Page:Advice to Medical Students (1857) William Henry Fuller.djvu/24

24 Further, it is of the highest importance that you should find some useful recreation for the mind. I do not wish to imply that you are never to spend an hour in rational conversation, or relax your mind by occasional indulgence in innocent amusements; but there must be many intervals in the day which ought not to be filled up by mere desultory occupations. These may be turned to most useful account, or they may prove most dangerous and fatal to your success. "An idle brain is the devil's workshop;" and if you fail to provide some worthy and rational pursuit on which to occupy these leisure moments, you will find to your cost, not only that you will lose much valuable time, but that you will fall into idle, careless habits, and will surely expose yourselves to the inroads of vice.

To medical men there need be no difficulty in selecting subjects for mental recreation. The mind is almost as much refreshed by being directed to fresh objects as it is by entire idleness; and there are so many useful and' deeply interesting studies bearing more or less directly on your own profession, and so many branches of knowledge with which you must be acquainted if you would qualify yourselves to mix with educated men and take a proper standing in society, that the question is not so much, "How shall I occupy my time?" as "How shall I find time to cultivate that knowledge, and attain those acquirements, which will be necessary for me in my position as a gentleman?" I know not how to offer you specific advice respecting this important matter, and fortunately I think it is not needed; for all general knowledge expands the mind, clears it of prejudice, and qualifies it for application to any particular subject; and where the field is so wide, and the labour required so vast and diversified, each labourer must select that style of work which he finds most congenial to his taste and best suited to his powers. But whether you study literature, or busy yourselves with physical or moral science, I