Page:A Memoir of Thomas C. James, M. D. - Hodge.djvu/8

. He preferred the seclusion of his study to the bustle of the society, and the lighter walks of literature to the rougher paths of science.

It is as a medical practitioner, that Doctor James was best known to this community, and especially to the members of this college. In this character, who has not known and admired him? Who is not ready to present him, as regards his disposition, his virtues, his sentiments, his manners and deportment, as a model for the young physician? His whole conduct proved that he was governed by those high-elevated sentiments, which result from an enlightened and gifted mind,—sustained by all that virtue and religion impart, to purify and exalt the human character. As a physician, he was especially distinguished for the benevolence and kindness which characterized his intercourse with his patients. He was anxiously devoted to their welfare, sympathized with them in their sufferings, and laboriously exerted himself at all seasons to remove or meliorate their trials, not only by administering the usual professional remedies, but by inspiring confidence, elevating their hopes and expectations, changing the current of morbid thoughts and feelings by his cheerfulness, intelligence, extensive information; by the pleasant and elevated tone of his conversation, abounding in humour and anecdote, calculated to lead off the mind diseased from the contemplation of its sufferings, to more delightful, if not engrossing subjects; and to afford the stimulus of hope—so powerful in resuscitating the depressed energies of body as well as mind. The benevolence of his disposition was also manifested in his gratuitous and disinterested services to those unable to reward his attentions by any other recompense than the overflowings of a grateful heart: and, not unfrequently, by services to those who in the hour of health and of prosperity, remember, not even with gratitude, the devotion and anxieties of that man, who under Providence restored them from the brink of the grave, to life, health, and happiness. In all such cases, it was the uniform practice of Dr. James to submit to injustice, rather than have any unholy passions excited in his bosom by the wickedness of others.

In his attentions to patients he was unremitting and persevering, even when the infirmities of declining health might afford a suitable excuse. When the extent of varied character of his practice is considered, when it is known that much of his time was occupied with obstetrics, and, of course, that his hours of rest and sleep, as well as those allotted to recreation or business, were thus encroached upon, it will be found no mean