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to relieve his sorrows and remove his pains; while every visit from one who is of a harsh and unfeeling temper, depresses his spirits, and may increase instead of diminishing his malady. True sympathy will produce attention to many little circumstances, which contribute much to the relief of the patient; an attention which is above all price, and which, while it convinces the sick man of the goodness of his physician's heart, increases his regard for him, and raises the respectability of his profession. By diligent and careful exertions he will acquire the power of rendering the most important services to the public. He may very considerably extend his sphere of usefulness by superintending medical institutions, attending hospitals and dispensaries, and more especially by devoting certain portions of his time to the relief of the poor. To them his advice will prove of inestimable value; and his generosity in this respect will be repaid no less by their gratitude and the public approbation, than by the applause of his own heart.

The good physician will recommend himself to general patronage, regard, and esteem, by his skill, his benevolent disposition, and decorous deportment. In his treatment of the various diseases which come under his care, he will diligently attend to the different constitutions and different habits of life of his patients; he will follow nature with the closest attention through all her changes; he will watch every symptom, by which he can discover her tendencies and disposition, and will skilfully adapt his medicines to those symptoms, as they appear. He will recruit the exhausted powers of the constitution, strengthen the springs of life, and give them fresh energy and vigour.

Should he fail in his attempts, his want of success will be the fault of the art, and not of the practitioner.

In his common intercourse with the world, he will be distinguished by his general knowledge, and his pleasing and easy manner of communicating it. His attainments in literature and science will furnish him with the means of agreeable relaxation from his severer studies, and the fatigues of his profession.

To his patients he will be punctual and benevolent, and yet never be induced so far to sacrifice the principles of his duty to their humour, caprice, or timidity, as to relax in his recommendation of whatever he is convinced will conduce to their relief. Gregory, p. 182. To his competitors he will be liberal and candid; he will not indulge the asperity of opposition, nor the meanness of envy; and he will trust for emolument and reputation, not to petty artifice or indirect practices, but to the solid recommendation of a good character. He will indulge his benevolent feelings as a man, and conform to his principles of duty as a christian, by relieving the maladies of the poor: but he will never attempt to gain the patronage of the rich by unworthy services, or degrading concessions. In `his general conduct he will prove, in the most extended acceptation of the word, the friend of mankind. He will show a becoming degree of condescension and affability to all, and will render the exercise of his profession equally the means of general good and of his own particular advantage and reputation. He will be convinced that these points cannot be secured by a narrow and selfish disposition, by a peculiar formality of dress and manners, or affected airs of importance and mystery. The true dignity of the profession can only be maintained by the superior knowledge and

abilities of those who follow it, by their liberal manners and conduct, and by openness and candour, which disdain all duplicity and artifice, all superciliousness and servility, and which require only to be known, to make their possessors the general objects of estem, respect, and honour. For those qualities which do credit to the medical character it is superfluous to have recourse to more particular description, as they can be fully exemplified in the lives of Radcliffe, Frend, Mead, Arbuthnot, Fothergill and many others, who hold a distinguished place among the sons of Esculapius, and adorn the biography of their country.

III. THE CLERICAL PROFESSION.

Of all the professions there is no one which includes such important duties as that of a clergyman. It is the immediate object of his labours to diminish the evils and increase the comforts of life, by inculcating the knowledge and recommending the practice of religion, and by preparing the minds of men for the happiness of a future life. As it is his duty to state and interpret the revealed will of God, to reclaim the vicious from their sinful conduct, comfort the afflicted in their distress, and confirm the good in the pursuit of virtue, it is not difficult to infer what ought to be his attainments and qualifications, and what his character and conduct.

Lamenting the levity and the indifference of some, who enter into Holy Orders, without considering the importance and respectability of their sacred office; Bb

VOL. II.

reprobating the selfishness and the wickedness of others who merely make it the road to wealth and luxurious indulgence; we will consider the case of a young man who is induced by proper motives to undertake the pastoral care, and who directs his studies and regulates his conduct in such a manner, as is consistent - with a becoming and rational sense of duty.

He begins with considering the divine appointment of his profession, its serious nature, and its most important end. He observes the considerable portion of time and industry, which is devoted to the other professions, to the attainment of the elegant arts, and even to the most common occupations, in order to acquire a due proficiency; and therefore he concludes that a proportionable degree of application is necessary for his own, which justly claims the ascendency over them all.*

* "Si agnoscis dignitatem, da operam ut glorifices susceptam functionem; si difficultatem, abjice socordiam, & vigila; si periculum intelligis, cave ne declines ad dextram, sive ad sinistram; si præmium consideras, ne te pigeat ullius difficultatis. Quocumque verteris oculos, est quod excitet sollicitudinem tuam ; si sursum aspicias, vides quis sit, qui tibi munus istud delegavit, vides paratum stipendium; si circumspicias que te circumstant, vides oves Christi tuæ concreditas fidei; si in te ipsum descendas, agnoscis quantam animi puritatem, quantam eruditionem, quantam prudentiam, quantum caritatis ardorem, quantam fortitudinem exigat ista functio, qua vel abstineas, si te cognoveris parum instructum, vel ca pares quibus est opus." Erasmi Ecclesiastes, lib. 1. I know of no book better calculated to give a candidate for orders just and elevated ideas of his intended profession; to inspire him

Equally removed from indifference on the one hand, and enthusiasm on the other, he embraces his profession from a deliberate preference, and full persuasion that it will afford him more frequent opportunities than he could find in any other situation of life, to increase the glory of God, and advance the good of mankind. He is resolved to discharge his duties with zeal and diligence proportioned to their importance, and therefore cherishes such dispositions of mind as are best calculated to promote the great designs of his profession. He feels the most exalted and heart-felt satisfaction in performing all the offices of piety, and resolves to give, in every instance of his conduct, to his public and private instructions, the effectual recommendation of a good example.

At the commencement of his theological studies he wil retrace the grounds upon which he has erected his belief in the fundamental truths of christianity. He will review the principles of natural religion, and consider the arguments for the being, attributes, and providence of the great Creator and Governor of the world. He will peruse the scriptures of the Old Testament, and will remark the intimate connexion which subsists between its leading circumstances, such as the fall of man, the types and institutions of the Mosaic Law, and the regular succession of prophecies,

with a fervent, yet temperate zeal in the exercise of it; or that can supply better rules for the composition of his discourses, than the Ecclesiastes of Erasmus, from which this excellent passage is borrowed. The whole subject, expressed in easy and elegant latin, is treated with great spirit. It is much to be regretted, that Erasmus was prevented by bad health from finishing this excellent work, in a manner agreeable to his wishes.

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