Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/578

 may interrupt each healthy function, and induce disorders which no medical art can cure. Highly educated, sensitive, accustomed to some of the elegancies of life, their habits not well fitting them for worldly competitions, how many have I known who have suffered every pang which common difficulties could inflict on noble minds, and, after suffering for a time, have sunk; or, if surviving their difficulties, have done so with feelings irretrievably deadened, and a sadness of heart which no improvement of fortune could effectually remove! There is something wrong in their position when such examples are not infrequent; and as there are few physicians who, having conquered their difficulties, could endure the bare idea of going through the struggle again, it becomes a serious question how far any members of the profession are justified, if not possessed of an ample fortune, in devoting themselves to a branch of practice which holds out no promise of a competency until two-thirds of the usual term of human life have been passed in anxiety. My friend felt this anxiety so greatly, it was so often the subject of his conversation, that, although it cannot now be said to have been excessive in relation to its causes, I sometimes thought it my duty to remonstrate with him on the indulgence of a feeling which did not seem entirely consistent with the trust in Providence to be expected from a man of such sincere piety, and which was evidently doing injury to his habitual thoughts and feelings. I have repeatedly represented to him the sure foundation on which that public esteem which he could not but see gathering round him, was founded; that it was