Library / Literature & Fiction
Underwoods
- Pages
- about 48
- Category
- Literature & Fiction
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 53 min at 250 wpm
From the opening
THERE are men and classes of men that stand above the common herd: the
soldier, the sailor and the shepherd not unfrequently; the artist rarely;
rarely still, the clergyman; the physician almost as a rule. He is the
flower (such as it is) of our civilisation; and when that stage of man is
done with, and only remembered to be marvelled at in history, he will be
thought to have shared as little as any in the defects of the period, and
most notably exhibited the virtues of the race. Generosity he has, such
as is possible to those who practise an art, never to those who drive a
trade; discretion, tested by a hundred secrets; tact, tried in a thousand
embarrassments; and what are more important, Heraclean cheerfulness and
courage. So it is that he brings air and cheer into the sickroom, and
often enough, though not so often as he wishes, brings healing.
Gratitude is but a lame sentiment; thanks, when they are expressed, are
often more embarrassing than welcome; and yet I must set forth mine to a
few out of many doctors who have brought me comfort and help: to Dr.
Willey of San Francisco, whose kindness to a stranger it must be as
grateful to him, as it is touching to me, to remember; to Dr. Karl Ruedi
of Davos, the good genius of the English in his frosty mountains; to Dr.
Herbert of Paris, whom I knew only for a week, and to Dr. Caissot of
Montpellier, whom I knew only for ten days, and who have yet written
their names deeply in my memory; to Dr. Brandt of Royat; to Dr. Wakefield
of Nice; to Dr. Chepmell, whose visits make it a pleasure to be ill; to
Dr. Horace Dobell, so wise in counsel; to Sir Andrew Clark, so unwearied
in kindness and to that wise youth, my uncle, Dr. Balfour.
A short sample. Read the whole book
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