Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/321

Rh generous conduct manifested by him to his students. "He was cordially attentive," says he, "to their interests; admitted them freely to his house; conversed with them on the most familiar terms; solved their doubts and difficulties; gave them the use of his library; and, in every respect, treated them with the respect of a friend, and the regard of a parent." Nor was the kind interest which Dr Cullen took in the pursuits of young persons confined to his students alone, Mr Dugald Stewart informed Dr Thomson, that during a slight indisposition which confined him for some time to his room, when a boy of fourteen or fifteen years of age, he was attended by Dr Cullen. In recommending to his patient a little relaxation from his studies, and suggesting some light reading, the Doctor inquired whether he had ever read the history of Don Quixote. On being answered in the negative, he turned quickly round to Mr Stewart's father, and desired that the book should be immediately procured. In his subsequent visits to his patient, Dr Cullen never failed to examine him on the progress he had made in reading the humorous story of the great pattern of chivalry, and to talk over with him every successive incident, scene, and character, in that history. In mentioning these particulars, Mr Stewart remarked, that he never could look back on that intercourse, without feeling surprise at the minute accuracy with which Dr Cullen remembered every passage in the life of Don Quixote, and the lively manner in which he sympathized with him in the pleasure he derived from the first perusal of that entertaining romance. In what degree of estimation Mr Stewart continued to hold that work, may be seen by the inimitable character which he has given of it, in his dissertation on the progress of metaphysical, ethical, and political philosophy.

Dr Cullen, after having been elected professor of the practice of medicine, devoted his time entirely to his duties as a public lecturer, and to his profession; for his fame having extended, his private practice became very considerable. Already we have observed that he had a large family; and about this time, having become acquainted with the celebrated John Brown, a sketch of whose life we have already given in this Biographical Dictionary, he engaged him to live in his family as the preceptor of his children, and also as an assistant at his lectures, the substance of which Brown repeated and expounded in the evening to his students; for which purpose the manuscript notes of the morning lectures were generally intrusted to him. It is well known that the habits of John Brown were extremely irregular. His son, who has written a short memoir of him, observes, "Unfortunately, among his qualifications, economy held no place. At the commencement of his medical studies, he very naturally turned his attention to cultivate the acquaintance of those individuals among whom he proposed earning a livelihood. It was not among the serious, the wise, or the aged, that he was likely to procure pupils; his companions therefore would necessarily be the young, the thoughtless, and, very frequently, the dissipated. The pleasures of the table, and the unconstrained hilarity he enjoyed at the convivial meeting's of such companions, were, by nature, sufficiently agreeable to one of his vivacity of disposition and strong passion; but the distinguished figure he made on such occasions, as a man of brilliant wit, and the deference paid to his superior talents, must have rendered these meetings still more gratifying to him. It is not surprising, then, that after having been habituated to such association for a succession of years, he acquired a taste for company and high living, which was confirmed as he advanced in life, exposed to the same necessity of cultivating the acquaintance and rendering himself agreeable to those on whom his liveli-