise of that noble art with the daily and habitual flourish of a razor. To such a professional body Roger Chillingworth was a brilliant acquisition. He soon manifested his familiarity with the ponderous and imposing machinery of antique physic; in which every remedy contained a multitude of far-fetched and heterogeneous ingredients, as elaborately compounded as if the proposed result had been the Elixir of Life. In his Indian captivity, moreover, he had gained much knowledge of the properties of native herbs and roots; nor did he conceal from his patients, that these simple medicines, Nature's boon to the untutored savage, had quite as large a share of his own confidence as the European pharmacopoeia, which so many learned doctors had spent centuries in elaborating.
為了實(shí)現(xiàn)自己的決心，他以羅杰·齊靈漫斯的名義在這座清教徒城鎮(zhèn)中居住下來(lái)，他毋須其它介紹，只消他所具備的異乎尋常的學(xué)識(shí)就成了。由于他的前半生對(duì)當(dāng)時(shí)的醫(yī)學(xué)科學(xué)作了廣泛的研究，于是他就以所熟悉的醫(yī)生這—行當(dāng)為業(yè)、出現(xiàn)在這里，并且受到了熱烈歡迎。當(dāng)時(shí)在殖民地，精通內(nèi)外科醫(yī)術(shù)的人尚不多見(jiàn)。看來(lái)，醫(yī)生們并不具備促使其他人飄洋過(guò)海的那種宗教熱情。他們?cè)谏钊脬@研人體內(nèi)部時(shí)，可能把更高明、更微妙的能力表現(xiàn)在物質(zhì)上，錯(cuò)綜復(fù)雜的人體機(jī)構(gòu)令人驚詫?zhuān)坪跗鋬?nèi)部包含著全部生命，具備足夠的藝術(shù)，從而對(duì)生命的存在喪失了精伸方面的看法。無(wú)論如何，波士頓這座美好城鎮(zhèn)的健康，凡涉及醫(yī)學(xué)二字的，以往全都置于一位年老的教會(huì)執(zhí)事兼任藥劑師的監(jiān)督之下，他那駕信宗教的舉止就是明證，比起靠一紙文憑配出的藥劑，更能贏得人們的信賴(lài)。唯一的外科醫(yī)生則是一位每日慣于操刀為人忙于理發(fā)的人，只是偶爾才實(shí)踐一下這種高貴的技藝。與這兩位同行相比，羅杰·齊靈渥斯成了奪目的新星。他很快就證明他對(duì)博大精深的古典醫(yī)道了如指掌，其中每個(gè)偏方都含有許多四處接尋面來(lái)、形形色色的成分，其配制之精良，似是要獲得長(zhǎng)生不老藥的效果。況且，在他被印第安人俘虜囚禁期間，又對(duì)當(dāng)?shù)氐牟菟幍男再|(zhì)掌握了大量的知識(shí)；他對(duì)病人毫不隱諱地說(shuō)，大自然恩賜給那些未開(kāi)化的野蠻入的這些簡(jiǎn)單藥物，同眾多博學(xué)的醫(yī)生在試驗(yàn)室中花費(fèi)了數(shù)世紀(jì)才積累起來(lái)的歐洲藥典，幾乎可以取得他本人同等的信任。