Biographical Memoir of the late Dr Henry. 3 



example and judicious counsels seem to have been most instru- 

 mental in guiding the tastes of his young companion, and in 

 establishing habits of vigilant and appropriate expression. Dr 

 Percival also directed, with great judgment and kindness, his 

 course of reading, and particularly recommended to him works 

 on mental and ethical philosophy ; — thus probably laying the 

 foundation of that taste for enlarged speculation on the moral 

 and intellectual nature of man, and of that faculty of delicately 

 discriminating the finer shades of character and of genius, which 

 contributed so largely to his sources of enjoyment and of fame. 

 Of the salutary influence upon his character, of such intimate 

 communion with this learned and high-minded physician, he 

 was accustomed often to speak in after-hfe with grateful re- 

 membrance ; and was ever ready to pay his warm testimony to 

 the varied and tasteful scholarship, the enlarged philosophy, 

 and the pure and elevated moral bearing of his distinguished 

 instructor. In a letter, many years ago, addressed to the wri- 

 ter, Dr Henry speaks of Dr Percival as " an illustrious pattern 

 of every thing delicate and pure in sentiment, elegant and dig- 

 nified in taste, and polished in address and manner ; — a man 

 who, while he would have adorned a court by his gentlemanly 

 demeanour, yet paid a tender and unceasing attention to the 

 feelings of the humblest of those by whom he was habitually 

 surrounded." 



In this improving residence, Dr Henry remained during five 

 years, which were devoted to the general culture of his mind, 

 and to the preliminary studies of his profession. About the 

 close of this period he first engaged in the practical observation 

 of disease in the Manchester Infirmary, where he enjoyed the 

 instructions of another of those eminent physicians, who have 

 conferred so much literary glory on this town and on this so- 

 ciety, the late Dr Ferriar. In his invaluable " Medical His- 

 tories," the systematized records of his experience in our great 

 public charities, Dr Ferriar has left to the profession the finest 

 existing models of what such narratives of disease ought to be 

 — in style, simple, concise, and energetic, though not rejecting, 

 on suitable occasions (as in his moving essay on the Treatment 

 of the Dying), the warmer colouring suggested by deep feel- 



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